Race, Biopolitics and Violence in Francophone Postcolonial Studies

This interdisciplinary colloquium aims to explore the interlocking and myriad intersections between race, biopolitics and violence in Francophone postcolonial culture, politics and thought, considering Caribbean, African and American contexts. The day will include a number of papers intended to spark in-depth discussion. The colloquium will conclude with a round-table and summing-up.

This project is organised in the framework of the European Commission/FP7 Marie Curie Research Project 'Caribbean Biopolitics of Literature' by Principal Investigator Dr Louise Hardwick and Marie Curie Research Fellow Dr Alessandro Corio.

• Full programme (PDF - 297KB)

Programme

• 10.00 - Registration and coffee (Ashley Building, Ground Floor Foyer)
• 10.20 - Welcome Remarks
• 10.30 -
  Alessandro Corio, Marie Curie Research Fellow in French, University of Birmingham: The Living and the Poetic Intention: Édouard Glissant’s Biopolitics of Literature
  Louise Hardwick, Lecturer in French, University of Birmingham: Creolizing the “Coolie”: Indian Indentured Labourers, the Francophone Caribbean Ethnoclass Hierarchy and Biopolitics
• 12.00 - Lunch (non-speakers are welcome to join us for lunch at their own costs in the University dining room)
• 14.00 - Nicki Hitchcott, Associate Professor and Reader in African Francophone Studies, University of Nottingham: Ethnopolitics in Rwanda Genocide Fiction
• 14.45 - Break
• 15.00 -
  Judith Misrahi-Barak, Associate Professor, Department of English / EMMA, Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier 3: The Violence of Words, ‘Race’ and the Power of Text: Edwidge Danticat’s Many Tongues
  Michael Wiedorn, Assistant Professor of French, Georgia Institute of Technology: Lafcadio Hearn and the Construction of the ‘Creole’
• 16.15 - Round Table
• 18.00 - Aperitif and dinner at “Côte”, The Mailbox (self-funding basis)

Venue

Room 422, Ashley Building, Edgbaston Campus (The Ashley Building is the snail-shaped building marked R17 on the main campus map: http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/Documents/university/edgbaston-map.pdf).

Travel Information

• The University of Birmingham is easily accessed from Birmingham New Street Station via our own train station (‘University’)
• Accommodation is available at the University of Birmingham conference park: http://www.venuebirmingham.com/bedandbreakfast (a 5 minute walk from the Ashley Building)
• We regret that we cannot provide financial assistance to attendees and encourage you to seek financial assistance from your home institution where possible.