Research groups

PostCit

PostCit - Thinking postcolonial and racial difference (formerly POST IT)

PostCit offers transdisciplinary reflections on topics related to alterity, “race”, and postcolonialism, with a focus on perspectives from postcolonial studies, critical race and whiteness studies, subaltern studies, and ethnic and racial studies. This group was co-founded in 2008 by Manuela Honegger and Noémi Michel. It came out of a desire to become more familiarized with these critical perspectives through collective discussion.

Born in anglophone universities in the early 1980s, these perspectives entail critical reflections on modernity and power relations. They explore the complex formation, stabilization, and persistence of colonial practices and the idea of “race”. They urge us to “think postcolonial and racial difference” with the goal of reconceptualizing key elements in the human and social sciences, including citizenship, identities, cultural and political representations, exclusion, migration, and even democracy.

PostCit contributes to the production and dissemination of academic and public knowledge around these issues and intellectual currents that have been garnering growing attention in Switzerland and Europe in recent years. Through a mailing list, conferences, workshops, and public meetings, PostCit promotes exchanges between doctoral students, researchers, artists, and all those interested in the intersections on the primary disciplines of the humanities and social sciences (political science, sociology, anthropology, history, philosophy, literature, and film studies).

PostCit pursues the following activities:

  • Discussion of participants’ research projects. Members can present and debate their current research as well as their artistic and political activities.
  • Discussion of texts and other materials produced by  critical approaches to “race” and postcoloniality. These are organized into three categories: “foundations”, “references”, and “deployments” in contemporary research. The discussion of these texts and materials aim to foster debates on ideas and to create connections to the projects of each participant.
  • Collective viewing and discussion of films and other visual materials related to “race” and postcoloniality.This viewing program, called “C-IT”, is organized around three themes: visual anthropology and decolonization; colonial, postcolonial, and racial differences in cinema; and self-narration and representation of groups and individuals marked by differences.
  • Scientific, artistic, and political interventions in the broader community. PostCit disseminates its reflections by organizing public events such as the presentation of publications, and by participating collectively or via its members in roundtables, workshops, conferences, and public debates.
  • The exchange of information between its members through the mailing list: thinfo(at)lists.idash.org.

Contact:

To join the group, stay informed about its activities, or subscribe to the mailing list, please contact the PostCIt coordinator Noémi MICHEL, noemi.michel(at)unige.ch. For all information about the viewing program, please contact C-IT coordinators Mélanie PETREMONT, Melanie.Petremont(at)unige.ch , and Jacob LACHAT, jacob.lachat(at)unil.ch.