U.S.-Philippines Postcoloniality and Culture (grad)

(dis)junctions 2007: Malappropriation Nation
April 6-7, 2007
University of California, Riverside

This call for papers is for a proposed panel to be held at
(dis)junctions 2007: Malappropriation Nation at the
University of California, Riverside’s annual graduate
humanities conference. Submissions from all disciplines are
welcomed.

American studies theorists such as Amy Kaplan and John Carlos
Rowe have lamented the absence of the study of empire in
American studies. In the 2006 anthology, Positively No
Filipinos Allowed, Oscar Campomanes reminds us of Edward
Said’s criticism of U.S. scholars of the humanities, who are
willing to address the cultural consequences of European
empire-building but who generally neglect to examine those of
U.S. empire-building. This reluctance to address U.S.
imperialism has led, as Kaplan, Campomanes, and others have
argued, to an invisibilization of the Philippines as a former
colony of the U.S. and of Filipino-Americans within discourses
concerning U.S. history and culture.

In opposition to this invisibility, this panel seeks papers
examining cultural production that addresses any aspect of the
U.S.-Philippines “special relationship” in any of its
manifestations. In keeping with this year’s (dis)junctions
theme of “Malappropriation Nation”, the panel is especially
interested in the question of whether traditional postcolonial
theory can be “malappropriated” to address the United States
and its century-old (post/neo)colonial relationship with the
Philippines. If not, why not? If so, how so? How has
cultural production â€" literature, art, film, dance, activism,
and community culture in either the Philippines or the U.S. --
dealt with (or avoided) the question of U.S.-Philippines
postcoloniality?

Suggested topics include but are not limited to:

Filipino-American literature and postcoloniality

historical moments such as The Philippine-American War, WWII
in the Philippines, 1946 “independence”, the U.S.-Marcos
Dictatorship

responses to cultural, economic, and / or military imperialism

the U.S. in Philippines cinema

the Philippines in Hollywood film

Filipino/American identity

immigration and empire

intersections of race, gender, class, sexuality

problems in Filipino-American Studies

Balangiga

Filipino veterans

The Huk Movement and its repression

Mindanao and Communism

Mindanao and the U.S. “War on Terror”

Filipino diaspora

Please email abstracts of 250-300 words to
mary.cummins_at_ucr.edu on or before Jan. 5, 2007. Also, please
note any A/V needs you may have.

For further information, please visit last year’s website and
also check for new updates on this year’s conference:

http://www.english.ucr.edu/gsea/disjunctions/index.html

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Received on Tue Nov 28 2006 - 18:47:52 EST