Centre for Colonial and Postcolonial Studies

About the centre

Established in 2000, the Centre for Colonial and Postcolonial Studies, directed by Dr Abigail Ward, is a cross-disciplinary centre which aims to encourage, focus and develop investigations into current and ongoing issues in colonial and postcolonial writing and theory.

The Centre consists of 12 members of staff from four disciplines (English, Communication, Culture and Media Studies, International Relations and Geography), and an administrator. Staff have a wide range of expertise in areas such as:

colonial travel writing and imperial adventure fiction
contemporary postcolonial writing
postcolonial theory
film studies
the intersection between theories of gender, race and nationhood.

Members of the Centre research and write about:

renaissance travel drama
visual representations of slavery
race, ethnicity and the popular Enlightenment
south African and South Asian literatures
African, Caribbean and Black British writing
technologies and migrancy
writing and films by and about immigrant groups
theories of diaspora
national and transnational identities and globalization.

Members of the Centre welcome applications from students interested in pursuing postgraduate research at Masters or PhD levels.

Publications

As a part of its commitment to the revival of key anti- or post-colonial texts, the Centre (in conjunction with Trent Editions) aims to bring out significant and currently out-of-print texts. So far, four volumes have been published:

Mabel Dove, Selected Writings of a West African Feminist, ed. Stephanie Newell and Audrey Gadzekpo (2004) Cornelia Sorabji, India Calling, ed. Elleke Boehmer and Naella Grew (2004)
Shoshee Chunder Dutt, Selections from Bengaliana, ed. Alex Tickell (2005)
Alex La Guma, A Walk in the Night, ed. Nahem Yousaf (2006).

Centre activities

The Centre for Colonial and Postcolonial Studies regularly hosts conferences, symposia and, in conjunction with the English research seminar, visiting speakers. Recent events held by the Centre for Colonial and Postcolonial Studies include: New South Africa: Reading, Writing, Resistance (supported by the Journal of Southern African Studies); States of Liberation and The Postcolonial State: Decolonization and After (both in association with Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies).

Research and postgraduate study

Members of the Centre for Colonial and Postcolonial Studies members supervise postgraduate students on topics including: