Tuesday, September 30, 2014

CFP: New Directions in Indian Ocean Studies at OUCIP, Hyderabad, India

 February 26-28 2015

The Osmania University Centre for International Programmes (OUCIP) proposes to organize an international  conference on what is new and innovative in Indian Ocean studies in February 2015 in Hyderabad, India.
With increasing concerns for environment, climate change, natural calamities, and biodiversity, scholars across disciplines are moving towards Ocean Studies.  The oceanic turn in sciences and  humanities will be critical to shaping a new world order in the twenty-first century.

The recent upsurge in Indian Ocean Studies is part of this  phenomenon.  It is obvious that this field has moved beyond its  traditional ‘marginal studies’ to a global discourse involving  natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities. 

A growing body of multi disciplinary Ocean Studies has brought within its  fold fascinating new dimensions from the Indian Ocean region. This new knowledge will influence both policy and practice in this region.
Scholars, researchers and students are invited to submit proposals by November 10, 2014, to oucipprogrammes@gmail.com

Proposals should arrive in MS Word, Times New Roman, 12 Font, and include a title, the name  of the author/coauthor, institutional affiliation, postal address, and email contact information.  The conference is open to all disciplines.

Some examples of areas that could be covered in proposals:
New research in Indian Ocean history: roots and routes
The Indian Ocean and India’s regional histories
Science and technology
Power dynamics: old and new
Indian Ocean: myth, folklore and literature
Forms of culture, cuisine and arts 
Indian Ocean and coastal communities
Climate change and survival in the vicinity of the Indian Ocean

Monday, September 29, 2014

CFP: Shifting Boundaries: The Study of Islam in the Humanities

April 11th-12, 2015
University of Vermont, Billings Hall | Burlington, VT

Call for Conference Papers
Attacks on the humanities as viable and valuable have become widespread in recent years. Despite these growing critiques, the study of Islam is benefitting from incorporating a variety of disciplinary and cross-disciplinary approaches in humanities; in turn the study of Islam has pushed the boundaries of critical theory and its applications and created greater opportunities for scholars to connect humanistic inquiry with issues of global relevance. The result has been an increase in the breadth and depth of our understandings of how expressions of Islam have operated in society. The goal of the conference is to reflect on the role study of Islam plays in ongoing developments in humanities research, as well as critiques of “humanities” more broadly.
We seek dynamic papers that connect Islamic Studies--which we define as broadly as possible--to broader critical concerns in the humanities and related social sciences. We are especially interested in papers that address or engage critical cultural studies and issues of the academy (metanarratives about studying Islam that incorporate theoretical concerns, the value of the humanities, or issues of pedagogy). We also welcome papers that address the broad categorical study of Islam; aspects of Muslim life, “culture,” or practice; or Islamicate literatures or histories.  

Topics may include:
  • “the death of humanities:” contributions to or critiques of the humanities from the perspective of Islamic Studies
  • “state of the discipline:” where Islamic Studies stands (historically, popularly, critically)
  • insider/outsider issues in constructing narratives of Islam
  • engagement with gender and post-colonial theories
  • Muslim literatures (political, novels, poetic, memoir, etc.)
  • issues of digitality (social media, accessibility of sources, internet Islams, etc.)
We acknowledge that just as Islamic Studies is not a monolith, neither are the humanities. We welcome scholars who engage in critical inquiry in what are traditionally understood as humanities fields and disciplines, which includes but is not necessarily limited to: religious studies, ethics, art history, linguistics, philosophy, literature, as well as those aspects of social sciences which have humanistic content and employ humanistic methods in fields such as anthropology, sociology, geography, and area studies.

Keynote Speaker
The Shifting Boundaries: The Study of Islam in the Humanities conference will span two days, and feature two keynote events. We warmly welcome Juliane Hammer (UNC-Chapel Hill) as a distinguished keynote speaker; Dr. Hammer will address both theoretical and practical concerns facing Islamic Humanities, as a professor, theorist, ethnographer, and current co-chair of the Study of Islam Section at the American Academy of Religion. We will also feature a keynote panel, highlighting scholars across various disciplines in humanities and social sciences and their approaches to research as well as broader discussions about disciplinary contours that shape the(ir) study of Islam. The panel highlights regional strengths in Islamic studies, broadly defined. It will feature Professors A. Kevin Reinhart (Dartmouth); Bogac Ergene (UVM);Ata Anzali (Middlebury); and Sajida Jalalzai (St. Michael’s College).

Proposal Deadlines
  • Abstracts (250 words) and proposals (no more than 1,000 words) are requested by November 30, 2014.
  • Acceptances will be sent by mid-December.
  • Full papers are expected by March 15, 2014.

Please email your abstract and proposal in .pdf format to shiftingboundaries@gmail.com.

Organizers
Ilyse Morgenstein Fuerst, University of Vermont
Zahra Ayubi, Dartmouth College

Thursday, September 25, 2014

Call for Manuscripts: Southeast Asia in the Humanities and Social Sciences Curricula

We are developing a special section that will be published in spring 2015 entitled “Southeast Asia in the Humanities and Social Sciences Curricula.” We hope to publish a special section that includes articles and essays representative of a wide range of academic disciplines. Manuscripts selected for publication should be written in prose that is accessible for high school and/or undergraduate instructors and students. The number of endnotes in manuscripts should be minimal compared to more traditional scholarly journals.

Editor, Education About Asia
302 Pfeiffer Stagmaier Hall, Dept. 2222
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
Chattanooga, TN 37403

Prospective authors should be aware that there is almost an even division between the percentage of our readers who are undergraduate instructors and the percentage of our readers who are secondary school teachers. We are especially appreciative of manuscripts that are potentially useful at both the undergraduate and secondary school levels. Please consult the EAA guidelines, available on the website under my signature, before submitting a manuscript for this special section. Pay particular attention to feature and teaching resources manuscript word-count ranges. Prospective authors are also encouraged to send possible manuscript ideas or any questions to me via email at l-ellington@comcast.net.

The deadline for initial submission of manuscripts is November 20th 2014. However, our manuscript word count ceilings are modest and we purposefully limit the number of endnotes for manuscripts since the journal is intended for educated lay people. I am particularly interested in obtaining both feature-length manuscripts and teaching resources essays on Singapore, Indonesia, and Malaysia but will promptly respond to authors who might be interested in submitting manuscripts on other Southeast Asian topics. We hope that the special section will be multi-disciplinary.

Lucien Ellington
e-mail: l-ellington@comcast.net
Web Site http://www.asian-studies.org/EAA/

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

CFP: Wild Spaces and Islamic Cosmopolitanism in Asia (submissions due September 24, 2014)


DATE   
14-15 January 2015
VENUE   
Asia Research Institute (ARI), Seminar Room, Tower Block Level 10 
469A Bukit Timah Road, Singapore 259770, NUS Bukit Timah Campus
WEBSITE 
:   

Jointly organised by Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore, and International Centre for Muslim and non-Muslim Understanding, University of South Australia. 

How have state and non-state efforts to distribute Muslims in time and space allowed for the containment of religious populations, or contributed to new manifestations of diversity and mobility? Did the contests between containment and connection generate new social, political, and ethical frameworks that might be construed through the explanatory framework of “Islamic cosmopolitanism”? This conference jointly hosted by Asia Research Institute, NUS, and UniSA’s International Centre for Muslim and non-Muslim Understanding, presents a focus on these questions.
Islamic groups and individuals have long conceived of their faith as reflecting ideals of a broader universal community, a global umma. However, the actual practices and perceptions of what is considered the relevant boundaries and horizons of the Muslim community have varied across time and place. This international and interdisciplinary conference is designed to explore the interplay between projects of enclosure and the fashioning of cosmopolitan Islamic subjectivities in Asian contexts, historically and ethnographically. With the term “enclosure” we refer to those “productive” state and non-state projects designed to organize local populations within discrete geographic formations and homogenous religious communities. The term “Islamic cosmopolitanism” is used to denote a broad range of open-ended identities, affiliations, and engagements that allowed Muslims to stake out positions in a wider, global frame. The larger goal of the conference is to explore the relationship between efforts to control Muslims in the lightly regulated “wild spaces” of Asia, and paradoxically, the subsequent mobilities, connections, and ethical frameworks of mutual obligation that grew out of such efforts. This conference will bring established and early-career researchers together to explore how faith-based identities are negotiated. Contributors may address spaces anywhere in Asia, and no temporal constraints apply.

The objectives of this conference are:
·         Articulate flexible definitions of Islamic cosmopolitanism across Asia
·         Examine historically and ethnographically the dialectic between Muslim and non-Muslim diversity on the one hand, and the influence of forces of enclosure which seek to regulate and homogenize belief and practice on the other
·         Map the re-constitution of Muslim beliefs, practices, and networks at the blurry boundaries of spatial and regulatory enclosure as a technique of power

We invite original research papers that ask the following questions: 
-          How do state and non-state actors attempt to territorialise lightly-regulated spaces? How do location based programs encourage ‘development’ outcomes in national, proto-national, regional, or urban areas? How do religion and Islam fit into this process of regulation?
-          In what ways do the social tensions created by forces of enclosure generate interactive responses from Muslims? How do these factors influence electoral behavior, negotiations in the pursuit of livelihoods and resources, and the emergence of social and political movements?
-          How might the technologies of enclosure, paradoxically, generate reconfigured expressions of mobility, belonging and identification that transcend homogenized spatial and spiritual regimes? How did Muslims utilize modern transportation and communications technologies, weapons, schools and other instruments usually associated with state control to articulate geographically unbounded alternatives?
-          What constitutes “cosmopolitanism” in modern Muslim contexts? Should cosmopolitanism be construed strictly in terms of ethical, theological, and philosophical outlooks, or in a more practical and historical frame of mobility and border crossing? Where is this mobility located? What spatial forms are created and transcended in interactions between enclosure and cosmopolitanism?
-          Can cosmopolitanism be a useful lens beyond urban middle and upper middle class circulations for understanding Muslims in lightly regulated “wild spaces”?

SUBMISSION OF PROPOSALS

Paper proposals should include a title, an abstract of 350 words maximum and a brief personal biography of 150 words for submission by 24 September 2014.Please send all proposals to Dr Joshua Gedacht at arijsg@nus.edu.sg. For a copy of the submission form, click here. Successful applicants will be notified by 15 October and are required to send in a completed draft paper (5,000 - 8,000 words) by 15 December. Based on the quality of proposals and availability of funds, partial or full funding may be granted to successful applicants. Participants are therefore encouraged to seek fund for travel from their home institutions. Full funding covers air travel to Singapore by the most economical means, plus board and lodging for the duration of the conference. 
CONVENORS 
Dr Joshua GEDACHTAsia Research Institute, National University of Singapore
Dr Amrita MALHIInternational Centre for Muslim and non-Muslim Understanding, University of South Australia
Assoc Prof Michael FEENERAsia Research Institute, and Department of History, National University of Singapore
Prof AbdouMaliq SIMONEInternational Centre for Muslim and non-Muslim Understanding, University of South Australia

Monday, September 15, 2014

Call for Panels and Roundtables: Association for Asian Studies in Asia Conference


The Association for Asian Studies (AAS) and Academia Sinica are pleased to invite colleagues in Asian studies to submit proposals for organized panels and roundtables (no individual paper proposals accepted) to be presented at the second AAS-in-ASIA Conference to be held June 22-24, 2015 at Academia Sinica in Taiwan.  The Program Committee for the AAS-in-ASIA conference seeks proposals dealing with all regions of Asia on subjects covering a wide range of scholarly disciplines and professional fields under the theme "Asia in Motion: Ideas, Institutions, Identities."

Panels are welcomed from scholars throughout the field of Asian studies, wherever they may be based academically, and are especially encouraged from scholars representing academic communities that are relatively underrepresented in international meetings.

The deadline for proposal submissions is October 31, 2014 at 5:00 p.m. EST. All proposals must be submitted electronically via the proposal submission website www.aas-in-asia.org/2015-Call-for-Proposals-Main.htm?utm_source=BenchmarkEmail&utm_campaign=CFP+AAS-in-ASIA+Taiwan&utm_medium=email

Financial Award for Early Career Southeast Asian Archaeologists

Institute for Southeast Asian Archaeology


Award: $1000

Nominations may be made by any professional archaeologist who holds a PhD. Self-nominations are strongly encouraged.

Nomination/Submission Materials Required: Nomination letters should be submitted by email to the committee chair and include a pdf of the article or chapter, a two-page letter that includes the lead author’s current address and a scholarly description of why the publication is an exemplary application of current archaeological theory to Southeast Asian data. Only one publication per nominee will be accepted. Nominees must have defended their dissertations and received their Ph.D. degree within the five year period from August 31, 2010 to September 1, 2015.

Nomination/Submission Deadline: December 1, 2015

Selection or Evaluation Criteria: Submitted articles and chapters are evaluated and ranked by committee members on factors including originality and quality of research and strengths of application of current archaeological theory to Southeast Asian data. Both mainland (Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Myanmar [Burma], and Malay peninsula) and island (island Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, East Timor, Brunei, and Singapore) are included.  

Postdoctoral Fellowship: Vernacular Islam beyond the Arab World

Vanderbilt University

The Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities will host a year-long interdisciplinary Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Sawyer Seminar on the theme "When the Fringe Dwarfs the Center: Vernacular Islam beyond the Arab World" during the 2015/2016 academic year.  

We invite applications for the Andrew W. Mellon Visiting Postdoctoral Fellowship from young scholars in all disciplines whose presence will help to focus our work and stimulate discussions. 

Complete applications must be submitted by January 14, 2015. See the website for full details www.vanderbilt.edu/rpw_center/visitingfellowship.php.  

Friday, September 5, 2014

CFP: Religions of Asia at Southeast Commission for the Study of Religion Regional Meeting

CALL FOR PAPERS--SECSOR 2015
Come and join us in Nashville, TN for the Southeastern Commission for the Study of Religion (SECSOR) Regional meeting on March 6-8, 2015!
The following "Religions of Asia" section invites members/participants to present a paper at the 2015 SECSOR conference.  
(AAR) Religions of Asia
Themes: (1) In conjunction with the 2015 theme, “Disability,” we solicit proposals on the issue of disabilities in Asian religions in religious texts, traditions, law/practice, ritual, and religious community. (2) A joint session with Philosophy of Religion on “philosophy of religion and religious diversity.”* (3) Place and pilgrimage in Asian religions (a joint session with AAR Religions of Asia and SBL Hebrew Bible/Old Testament) (4) Music in Asian religions. (5) Open call. Send questions and proposals to Lisa Battaglia, Samford University (lbattagl@samford.edu) and Warner Belanger, Georgia College (warner.belanger@gcsu.edu). *For the joint session on religious diversity, please include Nathan Eric Dickman (nedickman@yhc.edu).

Submit  the Proposal Submission Form available on the SECSOR website (http://secsor.org) along with your proposal to the appropriate section chairs by October 6, 2014. Proposals should consist of a 1–2 page description of the presentation.
See the full ad at: http://secsor.org/

Best regards,

Lisa J. Battaglia
Assistant Professor of World Religions
Samford University
800 Lakeshore Drive
Birmingham, AL 35229
Phone: (205) 726-2249
Fax: (205) 726-2535

CFP: The Future Museum: An Asian Perspective


An international conference on 'The Future Museum: an Asian Perspective' is being organized by the Centre for Asian Studies, University of Kelaniya to be held on 28thOctober 2014 at the University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka. Abstracts of papers should be sent before 15th September 2014 and acceptance will be notified case by case at our earliest convenience. Full papers of the accepted abstracts are necessary before 30th September if you wish to be considered it to be included in the conference publication which will be issued during the conference.
Papers on the following themes are welcome:
  •     Conceptual and theoretical issues on the future museums.
  •     Planning of existing museums to cope up with the future.
  •     Issues related to repatriation of museum objects.
  •     Social media, communication and dissemination of knowledge.
  •     Museums for persons of special requirements.
  •     Museums as  ' Soft Power' of international politics.
  •     'Heritage families' and 'House Museums'.
  •     Museums for children and 'Teaching Museums'.
  •     Display, security, maintenance and research in the Digital Age.
  •     Advance techniques and methods of conservation of museum objects.
You may present your paper on any other aspect related to the conference theme. All conference participants should be registered prior to attend the conference. You may ask to pay a nominal registration fee which you can pay at the registration desk. All paper presenters will be provided meals, refreshments and the Conference kit, but we regret that we are not in a position to help you for travelling, accommodation and other expenses incurred due to the conference.
Abstracts, full papers and for all communications please contact Ms. Indrachapa Gunasekara


Prof. Anura Manatunga, Director, Centre for Asian Studies,
University of Kelaniya,
Sri Lanka.
Email: am@kln.ac.lk
Visit the website at http://kln.ac.lk

CFP: Locating Southeast Asian Horror

CALL FOR PAPERS
Plaridel Special Issue
Locating Southeast Asian Horror

Issue editors: Katarzyna Ancuta & Patrick F. Campos

The unprecedented success of Japanese and Korean horror on international markets in the early 2000s increased the demand for the genre from the region, but also set a new standard against which these productions were judged. Encouraged by the enthusiastic reception of (the problematically labeled but widely accepted category) “Asian Horror” by commentators and the global fan community, Southeast Asian national cinemas began to revitalize their local horror genres, and distributors eventually turned to Southeast Asian horror as well.
But contemporary “Southeast Asian Horror” proved to be quite diverse, ranging from those that adapt the same strategy that made J- and K-horror into a global phenomenon, to a great majority of horror films that resisted or spawned its own formula. Many of these films followed local modes of narrative, frequently mixed elements of comedy with horror, introduced stories of supernatural creatures incompatible with the generic hordes of universally acceptable ghosts and monsters, and appreciated a different aesthetics than one usually associated with either Western or East Asian horror film.

There is much to be said about Southeast Asian horror yet until now the genre has mostly eluded the attention of the academic community. This collection is an attempt to fill in the gap. Horror forms a staple part of Southeast Asian cinematic repertoire. As a genre, it is almost exclusively supernatural. This is not surprising, given the region’s rich texture of religiosity, supernatural beliefs, shamanic rituals, and animistic practice. While there is no denying that, at least to a certain extent, Southeast Asian horror has been influenced by Western or, more recently, East Asian horror films, we cannot underestimate the importance of the particular politics, local cultural grounding, and other permutations of Southeast Asian Horror.

With this in mind, this special issue aims to answer a number of questions: Does Southeast Asian horror exist as a separate, recognizable category? How is Southeast Asian horror different from Western or East Asian horror genres? What are the particular political and cultural characteristics of horror films when considered in the context of Southeast Asia or as being Southeast Asian? Are there any similarities or differences between films in the region across national cinemas? What is the current reach of Southeast Asian horror, in terms of international viewership? What are the modes of receiving and appreciating Southeast Asian horror?
We invite contributions of academic articles that can further the discussion of the topic.

Some of the suggested themes are:
  •     Foreign influences on Southeast Asian horror
  •     Transnational horror
  •     Southeast Asian horror narrative structure
  •     Southeast Asian horror sub-genres
  •     Comparative view of horror from Southeast Asian national cinemas
  •     Themes, motifs and locations
  •     Folklore and oral tradition
  •     Rural and urban horror
  •     Haunting and spectrality
  •     Representations of otherness
  •     Representations of gender
  •     Race, class and ethnicity issues
  •     Political dimension of Southeast Asian horror
  •     Cultural dimension of Southeast Asian horror
  •     Southeast Asian horror audiences
Manuscripts should be submitted via email to plarideljournal@gmail.com, on or before 1 DECEMBER 2014.
For more information about Plaridel see: http://plarideljournal.org/

CFP: Pentecostalism and Charismatic Christianity in Southeast Asia: Church - Nation - World

Call for Paper - IAHR (Erfurt, Germany, 23-29 August 2015http://www.iahr2015.org)
Panel: Pentecostalism and Charismatic Christianity in Southeast Asia:  Church – Nation – World

In the last decades, studies on Pentecostal/Charismatic movements have become a well established research field. This development mirrors the rising visibility of Pentecostal/Charismatic Christians in the public sphere – may it be via media, public prayer rallies and intercessory marches in mega-cities, through active candidacies in local and national political settings, as well as through community and social engagement. As an effect of the same global Pentecostal discourse that posits believers as vehicles of the Full Gospel to their immediate surrounding and the world, others have opted to stay out of a deeper worldly engagement and found new meaning in concentrating on individual transformation, holiness, evangelization, and building their own congregation, which, in turn, gives them a higher profile in the public sphere as well.
Given newer geopolitical developments in the Pacific Rim, it is surprising that studies on Pentecostal/Charismatic movements in Southeast Asia have received only limited attention.
  • What are the ways Pentecostal/Charismatic believers in this region engage and situate themselves within their local societies and in the world?
  • What global networks are tapped, endorsed and criticized?
  • How do they construe their identity, their notions of church and their role in the world and what does it mean to them?
  • How are these articulations framed by themes, theologies and socio-political discourses and material conditions prevalent in their local contexts?
  • How do Pentecostal/Charismatic Christians negotiate the limits these frames and material constraints put on them?
This panel invites scholars of Pentecostal/Charismatic Christianity in Southeast Asia to present research and case studies that interrogate the role of these religious movements in contemporary Southeast Asian societies pertaining to the aforementioned questions.

If you would like to contribute to the panel, please send us an abstract of app. 150 words (deadline September 10, 2014) by email toGiovanni.Maltese@wts.uni-heidelberg.de or to katja.rakow@asia-europe.uni-heidelberg.
Giovanni Maltese
Doctoral Research Fellow
Religionswissenschaft und Interkulturelle Theologie
Theologische Fakultät, Universität Heidelberg
Kisselgasse 1, 69117 Heidelberg