In 2005, KITLV, IISH and a third institute of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) initiated the research programme 'Bringing History Home. Postcolonial Identity Politics in the Netherlands'. The project runs from 2005 through 2009. In the first years, research was focused on the Netherlands only. One monograph has already been published, a second one is in press. In addition, our researchers published a number of articles in scholarly journals and IISG now hosts an elaborate database on postcolonial organizations in the Netherlands.
In the final two years of the project, the researchers intend to discuss their findings on the contemporary history of postcolonial migrants in the Netherlands with experts working on other countries in order to develop a truly comparative perspective. To this end we have organized the international workshop 'Postcolonial migrations and identity politics in Europe since 1945: Towards a comparative perspective', on 7-8 November 2008 at the IISH.
The first objective of this conference is to prepare for the publication of an edited volume containing a coherent set of essays that give historical body and substance to debates on (postcolonial) immigrations in the core group of European countries - Great Britain, France, Portugal, the Netherlands - in a wider comparative framework. A lot of work has already been done on mapping social and economic opportunity structures, segregation and identity formations as such. The book will take stock of these dimensions and proceed with immigrants associations, political opportunity structures and politics of identity. We believe that there is a need for such a systematic comparison, since little work has been done on 'politics of identity' in relationship to immigrant associations in Europe. The timeframe of at least sixty years will give the project a most welcome historical grounding.
The second day of the workshop will be exclusively dedicated to discussions on postcolonial migrants, their organizations and identity politics, and political opportunity structures in the Netherlands. Again, the objective of this day is to prepare for an edited volume based on the revised versions of the papers presented.
Position paper and conference papers are only available for participants.
Programme and participants
Spain, Prof. Joaquín Arango, Professor and Chair, Department of Sociology II, Complutense University of Madrid
Portugal, Margarida Marques, Sociology Department (FCSH) and SociNova/Migration - The New University of Lisbon (Universidade Nova de Lisboa)
Postcolonial Migrants in the Netherlands, Prof. Gert Oostindie, Director of the KITLV, and Dept. of History, Leiden University
Post Colonial Migrants in Britain: From Unwelcome Guests to Partial and Segmented Assimilation, Dr. Shinder Thandi, Head of the Dept. of Economics, Finance and Accounting, Coventry University
Postcolonial Immigration to France: Republican Integration and its Discontents, Prof. James Cohen, Département de science politique Université de Paris VIII
The Puerto Rican Diaspora to the United States: A Postcolonial Migration, Dr. Jorge Duany, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras
Russia, Prof. Allison Blakely, Dept. of History, Boston University
Return of the Natives? Children of Empire in Postimperial Japan, Paper by Dr. Nicole Cohen, Dept. of History, Columbia University
Belgium, Dr. Bambi Ceuppens, Dept. of History, Royal Museum of Africa, Tervuren
Why is there no postcolonial debate in the Netherlands?, Dr. Ulbe Bosma, Senior Researcher at the IISH, member of the team 'Bringing History Home'
Dutch politicians, the Dutch nation, and the dynamics of postcolonial citizenship, Dr. Guno Jones, Dept. of History, University of Amsterdam
Postcolonial migrants and interethnic relations, Charlotte Laarman MA, Dept. of History, Leiden University
The Politics of Irony: the case of Curaçaon born intellectuals claiming Dutchness and Europeannes as their own, Dr. Francio Guadeloupe, KITLV Leiden
Moluccans in the Eighties: Shifting Identities and why they did not evoke a postcolonial debate, Dr. Fridus Steijlen, KITLV, Leiden
Cultural memory and Indische Identities, Prof. Pamela Pattynama, Dept. of Media and Culture, University of Amsterdam
Our Indische Heritage, Dr. Lizzy van Leeuwen, member of the team of 'Bringing History Home'
History Brought Home: Postcolonial Migrations and the Dutch Rediscovery of Slavery, Prof. Gert Oostindie, KITLV, Leiden
Tjalie Robinson (1911-1974). A postcolonial author and spokesperson, Prof. Wim Willems, Dept. of History Leiden University, Campus The Hague
Group- or host state-related? Understanding the historical development of Suriname organisations in Amsterdam, 1965-2000, Dr. Anja van Heelsum and Dr. Floris Vermeulen, Institute of Migration and Ethnic Studies, University of Amsterdam
Festivals of postcolonial migrants in the Netherlands, Marga Alferink MA, KITLV/IISH and Member of the team 'Bringing History Home'
Contact
For more information please contact Dr. Ulbe Bosma (ubo@iisg.nl).