Conference Annoucement- Deadline Nov 1st

Call for Papers

Identities in the Making: Dutch Colonialisms and Postcolonial Presents

Graduate Student Conference

University of California, Berkeley

December 3 - 4, 2014

With a keynote lecture by Prof. Rudolf Mrazek (University of Michigan), and a panel discussion on 'zwarte piet'

Sponsored by the Dutch Studies Program, UC Berkeley

Students wishing to participate can send a 250-word abstract and a short CV to dutchstudiesconference@gmail.com byNovember 1, 2014.

Dutch colonial history gives Dutch culture a global dimension: the Dutch colonial presence stretched from Suriname and the Caribbean to Southeast Asia, early settlements could be found in New York and South Africa and some Caribbean islands are still a part of the Dutch kingdom. The multiethnic society found in the Netherlands today, with its postcolonial diaspora communities and other immigrants, is heavily entangled with the country's colonial past.

This conference aims to explore the importance of the formation and representation of identities in the colonial history and postcolonial present of the Netherlands and its former colonies. How could identities be enunciated in the colonial regime of representation? How did the postcolonial nations denounce their former colonizers in the articulation of their national identities? And what role does the colonial legacy play in narratives of 'Dutchness' in the Netherlands today?

Graduate students are invited to submit a paper that explores the making of post/colonial identities in relation to Dutch colonial history. Presenters may have a wide variety of disciplinary backgrounds, such as literature, history, media, art history, anthropology and political science and are invited to interpret the conference topic liberally. Possible topics may include, but are not limited to:

- formation and representation of post/colonial identities: in literature, art, museums, etc.

- diasporic identities: Dutch Caribbean, Surinamese, Indonesian, Moluccan, etc.

- history and experience of slavery

- early Dutch settlements: Dutch New York, South Africa

- rise of nationalism in the colonies

- race and ethnicity in Dutch multicultural society

- applicability of postcolonial theories of identity on Dutch context

- Dutch racism

- memories of empire and colonial legacies

- colonialism and globalization

Participants have the opportunity to submit their papers, in extended and annotated form, to the peer-reviewed journal Dutch Crossing, which will publish a selection of the conference proceedings.

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