Call for papers for an anthology with the working title

Colonial Encounters and Postcolonial Assemblages of the Swiss Kind

Editors: Patricia Purtschert, Harald Fischer-Tiné
Afterword: Shalini Randeria
To be published in 2014

As has been shown by a wide range of studies in the past years, colonialism cannot be fruitfully understood as the exclusive interaction between a handful of imperial ‘metropolitan countries’ and their respective colonies. In myriad ways, states without former colonies and their inhabitants (as well as states that were not formally colonized and their populace) were part of colonial relationships and intensely involved in colonial practices and/or engaged in the production and reproduction of colonial knowledge, representations and discourses. This anthology looks at the local repercussions of the global phenomenon of European imperialism by situating Swiss actors in colonial enterprises and constellations and tracing different Swiss sites at which complex and sometimes contradictory colonial entanglements took place between 1800 and the present.

We are looking for intriguing papers that tackle the many ways in which colonialism, decolonization and postcolonialism need to be re-thought in a Swiss frame. The papers should refer to past and
current transnational research on colonialism and imperialism and take up insights and methods of postcolonial studies. We especially welcome papers that look closely at the intersections of race, religion, gender, sexuality, age and other differences that are crucial to the reproduction of social systems and the distribution of power.

Please send your abstract (up to 500 words) to Patricia Purtschert, patricia.purtschert@gess.ethz.ch.
Deadline for abstracts: 28th of February 2013.
Date of notification: 31st of March 2013.
Deadline for full papers (up to 8000 words): 31st of October 2013.