Global Youth Cultures
Our first event for the Radical Distrust project, the Global Youth Cultures conference, was held at the University of Kent on October 24-25 2009 and brought together academics, writers and spoken word artists to discuss youth cultures in a postcolonial context. By combining theoretical papers and performances, we hoped that the conference would serve to introduce academic faculty to contemporary youth culture, and vice versa, in an accessible environment.
The event was comprised of one day of academic discussion and readings, and a second day of musical and dramatic performances.
Day one
There were three keynote lectures on various aspects of global youth cultures. Radical Distrust partner Nadia El-Kholy of Cairo University spoke about how youth culture operates as a form of resistance to the curtailing of democratic freedoms in Egypt. Paul Hodkinson examined the relationship between social networking sites and youth identity. Angela McRobbie presented a damning critique of commodified youth culture in the “post-feminist” era.
We had two panels of fascinating, diverse papers. Topics included the BNP’s youth movement, rap music in Mauritius, and the representation of Native Americans in Disney films. For further information on the programme and speakers, please visit the conference site.
As part of our thoroughly interdisciplinary conference, acclaimed band Cornershop’s Tjinder Singh discussed the band’s early years, the band’s mixed audiences, his experience of the music world and the current album.
In an action-packed day we were also privileged to have readings from published author Gautam Malkani, who gave a hugely entertaining reading of extracts from his first novel Londonstani. As this is a novel written in a distinct vernacular, it was a particular joy to hear it being read by its creator.
To bring the first day’s events to a close, Tinashe Mushakavanhu introduced and read from the collection of Zimbabwean poetry he has edited and published with David Nettleingham. The anthology is titled State of the Nation, and it features the work of a new generation of poets on contemporary Zimbabwean politics and culture.
