GCSC Conferences, Symposia, Summer Schools
Rethinking Postcolonial Europe: Moving Identities, Changing Subjectivities
Giessen University, GCSC
February 10-12, 2021
Thinking ‘Europe’ as an idea, a geographical space, and a political force is inseparable from thinking about its history of imperialism, its postcolonial legacies, and its preoccupation with questions of in and outside, centre and periphery, the self and the other. Migration and the current so-called refugee crisis not only urge a changing perception of those power hierarchies that tend to divide the world between ‘the west’ and ‘the rest’ but also compel new discourses of national and cultural identity and belonging. The recent resurge of populism and racism connected to the rise of right-wing parties in several European states serves as an uneasy reminder of the continuing influence of hegemonic ideas of European exceptionalism and cultural superiority. At the same time, however, practices of resistance and emancipation in migrant/BPoC self-organisation and domains of art, literature, media, law, and politics reimagine Europe as an entangled space that was and is home for different people.
The event is organised in cooperation with the Gesellschaft für anglophone postkoloniale Studien (GAPS) and the postgraduate forum Postcolonial Narrations.
Please visit the conference site for further information.
Memories for the Future? Narrating Horizons of Hope in "Politics out of History"
Online Conference, GCSC
December 8, 2020 (10:00 –16:00 CET)
After being cancelled due to Covid-19 outbreak at the end of March this year, the organizers hereby announce that the conference Memories for the Future? Narrating Horizons of Hope in “Politics out of History” is scheduled to take place online on December 8th, 2020, from 10am to 4pm CET. Due to changes in schedule and novel conditions under which we all work, the conference will now be significantly downsized - from the original two days that included art installations, workshops, keynotes and traditional panels - to a single day event with three roundtables.
Please visit the conference site for further information.
Renegotiating Minoritarian In_Visibilities
Giessen University, GCSC
November 12-14, 2019
Paradoxical political developments in the ‘Global North’ – in particular the commercial, capitalist and legal embrace of (for example) sexual, gender and racial minorities and the rise of far-right nationalism, with its attendant visible and violent classism, racism, xenophobia, homophobia, and sexism – ask for an urgent renegotiation of minoritarian politics of in_visibilities. Against this backdrop, the international and interdisciplinary conference Renegotiating Minoritarian In_Visibilities will investigate how minoritarian strategies in art and visual culture can undermine hegemonic regimes of representation and challenge the dominant patterns of visibility, assimilation and intelligibility. Considering close connections between academia, art critique/practice and activism, the societal relevance of the conference is grounded in its exploration of aesthetic strategies that counteract processes of discrimination and stereotyping due to gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, age and further categories of difference.
Please visit the conference site for further information.
Conference: Villains - Constructing Narratives of Evil
Giessen University, GCSC
February 6-8, 2019
Villains are not always simply agents of evil. They can represent the moral decay of a society. They can attract unexpected sympathy as misunderstood products of trauma. As symbols of revenge, they can produce a sense of justice or of closure. As harbingers of change and revolution, they can open us up to feelings of hope. This conference will have a focus on villains from historical, religious and cultural perspectives. Rather than as a subservient Other of the hero, we would like to conceptualize the villain as its own archetype.
Please visit the conference site for further information.