Dislocating Culture. Narratives and Epistemologies of Displacement

Friday, December 9, 2011 to Saturday, December 10, 2011

Speakers: Chadwick Allen from Ohio University, Réda Besnaïa from Brown University, Susan Buck-Morss from Cornell University, Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui from Universidad Mayor de San Andrés, Bolivia, Michael Dash from New York University, Lydie Moudileno from University of Pennsylvania, Mary Lousie Pratt from New York University, Mireille Rosello from University of Amsterdan, Nelson Maldonado-Torres from University of California at Berkeley

The colloquium examines representative cultural artifacts (literary, artistic and theoretical) in order to explore the repositioning of knowledge and aesthetics that grew out of colonial experiences and evolved into contemporary transcultural reterritorializations of linguistic practices, genres and traditions. Contributions will evolve from the consideration of three topoi, which are inextricably esthetic and theoretical: displacement, migration and relation. These in turn will not only invite us to think about culture beyond national and disciplinary boundaries but also encourage a reflection that displaces monolithic paradigms of knowledge, opening a rich, multidimensional map of cultural flows between the Americas, Africa and Europe.