Shifting Grounds

The Association for the Study of the New Literatures in English(ASNEL) held its twentieth annual conference at the University of Münsterbetween 21-24 May 2009 in Münster, Germany. The conference was coordinatedby Mark Stein, Silke Stroh, Marga Munkelt, and Markus Schmitz,all of whom are based at the University of Münster. Around 300 delegatesfrom thirty-five countries attended.This four-day conference featured three major keynote speakers, fourprominent authors, and 100 presenters whose abstracts had been selectedfromaround 300 submissions. This event explored translocation, an increasinglysignificant theme of postcolonial studies. The conference promoted acritical evaluation of postcolonial texts and media while investigating theirinstitutional academic contexts. The concept of “translocational identity” ispart of a new debate in postcolonial theory. From border regimes and bordercrossings to translocal space, from translocal food to cyber diasporas anddiasporic literature, participants sought to address major paradigms of postcolonialcritique ...