Monday, May 19, 2014

CFP: Chinese and Japanese Encounters in Colonial Southeast Asia

November 12-13, 2014
NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Amsterdam
Website: www.niod.nl/en

This workshop aims to explore the relations between Chinese and Japanese in colonial Southeast Asia to contextualize the Pacific War experience, examine the limits of the "anti-Japanese patriotic Chinese" narrative, and investigate the complexity of interaction and competition, friendship and hostility, partnership and collaboration between Japanese and Chinese from the late 19th century to the end of the Pacific War.  Send an abstract (max. 300 words) to both organizers, Peter Post, NIOD (peterpost67@gmail.com) and Timothy Tsu, Kwansei Gakuin University (timothy.tsu@gmail.com), before June 30, 2014.

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

CFP: The Future of NGOs: Incorporation, Reinvention, Critique?

Special issue of Critical Sociology

Special Issue Editors:

Sangeeta Kamat, Associate Professor, International Education, University of Massachusetts at Amherst
Feyzi Ismail, Teaching Fellow, Development Studies, School of Oriental and African Studies, UK

The last three decades have seen a range of critical studies on NGOs, and in particular a growing body of theoretical work on the links between NGOs, the neoliberal state and social movements (Kamat 2004; Hearn 2007; Fernando 2011; Choudry and Kapoor 2013; Dauvergne and LeBaron 2014). These studies have contributed to our understanding of ‘NGOisation’ as a vital aspect of global capitalism and its crucial function in stabilising the neoliberal order. In this special issue we seek to build upon these critiques towards a theorisation that illuminates the present conjuncture of the new aid architecture – now unfolding in the context of the global financial crisis – that has further subordinated NGOs to global capital but which is also confronted by a deepening crisis of the neoliberal state (Harvey 2010; Duménil and Lévy 2011; Saad Filho 2011). Critical Sociology (http://crs.sagepub.com/) invites contributions analysing the role of NGOs at this conjuncture, how they are responding to critiques and struggles against neoliberalism and whether they seek to articulate a new politics.

Since the late 1990s visible and widespread challenges to neoliberalism have taken the form of the anti-globalisation and anti-war movements, including the popular movements in Latin America and the World Social Forums, the vast mobilisations against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Occupy movement, the Arab uprisings and demonstrations against austerity. In some cases the movements have led to mass strikes in workplaces and the mobilisation of trade unions. NGOs have often had an ambivalent relation to these oppositional movements, either participating on the fringes of these movements or seeking new kinds of alliances with Left or progressive politics. At the same time, the aid regime of the new millennium has undergone significant changes, with corporate entities playing a leading role in the development sector and partnering with states to enforce new rules of compliance for NGOs. In other words, NGOs today straddle both the imperialist and neoliberal ambitions of the aid regime and the popular mobilisations, which at times dominate the political landscape.

In this special issue we seek to analyse how NGOs mediate these struggles toward particular ends. How are NGOs being repositioned within contemporary capitalism, and how is the relationship between NGOs, the state and the private sector evolving? In what ways are NGOs being further co-opted by corporate power? As the neoliberal state becomes increasingly privatised on the one hand – and challenged on the other – how have NGOs analysed these times of crisis and flux? Is the general critique of neoliberalism that many NGOs also espouse leading to a new kind of politics and new political understandings within the sector? What are the factors that determine the political direction that NGOs take? Are there examples of NGOs reinventing themselves to maintain or pursue radical politics, and are they adopting new ideas and new ideologies? What kinds of new organisational alliances or strategic partnerships are being made, for example, with the political Left?

Our contention is that the existence of an organised Left makes a difference, shaping both political history and the political space that is occupied by NGOs. Where left-wing political parties have had a strong legacy, we wish to investigate the historical relationship between NGOs and the Left in order to understand the politics of NGOs in that particular context. Where NGOs have taken on traditional roles, and have been funded and professionalised, we seek to understand not only the political compulsions that influence NGOs but what kind of political alternatives are possible. The focus here is on the factors that influence one tendency or the other, with the aim of drawing general conclusions on how the work of NGOs is being reshaped both at national and global levels.

We are seeking manuscripts (8,000 words maximum) on the following themes (though not limited to these), and encourage interdisciplinary approaches:
Neoliberalism and the co-option of NGOs;
The relationship between NGOs and left-wing political parties in power;
Conflict and collaboration between NGOs and social movements;
Class, class struggle and the role of NGOs;
Questions of strategy and democracy amongst NGOs and within the sector;
Ways that NGOs are reinventing themselves and envisioning new forms of political engagement;
The role of NGOs and the global financial crisis;
Labour NGOs and trade union organising;
Development NGOs in the present aid architecture and the implications for Left politics.
Within this broad thematic we are interested in case studies from Latin America (e.g. Venezuela and Bolivia), where left-wing governments have been in power; South Asia (e.g. India, Nepal and Bangladesh), where Left parties and social movements have a strong presence inside and outside of government; Eastern Europe (e.g. Bosnia, Serbia and Kosovo), where previous democratic transitions meant compromise between communist parties and NGOs; South East Asia (e.g. Cambodia, Thailand and the Philippines), where there have been significant and sustained popular movements and workers’ strikes; and the Middle East (e.g. Egypt, Syria and Palestine), which has experienced colossal political upheaval and polarisation during and since the uprisings in 2011. In addition, we are interested in case studies documenting the work of labour NGOs and their relationship with trade union activity (e.g. China, Qatar and Saudi Arabia), and the role of NGOs in the Arab uprisings.

To submit your proposal, email the title, abstract (300 words maximum), and contact information for the primary author to Sangeeta Kamat <skamat@educ.umass.edu> and Feyzi Ismail <fi2@soas.ac.uk>, with the subject line “ATTN: SPECIAL ISSUE PROPOSAL”. All papers are subject to the standard review process at Critical Sociology.

Submission of abstracts: 31 May 
Solicitation of full papers: 15 June
Draft paper submissions due to editors: 31 August

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

CFP: Citizens, Civil Society and the Cultural Politics of Heritage-Making in East and Southeast Asia

Institute of Sociology, Academia Sinica, Taiwan, December 11-13, 2014

Application Deadline: June 1 2014


Keynote speakers:
Professor Laurajane Smith, Australian National University
Professor Wan-Yao Chou, National Taiwan University
Professor Jeroen de Kloet, University of Amsterdam
 
Organized by:
Institute of Sociology, Academia Sinica, Taiwan
Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore
International Institute for Asian Studies, the Netherlands
 
Since David Lowenthal first noted the acute ascendancy of heritage as a discourse and, indeed, likened it to religion, the cult of heritage has spread beyond the Euro-American world to win adherents in the further reaches of Asia. This is in no small way due to the rise of the modern nation-state, and the formulation of heritage as a given, constitutive part of nations. However, what constitutes heritage is never a given, and it is commonly “made” through a process embedded in an evolving cultural politics involving actors such as the state, local communities and civil society organizations, and international institutions or activists. While these actors are not always distinct, a series of three conferences have been planned to highlight the role of each in turn without neglecting their inter-relationships. The first conference has taken place in Singapore in January 2014, focusing on the role of the state. The second conference in the series, to be held in Taiwan in December 2014, focuses on the role of citizens, local communities and civil society organizations in heritage-making. The third conference will take place in the Netherlands in 2015, and will focus on international organizations and activists.
 
In considering the role of local communities and civil society organizations in heritage-making, the second conference will dwell on the figure of the citizen, broadly understood. What are the rights, privileges, and responsibilities of a citizen, and how does this relate to the modern nation-state and the notion of heritage, particularly in the contemporary environment where the role of the state and that of citizens are being reconfigured to serve a neo-liberal agenda? How does citizens’ involvement in heritage-making contribute to the civility of a shared societal life, and indeed, in some countries, to the sense of nationhood and civilization? In other words, what are the dynamics involved when local communities, as citizens, not just in the narrow legal-constitutional sense (with the propensity this restrained status has to turn citizens into citizen- consumers), but more broadly speaking in the socio-political sense, engage in the definition of their heritage-scape through a common civil space where multiple interests and agendas vie for resources and meanings? In raising these questions, the conference explores how processes of heritage-making, as part of the everyday cultural practices through which cultural citizenship is asserted and discursively constituted, challenges the dominance of the state in defining its citizens.
 
At the same time, the word “citizen” is also a historical referent for “city inhabitants”. Indeed, much of the dynamics of citizenship is embedded in the social effervescence that cities evoke. Cities, where traces of the past, present and future are enfolded in the built environment, become spaces where the memories and aspirations of large populations of inhabitants are constantly negotiated. Without losing sight of the larger contexts in which cities are organically embedded, this conference has a special – but not exclusive – interest in the role of cities and their inhabitants as well as concerned civil society organizations in heritage-making. As cities evolve at a breakneck speed in the twenty-first century, where new iconic buildings continue to rise on the ruins of the past, how do cities maintain their historical character and socio-cultural fabric, or does it matter at all? What is the impact of such changes on city inhabitants, and how do they organize themselves to retain the meaning of shared spaces through the idiom of heritage? Finally, given the connectivity of cities and their influence on the global stage, what are the strategies that cities and their local communities employ to inscribe their heritage-scape, not only as part of national heritage, but also as part of world heritage? 
 
With these issues in mind, we invite papers looking into the following themes:
  • Representing the local in global cities
  • Memories and aspirations in global cities
  • Built heritage, ruins, and their social lives
  • Contending with gentrification
  • The social landscape as heritage
  • Conflicts and resolutions of heritage-making
  • Cultural activism and vernacular heritage
  • Local identities and linguistic heritage
  • Citizens, civil society and national as well as local heritage-making
  • Local communities and the heritage-scape
  • Civil society involvement in heritage-management 
  • Prospects of social innovation in heritage-management
 
It is suggested that papers should cover cities, townships and their associated rural landscapes in East and Southeast Asia.
 
Paper proposals should include a title, name of author, institutional affiliation, email address, an abstract (300 words) and a brief personal biography (150 words).
 
The proposal should be submitted in word document format by June 1 2014 to Ms. Kathleen Mariska Azali (email:kathleen_azali@iseas.edu.sg).
 
Successful applicants will be notified by July 15 2014 and will be required to send in a completed draft paper (6000 - 8000 words) by November 15 2014.
 
Accommodations and a modest travel grant will be provided for all accepted participants. 
 
Conveners:
  • Professor Michael Hsiao, Distinguished Research Fellow and Director, Institute of Sociology, Academia Sinica, Taiwan
  • Dr Hui Yew-Foong, Senior Fellow, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore
  • Dr Philippe Peycam, Director, International Institute for Asian Studies, The Netherlands
 
Local organizing institutions
  • Graduate Institute of Building and Planning, National Taiwan University
  • Center for Traditional Arts and Graduate Institute of Architecture and Cultural Heritage, Taipei National University of the Arts
  • Department of Cultural and Creative Industries Management, National Taipei University of Education

Conference: Asia Literacy in Practice

MONASH ASIA INSTITUTE

International Symposium: “Asia Literacy” in Practice
Date: 12 June (Thurs) 2014
Venue: H.B39 (at Basement of Building H), Monash University Caulfield Campus

The importance of “Asia literacy” has been widely discussed in Australia since the 1990s and was given renewed emphasis in the 2012 White Paper on Australia in the Asian Century. The Asia Education Foundation has been working hard to implement the cross-curriculum priority of “Asia and Australia's engagement with Asia” at Australian schools. But what Asia literacy really means and how it can be cultivated are not easy questions. In the academy and in Australian public culture, concerns have been raised about the risk of reproducing essentialist views that turn “Asian cultures” into stereotypes. Many have also criticized the promotion of Asia literacy as being too market-driven.

These criticisms help us to focus attention on what we mean by “Asia” and what forms of engagement with Asia are occurring in Australia. This one-day symposium seeks to highlight the experiences of people who have been involved in practicing “Asia literacy” through their work in such fields as secondary and university education, business, craft art, activism and media. Through the various experiences of invited speakers, this one-day event seeks to provide participants with a wealth of informed perspectives on and critical insights into engaging with “Asia”.

Program
9:45-10:00 Welcome
10:00-11:30 Session 1 Teaching “Asia” in the high school
Chair: Hongzhi Zhang (Monash University)
Panellists:
*Mr. Mark Crnkovic (Head of Campus at Narre Warren South, Waverley Christian School)
*Ms. Annabella Fung (Keysborough Secondary College)
*Prof. Christine Halse (Deakin University)
11:45-1:15 Session 2 “Asia literacy” in business
Chair: Gloria Davies (Monash University)
Panelists:
*Mr. John Pereira (Pereira Partners and Australia-India Business Council)
*Mr. Steve Barclay (Director, Hong Kong Economic & Trade Office in Sydney)
*Mr. Scott Grant (Monash University)
<Lunch>
2:15-3:45 Session 3  Working with “Asia”: Material culture and activism
Chair: Julian Millie (Monash University)
Panelists:
*Dr. Kevin Murray (Independent curator and writer)
*Dr. Edwin Jurriens (University of Melbourne)
*Dr. Sara Niner (Monash University)
4:00-5:45 Session 4 Embracing “Asia”: Towards an inclusive engagement
Chair: Koichi Iwabuchi (Monash University)
Panelists:
*Ms. Jin Sun Lane (SBS producer)
*Mr. Lance Truong (Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade)
*Mr. Alistair Bayley (Monash University student)
*Dr. Horie Miki (Ritsumeikan University, Japan)
*Prof. Ariel Heryanto (Australian National University)

No registration fee. RSVP required. Please register by sending an email to:
MAI-Enquiries@monash.edu (with “YES Will attend Conference” in the subject line)

Friday, May 9, 2014

CFP: Transformed by Comics: the Influence of comics/BD/graphic novels on the Novel

Transformed by Comics: the influence of comics/BD/graphic novels on the Novel           

While there has been scholarly research on the influence of poetry on cinema, or the influence of paintings on poetry, as well as the relationship between film and fiction, little work has been published on the importance of comics and graphic novels for contemporary writing. Such a space is all the more obvious when one considers new works on the relationship between high and low culture, comics and fine art. What would for example a novelization of a BD, graphic novel or comic mean? What titles exist in today’s ‘comics aware’ culture and is there a forgotten tradition to discover? What codes, practices, themes and narrative techniques are significant for novelizations of text-image source texts?
            There is a small but significant discussion on Chabon’s Kavalier and Clay (2001), or Jay Cantor’s Krazy Kat (1994) as well as Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow (1973), but not much on Tom de Have’s Funny Papers (1985), Frederic Teuten’s Tintin in the New World (1993), Rick Moody’s Ice Storm (1994), Austin Grossman’s Soon I will be invincible (2007). More work is clearly needed, including on lost Anglophone texts, as well as sites from other cultural traditions.
            We certainly need also to start to evaluate Francophone and other non-Anglophone examples. Do the novelists who also work with BD separate out their two fields of activity or work with more intermedial techniques? For example does Jean Teulé’s Bord Cadrage (2009) work as a complex play between forms? Not to mention work from Harry Morgan (alias Christian Wahl), who is a novelist, BD writer and theorist of comics. And what about the growing importance of Ludovic Debeurme, Benoit Peeters, François Rivière, Willy Mouele, and Joann Sfar? All of whom are working in spaces that sit between traditional fiction and the world of the comics. What about the novels in other languages? In Italian (e.g. Umberto Eco’s La Misteriosa Fiamma de la regina Loanna, 2004)? In Dutch? Spanish? German? Japanese? Also, if the comics world is dominated by male writers and male fans, are there women writers interested in subverting these phallocentric comics in their novels?
            We invite papers on any aspect of this research question, including treatments of single authors or comparative works, theoretical engagements with underlying narratological and text-image questions, as well as cross-national expansions of the sense of the field. No special consideration is given for any cultural space, we encourage originality Similarly papers on the pre-existing tradition of children’s literature and its adaptation strategies are welcome such as Dave Eggers’s novelisation of Where the Wild Things are.
Length & Deadlines:
400-500 Word Abstracts are invited for 30 September 2014
4000-5000 word essays to be completed after editorial selection for January 30 2015
The text will be published in a special issue of Image & Narrative after the traditional double blind review process.
Language: English or French
Contact editors: Hugo Frey (h.frey@chi.ac.uk) and Chris Reyns-Chikuma (reynschi@ualberta.ca)
Chris Reyns-Chikuma
MLCS
University of Alberta
Canada

A History of Penal Regimes in Global Perspective: 1800-2014

Harvard University, Cambridge MA
March 5-7th, 2015

The rise of the prison has been an important historical development of the modern era. Over the past two hundred years, the growth of prisons has ticked upward. Confinement has come to dominate national penal regimes, increasingly replacing bodily harm as a primary form of punishment. Prisons now span the globe. While rates of incarceration have varied widely over the past two centuries across nations and over time, the last third of the twentieth-century witnessed an upward trend from the United States to Brazil and China. In the United States, prisons have become a pressing social problem with the highest number of its citizens behind bars of any country in the world.

On the occasion of the 40th anniversary of Michel Foucault’s Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison (1975) the influential book that first opened a new line of inquiry into the study of the prison, the Weatherhead Initiative on Global History is planning a conference to spark a global conversation among researchers in the social sciences and humanities at work on the history of distinctive penal regimes. We are interested in exploring the diversity of regimes of punishment, and especially the prison as an institution within them, the paths along which they changed, and—most especially—the connections between these changes in different parts of the world.  The conference is open to papers that address a variety of themes from the philosophical underpinnings of systems of punishment, the character and function of regimes of incarceration and penality in colonial, liberal, neo-liberal and authoritarian state systems, and the distinctive cultures of confinement that have emerged within these varied systems. We hope to balance broadly comparative papers and revealing case studies. We are seeking proposals from scholars at all stages of their academic career, including graduate students. We are particularly interested in forging a global discussion of these topics, and therefore especially welcome contributions from outside North America and Europe.

The Weatherhead Initiative on Global History is a recently created center that responds to the growing interest at Harvard in the encompassing study of global history. The Initiative is committed to the systematic scrutiny of developments that have unfolded across national, regional, and continental boundaries as well as to analysis of the interconnections—cultural, economic, ecological and demographic—among world societies. For further information about WIGH and the conference, please consult our website at http://wigh.wcfia.harvard.edu.

Proposals should include an abstract of no more than 500 words and a brief curriculum vita. Please email your submissions to Jessica Barnard (jbarnard@wcfia.harvard.edu) byMay 15, 2014 with the heading “Penal Regimes Conference.” Travel expenses (economy) as well as accommodation will be covered.

WIGH Chairs:
Sven Beckert, Laird Bell Professor of History, Harvard University
; Charles S. Maier, Leverett Saltonstall Professor of History, Harvard University

CFP: Trade in Animals and Animal Products in the Indian Ocean World from early times to c. 1900

Indian Ocean World Centre (IOWC)
McGill University, Montreal
23-24 October, 2014

Organiser: Omri Bassewitch Frenkel (IOWC, McGill University)
Call for Papers
An interdisciplinary conference on "Trade in Animals and Animal Products in the Indian Ocean World from early times to c.1900" will be held at the Indian Ocean World Centre, McGill University, Montreal, Canada, from 23-24 October 2014.
Recently, much public attention has focussed on the lucrative yet often illegal trade in the Indian Ocean world (IOW) of animal parts, including elephant tusks, rhinoceros horns, and tiger skins. However, the trade in exotic animals and animal parts in the IOW, from Africa to China, is not a modern phenomenon. Its roots can be traced back centuries and is reflected in the traditions, folklore, medicinal practices and religious beliefs of many different societies across the IOW. It has also impacted on the environment.By exploring the long-distance trade in animals and animal products as economic, cultural, and ecological phenomenon, this conference will seek to interrogate the concept of the Indian Ocean as a "world."
 The conference will consider the trade in all land and sea animals as well as birds. A wide range of relevant issues will be given consideration, but prospective participants are asked to give special consideration to the following themes:
  • Trade in exotic animals
  • Trade in animal parts
  • Trade in animal products
  • Impact of the trade on the environment of the source regions
  • Finance and structure of the trade
  • Prices and profits
  • Demand and consumption patterns
  • Legal and religious prescriptions governing the hunting/collection and consumption of animals and animal parts
Papers should be in English or French.
 Deadline for submission of abstracts (title and 1-2 paragraphs) is 15 June 2014. The review process will be completed by July 1, 2014
 Papers should be a maximum of 9,000 words (including footnotes). We anticipate that selected papers will be published in a volume to appear in Palgrave Macmillan's Indian Ocean World Studies series.
 A registration fee of $200 USD ($60 USD for students) is payable by 1 September 2014. The late registration fee (after September1, 2014) is $250 USD and $100 USD for students. Registration is payable by cash, personal cheque or money order. Credit card payments are not accepted.
 All those interested in participating should complete the conference registration form and return it by email to the IOWC (iowc@mcgill.ca). All queries should be sent to the conference organizer, Omri Bassewitch Frenkel (omri.bassewitchfrenkel@mail.mcgill.ca).

Thursday, May 8, 2014

Workshop: Changing Role of State in Asia II: Comparative Perspective

Changing Role of State in Asia II: Comparative Perspective

Date              
:
30 - 31 May 2014
Venue          
:
Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore
469A Tower Block, Level 10, Bukit Timah Road, Singapore 259770 [MAP]
Website
:


This workshop is co-organised by the Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore and the Harvard-Yenching Institute, USA

This conference is the outgrowth of a series of previous roundtables and workshops convened by HYI and ARI on issues of state capacity and state change in Asia, with special attention to China and India. For the upcoming co-sponsored conference at NUS, we ask that participants present original scholarly papers (approximately 30 pages double-spaced) on the topic of the changing role of the state in Asia and its implications for state capacity and governance. We anticipate publication of a conference volume that we hope will represent a standard of excellence and reference for scholars of contemporary Asia. The advent of the neo-liberal model of development, based loosely on the Washington Consensus articulated nearly 25 years ago, had a significant impact on developing states in Asia as elsewhere. Over the past decade or so, developing states in Asia began to address problems that had been generated by features of the neo-liberal model, in particular the privatization of public investments and growing social stratification and inequality. In some ways, Latin American states had already taken the lead in responding to these problems in a variety of programs that some have termed “neo-structuralism.” In Asia the reaction to neo-liberalism became particularly apparent around 2005 when both China and India attempted to redress rural problems by the abolition of agricultural taxes (China) and the establishment of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (India).

In this conference we hope to explore the extent to which contemporary (post-neo-liberal?) Asian states differ from neo-liberal, developmental, and welfare states. To be sure, post-WWII state patterns have varied widely across the Asian continent -- from China’s party-state socialism and India’s democratic clientelism to the developmental states of Japan, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan. The Asian financial crisis of 1997 called into question some of the key tenets of the developmental state model, however, especially the relationship between government and business.

Since the end of the Asian financial crisis, East, Southeast and South Asia have become increasingly inter-dependent, with considerable flows of goods, services, ideas, and practices across the region – longstanding territorial and political disputes notwithstanding. A goal of our conference is to assess the degree to which these interdependencies are resulting in convergent configurations of state-society relations.

PROGRAMME

Please click here for the programme and abstracts.

REGISTRATION

Please click here for registration. Admission is free. Kindly register early as seats are available on a first come, first served basis.

CONTACT DETAILS

Convenors

Prof Prasenjit DUARA
Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore

Prof Elizabeth PERRY
Harvard-Yenching Institute, USA

Wednesday, May 7, 2014

Job Announcement: Center for Lao Studies

Center for Lao Studies
Job Announcement  
Program Director

JOB DESCRIPTION:

Founded in 2006 the mission of the Center for Lao Studies (CLS) is to advance knowledge and engagement in the field of Lao Studies through research, education and information sharing. The Program Director is a key staff member of CLS. Reporting to the Executive Director, he/she provides planning and program leadership in all areas of the Center for Lao Studies. The Program Director is responsible for program management, development, recruitment strategies, promotion, outreach, fundraising, and assessment and evaluation. CLS's programs includes: Lao Oral History Archive, Summer Study Abroad in Laos, Publications, Journal of Lao Studies, Lao TLC, and the International Conference on Lao Studies. This position is based at our San Francisco office.   

Estimate % of timeKey Responsibilities
25%Program Planning and Development
  • Work collaboratively with different national and international institutions on various CLS programs.
  • Oversee planning, scheduling and organizing various programs deadlines and implementations.
  • Monitor enrollment, on-line memberships, applications, and other program logistics.
  • Work collaboratively with contractors and IT person.
25%Program Management
  • Manage day-to-day program operations.
  • Keep track of program operational expenses, including program contractors' payments.
  • Work closely with the Executive Director to implement, up keep, recruit, and maintain program memberships.
  • Assist in updating CLS website with relevant and current information on the programs.
25%Program Promotion/Fundraising
  • Promote CLS programs through mass email, on-line social network, posters, flyers, and presentations.
  • Outreach to potential donors, members, students, and program participants.
  • Work with the Executive Director to write articles and press releases to promote CLS and its programs.
  • Work with the Executive Director and a grant writer to provide data for grant proposals.  
  • Explore potential grants for program sustainability and expansion by research and networking.  
25%Program Evaluation
  • Implement consistent program evaluation practices to guide planning and decision-making and support efforts at continuous improvement.
  • Evaluate program sustainability.
  • Provide evaluative data for grant applications and other development efforts.
  • Work closely with the Executive Director to provide grant reports to funders.

QUALIFICATIONS / EXPERIENCE
  • Must be US Citizen or Resident
  • Bachelors Degree required
  • Masters Degree preferred
  • Excellent interpersonal skills
  • Minimum 2-3 years experience in the nonprofit sector
  • Minimum 2-3 years of management experience
  • Self-motivated
  • Strong organizational skills
  • Strong facilitation Skills
  • Decisive
  • Good writing and communication skills
  • Willing to travel
  • Willing to work some nights and weekends
  • Demonstrated belief in the Center for Lao Studies' mission and values
  • Knowledge of the Lao language is a plus, but not necessary
HOURS

This is a one year temporary position that may be extended or become a permanent full time position. It is a contract position, half-time, 20 hour work week.

COMPENSATION

Compensation w ill be competitive and commensurate with experience.

Please send cover letter along with resume to info@laostudies.org by May 20, 2014. Please, no phone calls or walk-ins.

Tuesday, May 6, 2014

CFP: Representing the Feminine: Gender, Identity and Nation in Postcolonial Southeast Asian Literature

Contributions are sought for an edited collection titled “Representing the Feminine: Gender, Identity and Nation in Postcolonial Southeast Asian literature”. The collection will contribute to scholarship on Southeast Asian women in literature by taking a twofold approach to authorship and creation. The collection will examine 1) how women writers imagine and express the grand narratives of nationalism and nationalist ideology in Malaysian, Singaporean, Indonesian, Bruneian and Filipino fiction and 2) how the literatures of these postcolonial Southeast Asian nations imagine and construct femininities in terms of identities (social, cultural, racial and religious).

Questions which chapters might ask include but are not limited to:

·      How do “national” literatures contribute to the transformation in gender identities, roles and relations?
·      How have iconic female characters in national literature influenced “ideal” femininities in the nation space?
·      How have pivotal female figures in the nation space been fictionalized, translated, constructed, in literature?
·      To what extent have national/regional literatures been affected by the global, postmodernist views on gender?
·      How does gender as represented in the literatures of the region affect imagined communities of the nation through the intersections of race, religion, culture, and class?
·      How have literary representations of gender reflected historical changes in the region, or in relation to the nation (state ideology, policies, economic development etc)?
·      How have female writers been critically received/constructed/identified or used within the nation state/national projects?

Chapters should expand on or establish current debates and scholarship on gender and nation in the region, and may focus on individual texts, writers, genres or countries. Cross-genre, cross-cultural, cross-national explorations are also welcome. Explorations of non-traditional literary mediums, including the digital, self-published, transcribed oral literatures, and so on, are encouraged. Texts from any era to present may be considered, individually or in tandem.   

Chapters will be 6,000 to 7,000 words, including all footnotes and references. First drafts are due 1st March 2015, with final versions on 1st September 2015.

If interested, a 300 word chapter proposal and a brief CV should be sent to Dr Kathrina Haji Mohd Daud (Kathrina.daud@ubd.edu.bn) by 1st July 2014. Successful submissions will be notified by 1st September 2014. Any queries may be directed to the same.


_____________________________________
Dr Kathrina bte DP Haji Mohd Daud
Creative Writing and English Literature
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
Universiti Brunei Darussalam