Cultures of Decolonisation, c.1945-1970 symposium, 30 May 2012 - 31 May 2012

Registration is now open for the Cultures of Decolonisation, c.1945-1970 symposium, 30 May 2012 - 31 May 2012 to be held at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, Senate House, London.


Keynote Speaker: Dr Bill Schwarz

Convenors: Claire Wintle (University of Brighton) and Ruth Craggs (St Mary’s University College) Registration fee: £35 (includes lunch and refreshments for both days) For registration and a full programme: http://commonwealth.sas.ac.uk/events/eventdetails0.html?id=10987

If you have enquiries, please email Chloe Pieters: chloe.pieters@sas.ac.uk or ruth.craggs@smuc.ac.uk


Programme: 30th May

10-10-45 Coffee and Welcome

10.45-11.30 Keynote lecture: ‘Decolonisation and Postcolonial History’ Professor Bill Schwarz (English Literature, Queen Mary)

11.30-1.00 Cultural Frameworks and Political Networks
‘The Peasant Armed: Bengal, Vietnam and transnational solidarities in Utpal Dutt's Invincible Vietnam’, Abin Chakraborty (English, University of Calcutta)
 ‘The Radical Left and the Imagining of Post-imperial Britain in the 1960s’ Jodi Burkett (History, University of Portsmouth)
‘Networks of Decolonization: Cultural Alliances during the Cold War’ Monica Popescu (English, McGill University)

1.00-2.00 Lunch

2.00-3.45 Contested Expertise and Decolonising Knowledge
‘Careering through Decolonisation: Richard St Barbe Baker, soil erosion and reforestation in the Sahara, c. 1950-1966’, Paul Ashmore (History, University of Sheffield)
‘Anthropology as Satyagraha (truth force): Elwin in pre-independence India’ Daniel Rycroft (World Art, University of East Anglia)
‘Preserving Authentic Africa: Museum construction and ethnographic work in French West Africa 1945-1960’, Louisa Rice (History, University of Wisconsin)
 ‘Claiming Maori Cultural Space and Performances of Identity in the Museum’ Christofili Kefalas (Pitt Rivers Museum/ISCA, University of Oxford)

3.45-4.15 Tea

4.15-6.00 Sites of Learning: Decolonising Education
‘‘Building Egyptians: Schools and culture palaces in Nasser’s Egypt’ Mohamed Elshahed (Department of Middle East Studies, New York University)
‘Postwar Malay Dictionaries and the Lexicographic Agency of the Colonized, 1945-1950’ Rachel Leow (Economics, Politics and History, Harvard University)
 ‘Dressed for Decolonisation? Student dress at the University of Ibadan, 1948-1962’,Tim Livsey (History, Classics and Archaeology, Birkbeck)

6.00-7.00 Wine Reception and Poster Session

Programme: 31st May

9.30-11.15 Building New Nations: Decolonising Symbols and Heritage
‘Designs on Money: New national identities and new coins for independent African nations’ Catherine Eagleton (Modern Money, British Museum)
‘Heritage as Performance: Re-enacting the temple of Angkor Wat in postcolonial Cambodia (1953-1970)’ Michael Falser (Global Art History, Heidelberg University)
‘Troubled Tales: The uneasy birth of a modern museum in a modern nation-state’ Atreyee Gupta (Art and Design, University of Minnesota)
‘The Vicissitudes of the Volta River Project, Ghana: Spatial inscriptions of globalisation or situated modern urbanisms?’ Viviana d'Auria (Architecture, Urbanism & Planning, KU Leuven)

11.15-11.45 Coffee

11.45-1.30 Metropolitan Experiences of Decolonisation
‘Anxiety Abroad’ David Wall (Visual & Media Studies, Utah State University)
‘Sexuality, Psychology and the Imperial Hero, c. 1945-1970’ Max Jones, (History, University of Manchester)
‘Individual Experience and Community Practice: The amateur enthusiast at the end of empire’ Anna Bocking-Welch, (History, University of York)
‘Henry Swanzy, Satre's Zombie? Black Power and the transformation of the Caribbean Artists Movement’ Rob Waters, (English Literature, Queen Mary)

1.30-2.30 Lunch

2.30-4.15 International Boundaries and Creative Appropriations
‘Colonial Rebels at Home and Abroad: Maori modernism and decolonisation in the 1960s’ Damian Skinner (Museum of Archaeology & Anthropology, University of Cambridge)
‘Joe Harriott: 'Free-form' jazz and decolonisation’, David Winks (English Literature, Queen Mary) ‘Barbarous Jungle Growth: Módulo magazine and the global media image of a modern Brazil’ Christian Larsen (Bard Graduate Center: Decorative Arts, Design History, Material Culture)

4.15-4.30 Closing Remarks

Supported by the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of Brighton, and St Mary’s University College