The Global Decolonization Workshop (GDW) is a new collaboration between the School of Advanced Study, University of London and the Department of History, New York University. It seeks to forge a global forum for knowledge exchange in the interdisciplinary field of decolonization studies. The theme of the University of London in Paris (ULIP) workshop of the GDW on 6-7 July is ‘Concepts and Connections.’ The fields of decolonization and postcolonial studies have hitherto been defined by a focus on the post-war dissolution of the modern empires of France and Britain. Consequently, the Cold War ‘last wave’ in Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean has been privileged. Meanwhile, the earlier, ‘first and second waves’ of decolonization in the Americas, Eastern and Southern Europe, Russia, and parts of the Middle East play little, if any role in most general historical accounts of decolonization. A symposium held at the University of London in March, 2015, however, has confirmed Latin America’s vanguard role in the global history of decolonization. The July Paris meeting of the GDW will explore and debate the connections among and key concepts animating the three waves of decolonization.

We seek papers that address any of the following:
- Key concepts of independence and decolonization movements
- Intellectual history of independence and decolonization leaders
- Connections among empires before decolonization
- History of inter-imperial and anti-colonial warfare
- Connections between global, imperial and local political concepts
- Historical narratives of decolonization in the various ‘waves’
- Translation and traffic in colonial and anti-colonial discourses
- Archival sources of decolonization studies
- Memory of colonialism and decolonization (monuments, museums, etc.)

Please submit a 200-word abstract, paper title, and one-page biographical note to Professor Philip Murphy (philip.murphy@sas.ac.uk) or Dr. Mark Thurner (mark.thurner@sas.ac.uk) by 5 May 2017.