“Transnationalism in Question”
February 5-6, 2010
UCLA
(Program [PDF])
Rapidly consolidating as a field, transnational studies emerged more or less contemporaneously with the economic and cultural processes aggregately referred to as “globalization.” In that regard, transnationalism roves between or beyond the material and imaginary borders of the nation-state as it was conceived and structured in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, thus proposing to unmoor artistic, cultural, and political practices-as well as methods of scholarly interpretation-from the concentric affiliations of national community and national subjectivity.
Though the ethos of transnationalism and its moment in history may be defined in this way, we have yet to account sufficiently for the spectrum of its possibilities and limitations as a terrain of thought and practice.
This conference will take the idea of transnationalism in itself as a matter of inquiry. We will engage its past instances within colonial formations and trans-oceanic economies, as well as address its articulations in relation to cosmopolitanism and internationalism. By considering the meanings of “the transnational” in relation to different cultural logics and political agendas, we aim to assess its value as a methodology and its usefulness as an epistemic lens, rather than merely a descriptive term. To that end, we shall situate transnationalism in relation to different historic, ethnic, and cultural contexts, disciplinary formations, and concrete practices throughout history that, in hindsight, evidence the mark of what we recognize today as transnational processes. Ultimately, the goal of the conference will be to weigh the possibilities for knowledge, culture, and politics opened up by transnationalism as a conceptual frame, at the same time that we chart the depth and contours of its potential limitations.
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2010, ROYCE HALL 306
1:15 pm
WELCOME
Françoise Lionnet and Shu-mei, Shih, Directors Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Humanities, “Cultures in Transnational Perspective” Program
1:30 pm
“TERRITORY, INDIGENEITY, AND EMPIRE: PROBLEMS AND POSSIBILITIES IN TRANSNATIONAL STUDIES”
MODERATOR AND RESPONDENT:: William Marotti, (UCLA)
Robert Warrior, Professor, (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign)“Indigenous Intellectual Practice Inside and Outside the Transnation”
Joseph Bauerkemper, Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow, (UCLA)
“Constituting Indigenous Trans/Nationhood”
Travis Workman, Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow, (UCLA)
“Transnationalism and the Problem of Territory in Asian Studies”
3:30 pm
COFFEE BREAK
4:00 pm
KEYNOTE INTRODUCTION
ROYCE HALL 314
Jeannine Murray-Román, Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow (UCLA)
KEYNOTE SPEECH
Doris Sommer, Professor, (Harvard University)
“Stop and Go Movements of Art and Politics”
6:00 pm – Day 1 Closing Reception
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 6, ROYCE HALL 306
10:00 am
“TRANSNATIONAL POETICS AND THE GEOPOLITICAL AESTHETIC”
MODERATOR AND RESPONDENT: Efrain Kristal, (UCLA)
Maya Boutaghou, Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow, (UCLA)
“Sharp Contrasts of all Colors or How Can One Be Transnational in Nineteenth Century India”
Greg Cohen, Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow, (UCLA)
“The Revolution Must (not) Be Advertised: Latin American Political Cinema and the Limits of Transnational Discourse”
Jahan Ramazani, Professor, (University of Virginia)
“Why a Transnational Poetics?”
12:00 pm
LUNCH BREAK
1:30 pm
“SPECULATIVE TRANSNATIONALISMS AND HEMISPHERIC SHIFTS”
MODERATOR AND RESPONDENT: Elizabeth DeLoughrey (UCLA)
Marcela Fuentes, Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow (UCLA)
“America 2.0: Sites of Performance, Embodiment, and Transnational Digital Politics”
Jeannine Murray-Roman, Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow (UCLA)
“Structures of Value: Surviving in Transnationalism’s Dystopic Landscapes”
Jill Lane, Associate Professor (New York University)
“Postcolonial Cybernauts: Space Travel and Semantic Disturbance”
3:30 pm
COFFEE BREAK
4:00 pm
ROUNDTABLE, Royce Hall 306
MODERATOR: Shu-mei Shih
PANELISTS: Elizabeth DeLoughrey, Efrain Kristal, William Marotti, Françoise Lionnet, Shu-mei Shih