De-Colonization in the 21st century
ACS Institute
Association for Cultural Studies
August 10 – 15, 2023
Venue: National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, Taiwan
Seminar / Roundtable / Workshop
The ACS Institute 2023 will discuss the question of decolonization in the 21st century. We face the drastic increase of international migration and stateless persons, the prolonged pandemic, extensive digital surveillance, the prevalence of extended platform economies, the precarity of temporary laborers on land and at sea, the environmental crisis, and climate change. Along with these developing conditions, the intensified social inequality worldwide also escalates.
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We encourage scholars and students of cultural studies to re-think the project of decolonization in the 21st century. Today, colonialism indicates the colonial matrix of uneven power relations interwoven with various local/geopolitical structural factors. Under the systemic structure of colonial power relations, a part of the community/population/city becomes a colony/subalternate space. The project of decolonization in the 21st century, first and foremost, is to identify and analyze the colonial power relation that engineers and reproduces the unequal social relations and environmental injustice, to disclose its historical formations, and to challenge the fixations of institutional and ideological exclusions. We invite interdisciplinary critical analysis and innovative artistic projects to engage with the regeneration and experimentation of alternative forms of creative decolonization.
Featuring Four Dimensions
Global Capitalism and Technologies of Governance
the transformation of global/local political economy and its impact on regional societies, the effects of China’s BRI, MSRI, and ARI on ASEAN, Central Asia, Africa and the global stage, logistical infrastructure, and technological governance, media empire, algorithmic automation, platform economy, digital surveillance, etc.
Marginalized Populations, Stateless Persons and Migrant Laborers
border politics, the exclusive regime of citizenship, ethnic minorities and indigenous people, religious minorities, sexual and gender minorities, xenophobia, mobility and immobility, migrant labor, statelessness, temporary dispatch workers, instant delivery service, modern slavery, etc.
Environmental Justice/Injustice
ecological crisis, climate change, land deprivation, indigenous rights, animal protection, multi-species voices, etc.
Social Engagement and Art Intervention
creative resistance through art, video, and music, new genre public art, screen documentary, alternative curation, sensory ethnography, documentary, participatory art, community solidarity, media ecology, media rights, filmmaking, exhibition, platform productions, virtual productions, software literacies, impact production, diaspora and migration. etc.
Keynote Speaker
Ranabir Samaddar
(Distinguished Chair, Migration and Forced Migration Studies, Calcutta Research Group, India)
Practical Ethics of Responsibility and Protection
Sandro Mezzadra
(Professor of Political Theory, Department of Arts, University of Bologna, Italy)
Reframing Internationalism: For a Politics of Freedom and Equality in an Age of War and Transition
Pun Ngai
(Chair Professor, Department of Cultural Studies, Lingnan University, Hong Kong)
Disrupting Digital Nomadism and Recharging New Class and Gendered Labor Subjects
Ruba Salih
(Professor, Department of the Arts, University of Bologna, Italy)
Decolonization in the 21st Century: Pitfalls and Promises
Tess Lea
(Head, Department of Community, Culture and Global Studies, University of British Columbia, Okanagan, Canada)
Policy Ghosts and Decolonisation in the 21st Century
Sponsored By
Higher Education SPROUT Project,
Ministry Of Education, Taiwan
National Yang Ming
Chiao Tung University, Taiwan
National Science And
Technology Council, Taiwan
Association For Cultural Studies
Consortium of Humanities Centers and Institutes
Organized By
International Center For Cultural Studies
National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taiwan
Institute For Culture And Society
Western Sydney University, Australia
Association For Cultural Studies
International Master’s Program In
Inter-Asia Cultural Studies
In Collaboration With
Calcutta Research Group, India
