Conference-cum-Workshop TRANSCONTINENTAL TRIALOGUES

University of Mumbai
Conference-cum-Workshop
on
TRANSCONTINENTAL TRIALOGUES IN CRITICAL DIVERSITY STUDIES
9th- 15th February 2015
The Centre for African Studies will be organising an International Conference-cum-Workshop as part of a
trilateral collaboration between three universities namely Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg, Germany,
University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa and University of Mumbai, India. It will bring
together teachers and students and will include both taught modules as well as presentations by experts.
Applications are invited from interested students from various social sciences departments to participate in the
Conference-cum-Workshop. Students are requested to apply stating their interest and their preference from the
clusters that make up the thematic foci of the Conference-cum-Workshop.
Please send your applications to conferenceafrica@gmail.com on or before 2 February 2015. Should you have
any further queries please feel free to write in to us.
University of Mumbai
Conference-cum-Workshop
on
TRANSCONTINENTAL TRIALOGUES IN CRITICAL DIVERSITY STUDIES
9th- 15th February 2015
Conference-cum-Workshop
on
Concept Note
Background and Central Goals
Questions of diversity have increasingly come into the spotlight in recent years. With the pressures of rapidly
changing internal demographics within nation states, as well as the ever-accelerating interconnectedness of
communities across the globe, diversity has indeed become one crucial parameter in a range of cultural, social,
political as well as economic contexts. Larger corporations serve as just one example where efforts are made to
strive for a more diverse workforce and train personnel in developing greater awareness of human diversity,
diverse cultural practices as well as social and personal identities.
In the light of this wider recognition of the significance of diversity, and with regard to its often normative use
(and misuse), the study of how we construct, interpret and relate to our differences through everyday cultural
and creative repertoires has become recognized as an area of priority in education and research. It is abundantly
clear that human beings are challenged to rethink their own identities as well as the linguistic and aesthetic
forms through which they are constructed, reconsider their behaviors towards “others,” and thus develop skills
and competencies that enable them to do so. In other words, traditional ways of engaging human diversity will
simply not suffice in a closely-knit, interdependent world in which heterogeneity has become the norm. Consequently, there is an imperative to (re)theorize concepts such as diversity, identity, social cohesion, and coexistence, in order to inform the development of progressive policies and practices and to develop both teaching
curricula as well as research perspectives geared towards a deeper understanding of and sensibility towards
human diversity.
Against this backdrop, it is the central idea and goal of the workshop series to offer a platform for what we call a
„transcontinental trialogue,‟ as it brings together different disciplinary and institutional perspectives from three
different continents, which, brought into conversation, may significantly contribute both to addressing contextspecific diversity issues and to mapping the field of „critical diversity studies‟ as a trans-disciplinary field of
scholarly inquiry and investigation. With three institutions, countries, and continents involved in the
conceptualization of the event, i.e. Carl von Ossietzky University in Oldenburg, Germany, the University of the
Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, and the University of Mumbai, India, we have designed a transnational and trans-cultural curriculum which does justice to both local specificities and global dynamics.
The trilateral partnership, on which this workshop series is based, offers an ideal framework to explore different
lines and patterns of diversity, both in a historical and a contemporary perspective, both in keynote lectures and
in more focused workshops. Post-apartheid South Africa constitutionally and officially addresses diversity (in
fields such as linguistics, ethnicity, culture, gender, or the legal system) as a core dimension of building the new
nation. Yet, considering the still existing discrepancies in awareness of diversity issues and an apparent lack of
appropriate knowledge and policies twenty years after the end of the Apartheid regime, the proliferation of
diversity as both an academic and a political issue has become increasingly important. In a similar way, issues of
diversity are inscribed into the (post)colonial history of the Indian nation state, e.g. through the religious
„separation‟ of Islam and Hinduism, the still continuing debate on the caste system and, more recently, through
new controversies about gender-based violence. Germany witnessed the radical consequences of an ideology
based on the assumption of an ethnically homogenous nation, and, against the backdrop of this experience, has
dedicated itself to foster equality and diversity in the building of a democratic nation state. However, at the
beginning of the 21st century, a number of diversity issues (as regards e.g. gender, ethnicity, religion) are still (or
once again) very much on the political agenda.
These and other issues will be addressed during the planned workshop series, which is both based on and further
develops a trialogue between scholars from a number of different disciplines. Scholars and teachers from three
different institutions and geographic locations will bring to the academic event very different sets of experiences,
histories, and expertise about how diversity has been lived in a variety of contexts. Opportunities to study and
discuss diversity in Germany, India, and South Africa as well as the connections between the three locations
(e.g. their highly different, but still interwoven (post-) colonial histories) have thus been worked into the program
from the start.
The Mumbai Context: Diversity- in terms of people‟s origins, languages, cuisine, cultures, religious beliefs, art,
music, films is the defining character of the mega-polis of Mumbai. The workshop will also take advantage of its
setting in Mumbai by taking the conference discussions out into the field. It will explore how peoples such as
Jews and Parsees who sailed from across the salt waters centuries ago as well as migrants from the immediate
hinterlands and afar have made Mumbai their „home‟. Mumbai‟s architecture has been shaped by a variety of
influences; neo-Gothic, Art Deco, Indo-Saracenic and contemporary styles. The city has the second largest
number of Art Deco buildings in the world. In addition there are a number of village precincts that have
maintained their local style of architecture. Today, the preservation of the cities architectural heritage is
constantly under threat due to space constraints and need for development. This vibrant city is also a
kaleidoscope of varied cultures that is reflected inter alia via art, literature, films, theatre, that the city has
produced. With the use of audio- visual medium and existing literature, the course instructors aim to share with
the target group the varied images from the cosmopolitan city of Mumbai.
The site of Mumbai also serves as a context for studying issues of urban development, migration, poverty and
unemployment, inequities both social and economic that the city is trying to grapple with through its
educational institutions and national legislation such as affirmative action. The modules of this course will
attempt to provide a glimpse of the syncretism/ cultural hybridity of Mumbai by encouraging students to reflect
on the listed themes. The workshop will incorporate field studies/ excursions to allow students to experience the
city and it‟s lived experiences. These are therefore to be treated as core to the course and not as supplements or
add-ons.
Thematic Foci
The conference and workshop modules will be organized around 4 thematic clusters each consisting of a
keynote lecture, paper presentations and workshops in groups of 10- 15 students each from the three
geographical contexts. The clusters are as follows:
1. Migrations and Diasporas
Due to accelerating flows of migration and an increased (cultural) mobility, multiculturalism has
become the default condition in societies all over the world. While the continuous movement of
people – forced or voluntarily – along with cultural goods, practices and forms of belief, has
given rise to new and highly diverse communities and cultural practices, it has also created new
borders and demarcation lines. Starting from these observations, this cluster particularly focuses
on the forms and effects of global migration flows and sheds light on new challenges for the 21st
century.
2. Knowledges, Epistemologies and Media Representations
What we know and how we got to this knowledge is highly dependent on the conditions of
knowledge production, which in turn, are historically and culturally contingent. In cultural
‚contact zones,‟ then, different forms and formats of knowledge as well as different
epistemologies get in touch with one another, which, at times, can lead to new forms of
conceptualizing the world, but which can also lead to the subordination or extinction of
knowledges (e.g. in colonial contexts).The potential of the media and the arts to shape our
perception of sameness and difference (related to categories such as race, ethnicity, sexuality,
gender, and class) and our ideas about what does and does not correspond to allegedly wellestablished norms of behaviour must not be underestimated. The possibilities for conversation
and interaction between diverse people are critically dependent on shared languages and cultural
resources. This cluster explores different notions of knowledge and reflects on the ways in which
different knowledges and epistemologies have been integrated in or excluded from each other,
the ways in which knowledges have been „muted‟ in the processes of cultural contact and
exchange. Moreover, participants will identify and analyze the specific strategies employed by
various media and forms of artistic expression to perpetuate and/or undermine hegemonic
discourses of oppression and discrimination.
We also acknowledge the potential of the media and the arts to shape our perception of
sameness and difference (related to categories such as race, ethnicity, sexuality, gender, and
class) and our ideas about what does and does not correspond to allegedly well-established
norms of behaviour must not be underestimated. Also, the possibilities for conversation and
interaction between diverse people are critically dependent on shared languages and cultural
resources. Language is a powerful ideological tool to maintain or subvert hegemonic ideas and
ideals through a specific rhetoric, grammar, and vocabulary. In addition, hierarchies of particular
languages and their use may have significant effects on inequalities in education and socioeconomic participation. In this cluster, participants identify and analyze the specific strategies
employed by various media and forms of artistic expression to perpetuate and/or undermine
hegemonic discourses of oppression and discrimination. Moreover, this cluster will focus on
identifying and analyzing the forms and functions of linguistic oppression in all areas of life and
in the making of our collective identities. Moreover, it will explore the possibilities for linguistic
pluralism as an articulation of social equality. With this aim in mind, the participants in this
cluster focus on the social, cultural, and political challenges and demands that emerge in
multilingual contexts.
3. Space, Place and Histories
In this working group, participants will explore the historically and culturally specific
construction of space and place as social sites. We will discuss how, by whom and for what
purposes these spaces and places are made meaningful and turned into sites of social interaction
of different kinds, ranging from fruitful exchange to struggles for domination. We will thus come
to understand these sites as representative of certain power constellations in different historical
and cultural settings.
4. Identities, Memory, and Social Cohesion
The formation of individual and collective identities is a highly dynamic and precarious process
drawing on multiple threads such as conflicting histories and geographical context and structural
positioning along the lines of race, gender, sexuality, language, class, and (dis)ability. In the
course of globalization, identities have come to be understood as patchwork products resulting
from increased hybridization. Moreover, how we relate to and imagine our past is vitally
important for the ways in which we conceive of ourselves as individuals and members of social
groups. In other words, in order to make sense of who we are and conceptualize „the other‟, we
draw on our personal history and the histories of groups with whom we affiliate and identify.
Against this backdrop, this cluster examines the processes involved in the construction of
identities and takes a closer look at what has become known as „identity politics‟ in a globalized
world and, in particular, in societies where traumatic pasts may inform the narrative unconscious
of younger generations. It critically explores the dynamic interplay between the processes
involved in cultural memory formation and the construction of notions of difference and
diversity, particularly in (post-) colonial multicultural societies and in societies of historical
conflict. In these contexts, it is imperative to consider an intergenerational transmission of
trauma and the politics of forgetting in the making of personal and collective memories.