Displaced Cultures: Uncovering Suppressed Narratives

"Culture Displacement" suggests a phenomenon where suffering stems from the loss of one's cultural identity. The world has recognised certain specific factors that are responsible for the occurrence of this phenomenon, such as, migration, colonization, globalization, or forced assimilation. In the present war-torn era that we live in, culture displacement has become a global monster. Be it the Yemeni civil war or the Israel-Palestine 'genocide', the mass displacement of Congolese people or the Rohingya crisis- culture displacement is something that is continuously taking place but rarely gets identified. The only boon it enjoys, like any other form of displacement, is the boon of majoritarian narrative. Tracing culture displacement among the narratives of the conquerors is a difficult task indeed. Voyages into the Past seeks to encourage students to attempt this task by taking up the issue of culture displacement in this edition of L'Histoire.

Some suggested topics are listed below

1. Preservation of cultural artifacts beyond their origins
2. The revival of dead cultures and the building of identities
3. Repatriation of artifacts and the politics of dislocation
4. The making and remaking of cultural performance and identity in diaspora communities
5. Cultural hegemony and domination in policies of refuge and asylum
6. Essentialization of communities and cultures in the practice of subject making
7. Rejected Cultures: Nation making in the contemporary world.
8. Religion and Communalism in cultural dislocation.
9. Erasure of Culture Bearers: The Displacement of Cultural Performance in the Face of Death.
10. Mass Media and Public Intervention in the objectification of dislocated cultures.
11. Restructuring Identity in the face of displaced cultures.

This is not an exhaustive list and we welcome topics and writings on fields related to the theme and topics in both English and Bengali. If you wish to enquire about the same, please mail us at editor.voyages2023@gmail.com

All entries are to be no longer than 3000 words, and must be formatted in the MLA 9th Edition. Please avoid pictorial attachments. Please try to avoid jargon, as we aim this magazine at a lay readership as well.

Happy writing.

Deadline (non-negotiable): 31st December 2023.
Tentative date of publication: 31st January 2023.