Petteruti Lounge, Stephen Robert '62 Center
Please join us for a critical discussion of the book "Postcolonial Thought and Social Theory" with Brown University scholars and the author, Julian Go, Professor of Sociology, Boston University.
Social scientists have long resisted the radical ideas known as postcolonial thought, while postcolonial scholars have critiqued the social sciences for their Euro-centric focus. However, in "Postcolonial Thought and Social Theory", Julian Go attempts to reconcile the two seemingly contradictory fields by crafting a postcolonial social science. Contrary to claims that social science is incompatible with postcolonial thought, this book argues that the two are mutually beneficial, drawing upon the works of thinkers such as Franz Fanon, Amilcar Cabral, Edward Said, Homi Bhabha, and Gayatri Spivak. Go concludes with a call for a "third wave" of postcolonial thought emerging from social science and surmounting the narrow confines of disciplinary boundaries.
- Free and open to the public. Book signing to follow.
- This event is part of a year-long series of talks and workshops entitled “Critical Sociologies of Race and Empire,” developed by a group of faculty and students in Sociology and American Studies. This series will explore new sociological work on race and empire from critical perspectives such as postcolonial and Du Boisian sociology.
- A CSREA Faculty Grant Event. Cosponsored by the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, Department of Sociology, Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice, and the Department of Anthropology.
| Julian Go is Professor of Sociology at Boston University. Previously he was an Academy Scholar at the Academy for International and Area Studies of Harvard University. At BU, he is also a Faculty Affiliate in Asian Studies and the American Studies/New England Studies program. He has been a visiting scholar at the London School of Economics and Political Science, the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, Lucerne University in Switzerland, and the Third World Studies Center at the University of the Philippines. He is former elected member of the Council and most recently Chair (2012-13) of the Comparative-Historical Sociology Section of the American Sociological Association. He is currently an elected council member of the Global & Transnational Sociology Section of the American Sociological Association. He is on the editorial boards of the journals Social Science History and the American Journal of Cultural Sociology. Julian is also the editor of Political Power and Social Theory. He received his B.A. in Sociology & Political Science from the University of Michigan (1992), his M.A. in sociology from the University of Chicago (1995) and Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Chicago (2000). Julian has won the Wisneski Teaching Award for the College of Arts and Sciences at Boston University and the Templeton Award for Excellence in Student Advising. |