Rethinking the colonisers: British colonial elites in the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries
1st June 2002
University of Warwick, England
Department of History
Renewed scholarly interest in the agents of European colonialism has been
provoked by changes in the way that we approach the study of the colonial
past. Recent interest in the complexity of relations between colonisers
and the colonised has helped to call previous assumptions about both
groups into question. The result of this has been that the colonisers,
who sought to control vast empires and who attempted to bring about the
domination and control of native populations, are no longer seen as having
been a homogenous or unified group. Recent work suggests that colonial
regimes and discourses were, in fact, replete with competing agendas and
strategies and were characterised by fissure, doubt and failure as well as
by single-minded self-confidence and success.
The conference will address British colonising elites of the eighteenth
and nineteenth centuries from the perspectives outlined above. It will
define such elites as the principle framers of colonial ideas, policies
and practices and will therefore include: administrators, including
governors, viceroys and civil servants; profit makers and capitalists,
including planters and entrepreneurs; military leaders; intellectuals; and
the leaders and organisers of missions.
The conference will encourage interdiscipliary approaches and its
principle aims will be to:
- Assess discord and fissure within and between different groups of colonisers, at particular times and in specific locales.
- Examine how localised contingencies affected the ways in which colonising groups interacted and operated.
- Consider the ways in which particular colonial projects changed over time.
- Investigate the divergent ways in which colonisers interfaced with the colonised and how this shaped different colonial experiences.
- Question the extent to which colonisers were able to control and change the lives of colonial subjects in the manner that they intended.
- Consider how different, localised encounters might be considered within the more general contexts of the discourses and practices of British colonialism in particular periods.
The one-day conference will host themed sessions, comprising of up to
three papers, along with keynote lectures and will conclude with an open
discussion. Proposals for papers of up to 25 minutes are invited on any
aspects of British colonising elites in either (or both) the eighteenth
and nineteenth centuries, particularly:
- Administrators.
- Capitalists and Entrepreneurs.
- 'Civilisers', (including prominent missionaries).
- Relations and encounters with native elite groups and populations.
- Interaction and debate between colonisers.
- Comparative studies.
Abstracts of 300 - 500 words should be sent by July 31 2001 to: Christer
Petley, Graduate Programme in History, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4
7AL, UK (Phone: 0779 0831 882 or e-mail: c.j.petley@warwick.ac.uk ).
Conference organiser: Christer Petley, Graduate Programme in History,
University of Warwick.
Conference advisers: Professor Gad Heuman, (University of Warwick), Dr
Cecily Jones (University of Warwick).
Christer Petley
Graduate Programme in History
University of Warwick
Coventry
CV4 7AL
0779 0831 882
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