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20-21 Nov 2025 Paris / Aubervilliers (France)
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Call for papers > Call for paper
Call for papersConference: Uses of the Past: Minority Experiences in Action in the Americas The Institut d’histoire du temps présent, IHTP, the Institut des hautes études de l’Amérique latine (IHEAL) and the Centre de recherche et de documentation sur les Amériques (CREDA), with the support of the Université Sorbonne Nouvelle and the Institut des Amériques IDA Thematic Network, Ethnoracial minorities and uses of the past in the Americas from the 19th to the 21st century.
Since the beginning of the 21st century, the Americas have been experiencing an extended period of remembrance particularly sensitive for those groups whose history has been marginalized. These communities are increasingly asserting their demands for recognition in the public sphere. Both the international response to Black Lives Matter (Taylor 2017), as well as the growing attention to the ecocides of Latin American indigenous lands (Machet, Larré and Ventura 2013) can testify to that. During this symposium, we wish to examine the many ways ethnoracial minorities have mobilized the past to challenge national narratives, assert their place within them, or write their own histories. Minority groups are perceived by members of the majority as being subordinate through two interconnected principles: quantity, which identifies different religious, ethnic or cultural traits, and social status, which consigns them to the margins of history, framing them within the memory of the defeated. Following Rogers Brubaker’s distinction on the notion of identity, the concept of minority operates as a “social and political practice” rather than a category of “social and political analysis” (Brubaker 2001, p. 69). While its origins lie in international law (Plésiat 2011), the notion remains notoriously fluid (Guillaumin 1985, p. 102). The United Nations continues to offer a fixed definition of minority identity which tends to essentialize it. This concept, however, primarily makes sense from a relational perspective (Guillaumin 1985). It is therefore crucial to consider "intersecting dynamics, multi-situated and multi-scaled affiliations" (Tartakowsky 2020, p. 8) in order to highlight power relations and processes of marginalization, which lead to differentiation and hierarchization, as proposed by Louis Wirth, one of the first to use the term "minority group" (Simon 2006; Wirth 1928, p. 127). Thus, to consider these groups, which exist only within social relations, the notion of domination is useful. It shifts the focus to power dynamics rather than identity issues (Policar 2020, p. 119). Similarly, in order to consider the relationship between individuals and their community, rather than in “terms of origin”, it is enlightening to think of it in “terms of will”, insofar as this allows us to emphasize the part played by choice (Guenancia 2017, p. 81). Despite its ambiguity, the term helps highlight the experience of groups relegated to the margins of history, away from the dominant narrative (Laithier & Vilmain 2008). European colonization subjugated Indigenous peoples, leading to their destruction, and forcibly deported Africans to enslave them— two deeply interconnected processes (Kolchin 1995; Rengifo Lozano 2007; Otele 2008; Cottias et al. 2012; Salamanca Villamizar and Ramos (eds.) 2023). Migration, first from Europe and later within the Americas, also played a key role in shaping minority groups. Yet, while the term "minority" suggests a subordinate status, it also implies inclusion within a national whole. At the same time, it can evoke a diasporic dimension, whether rooted in migration, a shared historical experience, or an imagined space where ideas circulate (Gilroy 1993; Manning 2009; Banerjee, McGuinness & McKay 2012). We propose a shift in perspective. Rather than adopting the dominant viewpoint, which revolves around domination and imposed identity, we focus on minority experience. This approach highlights the capacity of minorities to act (Wüstenberg 2020). The minority experience, through its implications - particularly in terms of symbolic violence and discrimination - elicits various responses, ranging from overt resistance to the desire for assimilation into a homogeneous national collective. This minority experience entails various uses of the past, enabling group perpetuation through the transmission of collective memory, while also serving as a response to imposed identity categorizations and their associated stigma. (Halbwachs 1950; Candau 1998; Araujo 2020; Lavabre 2000; Meringolo 2021; Gensburger et Wüstenberg 2023). Structured along various thematic axes that will guide presentation proposals, this symposium "Uses of the Past: Minority Experiences in Action" aims to facilitate dialogue between different research fields and disciplinary approaches. Forms of Use of the Past. Various manifestations may be examined, including images, literary and political writings, artworks, political interventions - such as monument removals (Landrieu 2018; Gill et Hunter 2021; Gensburger et Wustenberg 2021; Thompson 2022) - commemorations, and minority museum projects (Araujo 2016; Starzmann, Roby & Shackel 2016). Aware that otherness is founded in the way the other is exhibited (Illouz and Martinez 2018), memory entrepreneurs produce new representations, which they want to conform to their experiences (hooks 1992; Hall 1997), and which are sometimes partly drawn from a mythical past. Similarly, in efforts to overturn racial stigma, various theological narratives turn to imagined histories and origin stories (Dorman 2012; Gibson 2012; Weisenfeld 2016). Literature plays a role as well. Many works rewrite the American historical novel to restore erased minority voices—Toni Morrison, C Pam Zhang, Julie Otsuka, and Valeria Luiselli, among others. Literary controversies over memorial artworks, such as those surrounding Kara Walker, also merit attention. Language offers another crucial perspective. Studying vernacular languages such as Quechua, Guaraní, or Aymara allows for a deeper understanding of how the past is shaped in the present and reclaimed through language. Relations with the Majority and National Narrative. Do minorities contest and mock the hegemonic narrative or propose counter-narratives? Do they seek inclusion in the national narrative through "strategic mimicry" or maintain separate minority spaces (Peretz 2023)? "New iconoclasts" challenge national histories and monuments that symbolize colonial and discriminatory pasts and perpetuate racial stereotypes and minority marginalization (Chantiluke et al. 2018; Jerónimo et Rossa 2021; Célestine, Martin‑Breteau et Recoquillon 2022). Reparation demands reveal how different minority factions appropriate or reject these claims (Darity 2008; Araujo 2017; Bessone et. al. 2021). Relations with History as a Discipline and Mainstream Historiography. To begin with, Literature can offer means to search for an alternative narrative. Saidiya Hartman addresses the silences of the archival records of slavery, by resorting to what she calls "critical fabulation" to engage with this history. These uses of the past can be analyzed through their relationship with the majority, as well as with history as a discipline. Do they compete with the dominant narrative, or do they manage to fit into it? How do they relate to scientific methodology and the academic world? Do they claim a form of truth, or do they aim to construct a new "regime of truth," breaking away from a Western epistemology that is sometimes criticized (Quijano 2000; Foucault 2009; Mignolo 2012)?
Abstracts of approximately 500 words and a short CV should be sent to the organizers: raconterlesminorites@gmail.com before June 1st.
Organizing Committee
Scientific Committee
Références / References / ReferenciasAraujo Ana Lucia, 2020, Slavery in the Age of Memory: Engaging the Past, New York, Bloomsbury, 272 p. Araujo Ana Lucia, 2017, Reparations for Slavery and the Slave Trade: A Transnational and Comparative History, London ; New York, Bloomsbury Academic. Araujo Ana Lucia, 2016, Politics of Memory: Making Slavery Visible in the Public Space, Hoboken, Taylor & Francis. Banerjee Sukanya, McGuinness Aims et McKay Steven C, 2012, New Routes for Diaspora Studies, Bloomington, IN, Indiana University Press. Bessone Magali, Cottias Myriam, Mendes António de Almeida, Balguy Jessica, Célestine Audrey, Fitte-Duval Annie et Gordien Ary, 2021, Lexique des réparations de l’esclavage, Paris, France, Karthala, 145 p. Brubaker Rogers, 2001, « Au-delà de L’« identité » », Actes de la recherche en sciences sociales, 2001, vol. 139, no 1, p. 66‑85. Candau Joël, 1998, Mémoire et identité, Paris, Presses Universitaires de France, 244 p. Célestine Audrey, Martin‑Breteau Nicolas et Recoquillon Charlotte, 2022, « Introduction - Black Lives Matter : un mouvement transnational ? », Esclavages & Post-esclavages. Slaveries & Post-Slaveries, 19 mai 2022, no 6. Chantiluke Roseanne, Kwoba Brian, Nkopo Athinangamso, et Rhodes must fall movement, 2018, Rhodes Must Fall: The Struggle to Decolonise the Racist Heart of Empire, London, Zed Books Ltd. Cottias Myriam, Cunin Elisabeth, Mendes António de Almeida, Lovejoy Paul Ellsworth et Thioub Ibrahima, 2012, Les traites et les esclavages: perspectives historiques et contemporaines, Paris, Karthala : CIRESC. Darity William, 2008, « Forty Acres and a Mule in the 21st Century », Social Science Quarterly (Wiley-Blackwell), septembre 2008, vol. 89, no 3, p. 656‑664. Derrida Jacques, 1996, Le monolinguisme de l’autre ou la prothèse d’origine, Paris, Galilée, p. 116. Dorman Jacob S., 2012, Chosen People: The Rise of American Black Israelite Religions, New York, Oxford University Press. FLORES Luiz Felipe Baêta Neves, 1995, « Mémoires migrantes: Migration et idéologie de la mémoire sociale », Ethnologie française, vol. 25, n° 1, , p. 43‑50 Foucault Michel, 2009, Le courage de la vérité: le gouvernement de soi et des autres II : cours au Collège de France, 1983-1984, Paris, Seuil (coll. « Hautes études »), 351 p. Gensburger Sarah et Wüstenberg Jenny, 2023, Dé-commémoration quand le monde déboulonne des statues et renomme des rues, Paris, Fayard (coll. « Divers Histoire »), 448 p. Gensburger Sarah et Wustenberg Jenny, 2021, De-Commemoration. Making Sense of Contemporary Calls for Tearing Down Statues and Renaming Places, New York, Oxford, Berghahn Books. Gibson Dawn-Marie, 2012, A History of the Nation of Islam: Race, Islam, and the Quest for Freedom, Westport CT, Praeger, 258 p. Gill James et Hunter Howard, 2021, Tearing down the Lost Cause: The Removal of New Orleans’s Confederate Statues, Jackson, University Press of Mississippi. Gilroy Paul, 1993, The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness, Londres, Verso, 280 p. Guenancia Pierre, 2017, « Identité et cosmopolitisme », Raison présente, 2017, vol. 201, no 1, p. 75‑86. Guillaumin Colette, 1985, « Sur la notion de minorité », L’Homme et la société, 1985, vol. 77, no 1, p. 101‑109. Halbwachs Maurice, 1950, La mémoire collective, Paris, Presses Universitaires de France, 244 p. Hall Stuart, 1997, The Work of Presentation, s.l., (coll. « SM1034N »). Haut-Commissariat aux droits de l’homme, La notion de minorité : définition utilisée dans le cadre du mandat, https://www.ohchr.org/fr/special-procedures/sr-minority-issues/concept-minority-mandate-definition, consulté le 19 décembre 2024. Hooks Bell, 1992, Black Looks: Race and Representation, Boston, South End Press, 200 p. Illouz Charles et Martinez Françoise, 2018, Peuples en vitrine: une approche comparée du montrer/cacher, Rennes, Presses universitaires de Rennes, coll. « Enquêtes et documents (Centre de recherches en histoire internationale et atlantique », 234 p. Jerónimo Miguel Bandeira et Rossa Walter, 2021, Patrimónios contestados, Lisbonne, Público, 192 p. Kolchin Peter, 1995, American Slavery: 1619-1877, Londres, Penguin Books, 304 p. Laithier Stéphanie et Vilmain Vincent, 2008, L’histoire des minorités est-elle une histoire marginale ?, Paris, Presses de l’Université Paris-Sorbonne. Landrieu Mitch, 2018, In the Shadow of Statues: A White Southerner Confronts History, New York, Viking. Lavabre Marie-Claire, 2000, « Usages et mésusages de la notion de mémoire », Critique internationale, 2000, vol. 7, no 1, p. 48‑57. Machet Laurence, Larré Lionel et Ventura Antoine, 2013, « L’invention de l’indigène écologiste », ELOHI. Peuples indigènes et environnement, 2013, no 4. Manning Patrick, 2009, The African Diaspora: A History Through Culture, New York, Columbia University Press. Meringolo Denise D., 2021, Radical Roots: Public History and a Tradition of Social Justice Activism, Amherst, Mass., Amherst College Press. Mignolo Walter D., 2012, Local Histories / Global Designs: Coloniality, Subaltern Knowledges, and Border Thinking, Princeton, NJ, Princeton University Press, 416 p. Otele Olivette, 2008, L’histoire de l’esclavage transatlantique britannique: des origines de la traite transatlantique aux prémisses de la colonisation, Paris, M. Houdiard. Peretz Pauline, 2023, Figures présentes et passées de l’entre soi, https://www.ihtp.cnrs.fr/seminaires/figures-presentes-et-passees-de-lentre-soi/ , 2023, consulté le 26 novembre 2024. Plésiat Mathieu, 2011, « Introduction. Minorité nationale : évolution d’une notion et enjeux de définition » dans Minorités nationales en Europe centrale : démocratie, savoirs scientifiques et enjeux de représentation, Prague, CEFRES. Policar Alain, 2020, L’inquiétante familiarité de la race : décolonialisme, intersectionnalité et universalisme, Lormont, Le Bord de l’eau. Quijano Anibal, 2000, « Coloniality of Power and Social Classification », Journal of World Systems, 2000, vol. 6, no 2, p. 342‑386. Rengifo Lozano Bernardo, 2007, Naturaleza y etnocidio: relaciones de saber y poder en la conquista de América, 1a ed., Colombia, Tercer Mundo Editores, 277 p. Salamanca Villamizar Carlos et Ramos Alcida Rita (eds.), 2023, Genocidios indígenas en América Latina, Primera edición., Quito, Ecuador, Rosario, República, Argentina, Ediciones Abya-Yala ; UNR Editora (coll. « Espacio, políticas, sociedades colección »), 389 p. Simon Pierre-Jean, 2006, Pour une sociologie des relations interethniques et des minorités, Rennes, France, Presses universitaires de Rennes, 347 p. Starzmann Maria Theresia, Roby John R et Shackel Paul A, 2016, Excavating Memory: Sites of Remembering and Forgetting, Gainesville, FL, University Press of Florida. Tartakowsky Ewa, 2020, « Introduction », Matériaux pour l’histoire de notre temps, 2020, vol. 137138, no 3, p. 6‑9. Taylor Keeanga-Yamahtta, 2017, Black lives matter: le renouveau de la révolte noire américaine, Marseille, Agone, 405 p. Thompson Erin L., 2022, Smashing Statues: The Rise and Fall of America’s Public Monuments, New York, W.W. Norton and Company, 288 p. Weisenfeld Judith, 2016, New World a-Coming: Black Religion and Racial Identity During the Great Migration, New York, NYU Press. Wirth Louis, 1928, The Ghetto, Chicago, University of Chicago Press. Wüstenberg Jenny, 2020, Agency in Transnational Memory Politics, New York, Berghahn Books.
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