Séminaire « Empire after Empire » - ‘The end of Britain after empire’ - vendredi 14 février 2014, 14h-16h, Université Paris Ouest Nanterre

Séminaire « Empire after Empire »

Observatoire de l’Aire Britannique (EA370 C.R.E.A. Paris Ouest Nanterre la Défense)
Nous aurons le plaisir d'écouter
Stuart WARD (Université de Copenhague)


‘The end of Britain after empire’


Le vendredi 14 février 2014 de 14h à 16h
Université Paris Ouest Nanterre, Bâtiment V, salle R14 (rez-de-chaussée)


Entrée libre dans la limite des places disponibles

Synopsis of the seminar
This lecture considers the long-standing habit of attributing Britain’s contemporary social and political ills to some species of “post-imperial” malaise. This can be traced back to the early 1960s, but continues to emerge in times of social turmoil or international adversity. In particular, it will examine the widely presumed link between imperial decline and the diminishing political cohesion of the Union, beginning with the early successes of political separatism in Scotland and Wales in the 1960s and accelerating with the onset of devolution in the late 1990s. Two key characteristics of this mind-set will be subjected to critical scrutiny. First, the conspicuous absence of any kind of empirical study that might demonstrate the dynamics of decolonization’s corrosive effects on political and social cohesion in the UK. And second, the (equally) conspicuous absence of any informed grasp of the imperial context among the many voices pointing to its crucial role in ushering ‘Britain’ out of business. Commentary on the “break-up of Britain” has always been a “little Britain” enterprise, with little or no direct input from the allegedly formative experience of the end of empire. Yet viewed through a post-imperial lens, the idea of “the end of Britain” takes on a far broader, indeed global dimension, echoing over more than a century throughout the many communities around the world who had once laid claim to some semblance of ‘being British’. Indeed, the very perception of Britain-in-decline has its origins in the colonial world, and a far richer, deeper history than the conventional devolutionary narrative has ever allowed. This lecture sets out to chart the global history of the “end of Britain”



Speaker
Professor Stuart Ward is specialising in European imperial history and the settler-colonies of the British empire. He has an honours degree in history from the University of Queensland, a PhD from the University of Sydney, and has held previous posts at the European University Institute (1991-4), Odense University (1997-2000), and the Menzies Centre for Australian Studies, King's College London (2001-3). In 2008-9 he was the Keith Cameron Chair of Australian History at University College Dublin. He has also held visiting fellowships at the Australian Defence Force Academy in Canberra and the University of Greenland in Nuuk. He divides his research time between the political and cultural impact of imperialism and decolonisation in post-WWII Europe, and the legacies of empire in Britain's former settler colonies, with a particular emphasis on Australia. He has been based in Copenhagen since 2003, and in 2008 was awarded the University of Copenhagen annual prize for teaching: Årets Harald. His major publications include Australia and the British Embrace: The Demise of the Imperial Ideal (Melbourne, 2001); British Culture and the End of Empire (ed., Manchester, 2001), Post-Imperial Australia (ed. with Graeme Davison, 2005); Australia's Empire (ed. with Deryck Schreuder, Oxford, 2008) and The Unknown Nation: Australia After Empire (with James Curran, Melbourne 2010). (from http://australianstudies.ku.dk/staff/stuart_ward/)

_______________________________________________




Détails et calendrier des séances consultables surhttp://anglais.u-paris10.fr/spip.php?article2055


Contacts :
Bernard Cros : bernardcros@u-paris10.fr
Daniel Foliard : daniel.foliard@gmail.com