Topic: Colonial and Postcolonial Formations
Assistant Professor

This graduate seminar investigates colonial formations of power and
knowledge and traces their trajectories within contemporary postcolonial
settings.  Developing an approach to colonialism as a dialectical process
operating between metropole and colony, the course views colonialism as
central not only to the experience of colonized populations, but also to
the emergence of the European nation-states.  A primary concern of the
course is to eludicate the complex historical processes through which
colonial subjects were produced.

After reviewing various attempts to define colonialism and elaborate its
conceptual framings, we will examine a range of sites where specific forms
of colonial knowledge were formulated and disseminated, such as:  the
organization of time and space; gender and sexuality; health and the body;
the politics of culture; racial identities; education and pedagogy; law;
religion; language.  The course will also explore how differences
elaborated through colonial encounters both inform and are being realigned
through postcolonial discourse and praxis.  We will highlight 19th- and
20th-century European colonialisms and their aftermaths in Africa and
Asia, but may also attend to earlier colonial histories in Latin America.

Readings will be drawn from the disciplines of anthropology, history,
political science, and literary criticism, and will include occasional
fictional accounts (novels, short stories).  Assignments will likely
include a critical analysis of a novel or film in relation to one of the
seminar units, and an extended research paper that further investigates
one of the seminar topics.  Students will also serve as presenters and
discussants several times during the term.