Multi-Directional Colonialism: Approaches to Studying Global Interactions

Colonial settings are marked by cultural exchange in many directions, yet studies of colonialism usually highlight the relationship between motherland and territory with a specific focus on the colonized. In this session, we explore colonial environments as settings for a multiplicity of cross-cultural interactions by presenting research on a range of geographical locations and periods. We aim to discuss the multi-directional nature of these social exchanges, in order to move beyond the static interpretive frame of colonizer and colonized. Participants will consider questions such as how changes in colonial territories rippled back to the motherland; the role of proximate, non-colonized cultures living on the edges of imperial activities; the multi-directional nature of material culture change; and how peoples connected to colonial exchanges developed new notions of heritage and identity. By discussing these themes from disparate eras and locations, we hope to add a new facet to the rich ongoing scholarship on colonial studies, and also demonstrate new modes of approaching the study of culture contact on a global scale.