SEASREP-SEPHIS Workshop: The Master Narrative Challenged:
Dominant Histories and Emerging Narratives

Cebu City, the Philippines
26-28 January 2007

The workshop will address issues of history and history-writing in the South, focusing on the different historical sources and narratives used by individuals, communities and institutions. Central are the ways in which these sources (re)construct the past, imagine the future and forge collective identities. On the one hand, the ‘master narrative’ (the dominant history often crafted by the state in the colonial or postcolonial period) has contributed to the construction of imagined communities, a process described in Ronald Inden’s article ‘Orientalist Constructions of India’, among others. On the other hand, emergent narratives by different groups contest the established history of the nation and assert that the experiences of these ‘subaltern’ groups as well as of communities, regional and ethnic groups must be acknowledged in writing history. These new narratives may play vital roles in reshaping a nation’s history. The workshop aims at explaining how history as a discipline and as a framework for imagining the nation is challenged during this period of globalization and the crisis of the nation.

Processes of both globalization and fragmentation of political, social, religious and cultural communities prompt us to explore whether the state-based ‘master narrative’ as the dominant national history is really nearing its end. In addition, history-writing, or historiography, has been transformed by redefinitions of what is significant in the past. An important outcome of this transformation is the questioning of academic history. Non-professional historians create historical narratives that bring history into the public arena where the array of methodologies is still open to discussion and where the general concept of credible historical knowledge differs from the academic one.

The workshop will discuss papers that address the following questions:

· How has the ‘master narrative’ been defined and shaped? Who has shaped it and for whom? Where do the challenges to this master narrative come from? What new forms do counter-hegemonic historiographies assume? Does challenging the master narrative of the nation lead to a new master narrative?

· What is the impact of these various contestations of history as a field of academic inquiry? Are non-professional historians (purveyors of popular culture, development organizations, religious groups, social movements, journalists, etc.) playing a more prominent role in the production of historical knowledge? If so, why? How do professional historians engage with these new interpretations of the past?

· Do counter-hegemonic versions of the past use different sources and apply different methods from those used by academic historians?

We will select papers that represent a broad range of issues and that address local developments within a general, preferably comparative, perspective.

Analyses with a comparative (temporal and spatial) perspective are preferred and papers should be of internationally publishable quality. Papers should be between 10,000 to 12,000 words (maximum).

SEPHIS and SEASREP will cover travel costs and other participation expenses for successful applicants, However, air-tickets will only be issued upon timely receipt of acceptable papers, i.e., the paper submission deadline must be met.

Authors are invited to submit a paper proposal indicating the scope, nature and approach of their intended papers. The one-page proposal and an academic cv of not more than three pages (in English) must reach the convenors of the workshop by June 1, 2006. Papers in the English language can be submitted by October 1st, 2006.

Applications and requests for more information should be sent to the convenors of the workshop:

Sephis Programme
C/o International Institute for Social History
Cruquiusweg 31
1019 At Amsterdam
Tel. No. +31-20-4636395
Fax No. +31-20-4636385
Email: sephis@iisg.nl
Website: www.sephis.org

Southeast Asian Studies Regional Exchange Program (SEASREP)
Unit 7-D, One Burgundy Plaza Condominium
307 Katipunan Road, Loyola Heights
1108 Quezon City, Philippines
Tel. No. +632-4361669
Telefax +632-4361668
E-mail: seasrep@seasrep.bayandsl.ph
Website: www.seasrepfoundation.org