STEP - Science and Technology in the European Periphery

Call for papers for RGS-IBG Annual Conference, Edinburgh, 3rd-5th July 2012:

Decolonisation, professionals and the geographies of expertise (sponsored by the Historical Geography Research Group)
Conveners: Dr Casper Andersen (University of Oxford/University of Aarhus) and Dr Ruth Craggs (St Mary’s University College)

Studies of decolonisation have predominantly focused on high politics. The process of decolonisation, however, also evolved changes at other levels including those that were the preserve of colonial professionals in fields such as law, medicine, education, engineering and the sciences. Following work on the geographies of expertise (Kuus) and colonial careering (Lambert and Lester), we invite papers that address connections between decolonisation, professional lives and expert knowledge in order to explore the complex and contested geographies of expertise in decolonisation.

We are interested in exploring the geographies, technologies, and practices of expertise in the decolonisation process. Central concerns may include changes and continuities in the role of expatriate professionals as colonial states became independent nation states; the influence of decolonisation on the position of professions in the (post)imperial ‘core’ in relation to education, careers, accredited institutions, and with respect to programmes and ideologies of development; the role of non-European experts and professionals in colonial and emerging nation states; comparisons between ‘geographies of expertise’ in different European empires during decolonisation; and the role of academic knowledge in decolonisation.

By exploring connections between different people, sites, practices and knowledges the panel will broaden understandings of the decolonisation process and contribute to wider debates about histories and geographies of expertise.

Please send abstracts of no more than 200 words to Ruth Craggs at ruth.craggs@smuc.ac.uk and Casper Andersen ideca@hum.au.dk by Friday 27th January.