About us

History of Diaspolinks

The Diaspolinks project first started to materialise in October 2013 with a conference on the theme of 'The Place of Memory in Diasporic Cultures' at the University of Caen Normandy organised by Professor Françoise Král (Université Paris Nanterre) in association with the University of Edinburgh.

It soon became apparent that the comparative approach to anglophone and francophone fields of postcolonial studies which had been adopted helped map the specificities of diasporic trajectories but equally the differences underlying conceptions of national identity and identity politics as well as an understanding of citizenship in relation to the nation. The Diaspolinks project was then created to bring all these ideas together.

Our approach

Diaspolinks is an international Diasporic Studies network which seeks to promote research into migrant communities as well as the cultural productions of writers and artists from such communities.

The network brings together specialists in the fields of anglophone and francophone diasporas such as those of the Caribbean, Africa and South Asia. Its focus is unique in that it compares the various diasporic communities’ response to issues of identity, belonging and relocation within the specific contexts of British/French and Canadian immigration policies.

Diaspolinks is interdisciplinary and seeks to reconcile the methodologies of disciplines such as cultural studies, sociology, literary studies, and visual and performance arts. The network also has a specific focus on how diasporas reshape the outlines of the new international geography and interrogate the notion of citizenship.

Diasporic Trajectories Seminar Series

Over time, the interdisciplinary focus of the original 2013 University of Caen Normandy conference morphed into a more systematically comparative approach to postcolonial studies. It was subsequently followed by the 'Diasporic Trajectories' Seminar Series held at the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities at the University of Edinburgh from February 2015, and organised by Sam Coombes.

This series brought together leading specialists from both the francophone and the anglophone spheres, following the inaugural seminar which featured Charles Forsdick and Janet Wilson. It spanned a wide range of topics, such as:

• the lesser known history and contributions to artistic life of the Asian presence in Britain (Susheila Nasta)
• unrecorded narratives of Rwandan genocide stories (Nicki Hitchcott)
• the emerging field of transcultural adoption literature (John McLeod)
• Asian diasporas in the Southern hemisphere and in particular the Chinese diaspora in New Zealand (Michelle Keown)
• aspects of the Scottish diaspora to Canada through the prism of the work of Alice Munro (Heliane Ventura)

This series was followed by a second 'Diasporic Trajectories' seminar series in 2016, which similarly showcased a wide variety a topics in the field of Diasporic Studies, presented by recognised speakers with expertise in postcolonialism.