Anthropology

Lecture on Postcolonial thought and social theory

Professor Julian Go

Friday April 15th  “Postcolonial Thought & Social Theory”

2:30 pm in 219 Dauer Hall.
Description: Postcolonial thought and social theory today stand in seeming opposition. Postcolonial thought emerges from anticolonial thought of the mid-twentieth century and now nestled within the academic humanities. Social Theory emerges from the culture of empires and is now settled in disciplines like Sociology, Political Science, International Relations, and Anthropology. Despite this seeming opposition, this talk considers some of the ways in which postcolonial thought and social theory share common ground and how they might fruitfully inform each other. 

Bio:

Julian Go is Professor of Sociology and Faculty Affiliate in Asian Studies and New England & American Studies at Boston University. His interdisciplinary work examines global social formations, empires, colonialism, postcolonial thought and social theory. His first sole authored book, American Empire and the Politics of Meaning: Elite Political Cultures in Puerto Rico and the Philippines under US Colonialism (Duke University Press, 2008), won the Mary Douglas Prize for Best Book from the American Sociological Association and was a Finalist for the Philippines National Book Award). His most recent book Patterns of Empire: the British and American Empires, 1688 to Present (Cambridge University Press, 2011), won prizes from the American Sociological Association, the American Political Science Association, the International Studies Association, and was one of Choice’s “Outstanding Academic Titles” in 2012.