The Possibility of Friendship

This symposium honours Concurrences founder and LNU Professor of History Gunlög Fur on the occasion of her retirement, and is dedicated to the exploration of friendship under conditions of colonialism and postcoloniality, and to reflecting on friendship as a potentially anti- or decolonial practice.

Friendships between strangers threaten a community that bases its notion of affiliation on likeness, such that, through courageous choices, friendships may challenge the structures of a society that systematically keeps people apart based on race and culture. As Leela Gandhi has phrased it, the risky friendship of strangers could hold an anti-colonial possibility, that while it does not offer self-determination to oppressed peoples, can ‘alter the genetic structure’ of the societies in which they occur, ’subtly varying for future use their ethical, epistemic, and political composition.’

Many societies around the world have practices of welcoming strangers, practices that emphasize the mutuality and obligations of friendship. In what ways to cultural stories and experiences of cultural encounters bring instruction on how to build bridges, how to incorporate strangers, and how to reconcile differences?

The symposium will be held in English. 

Please register if you want to participate via Zoom. 

Linnaeus University Centre for Concurrences in Colonial and Postcolonial Studies