After years of academic neglect, colonial policing has recently attracted increasing attention. New historical insights on colonial security strategies and on their postcolonial vestiges (in the global South as well as in the former metropoles) testify to the dynamism of this field of research. The international conference Policing Empires : Social Control, Political Transition, (Post)Colonial Legacies is the last in a series of events convened by the GERN Working Group on (Post)Colonial Policing. Preceding workshops have focused on policing in the British, French, Belgian and Dutch, and finally Portuguese Empires and have addressed various aspects of policing, surveillance and security experiences. Building on these explorations, the aim of this final conference is to spur new reflection and discussion on connectivity, continuity and change across the (former) European Empires and to promote a multi-sited and comparative approach to colonial policing pratices and their legacies in the postcolonial world. It will bring together researchers and research evidence from different areas of the world and of specialization, and will foster cross-disciplinary and cross-empire debates through innovative case-studies related to the broad themes to the conference.

Detailed Program

Co-Organized by WP2 and WP3