Colonial Legacy Dialogues

For almost ten years, the Research Centre »Hamburg's (post-)colonial Legacy/Hamburg and (Early) Globalisation« has been researching the colonial history of the city of Hamburg, its global connections, and their traces in its urban landscape and collective memory. With this research agenda, it is the first and, so far, only academic institution of its kind in Europe. Its work shows that critical, postcolonial analyses and historical research can lend the necessary historical depth to current societal debates about the aftermath of colonialism and questions of decolonisation.

At the same time, Kampnagel’s diverse programme not only offers a stage for international and local artists from theatre, dance, performance, music, visual arts, and architecture, but also opens up spaces for important societal debates. Thus, it has become an avant-garde centre of critical decolonial interventions.

The intense debates underway about the legacy of colonialism now require dialogue, not only between academia and society, but also between Germany and the world, especially the former colonies. To this end, the Research Centre and Kampnagel are working together to establish a cooperative series in which scholars, activists and artists enter into conversation about the connections and effects of colonialism in Hamburg, Germany and the Global South.