Papers that discuss the category of 'Labour' within Postcolonial Studies are invited for the postgraduate conference "Postcolonialism and Labour" in Chemnitz on th 26-27 March 2011.

Historically speaking, given its Marxist affiliations and the tropes of eurocentrism in universalising 'Labour' as a normative category against the local and particular, Postcolonial Studies has not engaged critically with the notion of 'Labour'.

However, the concept is now gaining purchase in the field owing largely to globalisation, international division of labour, immigration and the radical restructuring of work and professions both within and outside the West.

Yet, despite these recent developments, Postcolonial Studies can be criticised for effectively abandoning the economic essence of cultures by ceaselessly reworking 'difference', 'hybridity' and 'disjunctures' as the cultural markers of historical and persisting inequalities.

In the last twenty-five years we have witnessed the emergence of a wide range of literary and filmic productions that reconfigure the notion of 'Labour', including Hanif Kureishi's My Beautiful Laundrette (1985), J. M. Coetzee's Disgrace (1999), Monica Ali's Brick Lane (2003), Stephen Frears's Dirty Pretty Things (2003), Hari Kunzru's Transmission (2004), Mohsin Hamid's The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2007) and Aravind Adiga's White Tiger (2008).

This conference seeks papers that address, but are not limited to, the following questions:

• How, and in what ways, can the concept of 'Labour' be redressed from a culturally contingent perspective (as opposed to totalising Marxist approaches)?
• How does the recent surge of immigrant and diasporic literature and film reflect the workings of 'Labour' in their narratives?
• In light of globalisation – the increasing global division of labour, shifts and uncertainties of financial markets – is there a need for Postcolonial Studies to embrace the Marxist concepts of labour without categorically abandoning its culturalist project?

Papers are invited from postgraduates working in the disciplines of literature, history, cultural studies, sociology, film and media studies, human geography, linguistics, politics, religious studies and communication among others. Proposals reflecting an interdisciplinary approach are particularly welcome. Some suggested themes are:

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