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
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
