Invitation til Nordic Colonial Mind workshopsCall for papers for the workshop
Nordic Colonial Legacy and Contemporary Immigration
The Second Workshop in the Series Decoding the Nordic Colonial Mind
University of Iceland, May 4-5, 2010
Conference organizers: Kristín Loftsdóttir, University of Iceland, Lars Jensen, Roskilde University, Anne Hege Simonsen, Oslo University College and Mikela Lundahl, University of Gothenburg.
The workshop series Decoding the Nordic Colonial Mind is organized by the network The Nordic Colonial Mind directed by Lars Jensen and Kristín Loftsdóttir and funded by NOS-HS. It is composed of three workshops held during the period 2009-2010. The first workshop was held at Roskilde University, October 19-20, 2009.
Theme of the second workshop
This workshop aims to link together historically oriented research on the Nordic countries’ engagement in the colonial era with research on contemporary immigration. The workshop thus emphasizes various participations in global processes during the colonial era and how these can be brought into play with more contemporary orientated research that seeks to investigate Nordic self-perceptions in the wake of large-scale migration since World War II. How are contemporary forms of globalization derived from, and how do they differ from, earlier forms of colonialism and imperialism in the Nordic countries? In what ways do colonial legacies continue to inform current globalized practices, and how are they contested in the present? How does historical memory inform current patterns of immigration policies and practices in the present? The workshop aims at gaining a deeper understanding of the linking of the past and the present in terms of issues of diversity in the Nordic countries and how the colonial past is dealt with - or not.
The deadline for abstracts is February 10, 2009. Please submit your abstract (250 words) to kristinl@hi.is. In the abstract, please state your institutional affiliation and major aspects that you will focus on in your paper. Also, please make very clear the connection of your paper to the general theme of the workshop. By March 1, we will let you know whether the abstract has been accepted. Please state if you wish to get reimbursed for travel and accommodation expenses. We will be able to accommodate a limited number of participants, but we wish to attract as many scholars as possible. Also, depending on the number of participants, we may
ask you to present your work in another way than the standard conference presentation form, or act as discussant etc. This is of specific interest to those, who have an interest in the forum, but do not presently conduct research in the field.
After the end of the workshop, a series of a selection of papers will be published in a specific volume. This volume will showcase the scholarship to a broader academic audience in the Nordic countries and beyond, and will also through a focus on the comparative seek to elaborate whether the Nordic countries in fact have a common history of self-perception, and a communal way of perceiving a Nordic way in the contemporary world of cultural exchange.
First workshop on Decoding the Nordic Colonial Mind Roskilde University, October 19 and 20, 2009
Workshop title: Nordic Exceptionalism
Day one: October 19, Auditorium 15
11.00-11.30 Opening address of the workshop: Lars Jensen, ‘From Postcolonial Europe to Nordic Exceptionalism: Positioning the Nordic postcolonial moment’
11.30-12.30 Workshop 1:
Ulrik Pram Gad, "Muslims as security problem in Denmark. What threat? And what means for their aversion?"
Linda Lund Pedersen, ‘Regulation, Neutrality and Debates on Muslim Women’s Attires in Denmark’
12.30-13.30 Lunch
13.30-15.00 Workshop 3: Contemporary representations of the Nordic self and the idea of Nordic Exceptionalism
Anna Rastas, ‘Living “Our History” through “Finnish Exceptionalism”’
Tobias Hübinette, ’”Japanese, Japanese…”: Representations of East Asians in Swedish Contemporary Visual Culture’
Katharina Pohl, ‘On the Role of Development Aid in Constituting Norwegian and German Autostereotypes’
15.00-15.30 Coffee break
15.30-17.00 Workshop 2: Early 20th century representations of race and the national imaginary
Irene Molina, ‘Intersections of Race, Class, Sex and Space in Swedish Racial Hygienist Discourse’
Hanna Acke, ‘The Role of Foreign Mission in the Construction of Swedish Identity around 1900’
Finn Kudsk, ‘Agency and Destiny on the Ethnographic Frontier: The Notebooks of Selma Laman, a Swedish Missionary in the Lower Congo’
17.00 reception
17.30 Michelle Eistrup & Anders Juhl, NotAboutKarenBlixen is an art project, conceptualized by Michelle Eistrup, visual artist and Anders Juhl, music producer. The project involves 3 Danish and 3 Kenyan artists, and will be presented in 2010 at My World IMAGES festival in Denmark and at a Kenyan venue. The project seems to resonate with the concept of Nordic Exceptionalism. The project will be presented at its current stage at the workshop.
19.30 Dinner
Day 2: October 20, Teorirum 3.1.5
9.15-10.45 Workshop 4: Literary representations of the Nordic self in the South
Ashleigh Harris, ‘Nordic Whiteness and the South African Literary Imagination’
David Watson, ‘”What of Denmark’s Relationship to Nella Larsen?” Race and Exceptionalism in Quicksand’
Marianne Stecher-Hansen, ‘Ambivalent Colonialism and Karen Blixen’s “Sorte og Hvide i Afrika”’
10.45-11.15 Coffee break
11.15-13.00 Plenary (will open with presentation by Kristín Loftsdóttir (see below) and continue with discussion about the direction of future workshops)
Kristín Loftsdóttir, ‘Whiteness is from another world: Icelandic identities and entanglements of the past’
13.00-14.00 Lunch
14.00-15.30 Workshop 5: North of the Nordic, and South of the South
Katarina Löbel and Lill-Ann Körber, ‘The Global North and its Others’
Jens Heinrich, ‘Greenland, Denmark the US and the Thule Air Base’ [provisional title]
Íris Ellenberger, "Continuity and change among Danish Immigrants in Iceland in the light of
Danish authority and Icelandic independence 1900-1970 " 15.30-16.00 summing up over coffee
Workshop 1: Roskilde University, October 19-20, 2009
Nordic Exceptionalism
This workshop will seek to bring together various Nordic perspectives on the idea of ‘Nordic Exceptionalism’ (see description below). The workshop in particular will have as its focus to create a common platform from which common questions in relation to Nordic colonialism and Nordic postcolonialism (with particular reference to migrancy) can be brought into play, simultaneously with focusing on the specific experiences of the different Nordic countries.
Contact: Lars Jensen, University of Roskilde, hopeless@ruc.dk
Workshop 2: University of Iceland, May 4-5, 2010
Spring 2010 University of Iceland: Contemporary immigration and Nordic Colonial Legacy
This workshop will focus on how historically orientated research on the Nordic countries’ role in the colonial era (or participation in the processes of globalisation during the colonial era) can be brought into play with more contemporary orientated research that seeks to investigate Nordic self-perceptions in the wake of large-scale migration since World War II (i.e. the more contemporary forms of globalisation and the Nordic countries’ implications in these processes). It will explore how and if this colonial legacy continues to inform current globalized practises or are contested in the presence.
Contact: Kristín Loftsdóttir, University of Iceland, kristinl@hi.is
Workshop 3: Joint workshop Oslo University College and Gothenburg University, Autumn 2010
Autumn 2010 Joint seminar Oslo University College and Gothenburg University: Challenging national historiographies – from colonialism to migrant others
Here the focus will be overtly on the processes of (re)conceptualising Nordic national identities in the wake of the large influx of migrants from primarily the non-European world. It is the premise that the existing homogeneous conceptualisations of national identities in the Nordic countries will have to give way to more cosmopolitan definitions of Nordic national identities. Which again leads back to the initial question for the first workshop regarding, whether there is in fact a special Nordic condition – an exceptionalism or unique national settings in an increasingly globalised world order. It will be asked how the history is conceptualised and written, how the present and the past are generally conceptualised as linked together. |
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