Friday, December 10, 2010

PCI annual lecture (fall)

annual lecture (fall):
Speaker: Marlene van Niekerk
Response by Rosemarie Buikema
Date: December 7
Location: Sweelinckzaal,
Drift 21, Utrecht

Time: 16.00 - 18.00
Lecture: The life and times of the outsider in South-Africa:
notes on Michael K. (J. M. Coetzee) as a conceptual persona


Synopsis:
This talk will be about the significance of John Coetzee's book. The Life and Times of Michael K.
for past and current South African contexts of racism, xenophobia, state ideology and political
grand narrative. It will be a writer's (as opposed to a literary theoretician's) close reading of the text
with reference to Deleuze's and Guattari's notion of the conceptual persona in their book  What is
philosophy.

Bios:
Marlene van Niekerk holds the Africa Chair for regioncommission Southern Africa. She is a South

African author who is best known for her novels Triomf and Agaat, both translated into Dutch. Her
graphic and controversial descriptions of a poor Afrikaner family in Johannesburg brought her to
the forefront of a post-apartheid society, still struggling to come to terms with all the changes in
South Africa. Agaat deals with race and power in intimate relationships in a higher middle class
context. She studied Languages and Philosophy at Stellenbosch University and obtained an MA
with the thesis: Die aard en belang van die literĂªre vormgewing in 'Also sprach Zarathustra' in
1978 . She furthered her studies in philosophy and cultural  anthropolgy at the University of
Amsterdam where the focus was on the notions of myth in  the work of Ricoeur and Levi- Strauss.
She is currently writer-in-residence at the University of Stellenbosch where she teaches creative
writing.
Rosemarie Buikema holds the chair of Art, Culture and Diversity at Utrecht University. She is the
director of the Graduate Gender Programme and Head of the department of Media and Culture
Studies. Her publications are on the interface between Cultural Studies, Postcolonial  Studies
and Gender Studies. One of her main expertises is post-apartheid South African literature and
culture.
Related event:
Marlene van Niekerk, Rosemarie Buikema and Alfred Schaffer in Perdu, Amsterdam, friday December 10. Click here for more information (in Dutch).

Friday, September 24, 2010

PCI successfully launched on September 15 2010



The occasion was marked by a public lecture by Prof. Paul Gilroy, entitled: "From Double Consciousness to Public diplomacy: the end of the black Atlantic?". The lecture revisited Prof. Gilroy’s seminal work on the Black Atlantic and put it into the context of recent developments within postcolonial studies, specifically on the issue of European postcolonialism.


The lecture was followed by responses from the fellows of the PCI, Prof. Paulo de Medeiros, Sandra Ponzanesi, Birgit Kaiser and Emanuelle Radar who replied to Gilroy's talk attending to the mission of the PCI. This consists in investigating issues concerning postcolonial Europe drawing from different expertises and disciplinary backgrounds by exploring different historical and geopolitical constellations within Europe with a focus on current affairs and political events.


Click here for more pictures taken during the event. 

Friday, September 3, 2010

September 15: launch of the Postcolonial Studies Initiative (PCI), Utrecht University

The Centre for the Humanities and the organizers of the Postcolonial Studies Initiative, Prof. Paulo de Medeiros and Dr. Sandra Ponzanesi, cordially invite you to the official launch of the Postcolonial Studies Initiative (PCI) 15 September 2010, 16:00-18:00.

The occasion will be marked by a public lecture by Prof. Paul Gilroy. The lecture will revisit Prof. Gilroy’s seminal work on the Black Atlantic and put it into the context of recent developments within postcolonial studies, specifically on the issue of European postcolonialism.

The lecture will be followed by responses from the fellows of the PCI, Prof. Paulo de Medeiros, Sandra Ponzanesi, Birgit Kaiser and Emanuelle Radar.

The Postcolonial Studies Initiative (PCI) at Utrecht University is intended as a platform for research into postcolonial issues, specifically focused on their application within Europe. The PCI organizes activities such as lectures, film series, masterclasses and seminars, striving for greater interaction with society at large. As such it brings together a number of researchers from diverse areas and disciplines, both from Utrecht University and from other universities in the Netherlands as well as from other international partner universities.

We hope you will join us 15. September 2010, 16:00-18:00 in the Sweelinckzaal, Drift 21, Utrecht.

Yours sincerely, Centre for the Humanities and the Postcolonial Studies Initiative