QUESTIONS OF DIFFERENCE:

Postcolonialism, Cosmopolitanism, and Alterity

A BU-Warwick University Symposium (BUWar)

16 November 2011

2-6 PM

College of Arts & Sciences Bldg Rm. 222

Boston University

How do we, with our manifest differences, live together in the world? What are the ways in which cross-cultural difference have been imagined and managed across history and in different parts of the world? What forms of social organization, political structures, and cultural systems have facilitated or hindered coexistence? This cross-disciplinary one-day symposium, jointly sponsored by Boston University (USA) and Warwick University (UK), will address these and related questions from different disciplinary perspectives and areas of expertise. The symposium is meant to facilitate conversations on questions of difference across time periods, locations, theories and disciplines, examining a range of theoretical perspectives and empirical work on cross-cultural interaction and management.

 

 

SCHEDULE

2:00-3:45 Session I

Early Sociological Cosmopolitanism: The African American Tradition

Gurminder Bhambra (Warwick, Sociology)

Contingency, Racism, ‘Progress’: Eugenicist Pasts and Constructivist Presents

Claire Blencowe (Warwick, Sociology)

 

Discussion:

Ruha Benjamin (BU Sociology & African American Studies)

Julian Go (BU Sociology)

 

3:45-4:00

Coffee Break

 

4:00-6:00 Session II

Literature and historical derangement

Sanjay Krishnan (BU English)

 

Greek Love, Jewish Difference and the Victorians

Daniel Orrells (Warwick, Classical Studies)

 

The Witness and the Archive: Between History and Psychoanalysis

Milija Gluhovic (Warwick, Theatre and Performance)

 

Discussion:

Larry Breiner (BU English)

Keith Vincent, Japanese & Comparative Literature)

 

 

*This event is sponsored by the Boston-Warwick Strategic Funding Initiative for Joint Research and Education