The next lecture in our series Representations of Colonization and De-Colonization will be by Dr. Asha Jeffers, Assistant Professor, Department of English & Gender and Women’s Studies, Dalhousie University.
Drawing from art, museology, literature, science and philosophy, the series features lectures by leading international authorities exploring the exploitation, erasure, and systemic marginalization of Indigenous and Black peoples and their culture in Canada and abroad.
This series will explore topics such as: indigenous-settler relations, slavery in the north, decolonializing museums, indigenous knowledge in anti-colonial contexts, and intersections between slavery and colonial violence against the Mi’kmaq and African Nova Scotians in the Atlantic provinces.
Join us on Tuesday, March 28th, 2023 for Dr. Jeffers’ lecture titled: “Representation of De-Colonization at a Generation Removed.”
This lecture traces the ways that the children of those who have experienced decolonization in various forms come to understand and explore the process in art and literature. Whether through war, protest, passive resistance, or a combination of these approaches, global processes of decolonization are tumultuous, complex, and have profound effect on those who live through them. The people who live through them react to these intense experiences in a variety of ways, including through silence. The children of these survivors, former revolutionaries, and ambivalent ex-colonials often desire to know and to understand their parents’ past, even those parts of it their parents are reluctant to share. Drawing on Marianne Hirsch’s theory of postmemory, this lecture demonstrates the creative ways that these descendants engage with these complicated pasts through cultural production, including poetry, prose, film, and visual art, with and without the participation of their parents.
