Colonial Knowledge, the ‘Third World’, and Countercultural Activism in the 1960s-70s

Admission requirements

This course is part of the (Res)MA History Programme. Students from within the specialization the course belongs to have right of way. It is not accessible for BA students.

Description

1. Course description:
   In this research seminar we will explore the forms, politics and practices of knowledge production in the 1960s-70s countercultural movement, gauge their role in the makings of the ‘Third World’, and seek to understand the colonial legacies therein. Although the Research Seminar focuses on Asia in the countercultural imagination, students are, for their research paper, welcome to select relevant cases relating to other regions.

The present-day student pro-Palestinian protests at University campuses, and ongoing discussion on decolonizing structures of knowledge in museums and academic institutions, resonate with idealist, reformist and radical activism, and anti-imperialism, of – what is referred to in historiography as – the global countercultural movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Yet there are also clear orientalist prejudices visible in the imaginations of Asia that served (spiritual, antiwar, new environmentalist) activism of the 1960s-1970s, both in Asia and in the West. How to study, and compare the role of (colonial) knowledge in present and past countercultural idealism? Where and how do we recognize colonial legacies? What are the continuities and discontinuities in structures and practices of knowledge? What was counterculture about, ‘here’, and ‘there’? We will study both the global dimensions of such politics of cultural knowledge production, consider sites-centred approaches, focus on exchange, and zoom in on small case-based local practices.

Starting point of the seminar, connecting to the relevant sites and themes, will be the hippie-trail, and the long term academic and ‘alternative’ knowledge networks that helped shaping it. The hippie-trail of the 1960s-1970s led a generation of youngsters – often to-be scholars of Asia– from the US, Europe and Australia, to a greater, spiritual Asia. An Asia they deemed better than the material and warmongering West – and an Asia that reached from Afghanistan and India, to Nepal, and downwards to Southeast Asia, and also Indonesia. This is the somewhat cliché picture of ‘one critical counter-cultural generation’ following that path to a spiritual Greater India, which dominates the general literature and memoires of the trail. It needs further scrutiny, from a more local, and interactive perspective of longer durée. What, for example are the legacies in academia today, as the trail has led quite a number of these youngsters of the 1970s into academic positions in study of Asian languages, culture or politics? What was the role of local actors in Asia, or elsewhere in ‘the Third World’, in shaping (knowledge) along the trail, and for what aims did they engage?

In the first 7-8 weeks we will read and discuss relevant literature and approaches in the field of postcolonial theory, heritage politics, orientalism and religion in Asia; and you will get familiarized with historiography on relevant themes (the hippietrail, ‘Asian Religions’, utopian communities, Environmentalism, Peace activism, or student movements); In week 4, we will identify and discuss sites, objects and archives of the counterculture, and their politics, at the Institute of Social History (ISSG) in Amsterdam (to be confirmed). From week 3-5, students, will select topics for further research, for their final paper, and engage with relevant literature and archives. Depending on the topic and case studies chosen, the aim is to provide insight into the forms and politics of knowledge, the role of exchange therein, to gauge what makes the phenomena under study countercultural, and to recognize the colonial dimensions therein. Individual presentations, based on work-in-progress, serve to finalize the paper.

Course objectives

General learning objectives

The student has acquired:

1. The ability to independently identify and select literature, using traditional and modern techniques;
2. The ability to independently identify and select sources, using traditional and modern techniques;
3. The ability to analyse and evaluate a corpus of sources with a view to addressing a particular historical problem;
4. The ability to analyse and evaluate literature with a view to addressing a particular historical problem;
5. The ability to independently formulate a clear and well-argued research question, taking into account the theory and method of the field and to reduce this question to accessible and manageable sub-questions;
6. The ability to independently set up and carry out an original research project that can make a contribution to existing scholarly debates;
7. The ability to give a clear and well-founded oral and written report on research results in correct English, when required, or Dutch, meeting the criteria of the discipline;
8. The ability to participate in current debates in the specialisation;
9. The ability to provide constructive feedback to and formulate criticism of the work of others and the ability to evaluate the value of such criticism and feedback on one’s own work and incorporate it;
10. (ResMA only:) The ability to participate in a discussion of the theoretical foundations of the discipline.

Learning objectives, pertaining to the specialisation

The student has acquired:

11. Thorough knowledge and comprehension of one of the specialisations or subtracks as well as of the historiography of the specialisation, focusing particularly on the following;
    -in the specialisation Colonial and Global History: how global (political, socio-economic, and cultural) connections interact with regional processes of identity and state formation; hence insight in cross-cultural processes (including the infrastructure of shipping and other modes of communication) that affect regions across the world such as imperialism, colonisation, islamisation, modernisation and globalisation (in particular during the period 1200-1940);
    -in the subtrack Postcolonial and Heritage Studies also: the history and politics of cultural knowledge production and heritage formation (including archives) in colonial and postcolonial situations, at local, transnational and global levels; insight into processes of cultural decolonization, questioning the nature, legacies and (dis-)connections of colonial power structures in present-day societies, regarding culture, heritage politics, Orientalism, museums, collecting etcetera. Understanding heritage in the broadest sense – including archives, museums, historical sites, objects, sites of memory, rituals – as the prism to study these problems.
12. Thorough knowledge and comprehension of the theoretical, conceptual and methodological aspects of the specialisation or subtrack in question, with a particular focus on the following:
    -in the specialisation Colonial and Global History: empirical research from a comparative and connective perspective;
    -in the subtrack Postcolonial and Heritage Studies also: on postcolonial theory, critical heritage studies, and history of science approaches.

Learning objectives, pertaining to this Research Seminar

The student has acquired:

13. knowledge and understanding of this particular field of colonial and postcolonial history, including processes of cultural decolonization.
14. insight into the value and limits of comparative, transnational and interdisciplinary approaches for historical research
15. the ability to work with a broad and mobile notion of knowledge, archives and heritage; to analyse, compare and relate forms of knowledge, and processes of heritage formation including archives at multiple locations; and to recognize, question, understand the role of multiple power relations and changing hierarchies, in knowledge production, and in the makings and uses of sites of heritage including archives.
16. to acquire new critical insight into alternative archival formations, heritage practices, and forms of knowledge, and knowledge exchange, developing in colonial and postcolonial situations, and into their uses for historical research.
17. to develop critical awareness of the problems and multi-sitedness of colonial and postcolonial history, and, thus, of the legacies of colonial histories in present-day societies – worldwide.
18. (ResMA only): The ability to set up and carry out original research that raises new questions, pioneers new approaches and/or points to new directions for future research.

Timetable

The timetables are available through MyTimetable.

Mode of instruction

• Seminar (compulsory attendance)
  This means that students must attend every session of the course. If a student is not able to attend, he is required to notify the lecturer beforehand. The teacher will determine if and how the missed session can be compensated by an additional assignment. If specific restrictions apply to a particular course, the lecturer will notify the students at the beginning of the semester. If a student does not comply with the aforementioned requirements, the student will be excluded from the seminar.

Assessment method

Assessment

• Written paper (5500-6000 words, based on research in primary sources, excluding title page, table of contents, footnotes and bibliography)
  measured learning objectives: 1-9, 11-16 (ResMA also: 10, 17, 18)

• Short, topic-oriented, historiographic paper (1500-2000 words)
  measured learning objectives: 1, 4-9, 11-12; 13-17

• Group presentation: to present and prepare discussions on the weekly literature
  measured learning objectives: 4,5, 8,9, 16-17 (Res MA 3-10)

• Individual presentation: presentation of first draft of final paper.
  measured learning objectives: 3-5, 7-9, 16-17 (Res MA 3-5; 7-10)

Weighing

• Written Final paper : 60%

• Short topic-oriented, historiographical paper: 20 %

• Group presentation 10 %

• Individual presentation 10 %

The final grade for the course is established by determining the weighted average with the additional requirement that the written paper must always be sufficient.

Deadlines

Assignments and written papers should be handed in within the deadline as provided in the relevant course outline on Brightspace.

Resit

Should the overall mark be unsatisfactory, the paper is to be revised after consultation with the instructor.

Inspection and feedback

How and when a review of the written paper will take place will be disclosed together with the publication of the results at the latest. If a student requests a review within 30 days after publication of the results, a review of the written paper will have to be organised.

Reading list

• The prequisite reading will be ca. 480 pages of literature, available at Leiden University Library (organized over the first 8 ‘thematic’ weeks).

• Students are also asked to watch relevant documentaries to be discussed in class (with related literature). Titles will be made available 2 weeks in advance of the course.

• Most of the prescribed texts are available online (via Leiden University Library Catalogue) unless mentioned otherwise. Texts that are not accessible online will be made available in time.

Registration

Enrolment through MyStudyMap is mandatory.

General information about course and exam enrolment is available on the website.

Contact

• For course related questions: Prof. dr Marieke Bloembergen, e-mail: Bloembergen@kitlv.nl
  by appointment only on Tuesdays or Monday-afternoons. E-mails will normally be answered on Tuesdays.

• For questions about enrolment, admission, etc, contact the Education Administration Office: Huizinga.

Remarks

None