Course Conceptual Constellations: (Neo)colonialism,Race and Global Contexts

Course description

How can we as scholars of art, culture, and aesthetics critically engage with concepts such as race, colonialism, and indigeneity? What does it mean to work with these concepts, that is, what kind of philosophical, methodological, and political challenges do they pose? And which theoretical traditions and intellectual, geographical, and political contexts do they refer to? 

The purpose of the course is to collectively read and discuss key texts of a web of theoretical traditions concerned with issues of colonialism, slavery, race, and global contexts. The course is organized around a constellation of concepts that in various ways seem to traverse now largely distinct academic fields–without, of course, losing sight of their particular contexts, nor the academic disciplines or fields into which they have evolved. Thus, the course does not pretend to provide a comprehensive overview–not even an introductory one–nor do we intend to resolve the conflicts and contradictions that constitute these fields. Rather, we aim to create a critical space for re- and unlearning where we collectively engage with the rich resources and traditions embedded within a constellation of concepts that has increasingly gained prominence in critical humanities studies.

The course consists of three facilitated sessions. Each session contains its own conceptual constellation:

04/09: kl 10-13. Session 1: The Anti-colonial, the Postcolonial and the Decolonial

Reading and discussing.

18/09: kl 10-13: Session 2: Race, Indigeneity and Borderlands

Reading and discussing.

02/10: kl 9-16. Session 3: Transculturality and Global Context 

Reading, presentation of papers, feedback, and discussion. 

The first two sessions consist of short presentations and discussions of pre-read literature distributed beforehand. The third session consists of 10-minute paper presentations by all participants. For this occasion, we have invited Susanne Leeb, a professor of contemporary art, who will present perspectives from her research and provide feedback on the papers.

Aim/Learning outcomes

• Reflect on the specificities and intersections of theoretical traditions concerned with issues of colonialism, slavery, race, and global contexts
• Reflect on the theoretical and methodological potentials and problems of concepts
• Reflect on the politics of knowledge and scholarship in fields such as postcolonial/decolonial/critical race/indigenous studies

Target group/Participants

The course is intended for both researchers who have little familiarity with the concepts and traditions, as well as for those with an in-depth knowledge of the field(s)

Workload

• Course/ teaching hours: 13
• Preparation: 68 hours
• Reading core texts (aprox. 200 pages)
• Litterature presentation of selected core text
• Research presentation: connecting the conceptual constellations to own research

In preparation for each session, participants are expected to read the listed core texts. In advance, we will like all participants to take responsibility for at least one text. This entails a brief 10 min presentation and some questions for discussion.

For each session we also list recommended secondary literature that is mostly to be seen as an open-ended archive of relevant literature. We therefore highly encourage participants to add texts to the list during the course. 

For the third session, all participants are expected to prepare a 10-minute paper presentation, where they present how their research engage with different conceptual constellations presented during the course.

Language 

• English

Lecturers

• Gry Lind Merrild Hansen, Ph.d.-studerende, IKK, Aarhus University
• Tobias Dias, Postdoc, IKK, Aarhus University
• (Session 3) Suzanne Leeb, Professor, Leuphana Universität Lüneburg

Literature

Session 1: The Anti-Colonial, the Postcolonial and the Decolonial

Core texts

• Césaire, Aimé. Discourse on Colonialism. Translated by Joan Pinkham, Monthly Review Press, 2000 [1950], pp. 31–78.
• Fanon, Frantz. “The Fact of Blackness.” Black Skin, White Masks, translated by Charles Lam Markmann, Pluto Press, 1986 [1952], pp. 109–140.
• Mignolo, Walter, and Catherine Walsh. “Introduction.” On Decoloniality: Concepts, Analytics, Praxis, Duke University Press, 2018, pp. 1–12.
• Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. A Critique of Postcolonial Reason. Harvard University Press, 1999, pp. 312–344.

Session 2: Race, Indigeneity and Borderlands

Core texts

• Ahmed, Sara. “A Phenomenology of Whiteness.” Feminist Theory, vol. 8, no. 2, 2007, pp. 149–168.
• Anzaldúa, Gloria. Borderlands / La Frontera: The New Mestiza. Aunt Lute Books, 1987, pp. 1–25.
• Hartman, Saidiya. Scenes of Subjection: Terror, Slavery, and Self-Making in Nineteenth-Century America. Oxford University Press, 1997, pp. 17–48.
• Simpson, Audra. “On Ethnographic Refusal: Indigeneity, ‘Voice’ and Colonial Citizenship.” Junctures: The Journal for Thematic Dialogue, no. 9, 2007, pp. 67–80.

Session 3: Transculturality and Global Context: Master class with Susanne Leeb 

• Leeb, Susanne. “Museums, Transculturality, and the Nation-State: Some Remarks on Their Entanglement.” Museums, Transculturality, and the Nation-State: Case Studies from a Global Context, transcript Verlag, 2022, pp. 7–16.

Venue

rum46, Studsgade 46, 8000 Aarhus

Course dates:

• 04 September 2025 10:00 - 13:00
• 18 September 2025 10:00 - 13:00
• 02 October 2025 10:00 - 16:00