CfP: Virtual workshop on „Subaltern Transnationalism“

This announcement is for a Call for Proposals to participate in an experimental virtual workshop on „Subaltern Transnationalism,“ which will take place February 26 – March 6, 2026.  

As explained in the attached PDF file, we will gather a small group of scholars to discuss ways in which „subaltern“ or historically marginalized people developed emancipative possibilities by envisioning themselves as belonging to worlds beyond their immediate locales.  Mindful of how the terms „subaltern“ and „transnationalism“ carry different meanings in different contexts, we hope that our call invites participants who work on relevant topics even if they do not typically resort to these terms to describe their research.

Scholarship on transnationalism/transregionalism often takes for granted a high degree of financial, social, educational, or political status among participants who can engage the international world reciprocally. In contrast, we view subaltern transnationalism as reflecting marginalized people’s own imagination, agency, and uses of international knowledge according to their limited resources in their local contexts. In these cases, such knowledge may be rooted in partial information, rumor, media fragments, religious networks, political propaganda, or localized interpretations of rhetoric and events from elsewhere, which subaltern groups use to develop social imaginaries that give them hope and new forms of self-understanding. Our anticipated historical scope for the workshop is colonial and early postcolonial periods, but we will consider proposals that speak directly to the theme in other historical periods.

To maximize engagement and feedback among participants, the workshop will have two parts. The asynchronous part will be facilitated through a private website hosting participants‘ shared materials February 26-March 5, 2025, followed soon after by a 2-hour group Zoom meeting that suits participants‘ availability and time zones.  Work in progress is welcome; a full paper is not required. 

Please see the attached PDF file for more details, including how to submit proposals before the January 24 deadline, and how to contact the organizers.

Source: Call For Proposals – virtual workshop on „Subaltern Transnationalism“, H-Net: Humanities & Social Sciences Online, licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 US.