ATMOSPHERES: Spectacular and Domestic Atmospheres: India, London and 1930s Senses

Over 100 Indian delegates visited London for three sessions of the Round Table Conference between 1930 and 1932 that set India's colonial constitutional future. Building on previous work which explored the meteorological and affective dimensions of the conference's "political atmospherics" (Legg 2020), this presentation will explore two seemingly different conference atmospheres.

The first regards the spectacular ceremonies used to launch and close the conference. The second regards the alterity of domestic spaces in London curated by 'Mahatma' Gandhi and his entourage. Building upon earlier reflections on the difficulty of representing non-representational affective atmospheres, this presentation will dwell on how particular senses were used as representational media for these public and private atmospherics.

Stephen Legg undertook his degree, doctorate and Junior Research Fellowship at the University of Cambridge before joining the University of Notting­ham in 2005. His research centres on the geo­graphies of late-colonialism, with a particular focus on British-Indian relations in the interwar period.

He has published two monographs, Spaces of Colonialism: Delhi's Urban Governmentalities (2007, Blackwell) and Prostitution and the Ends of Empire: Scale, Governmentalities and lnterwar India (2014, Duke University Press) and co-edited three volumes regarding Carl Schmitt on nomos, Michel Foucault on governmentality and the geographies of Subaltern Studies.

Learn more at stephenleggeog.wordpress.com.

All lectures and ensuing discussions will be live on zoom at the designated hour and last about 90 minutes.

Please write to Allison Peacock to register (include ATMOSPHERES in the subject line). You will be sent a zoom link by return email.

This Virtual Lecture series is curated by David Howes, the outgoing director of CISSC. It is co-sponsored by the Centre for Sensory Studies and the CISSC Gardens, Sensing Atmospheres, and Colonial, Racial and Indigenous Ecologies (CRIE) Working Groups.