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Uses of the Past: Minority Experiences in Action in the Americas

Usages du passé : Expériences minoritaires en actes dans les Amériques

Usos del pasado: experiencias minoritarias en actos en las Américas

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Abstract

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During this symposium, we wish to examine the many ways ethnoracial minorities have mobilized the past to challenge national narratives, assert their place within them, or write their own histories.

Announcement

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Workshop: Uses of the Past: Minority Experiences in Action in the Americas: Thursday, November 20, 2025, 2:00 pm to 6:30 pm - Friday, November 21, 2025, from 09:00 to 1:00pm.

Argument

Since the beginning of the 21st century, the Americas have been experiencing an extended period of remembrance particularly sensitive for those groups whose history has been marginalized. These communities are increasingly asserting their demands for recognition in the public sphere. Both the international response to Black Lives Matter (Taylor 2017), as well as the growing attention to the ecocides of Latin American indigenous lands (Machet, Larré and Ventura 2013) can testify to that.

During this symposium, we wish to examine the many ways ethnoracial minorities have mobilized the past to challenge national narratives, assert their place within them, or write their own histories. Minority groups are perceived by members of the majority as being subordinate through two interconnected principles: quantity, which identifies different religious, ethnic or cultural traits, and social status, which consigns them to the margins of history, framing them within the memory of the defeated. Following Rogers Brubaker’s distinction on the notion of identity, the concept of minority operates as a “social and political practice” rather than a category of “social and political analysis” (Brubaker 2001, p. 69). While its origins lie in international law (Plésiat 2011), the notion remains notoriously fluid (Guillaumin 1985, p. 102). The United Nations continues to offer a fixed definition of minority identity which tends to essentialize it. This concept, however, primarily makes sense from a relational perspective (Guillaumin 1985). It is therefore crucial to consider "intersecting dynamics, multi-situated and multi-scaled affiliations" (Tartakowsky 2020, p. 8) in order to highlight power relations and processes of marginalization, which lead to differentiation and hierarchization, as proposed by Louis Wirth, one of the first to use the term "minority group" (Simon 2006; Wirth 1928, p. 127). Thus, to consider these groups, which exist only within social relations, the notion of domination is useful. It shifts the focus to power dynamics rather than identity issues (Policar 2020, p. 119). Similarly, in order to consider the relationship between individuals and their community, rather than in “terms of origin”, it is enlightening to think of it in “terms of will”, insofar as this allows us to emphasize the part played by choice (Guenancia 2017, p. 81).

Despite its ambiguity, the term helps highlight the experience of groups relegated to the margins of history, away from the dominant narrative (Laithier & Vilmain 2008). European colonization subjugated Indigenous peoples, leading to their destruction, and forcibly deported Africans to enslave them— two deeply interconnected processes (Kolchin 1995; Rengifo Lozano 2007; Otele 2008; Cottias et al. 2012; Salamanca Villamizar and Ramos (eds.)  2023). Migration, first from Europe and later within the Americas, also played a key role in shaping minority groups. Yet, while the term "minority" suggests a subordinate status, it also implies inclusion within a national whole. At the same time, it can evoke a diasporic dimension, whether rooted in migration, a shared historical experience, or an imagined space where ideas circulate (Gilroy 1993; Manning 2009; Banerjee, McGuinness & McKay 2012).

We propose a shift in perspective. Rather than adopting the dominant viewpoint, which revolves around domination and imposed identity, we focus on minority experience. This approach highlights the capacity of minorities to act (Wüstenberg 2020). The minority experience, through its implications - particularly in terms of symbolic violence and discrimination - elicits various responses, ranging from overt resistance to the desire for assimilation into a homogeneous national collective. This minority experience entails various uses of the past, enabling group perpetuation through the transmission of collective memory, while also serving as a response to imposed identity categorizations and their associated stigma. (Halbwachs 1950; Candau 1998; Araujo 2020; Lavabre 2000; Meringolo 2021; Gensburger et Wüstenberg 2023).

Structured along various thematic axes that will guide presentation proposals, this symposium "Uses of the Past: Minority Experiences in Action" aims to facilitate dialogue between different research fields and disciplinary approaches.

Forms of Using the Past

Various manifestations may be examined, including images, literary and political writings, artworks, political interventions - such as monument removals (Landrieu 2018; Gill et Hunter 2021; Gensburger et Wustenberg 2021; Thompson 2022) - commemorations, and minority museum projects (Araujo 2016; Starzmann, Roby & Shackel 2016). Aware that otherness is founded in the way the other is exhibited (Illouz and Martinez 2018), memory entrepreneurs produce new representations, which they want to conform to their experiences (hooks 1992; Hall 1997), and which are sometimes partly drawn from a mythical past.

Similarly, in efforts to overturn racial stigma, various theological narratives turn to imagined histories and origin stories (Dorman 2012; Gibson 2012; Weisenfeld 2016). Literature plays a role as well. Many works rewrite the American historical novel to restore erased minority voices—Toni Morrison, C Pam Zhang, Julie Otsuka, and Valeria Luiselli, among others.

Literary controversies over memorial artworks, such as those surrounding Kara Walker, also merit attention. Language offers another crucial perspective. Studying vernacular languages such as Quechua, Guaraní, or Aymara allows for a deeper understanding of how the past is shaped in the present and reclaimed through language.

Relations with the Majority and National Narrative

Do minorities contest and mock the hegemonic narrative or propose counter-narratives? Do they seek inclusion in the national narrative through "strategic mimicry" or maintain separate minority spaces (Peretz 2023)? "New iconoclasts" challenge national histories and monuments that symbolize colonial and discriminatory pasts and perpetuate racial stereotypes and minority marginalization (Chantiluke et al. 2018; Jerónimo et Rossa 2021; Célestine, Martin‑Breteau et Recoquillon 2022). Reparation demands reveal how different minority factions appropriate or reject these claims (Darity 2008; Araujo 2017; Bessone et. al. 2021).

Relations with History as a Discipline and Mainstream Historiography

To begin with, Literature can offer means to search for an alternative narrative. Saidiya Hartman addresses the silences of the archival records of slavery, by resorting to what she calls "critical fabulation" to engage with this history. These uses of the past can be analyzed through their relationship with the majority, as well as with history as a discipline. Do they compete with the dominant narrative, or do they manage to fit into it? How do they relate to scientific methodology and the academic world? Do they claim a form of truth, or do they aim to construct a new "regime of truth," breaking away from a Western epistemology that is sometimes criticized (Quijano 2000; Foucault 2009; Mignolo 2012)?

Submission guidelines

Abstracts of approximately 500 words and a short CV should be sent to the organizers: raconterlesminorites@gmail.com,

before June 1st. 

Organizing Committee

  • Olivier Maheo, collaborateur de l’Institut d’histoire du temps présent, IHTP, UMR CNRS/Université Paris 8 
  • Dorothée Delacroix, Asociate profesor in anthropology, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, Institut des hautes études de l’Amérique latine (IHEAL), Centre de recherche et de documentation sur les Amériques (CREDA, UMR CNRS/USN 7227, UMR IRD 280)

Scientific Committee

  • Alvar De la Llosa, Professeur des universités, Langues et Civilisations Étrangères – Lyon 2
  • Símele Soares Rodrigues, Maîtresse de conférence, LARHRA, Lyon 3 Jean Moulin
  • Paola Domingo, Maîtresse de conférences IRIEC - Montpellier 3- Paul Valéry, 
  • Lawrence Aje, Maître de conférences, Université de la réunion
  • Pauline Peretz, IHTP, Université Paris 8 – CNRS ; Institut Universitaire de France
  • Jean-Paul Zuniga, Directeur d'études EHESS, Centre de recherches historiques UMR 8558
  • Rogerio Rosa, Professeur : Teoria e Metodologia da História, Universidade do Estado de Santa Catarina (UDESC)
  • Anne Stefani, Professeure, CAS- Université de Toulouse 2, Jean Jaurès
  • Ian Rocksborough-Smith, Professor, University of the Fraser Valley, Canada
  • Lionel Larré, Professeur des universités, CLIMAS – Bordeaux Montaigne
  • Camille Riverti, chargée de recherche, CREDA-CNRS
  • Romy Sanchez, Chargée de recherche, IRHIS – CNRS
  • Evelyne Ribert, Chargée de recherche, LAP – EHESS
  • Gabrielle Adjerad, Maîtresse de conférences, CHCSC – UVSQ
  • Baptiste Bonnefoy, Maître de conférences, Université de Paris Nanterre
  • Nadia Marzouk, Chargée de recherche, CERI-Sciences Po

Places

  • Campus Condorcet, Centre des colloques salle 3.01 - Centre des colloques, Place du Front populaire
    Aubervilliers, France (93)

Event attendance modalities

Hybrid event (on site and online)


Keywords

  • usage du passé, minorité, minorité ethnoraciale, mémoire, Amérique, contestation mémorielle, patrimoine, racisme, race, discrimination

Contact(s)

  • Olivier Maheo
    courriel : maheo [dot] prof [at] gmail [dot] com

License

CC-BY-4.0 This announcement is licensed under the terms of Creative Commons - Attribution 4.0 International - CC BY 4.0 .

To cite this announcement

Olivier Maheo, Dorothée Delacroix, « Uses of the Past: Minority Experiences in Action in the Americas », Call for papers, Calenda, Published on Friday, March 14, 2025, https://doi.org/10.58079/13h24

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