International Relations and the Post-Colonial World: Exploring the Philippines, Asia, and Beyond

Call for participants for the section on

Section Chairs: Catherine Lourdes Dy and Nassef Manabilang Adiong
Organized by the European International Studies Association (EISA).

Over the past few decades postcolonial studies have risen to prominence in the field of international relations; however, continues to struggle as a marginalized perspective. In late-1950s up to 1990s, few dominant reflexivist theories challenged the core arguments of mainstream IR theories citing relevant rapid changes occurring in the international system. One of the challengers was the ‘Dependency Theory’ that talked about paralleled and non-symbiotic relationship between rich and poor nations. The ‘World Systems Theory’ of Immanuel Wallerstein provided a comprehensive understanding of various manifestations and characterizations of the modernization process. The ‘Balance of Power’ analogy of the Cold War era was challenged by the creation of the Non-Aligned Movement in 1961, which was founded during the independence struggles of the Global South. Another challenger is the ‘postmodern international theory’ which can be dissociated from its corresponding literary, philosophical, and visual manifestations. Other reflexivist challengers include feminism, queer theory, green theory, and race theory that addressed how-to-do IR theorizing.

Emerging predominantly from postcolonial literature of South Asia, now is the time to explore the postcolonial world beyond these artificial borders. The Philippines and other postcolonial states are valuable sources not only of both historically marginalized as well as emerging postcolonial theorists but are rich areas of investigation in their own right. This section thus offers a theoretical and area-based approach to the postcolonial world. It further unpacks the concepts and practices of postcolonial international relations studies with the assistance of prominent and emerging scholars of and from the postcolonial world.

This section will contain 10 panels:

     1. Postcolonial International Relations Theory (3 panels)

               a. Postcolonial International Relations Theory: Perspectives from the Periphery

               b. Postcolonial Studies in the Postcolonial World

     2. National Identity, Hybridity, and Appropriation (2 panels)

               a. National Identity and Regional Worlds

     3. Religion (1 panel)

     4. Diaspora (1 panel)

     5. Postcolonalism and Gender (1 panel)

               a. Gender and Postcolonialism: Uncovering Marginalized Voices

     6. Two panels exclusively on Philippines.

Proposals (with abstracts of 200 words maximum) must be submitted, starting 10 November 2015, via the online submission system: https://www.conftool.pro/paneuropean2016/

Instructions on how to submit proposals are available at http://www.paneuropeanconference.org/2016/spage.php?s=52

Please note that there will be a participation limit of three contributions per participant — whether as paper giver, roundtable speaker, or discussant/chair (any of these roles counts as one contribution).

The closing date for paper, panel, and roundtable proposals is midnight (CET) on Friday, 8 January 2016.

Unfortunately, we do not have financial support but we will write a letter of support for your application of conference and/or travel grants to your specified institution(s).

This is the first major conference of PhISO abroad. For inquiries, email us at conference@phiso.org.