Zanzibar Indian Ocean Research Institute (ZIORI)
and the
Research Network on 'The Indian Ocean as Visionary Area:
Post-Multiculturalist Approaches to the Study of Culture and Globalisation'
Call for abstracts
Workshop on
'Development, Geopolitics and Cultural Exchange in the Indian Ocean'
Conveners: Abdul Sheriff and Preben Kaarsholm
Venue: ZIORI, Zanzibar
Time: 26 to 29 May 2011
Abstracts of appr. 500 words should be sent together with a one-page CV as e-mail attachments in Word to both conveners at the addresses asheriff@zitec.org and preben@ruc.dk before 15 January 2011.
Letters of acceptance will be sent out to participants by 31 January 2011.
The deadline for submission of papers accepted for presentation will be 1
May 2011.
Accommodation in Zanzibar will be offered to paper presenters for four nights.
In the majority of cases, workshop participants will be expected to cover their own costs of travel. A limited number of subsidies will be available for paper presenters, who are based in the Indian Ocean region, and are unable to raise their own travel funds.
Applications for a travel subsidy must be submitted together with the abstract by 15 January 2011.
For further information about ZIORI, please see:
http://ziori.duranpereira.com/
For further information about the Indian Ocean network, please see:
http://www.ruc.dk/isg_en/indianocean/
Outline of workshop focus
Over the last century the Indian Ocean region has experienced social, political and cultural reconfigurations that are the outcomes of distinct regional circumstances, but also mirror broader global transformations since the colonial era. Regional resources – notably fossil fuels – have positioned the Indian Ocean rim as a critical arena for both the global economy and geopolitics. At the same time, recent scholarship has traced how colonialism, independence and the Cold War engendered novel forms of collaboration across the Indian Ocean region, while evolving communication technologies contributed to new cultural imaginations.
The tensions of decolonization, and the different paths pursued by littoral societies in the context of Cold War rivalry, created postcolonial legal edifices – entailing new definitions of the citizen and the political actor – and systems of governance, that had profound effects on modes of identification, and in some cases spurred foreign intervention. Furthermore, frustration with the lack of rapid economic growth brought about instabilities, which paradoxically contributed both to state fragility and more robust regimes of control.
The restructuring of the world capitalist order in recent decades has created opportunities for new powers to emerge from within the Indian Ocean – most notably China and India – that pose economic and, perhaps in the long run, political challenges to older global powerbrokers. This has established possibilities for the emergence of a more multi-polar world in which economic development and geopolitical alignments in the Indian Ocean are taking centre stage. The heightened US military presence in East Africa, the Persian Gulf, South Asia and on Indian Ocean islands in the context of the 'global war on terror' has fueled tensions between local concerns and transnational regimes of control. At the same time a new and more multi-polar power structure may help to bring about new forms of cultural connectivities and agendas for political collaboration and exchange.
These issues have deep historical resonances. Work by historians of the Indian Ocean has shown how questions surrounding piracy, jurisdiction, non-state networks and governance were prominent throughout the region's history, from the rise of Islam to the age of empires. Just as important, historical reflections have demonstrated how a range of groups contributed to shaping the legal, political and cultural contours of the Indian Ocean region.
This workshop aims to explore how systems of power and approaches to development have shaped the societies of the Indian Ocean rim both in the past and the present. Further, the workshop will address the significance of the combination of economic transformation and changing modes of human connectivity for the region as well as what such developments may mean for the future of the Indian Ocean and the world.
The conveners welcome papers directed at diverse perspectives and time periods. We hope to spark a lively conversation across disciplines and, to this end, encourage the participation of scholars with a background in international relations, history, political science, cultural and religious studies and other relevant fields.
My mission is to acquire, produce and disseminate knowledge on and about humanity as well as divinity, especially as it relates to Africa, in a constructive and liberating manner to people wherever they may be.
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Address: P. O. Box 4460 Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania
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