[Bilimsel Haber] The Master Narrative Challenged: Dominant Histories and Emerging Narratives

[Sule Tarakcioglu]

*SEASREP-SEPHIS Workshop: The Master Narrative Challenged: Dominant
Histories and Emerging Narratives *
*Location:* 	Philippines
<http://www.h-net.org/announce/geography.cgi?geography=Philippines>

	

	

	

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS

SEASREP-SEPHIS Workshop: The Master Narrative Challenged:
Dominant Histories and Emerging Narratives

Cebu City, the Philippines
26-28 January 2007

The workshop will address issues of history and history-writing in the
South, focusing on the different historical sources and narratives used
by individuals, communities and institutions. Central are the ways in
which these sources (re)construct the past, imagine the future and forge
collective identities. On the one hand, the ‘master narrative’ (the
dominant history often crafted by the state in the colonial or
postcolonial period) has contributed to the construction of imagined
communities, a process described in Ronald Inden’s article ‘Orientalist
Constructions of India’, among others. On the other hand, emergent
narratives by different groups contest the established history of the
nation and assert that the experiences of these ‘subaltern’ groups as
well as of communities, regional and ethnic groups must be acknowledged
in writing history. These new narratives may play vital roles in
reshaping a nation’s history. The workshop aims at explaining how
history as a discipline and as a framework for imagining the nation is
challenged during this period of globalization and the crisis of the
nation.

Processes of both globalization and fragmentation of political, social,
religious and cultural communities prompt us to explore whether the
state-based ‘master narrative’ as the dominant national history is
really nearing its end. In addition, history-writing, or historiography,
has been transformed by redefinitions of what is significant in the
past. An important outcome of this transformation is the questioning of
academic history. Non-professional historians create historical
narratives that bring history into the public arena where the array of
methodologies is still open to discussion and where the general concept
of credible historical knowledge differs from the academic one.

The workshop will discuss papers that address the following questions:

· How has the ‘master narrative’ been defined and shaped? Who has shaped
it and for whom? Where do the challenges to this master narrative come
from? What new forms do counter-hegemonic historiographies assume? Does
challenging the master narrative of the nation lead to a new master
narrative?

· What is the impact of these various contestations of history as a
field of academic inquiry? Are non-professional historians (purveyors of
popular culture, development organizations, religious groups, social
movements, journalists, etc.) playing a more prominent role in the
production of historical knowledge? If so, why? How do professional
historians engage with these new interpretations of the past?

· Do counter-hegemonic versions of the past use different sources and
apply different methods from those used by academic historians?

We will select papers that represent a broad range of issues and that
address local developments within a general, preferably comparative,
perspective.

Analyses with a comparative (temporal and spatial) perspective are
preferred and papers should be of internationally publishable quality.
Papers should be between 10,000 to 12,000 words (maximum).

SEPHIS and SEASREP will cover travel costs and other participation
expenses for successful applicants, However, air-tickets will only be
issued upon timely receipt of acceptable papers, i.e., the paper
submission deadline must be met.

Authors are invited to submit a paper proposal indicating the scope,
nature and approach of their intended papers. The one-page proposal and
an academic cv of not more than three pages (in English) must reach the
convenors of the workshop by June 1, 2006. Papers in the English
language can be submitted by October 1st, 2006.

Applications and requests for more information should be sent to the
convenors of the workshop:

Sephis Programme
C/o International Institute for Social History
Cruquiusweg 31
1019 At Amsterdam
Tel. No. +31-20-4636395
Fax No. +31-20-4636385
Email: sephis at iisg.nl
Website: www.sephis.org

Southeast Asian Studies Regional Exchange Program (SEASREP)
Unit 7-D, One Burgundy Plaza Condominium
307 Katipunan Road, Loyola Heights
1108 Quezon City, Philippines
Tel. No. +632-4361669
Telefax +632-4361668
E-mail: seasrep at seasrep.bayandsl.ph
Website: www.seasrepfoundation.org

	Southeast Asian Studies Regional Exchange Program (SEASREP)
Unit 7-D, One Burgundy Plaza Condominium
307 Katipunan Road, Loyola Heights
1108 Quezon City, Philippines
Tel. No. +632-4361669
Telefax +632-4361668

Email: seasrep at seasrep.bayandsl.ph; <mailto:seasrep at seasrep.bayandsl.ph;>
Visit the website at http://www.seasrepfoundation.org