Workshop on Mutating Postcolonial Cultural Modalities in
Contemporary SEA (1-2 Nov 2007, Singapore)
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Subject: H-SEASIA: Workshop on Mutating Postcolonial Cultural Modalities in
Contemporary SEA (1-2 Nov 2007, Singapore)
Workshop on Mutating Postcolonial Cultural Modalities in Contemporary
Southeast
Asia
Date: 1 – 2 November 2007
Venue: ARI Seminar Room, Bukit Timah Campus,
Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore
Level 10, Tower Block, Bukit Timah Road
Website:
http://www.ari.nus.edu.sg
South East Asia is one of the most colonized regions in the world. Projects
of colonization were undertaken by different imperial powers with different
styles of governance and started at different times across the region. And
the process of decolonization followed by colonization varies
likewise. Despite
this the idea of 'postcolonial' is seldom invoked as a frame for analyzing
contemporary Southeast Asia, with the possible exception in studies of
literature. Postcolonial Studies appears to remain largely a South Asian
intellectual preoccupation.
Historical analyses of imperialism, of colonial histories and experiences
themselves are not new to the study of Southeast Asia. They show that
colonial experiences are not simply bounded by political, economic or social
systems. Such hard structures also govern the way knowledge is constructed,
inscribed and reproduced by the once-colonized. If so, nearly half a century
after the end of colonial governance, what is the relation between the
once-colonized places in Southeast Asia and the once-colonizers? To engage
with cultural identity, and articulate certain agencies in
contemporary Southeast
Asia, do we inevitably need to go back and think about the colonial past and
let that past haunt us? This conference is specifically interested in
postcolonial cultural modalities in contemporary Southeast Asia.
In past decades, postcolonial studies have intensively deployed concepts or
theories that are informed by literary theories to bring to light agencies
that are commonly dismissed or that cannot be drawn into metanarratives,
with diminished attention to the role of various structural factors (social,
economical, political), as well as to historicity. To capture the structural
differences which are vital postcolonial agencies, this workshop has two
related aims. First is to seek and demonstrate how disciplines apart from
literature can be deployed to grasp postcoloniality in Southeast Asia.
Second is to examine approaches that balance the importance of human
psychologies (i.e. agency oriented approaches) and the roles of various
structural factors.
*Programme*
Please click here for the programme:
http://www.ari.nus.edu.sg
*CONTACT DETAILS*
Organizers:
Prof Chua Beng Huat (aricbh@nus.edu.sg)
Asia Research Institute & Department of Sociology, NUS
Dr Yasuko Kobayashi (ariyk@nus.edu.sg)
Asia Research Institute, NUS
Secretariat:
Miss Alyson Rozells (ariaar@nus.edu.sg)