The deadline for panel and paper proposals is now CLOSED.
(A) Shan Buddhism, History and Material Culture
Convenor: Susan Conway, SOAS. sc66@soas.ac.uk
The Shan are a Tai people living in the Shan states of Burma (Myanmar). In the current political climate, many live in exile in neighbouring countries in Asia and there is a wider diaspora in Europe, North America and Australia. This panel invites papers on Shan belief systems (Buddhism and spirit religion), literary traditions and Shan material culture. Papers that make comparisons with neighbouring cultures will also be considered.
Proposals for papers should be sent to Susan Conway sc66@soas.ac.uk by 30 June 2011.
(B) Emerging Scholars Panel
Convenor: Fiona Kerlogue
This panel presents a space for doctoral students working on any subject relating to Southeast Asia to present their research. It is an opportunity to try out new presentation techniques, to gain experience in presenting papers and also to meet colleagues working across the UK and beyond. All this is in a positive and supportive environment.
Abstracts (20 – 500 words) should be sent to FKerlogue@horniman.ac.uk by 30 June 2011
(C) Malay/Indonesian Manuscript Studies
Convenor: Annabel Gallop, British Library. Annabel.Gallop@bl.uk
Papers are welcomed on all aspects of the study of the writing traditions of maritime Southeast Asia, covering all languages, scripts and media, from stone inscriptions to manuscripts on paper and palm leaf. Preference will be given to papers based on previously unpublished research, and work by emerging scholars.
Proposals for papers should be sent to Annabel Gallop Annabel.Gallop@bl.uk by 30 June 2011.
(D) Heritage Tourism and Heritage Sites in Southeast Asia with Specific Reference to UNESCO World Heritage Sites
Convenor: Professor V.T. King, University of Leeds. v.t.king@leeds.ac.uk
The panel will examine the characteristics and pressures faced by heritage sites in Southeast Asia with specific reference to UNESCO World Heritage Sites (WHS). Papers on any aspect of heritage tourism are welcome but the main focus of the panel will be the tensions that exist between the often competing interests, understandings and agendas of the various stakeholders involved in globally important heritage sites: local communities, national governments and their provincial and local agencies, international conservation organisations (including UNESCO [United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization] and ICOMOS [International Council of Monuments and Sites]), tourists (both domestic and international) and civil society institutions. The panel also has a policy and practical dimension in that it seeks to determine whether or not these competing tensions and pressures are being or can be resolved, and what policy options work best in certain given circumstances. International organisations like UNESCO impose a set of conservation and protection requirements on the sites which are designated on the World Heritage List. These requirements derive from the 1972 Convention Concerning the Protection of the World’s Cultural and Natural Heritage and may not always sit easily with national government interest in for example increasing their revenue from tourism and therefore promoting these sites in the international market-place, and in deploying them as centres for the construction and promotion of national identity and in placing them in a national historical context.
Given the status of these cultural and natural sites, the level of international attention and interest in their conservation and management, the importance which governments attach to them as elements of national heritage, and in the case of cultural sites in particular as crucial building blocks of national identity, as well as their role as a focus of tourism interest and activity, they present complex arenas within which a range of pressures, interactions and encounters can be examined and addressed.
Papers which address national heritage (both tangible and intangible) not on the UNESCO list are welcome in order to provide comparative material on UNESCO sites.
Proposals for papers should be sent to Professor King v.t.king@leeds.ac.uk by 30 June 2011.
(E) Migrant Labour Policies, Regulation and Law: Past and Present
Convenor: Dr Carol G. S. Tan, SOAS. ct9@soas.ac.uk
Papers are sought that either individually or collectively explore labour migration into or within South East Asia during pre-colonial, colonial and modern times. Preference will be given to unpublished work or works that chart new directions or new emphases in research.
Proposals for papers should be sent to Carol Tan ct9@soas.ac.uk by 30 June 2011.
(F) Laos: Historical and Contemporary Transitions
Convenor: Katherine Brickell, Royal Holloway, Katherine.brickell@rhul.ac.uk
Laos is often regarded as the forgotten country of Southeast East Asia. Little researched, this panel seeks to bring together academics working on Laos, either in a historical and/or contemporary remit. Papers are encouraged from a broad array of interdisciplinary backgrounds that consider any form of societal transition in Laos, be it at the micro or macro scale, and concerning economic, political, social or cultural change.
Proposals for papers should be sent to Katherine Brickell Katherine.brickell@rhul.ac.uk by 30 June 2011.
(G) Colonialism, Decolonisation, Post-Colonial Legacies and Commemoration in [and beyond] Southeast Asia
Convenor: Tobias Rettig, Singapore Management University tobiasrettig@smu.edu.sg
Papers are welcome on topics relating to ‘Colonialism, Decolonisation, Post-Colonial Legacies and Commemoration in [and beyond] Southeast Asia’. For the purposes of this panel, ‘colonialism’ is broadly conceived so as to encompass colonialism of Western, Asian, or indigenous origins. ‘Southeast Asia’ is also broadly defined and could refer to Southeast Asians within and outside of the region. The panel is open to papers that fit the broad panel topic, but two themes are of particular interest. First, with the 100th anniversary of World War I arriving soon, this panel seeks to attract papers on Southeast Asian experiences of the Great War. Secondly, the panel is also interested in the material and ideational legacies and commemoration of imperialism and decolonisation.
If you are interested in joining this panel please send the title and abstract of your paper to Tobias Rettig at tobiasrettg@smu.edu.sg by 30 June 2011.
(H) Southeast Asian environmentalisms: frameworks, discourses and networks
Convenor: Liana Chua, University of Cambridge. lclc2@cam.ac.uk
In recent decades, Southeast Asia has become a focal point for worldwide environmentalist discourses and campaigns. Like other ecological ‘hotspots’, it is widely portrayed as a region filled with endangered species, illegally-traded wildlife, disappearing rainforests and coral reefs, and acres of oil palm plantations. Mounting global awareness of these issues has accordingly given rise to numerous wildlife conservation and rehabilitation campaigns, rainforest-protection efforts, sustainability agreements, awareness-raising websites and consumer boycotts of palm oil-based products, among other things.
This panel welcomes contributions which explore the many, varied manifestations of environmentalism (in its broadest sense) throughout Southeast Asia. This might include anything from the science and symbols deployed by UK-based wildlife-protection initiatives to the social ramifications of participation in environmentalist and conservation causes by Southeast Asians themselves. Rather than viewing ‘environmentalism’ as a singular, distinctly ‘Western’ phenomenon, contributors are invited to treat it as a site of interaction, transformation and contestation in which both Southeast Asians and non-Southeast Asians are implicated. In this respect, our interest is in environmentalism/s/ as they have emerged in and around the region.
Proposals for papers should be sent to Liana Chua lclc2@cam.ac.uk by 30 June 2011.
(I) Religious Practices and Beliefs in Southeast Asia between Local and Global (WITHDRAWN)
Chiara Formichi, Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore aricf@nus.edu.sg, chiaraformichi@gmail.com
This panel intends to address the question of how religious communities (belonging to any religious tradition) in Southeast Asia react to the opposing forces of globalization and local tradition, in both historical and contemporary contexts.
Papers will contribute to the debate on the effects of transnational phenomena (e.g. historical trading and educational networks, the impact of new technologies, travel, migration and diasporas) on rituals and beliefs. Cases suggesting the formation of new groups, the incorporation of new elements into already existing systems (hybridization), the rejection of new practices and entrenchment in traditional understandings, as well as the indigenization of “foreign” concepts and practices, are all encouraged.
Proposals for papers (200-500 words abstract) should be sent to chiaraformichi@gmail.com by 30 June 2011.
(J) Violence and Trauma in Southeast Asian Memoryscapes
Convenor: Christian Oesterheld, Mahidol University International College (MUIC). icchristian@mahidol.ac.th
Taking the recent boom in “memory studies” as a point of departure, this panel invites papers focused on inscriptions of social memory of violent conflict and traumatic experiences in Southeast Asian landscapes and urban space. Additional to a discussion of the politics of museums and the social significance of (the presence or absence) of specific memorial sites, discussions of “memoryscapes” might also include an analysis of alterations of landscape patterns as a result of state-prescribed agricultural collectivism or the redistribution of farm lands, as well as the renegotiation of emblematic representations of heritage and history in national symbolism (e.g. strategic labelling of state institutions, streets etc.) and the arts. Given the bandwidth of traumatic experiences of violent conflict in Southeast Asia during both the colonial and post-colonial period, a comparative discussion of memoryscapes in the region can be expected to contribute substantially to the conceptual framework of the emerging surface of memory and heritage studies. Papers with cross-disciplinary perspectives from the social sciences are encouraged.
Proposals for papers should be sent to Christian Oesterheld icchristian@mahidol.ac.th by 30 June 2011.
(K) Sexual Politics and Gender -based Violence in Post Colonial Indonesia
Convenor Saskia E. Wieringa, University of Amsterdam, s.wieringa@uva.nl
In 1966 the Old Order of President Suharto was replaced by the New Order of General Sukarno in an orgy of violence. The genocide of 1965/6 was built on sexual imagery, associating the Communist party, a major supporter of Sukarno, with sexual debauchery of its women associates. Sexual politics lies thus at the basis of the imagination of the authoritarian regime of Suharto: social stability was associated with women's (sexual) subordination. By implication women's political agency was sexualised as well. In this panel we will revisit this terrain and elaborate the theme to other areas of political struggle in Indonesia, such as the debates on the domestic violence law, the anti-pornography law and the rise of hardline Muslim militias. papers are invited that deal with these topics, including those that relate this theme to the struggles of sexual and ethnic minorities.
Proposals for papers should be sent to Saskia E. Wieringa s.wieringa@uva.nl by 30 June 2011.
(L) Intercultural exchange in early modern Southeast Asia
Convenor: Christina Skott, University of Cambridge, mcg27@cam.ac.uk
This panel welcomes papers examining the multiple levels of interaction and exchange which took place between the peoples, cultures and societies of Southeast Asia and the outside world during the long early modern era. Although not confined to European expansion, the panel will focus on the processes and consequences of intercultural contact between Europe and the region. Papers can therefore address areas such as cultural practices and linguistic developments, conversion and religious change, music, literature, art and anthropology, but the panel also invites research on scientific exchange, especially with regard to botany and the transmission of medical knowledge.
Proposals for papers should be sent to Christina Skott, mcg27@cam.ac.uk by 30 June.
