Seminarier

ACSIS organiserar högre tvärvetenskapliga seminarier för kulturstudier, delvis i samarbete med bland annat Tema Q (kultur och samhälle).  Språket skiftar mellan svenska och engelska så som framgår av programmet: när någon utländsk föreläsare deltar är språket normalt engelska, annars vanligen svenska.

Seminarium med Tim Winter från University of Western Sydney den 22 maj kl 13-15

Auto-Exoticism: cultural display at the Shanghai Expo

For many postcolonial countries articulating a sense of identity and cultural nationalism has involved negotiating those histories and identities constructed and ascribed upon them by others. Indeed, such themes have long troubled many postcolonial intellectuals, and been the subject of intense debates. Shanghai Expo 2010 brought such themes into focus once again, an event where national identities were performed to an audience of 70 million. This paper examines the objects and architecture of cultural nationalism in relation to questions of sovereignty and enduring colonialities for a number of Asian and African countries participating in previous World's Fairs and at Shanghai. It draws on the ideas of Partha Chatterjee to interpret why they embraced a language of tradition and heritage, reproducing the same geo-cultural hierarchies familiar to the age of European empire. The paper argues that, within the cultural economies of globalization today, such countries engage in a form of auto-exoticism.

Tim Winter is Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Culture and Society, University of Western Sydney. His interests centre on cultural sustainability, and the issues surrounding cultural heritage in developing economy countries. He has published widely on heritage, development, modernity, urban sustainability and tourism in Asia. His recent books include Routledge Handbook of Heritage in Asia and Shanghai Expo: a forum on the future of cities. Tim has consulted for the World Bank and World Monuments Fund and held Visiting Scholar positions at Cambridge University and Getty Conservation Institute.

Seminariet hålls på Linköpings universitet Campus Norrköping, byggnad Spetsen, lokal S6123 plan 6. Kontakta johanna.dahlin@liu.se för mer information.