{ "142419-21890935": { "datetime_modified":"20260217T132250", "datetime_start":"20260218T120000", "datetime_end":"20260218T132000", "has_end_time":1, "date_start":"2026-02-18", "date_end":"2026-02-18", "time_start":"12:00:00", "time_end":"13:20:00", "time_zone":"America\/Detroit", "event_title":"CREES Noon Lecture. Nonalignment and Decolonial Imagination: Yugoslav Literary Encounters with the Global South", "occurrence_title":"", "combined_title":"CREES Noon Lecture. Nonalignment and Decolonial Imagination: Yugoslav Literary Encounters with the Global South: Nata\u0161a Kova\u010devi\u0107, Professor of English, Eastern Michigan University", "event_subtitle":"Nata\u0161a Kova\u010devi\u0107, Professor of English, Eastern Michigan University", "event_type":"Lecture \/ Discussion", "event_type_id":"13", "description":"Yugoslavia\u2019s pivot away from the Eastern Bloc and toward decolonizing countries in the Global South, which resulted in the founding of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in 1961, shaped, also, its literary and intellectual spheres. NAM catalyzed increasing translations of non-European literatures, lively literary exchanges with nonaligned countries, and critical scholarship that explored the relationship between literature, revolution, and decolonization. Yugoslav writers and journalists\u2014often former partisans\u2014reported on various movements of liberation in Africa and Asia, producing a range of \u201crevolutionary travelogues.\u201d Such travelogues aspired to undermine established Eurocentric frames of reference by denouncing colonial racism, foregrounding historically marginalized narratives, reflecting on the authors\u2019 own positioning and prejudice, and advancing decolonial historiography that staged newly independent nations through emancipated, revolutionary subjects. Concurrently, Yugoslav scholars, in conversation with thinkers from the Global South, made an early contribution to the development of global decolonial theoretical discourses, while also adapting their conceptual tools to Yugoslavia\u2019s position on the geopolitical semiperiphery. This talk will analyze this era\u2019s intertwining of literary and theoretical production with the politics of national liberation and propose that nonalignment, beyond its import for Yugoslav culture, can figure as a mode of reading decoloniality across Cold War divides.\n \n Nata\u0161a Kova\u010devi\u0107 is professor of postcolonial literature at Eastern Michigan University. Her research concerns the literature and cinema of migration to the European Union; global socialism; and anticolonial internationalisms during the Cold War. This talk draws on her most recent book, Nonaligned Imagination: Yugoslavia, the Global South, and Literary Solidarities Beyond the Cold War Blocs (Northwestern University Press, 2025), which reconstructs the literary and cultural history of the Non-Aligned Movement. She is also the author of Narrating Post\/Communism: Colonial Discourse and Europe\u2019s Borderline Civilization (Routledge, 2008) and Uncommon Alliances: Cultural Narratives of Migration in the New Europe (Edinburgh University Press, 2018). Her essays have appeared in leading journals, including Comparative Literature Studies, Modern Fiction Studies, Cultural Critique, Postcolonial Studies, and Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies.\n \nIf there is anything we can do to make this event accessible to you, please contact us at crees@umich.edu. Please be aware that advance notice is necessary as some accommodations may require more time for the university to arrange.", "occurrence_notes":null, "guid":"142419-21890935@events.umich.edu", "permalink":"http:\/\/events.umich.edu\/event\/142419", "building_id":"1000165", "building_name":"Weiser Hall", "campus_maps_id":"47", "room":"Room 555", "location_name":"Weiser Hall", "has_livestream":0, "cost":"", "tags":["yugoslavia","europe","eastern europe"], "website":"", "sponsors":[ { "group_name":"Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies", "group_id":"3097", "website":"http:\/\/www.ii.umich.edu\/crees" }, { "group_name":"Comparative Literature", "group_id":"1103", "website":"" }, { "group_name":"International Institute", "group_id":"1968", "website":"http:\/\/www.ii.umich.edu" }, { "group_name":"Weiser Center for Europe and Eurasia", "group_id":"3111", "website":"http:\/\/www.ii.umich.edu\/wcee" }, { "group_name":"Department of History", "group_id":"3470", "website":"" }, { "group_name":"Slavic Languages & Literatures", "group_id":"3700", "website":"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/umslavic\/" } ], "image_url":"https:\/\/events.umich.edu\/media\/attachments\/2025\/12\/event_142419_original-1.jpg", "styled_images":{ "event_thumb":"https:\/\/events.umich.edu\/media\/cache\/event_thumb\/media\/attachments\/2025\/12\/event_142419_original-1.jpg", "event_large":"https:\/\/events.umich.edu\/media\/cache\/event_large\/media\/attachments\/2025\/12\/event_142419_original-1.jpg", "event_large_2x":"https:\/\/events.umich.edu\/media\/cache\/event_large_2x\/media\/attachments\/2025\/12\/event_142419_original-1.jpg", "event_large_lightbox":"https:\/\/events.umich.edu\/media\/cache\/event_large_lightbox\/media\/attachments\/2025\/12\/event_142419_original-1.jpg", "group_thumb":"https:\/\/events.umich.edu\/media\/cache\/group_thumb\/media\/attachments\/2025\/12\/event_142419_original-1.jpg", "group_thumb_square":"https:\/\/events.umich.edu\/media\/cache\/group_thumb_square\/media\/attachments\/2025\/12\/event_142419_original-1.jpg", "group_large":"https:\/\/events.umich.edu\/media\/cache\/group_large\/media\/attachments\/2025\/12\/event_142419_original-1.jpg", "group_large_lightbox":"https:\/\/events.umich.edu\/media\/cache\/group_large_lightbox\/media\/attachments\/2025\/12\/event_142419_original-1.jpg", "event_large_crop":"https:\/\/events.umich.edu\/media\/cache\/event_large_crop\/media\/attachments\/2025\/12\/event_142419_original-1.jpg", "event_list":"https:\/\/events.umich.edu\/media\/cache\/event_list\/media\/attachments\/2025\/12\/event_142419_original-1.jpg", "event_list_2x":"https:\/\/events.umich.edu\/media\/cache\/event_list_2x\/media\/attachments\/2025\/12\/event_142419_original-1.jpg", "event_grid":"https:\/\/events.umich.edu\/media\/cache\/event_grid\/media\/attachments\/2025\/12\/event_142419_original-1.jpg", "event_grid_2x":"https:\/\/events.umich.edu\/media\/cache\/event_grid_2x\/media\/attachments\/2025\/12\/event_142419_original-1.jpg", "event_feature_large":"https:\/\/events.umich.edu\/media\/cache\/event_feature_large\/media\/attachments\/2025\/12\/event_142419_original-1.jpg", "event_feature_thumb":"https:\/\/events.umich.edu\/media\/cache\/event_feature_thumb\/media\/attachments\/2025\/12\/event_142419_original-1.jpg" }, "occurrence_count":1, "first_occurrence":21890935 } , "137882-21881025": { "datetime_modified":"20250904T085750", "datetime_start":"20260218T120000", "datetime_end":"20260218T130000", "has_end_time":1, "date_start":"2026-02-18", "date_end":"2026-02-18", "time_start":"12:00:00", "time_end":"13:00:00", "time_zone":"America\/Detroit", "event_title":"DAAS Faculty Forum", "occurrence_title":"", "combined_title":"DAAS Faculty Forum: DAAS@55", "event_subtitle":"DAAS@55", "event_type":"Lecture \/ Discussion", "event_type_id":"13", "description":"In the spirit of creating stronger departmental connections, DAAS is presenting a faculty forum in honor of DAAS's 55th anniversary. Members of the DAAS faculty will discuss their projects, research, and\/or publications to share more about their work and interests. The DAAS Faculty Forum will be held monthly on Wednesdays at noon.\r\n\r\nSeptember 17 - Stephen Ward, Associate Director of the Residential College; Arthur F Thurnau Professor; Associate Professor of Afroamerican and African Studies; Associate Professor in the Residential College\r\n\r\nOctober 22 - Magdalena Zaborowska, Chair and Professor of American Culture, Professor of Afroamerican and African Studies\r\n\r\nNovember 5 - Jessica Walker, Assistant Professor of Afroamerican and African Studies; Assistant Professor of American Culture\r\n\r\nDecember 3 - Al Young Jr., Associate Director of Center for Social Solutions; Arthur F Thurnau Professor; Edgar G. Epps Collegiate Professor of Sociology; Professor of Afroamerican and African studies; Professor of Public Policy\r\n\r\nJanuary 21- Aliyah Khan, Director of the Global Islamic Studies Center, International Institute; Associate Professor of English; Associate Professor of Afroamerican and African Studies\r\n\r\nFebruary 18 - Scott Ellsworth, Teaching Professor in Afroamerican and African Studies\r\n\r\nMarch 25 - Saraellen Strongman, Assistant Professor of Afroamerican and African Studies\r\n\r\nApril 8 - David Doris, Associate Professor of Afroamerican and African Studies; Associate Professor of African Art and Visual Culture", "occurrence_notes":null, "guid":"137882-21881025@events.umich.edu", "permalink":"http:\/\/events.umich.edu\/event\/137882", "building_id":"1000175", "building_name":"Haven Hall", "campus_maps_id":"542", "room":"4701 Haven Hall (DAAS Conference Room)", "location_name":"Haven Hall", "has_livestream":0, "cost":"", "tags":["africa","Sociology","Humanities","History","Caribbean","Blackness","Black America","Art","Afroamerican","African Studies","African Diaspora","african and afroamerican studies","african and african american studies","african american"], "website":"", "sponsors":[ { "group_name":"Department of Afroamerican and African Studies", "group_id":"1144", "website":"http:\/\/www.lsa.umich.edu\/daas\/" } ], "image_url":"", "styled_images":{ "event_thumb":"", "event_large":"", "event_large_2x":"", "event_large_lightbox":"", "group_thumb":"", "group_thumb_square":"", "group_large":"", "group_large_lightbox":"", "event_large_crop":"", "event_list":"", "event_list_2x":"", "event_grid":"", "event_grid_2x":"", "event_feature_large":"", "event_feature_thumb":"" }, "occurrence_count":8, "first_occurrence":21881020 } }