Symposium, “Histories of the Present: Postimperial Asia in the World”

Photo of Histories of the Present: Postimperial Asia in the World symposium poster

Title

Histories of the Present: Postimperial Asia in the World

Description

This symposium examined the persistence of imperial formations in the wake of World War Two and the wave of decolonization in Asia—a regional structure that we are calling “postimperial Asia”. Decolonization brought about one set of transformations for former colonies, and another for former empires. These processes were linked through the intellectual, geo-political, and economic structures that mediated decolonization. Decolonization triggered waves of migrations between first, second, and third worlds; it redrew political maps and alliance structures; it also maintained forms of dominance and reconstituted informal empires.

Panels

Session One: 10:00am-12:30pm
“Beyond Cold War Asia”
Wendy Matsumura, UCSD
Kim Brandt, Columbia University
Amy Borovoy, Princeton University
Charles Kim, UW-Madison
Hieyoon Kim, UW-Madison

Session Two: 2:00-4:30pm
“Beyond the Postcolonial Turn”
Yukiko Koga, Hunter College
Louise Young, UW-Madison
Hiromi Mizuno, University of Minnesota
Patrick Iber, UW-Madison