MC: David Simo: Postcolonial perspectives on Europe: the case of the cultural memory construction

As Michael Rothberg points out in his text Remembering back: Cultural memory, colonial legacies and postcolonial Studies, postcolonial scholars have not generally pay attention to the aspect that the forms and functions of memory construction deserve. The aim of the proposed Master class is twofold: Firstly and foremost, it is designed to provide doctoral students with methodical and theoretical approaches for working with and beyond postcolonialism from the perspective of a (non) European scholar. Secondly, it intends to discuss the paradoxical relation between postcolonialism and memory quoted by Michael Rothberg by giving an overview of the recent developments in the postcolonial approaches in relation with the processes of the cultural memory construction in the global context. Above all, it seeks to answer the following questions: In what ways can cultural memory be best understood within the tense relationship of universalism and particularism? How did postcolonial approaches deal with the question of the components and functions of the cultural memory? What are the borders and possibilities of a cultural memory that is characterised by postcolonial background? In what ways can the borders and possibilities enhance and enrich the methodical and theoretical background of doctoral students at the GCSC?

// Prof. David Simo from the University of Yaoundé I in Cameroon is an internationally established postcolonial oriented scholar. He works in the field of German studies, cutural studies and political sciences. His field of research is among other things: cultural identy, postcolonial representations of Africa, interculturality, migration and postcolonial memory, literature and cultural Theories, German modern literature, comparative literature, historical Ideas, Methods of cultural Studies, Research Methodology, Postcolonial and post modem Theories, intercultural Communications.

Member of several international associations, David Simo is a holder of several awards. In 2003, as worth Knight’s Order (Cameroon) and in 2008 with the Reimar-Lüst prize given by the Alexander von Humboldt Institution. In 2014, he has been awarded with the Knight medal of Order of the Ivory-Coast’s Republic and with the Cross officer of worth order of the German Republic.