Himadeep Muppidi, Vassar College

"The Colonial Signs of International Relations"

Thursday, October 16, 2008

11:40am - 1pm, 914 Gladfelter Hall (Weigley Room)

About his talk, Hima writes: In recent years, international relations theory and policy have been marked by a resurgence of colonial discourses with much talk about the need for a “new imperialism.” The central question my book explores is the seeming acceptability or the apparent absence of many taboos to colonial discourses in the field of international relations. Nearly 60 years after political decolonization, how is it possible for policy-makers, writers and scholars to discuss, without much controversy, the desirability of a “new imperialism” in mainstream fora? What about colonialism and imperialism makes them different from discourses about racism, sexism and Nazism? What makes “colonial talk” a question about power but not necessarily about the dignity or humanity of the colonized?

About the speaker: Himadeep Muppidi is Associate Professor of Political Science and serves on the steering committees of the programs in International Studies and Asian Studies. His research and teaching interests are in the areas of globalization, critical international relations, South Asian politics and postcolonial theory. Muppidi is the author of The Politics of the Global (University of Minnesota Press, 2004) and is currently completing his second book titled, "The Colonial Signs of International Relations."