CFP: International Seminar on #Foucault and #Postcolonial Governmentalities in South Asia-24-25 May, 2024- ILSR, Kolkata, West Bengal, India

This seminar hinges on South Asian governmentalities (Legg and Heath, 2018), as experienced in postcolonial South Asian nation states. They were erstwhile colonies, liberated through intense anti-colonial struggles against the British, a move that involved totalizing discourses of autonomy and nation-making. The newly born nations, supposed to be democratic guardian states, however, adopted the sovereign logic of governmentality and gradually most postcolonial nation states in South Asia, engulfed in internecine conflicts, diluted its nourishing roles to legitimize structural authoritarianism. They often demonstrate autocratic tendencies, evolving into absolutist state-machines, adopting culturalist disciplinary technologies to govern its citizens. There are occasional signs of carceral despotism, liquidating norm-deviant voices, adopting bio-political control in the name of national integration, identity and securitization. All these 
governmentality-oriented highhandedness demand a fresh Foucauldian analysis of normative categories such as power, civil society, territoriality, identity, state control, security, etc in the South Asian contexts. Postcolonial scholars, so far, have primarily looked into the perspectival reservoir of indigenous thinkers (quite understandably and legitimately so) but a larger Foucauldian critical hermeneutics can offer fresh 
analytical tools to understand the postcolonial biopolitical predicament. This proposed Kolkata chapter of 
the World Foucault Congress will look into the postcolonial governmentality question through the 
Foucauldian lens.
Original scientific paper proposals are invited, focusing on but not limited to the following areas of 
research:

• Foucault, Postcolonial State and Governmentality
• Foucault, South Asian biopolitics and bio-sociality
• Gender and Sexuality in the Global South and Foucault
• Foucault and Postcolonial Literary, cultural Agenda 
• Prison Reform, Incarceration in South Asia and Foucault
• Foucault and Postcolonial Nationalist Discourses
• Foucault and Postcolonial Human Rights 
• Violence and Postcolonial Discourse of Power
• Foucault and the Question of Identity
• Foucault and the Question of Caste, Race and Religion in South Asia, etc
• Foucault, Neoliberalism and Subalternity
• Foucault, Anthropocene and Critical Animal Studies
• Foucault and Psychoanalysis

Method of submission of proposal:
Submit an abstract (300 words maximum) with a short bio-note (150 words) within March 10, 2024 to 
foucaultcongresskolkata@gmail.com
Selection results will be communicated within 25 March, 2024
Selected abstracts will be asked to submit a full paper of 3000-4000 words (for a presentation of 15-
20 minutes) within 15 May 2024
Confirmed Invited Speakers:
Deana Heath, University of Liverpool 
Srila Roy, University of the Witwatersrand 
Anup Dhar, Ruhr University Bochum 
Sreenanti Banerjee, University of Bristol 
Jonathan Saha, Durham University
Convenors:
Anindya Sekhar Purakayastha, ILSR, Kolkata
Subhendra Bhowmick, Sidho Kanho Birsha University
Mursed Alam, Gour College, University of Gour Banga
Selected candidates will be informed about the registration process in due course of time. For any 
queries reach us at foucaultcongresskolkata@gmail.com

Contact Information

Submit an abstract (300 words maximum) with a short bio-note (150 words) within March 10, 2024 to 
foucaultcongresskolkata@gmail.com
Selection results will be communicated within 25 March, 2024
Selected abstracts will be asked to submit a full paper of 3000-4000 words (for a presentation of 15-
20 minutes) within 15 May 2024

Selected candidates will be informed about the registration process in due course of time. For any queries reach us at foucaultcongresskolkata@gmail.com

Contact Email

foucaultcongresskolkata@gmail.com

URL

https://foucault40.info/kolkata/

Call For Articles: Postcolonial Interventions (ISSN 2455-6564) Call for Papers Vol. IX, Issue 2 (June 2024)

Postcolonial Interventions invites scholarly articles for an OPEN ISSUE to be published in June 2024. As this call is being circulated, the people of Palestine continue to suffer with excruciating agonies inflicted on them by Zionist imperial aggression, right-wing forces of xenophobia, discrimination and intolerance continue to gather momentum across the world, inequality and ecological crisis continue to escalate and new forms of precarity are being constantly negotiated. 

The next issue of Postcolonial Interventions seeks to explore such issues and more based on postcolonial experiences across the world.

Submission Guidelines:

1. Articles must be original and unpublished. Submission will imply that it is not being considered for publication elsewhere.

2. Written in Times New Roman 12, double spaced with 1″ margin     on all sides, in doc/docx format.

3. Between 4000-7000 words, inclusive of all citations.

4. With in-text citations and a Works Cited list complying with        Chicago Manual of Style (author-date) specifications.

5. A separate cover page should include the author’s name,                designation, an abstract of 250 words with a maximum of 5                 keywords and a short bio-note of 50 words.

6. The main article should not in any way contain the author’s name.  Otherwise the article will not be considered.

7. Reviews also need to follow the aforementioned guidelines.            However, word limit for reviews is 1500 words.

8. The contributors are responsible for obtaining permission to        reproduce any material, including photographs and illustrations         for which they do not hold copyright.

Please send all your contributions to postcolonialinterventions@gmail.com  within 30 April, 2024.