Unsilencing the Past: Historical Sociology Beyond the "Savage Slot" Part 2

Thursday, 10 July 2025: 09:00-10:45
Location: SJES029 (Faculty of Legal, Economic, and Social Sciences (JES))
RC56 Historical Sociology (host committee)
RC05 Racism, Nationalism, Indigeneity and Ethnicity

Language: English

This session delves into the enduring relevance and transformative potential of Michel-Rolph Trouillot’s work in shaping sociological and anthropological research, coinciding with the 30th anniversary of his seminal book, “Silencing The Past: Power and the Production of History.” Emphasizing the importance of interrogating the silences within historical narratives and the power dynamics that shape them, Trouillot provided a critical framework for understanding how dominant narratives often erase the voices and experiences of marginalized groups relegated to the “savage slot,” perpetuating inequalities and distortions in historical representation.

Thinking with Trouillot, this session explores how his work continues to inform and enrich sociological research across diverse thematic and geographical contexts. Papers presented in this session will examine various aspects of Trouillot’s legacy, from his analysis of colonialism and enslavement to his conceptualization of historical consciousness and the politics of memory. By critically engaging with Trouillot’s ideas, contributors will illuminate new pathways for uncovering silenced histories, amplifying marginalized voices, and challenging entrenched power structures.

Welcoming theoretical reflections and empirical findings, this session endeavors to reinvigorate Trouillot’s call to “unsilence” the past, to expand the notion of the archive, and to inspire transformative approaches to sociological inquiry. By confronting the complexities of historical representation and reckoning with the legacies of oppression and resistance, this session aims to contribute to the ongoing project of achieving global social justice and engaging in multidirectional memory work.

Session Organizers:
Fabio SANTOS, University of Copenhagen, Denmark, Manuela BOATCA, University of Freiburg, Germany and Ricarda HAMMER, UC Berkeley, USA
Oral Presentations
Un/Silencing the ‘Undesirables’: The Politics of Remembering and Forgetting the Forcibly Deported Chinese Immigrants in Imperial Britain
Siying WU, United Kingdom
Placing Memories: Which Histories Are (De-)Thematized at Memory Sites in Ghana and Brazil?
Eva BAHL, Ruhr University Bochum, Germany
Always Here: Documenting the Invisible History of Indigenous Peoples on the Avalon
Dr. Rochelle COTE, PhD, Memorial University, Canada; Dr. Matt MILNER, Memorial University, Canada
Unsilencing Indigenous Knowledge: Decolonial Challenges to Sociological Knowledge Production through Indigenous Universities.
Vincent KRETSCHMER CALDERÓN, University of Vienna, Mexico
Italian Humanism and Its Frontier: Anti-Arabism, Epistemic Dispossession, and the Making of Westernness in Petrarch (Francesco Petrarca)
Maurizio MELONI, Australia
See more of: RC56 Historical Sociology
See more of: RC05 Racism, Nationalism, Indigeneity and Ethnicity
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