This is an international, interdisciplinary conference which brings together scholars from English, German and Postcolonial Studies, History, and Geography. Current public debates about both the potential threats (e.g. with regard to global terrorism) and the benefits generated by cultural pluralism are getting ever more intense. This conference explores differences and parallels between British and German negotiations and representations of cultural hybridity, multiculture and national identity. In case studies ranging from the colonial period to the postcolonial present, the conference develops a historically grounded comparative perspective on hybrid cultures and the nervous states they can produce.

The conference focuses on three areas:

1) colonial and postcolonial processes of identification

2) forms of transnational consumer cultures in a historical perspective

3) current debates on multiculturalism and cultural hybridity

When: May 10-12, 2007

Where:
Dept. of English
University of Muenster
Johannisstr. 12-20
48143 Muenster, Germany

Full conference title:
Hybrid Cultures, Nervous States:
Insecurity & Anxiety in Britain and Germany in a (Post)Colonial World

This conference was initiated and planned by the "Network Postcolonial Germany and Britain"

Website & Registration:
http://hybrid-cultures.eu
hybrid-cultures@web.de
Conference fee: 20 EUR waged / 10 EUR unwaged

Conveners:
Ulrike Lindner, History, University BW Munich
ulrike.lindner AT unibw.de

Mark Stein, English, University of Münster
m.stein AT uni-muenster.de