CFP: Decolonizing the Past: Renaissance Humanism Beyond Western Europe (5/15/05; RSA, 3/23/06-3/25/06)
DECOLONIZING THE PAST: RENAISSANCE HUMANISM BEYOND WESTERN EUROPE
This panel calls for a reevaluation of Renaissance humanism, long considered
a hallmark of Western social and intellectual development. Searching the
interstices of Renaissance humanism suggests its complicity with Western
European colonization, not only of physical spaces but also of cultural and
linguistic domains. An example of humanism's continuing colonizations is
the definition of what constitutes the center of Europe and what is
considered its margins. The consequences of this definition include our
perception of a Europe split on an East/West axis, and the fact that what we