For its 25th annual conference, ASNEL invites panels and papers that address postcolonial justice in the Anglosphere and beyond. Such panels and papers may refer to cultural practices in a wide range of genres and medial forms, from fictional and non-fictional writing to musicking and filmmaking, from theatrical performance to political activism. They should address the complex questions of obligation and recognition, reparation and restitution, reconciliation and forgiveness both in relation to the colonial past and postcolonial presents and futures. Possible contributions may address the following issues, among others:
- Postcolonial justice and the politics of reconciliation, restitution and retribution: How and on which ethical and legal basis should we deal with traumatic histories of colonial and neocolonial injustice (e.g. slavery, apartheid, indigenous genocide)?
- Postcolonial justice, globalisation and regimes of mobility: Who suffers, and who benefits from regimes of globalisation? How are these grounded in the colonial past? And how can we adequately represent, theorise, and redress their injustices?
- Postcolonial justice and aesthetic judgement: Can we conceive of a postcolonial ‘critique of judgement’ that maintains (transitional) aesthetic universals? How might one defend such a notion against the claims of radical culturalism?
- Postcolonial justice and language: What opportunities does English as lingua franca offer? Where does English displace vernacular traditions and indigenous knowledge?
- Postcolonial justice and the media: What is the role of the media in maintaining, or in dismantling inequitable hegemonic systems?
- Postcolonial justice and the marketplace: How does the marketplace affect the ways in which notions of justice in literature and other media circulate across the planet?
- Postcolonial justice and academic practice: What are the academic ‘frames of speaking’ that enable or disable discourses about global justice? How may we work towards epistemic justice in our disciplines?
For more information, please visit the conference homepage at
dirk wiemann 