Columbia University’s French Graduate Student Association (FGSA) invites graduate students from all disciplines to submit abstracts for our upcoming conference on the theme of (Re)conciliation?  The conference will take place January 30-31, 2025, at Columbia’s Maison Française in New York City, with a keynote address from French-Moroccan author and scholar Kaoutar Harchi. 

We seek to open up this the concept of (re)conciliation and explore it through the complex and multifaceted intersections of race, class, gender, sexuality, nationality, religion, and other axes of experience, both throughout the history of France and the French-speaking world and today. “Conciliation” can be defined as “the process of helping two sides in a disagreement (…) in the hope of ending the disagreement” while “reconciliation” designates “a situation in which two people or groups of people become friendly again after they have argued” (Cambridge Dictionnary). From the Middle Ages to the present moment, French and Francophone histories seem to have been punctuated by difficult, or sometimes impossible (re)conciliations. How do these (re)conciliations, or their absence, or impossibility, shape history, memory, politics and culture in France and the francophone world?

In recent years many works of Francophone literature, especially written by second-generation immigrants —such as  Alice Zeniter or Faïza Guène to cite a few— highlight the many fractures  encountered in the postcolonial francophone world, testifying to  the difficult experiences of the “double culture.” We are thus particularly interested in examining the question of (re)conciliation, through a postcolonial lens, echoing the complexity of the French-speaking world and its history, its diversity and richness, and considering the (im)possibilities of (re)conciliation in the face of colonial history and the current political context. Can you truly reconcile with France? How can we work from and within this divide? 

We are also interested in how other instances of reconciliation in French and francophone histories can be brought to bear on the theme of reconciliation from a postcolonial perspective. We would encourage contributions that show how different forms of reconciliation can echo each other. 

We also welcome submissions that adopt diverse methodological approaches from a range of disciplines while we particularly encourage presentations that will focus on feminist, queer and class issues.  We encourage interdisciplinary perspectives and creative formats (audio or visual documentary, creative non-fiction) as long as it is coherently integrated within your paper and research question.  Possible topics include, but are not limited to: 

• Postcolonialism
• Race & Migration
• Gender & Sexuality
• Class issues
• Intersectionality
• Language
• Urbanism and the Banlieue
• Media Representation
• Performance studies

• Animal studies
• Memory studies
• Environmental studies
• Justice, responsability and accountability
• National identity and citizenship
• Religion studies
• And more…

Please submit an abstract of no more than 300 words by November 25 using this application form. In your submission you will be asked to include a title for your proposed presentation, your name and institution, your contact information, an abstract, and a brief bio (max. 100 words). Presentations should be 15 minutes long and may be delivered in either French or English. 

We look forward to your contributions!