The colonial maelstrom: Politics of colonial memory and the role of academic history

This article analyzes a historical configuration referred to as the colonial maelstrom. This configuration can be characterized by a public policy of colonial memory, consisting of curatorial and legislative projects; by debates about colonization, which involved associations linked to the colonial past, public actors, such as journalists, and politicians; and finally by controversies developed in the academic field. The article theorizes that this configuration may be seized as an opportunity to examine epistemologically the different historiographical positions at play and to understand better the "institutional effect" produced by the specificities of the place of the discipline of history within the University.