Workshop: Writing about Labour from Colonial Archives

The archive as a mediated space poses a challenge for every academic who enters it in order to understand the many material elements that document history. What happens when the archive in question is colonial? The problem of being able to “read” an archive is considerably more complex when we are confronted by its coloniality that not only structures the information we have access to but also the language in which the information is curated and created. In this workshop with Vidhya Raveendranathan (Humboldt Universität zu Berlin) and Dr. Nitin Varma (Bonn Centre for Dependency and Slavery Studies), we will work with the “field notes” of historians who are writing about labour in the colonial archive. How can we understand history from a life story? How does law permeate into the daily lives of people?

Open to advanced Masters students, doctoral candidates, and postdocs this workshop will focus upon the academic methodology of writing about disenfranchised labour and will explore how imperial legislation has shaped the way we imagine labour. Readings and other material will be sent by email ahead of the workshop.

Interested participants may register by sending an email to Priyam Goswami Choudhury goswamichoudhuryuuni-potsdampde with the subject “Labour Workshop” by December 2nd to receive the readings.

Haus 1, Am Neuen Palais, 14469 Potsdam

 09.12.2025 (Tuesday) 14:00-17:00