>
>Subject: CFP: Ethics and Postcolonialism (UK) (9/30/05; 4/8/06-4/10/06)
>
>From: "Neelam Srivastava" <[log in to unmask]>
>
>
>Conference on "Ethics and Postcolonialism", 8-10 April 2006  (one and a
>half days)
>
>University of Newcastle, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, United Kingdom
>
>CALL FOR PAPERS (250-word abstracts to [log in to unmask])
>
>Confirmed speakers:
>
>1)	Professor Gauri Viswanathan, Columbia University, NY 
>2)	Dr Leela Gandhi, La Trobe University, Melbourne 
>3)	Professor David Scott, Institute for Research in African
>American Studies, Columbia University
>4)	Dr Heather Widdows, Centre for Global Ethics, University of
>Birmingham
>
>This conference attempts to explore and articulate some of the visible
>intersections between ethics and postcolonialism. In this field, ethics
>can be described as a "hidden term" underlying discussions around the
>supposed "ruins" of a universal code of human rights and the unmasking
>of processes of economic exploitation in the world today. This
>conference is being organized in conjunction with _Interventions:
>International Journal of Postcolonial Studies_.
>
>Conceptual models of postcolonial engagement that center around Leela
>Gandhi's hospitality or "xenophilia", Edward Said's secular criticism,
>and Jacques Derrida's reconciliation, all can be said to stem in one way
>or another from an implicit reliance on ethical premises. The aim of
>this conference is to excavate such principles and to make them more
>readily available for discussion and critique. Is it possible to
>envisage an ethics that can make sense of differing value systems in the
>different cultures touched by the process of globalization? On the one
>hand, there is an increasingly widespread scepticism towards the
>universal applicability of ethical concepts, which is counterbalanced by
>the powerful emphasis of postcolonial theory on the ethics of engagement
>and the necessity of intervention. Given these premises, it appears
>particularly urgent to envisage a more contextualized form of ethics
>that can nevertheless lay claim to a strategic validity in terms of
>moral and political accountability. Numerous and urgent questions make a
>discussion of the ethical approach in dealing with postcolonial issues
>necessary: for example, is there an ethical aspect to violence in
>contemporary postcolonial societies, indeed could violence be seen as an
>ethical necessity in some cases? Or in terms of historical reparations
>and reconciliations, can ethics always be seen as restorative or are
>there significant failures in this vision?
>
>Such questions demand a sustained scrutiny of the concepts of ethics,
>human rights, and intervention, and will involve discussions of
>conscientious activism in the inter-disciplinary overlaps between
>politics, literature, cultural theory, sociology? and development. For
>this reason, we plan to invite speakers across a range of academic
>disciplines.
>
>We welcome proposals on any of the following topics, or others which are
>related to the theme of the conference:
>
>* the ethics of intervention
>
>* Communitarianism versus individualism
>
>* Ethics and development
>
>* locality and globality in contemporary ethics
>
>* "xenophilia", or adopting a cause that is not your own
>
>* ethics and the multicultural public sphere
>
>* Secular versus religious ethics
>
>* Ethics and gender
>
>* De-coding human rights
>
>* Truth and Reconciliation Commissions
>
>* Violence and liberation struggles
>
>* A history of ethics and colonialism/postcolonialism: similarities and
>differences in conceptual approaches
>
>Please send a 250-word abstract of your proposed paper by September 30,
>2005, to Neelam Srivastava at the following email address:
>[log in to unmask]
>
>We are planning to publish an edited volume or journal issue of the
>proceedings. 
>
>For more information, please go to our website:
>http://www.ncl.ac.uk/niassh/ethics/index.htm
>
>Neelam Srivastava and Gemma Robinson
>
>School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics
>
>University of Newcastle
>
>Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU
>
>United Kingdom

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