Date:

Thursday (!), 30 January 2025, 16:15-17:45 (in person)

Venue:

FU Berlin, FMI, Room A336, Koserstr. 20, 14195 Berlin

About:

Onur Erdur is a historian, working as Assistant Professor at the Institute for Cultural Studies at Humboldt-Universität since 2017, and currently serving as a substitute/guest professor of “Kulturgeschichte” . Research topics: Global Intellectual History and Migration History.

In his presentation, Onur Erdur explores the colonial roots of "French Theory", emphasizing its emergence not only in the intellectual circles of Paris but also in the broader context of France’s decolonization process. "French Theory", particularly as developed by key thinkers such as Pierre Bourdieu, Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, and Hélène Cixous, was profoundly shaped by their direct or indirect experiences with colonialism, particularly in Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia. Erdur argues that the intellectual foundations of this movement were closely tied to the traumas and contradictions of colonial and postcolonial realities. By examining the interplay between lived colonial experiences and theoretical innovation, the presentation highlights how French Theory challenged Eurocentric paradigms and introduced new ways of thinking about identity, difference, and language. It also revisits key biographical moments when these intellectuals confronted the political and moral dilemmas of their time, showing that their works were deeply informed by the colonial contexts in which they lived and worked.

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