PSA2019

Call for Papers

Paper and panel proposals are invited from academics, scholars and postgraduates as well as community organisers and activists with interests in any area of postcolonial studies from any disciplinary, cross- or interdisciplinary perspective and practice.

The Special Topic of the 2019 Convention is Justice.  

Proposals for panels and papers on this theme are particularly encouraged.  

Keynote speakers:  

David Theo Goldberg (University of California, Irvine)

Pablo Mukherjee (University of Warwick)

Nayanika Mookherjee (Durham University)  

For all their differences, it might be said that postcolonialists are united in their commitment to pursuing justice in the face of all the destructive social, political, religious, cultural and environmental consequences of imperialism. Given the thematic, disciplinary, methodological, and idiomatic breadth of the postcolonial field, though, ‘justice’ is marked by many different, often competing conceptions – cognitive, epistemic, restorative, transitional, socialist, cosmopolitan. Moreover, complex discourses around the ‘rights’ on which we might base notions of justice have opened up questions of whose rights should predominate, who should articulate rights and for whom?  

In recent years, global debates have opened up about how to properly understand imperialism, past and present, which has had wider implications for how to understand agency and freedom – not just in the context of imperious epistemologies, but also imperialist economic, political, and legal structures. The 2019 convention will extend this debate to the notion of justice and seeks contributions that explore (but are not limited to) some of the following questions:  

Is it possible to articulate the many different kinds of justice pursued by postcolonialist interests under one overarching goal, or is there value in a plurality of competing ideas of justice – in speaking of justices?

What form of justice(s) should postcolonialists pursue?

Are some kinds of justice preferable to others?

How do postcolonial considerations of justice intersect with those in other disciplines or areas such as disability studies, queerness, feminism, indigeneity, religion and so on?

What does justice look like when fully achieved/put into practice? 

What questions of ethics and care arise in considering justice?

How are notions of postcolonial justice inflected by the posthuman and the non-human?

What historical and contemporary contexts of justice need to be considered?

When is justice and repair impossible or undesirable?

Abstracts of 300 words (max) for 20 minutes single or co-authored presentations, and 500 words (max) for panels or roundtables, should be sent as an attachment to psaconference@postcolonialstudiesassociation.co.uk

Please include a brief biographical note of participants (2-3 sentences max).

We welcome presentations in any format.

Deadline for receipt of abstracts: Monday 28 January 2019.