CFP: Religion, Ethnicity and Economic Performance: New Concepts and Empirical Applications

Call for Papers

Religion, Ethnicity and Economic Performance:
New Concepts and Empirical Applications

March 5-6, 2015

How do religion, ethnicity and economic performance relate to each other?  How is religious or ethnic affiliation reflected in economic performance, and vice versa?  Is there any connection between the three at all?  New historical research has shown that secularization remains a vague phenomenon and religion has not lost its impact on social and economic processes.  Similarly, sociological and economic studies have emphasized the continuous economic importance of religious factors through the present day.  Economic performance of religious and ethnic minority groups often vary greatly from the majority population.  This phenomenon raises fundamental questions of how religion and ethnicity influence economic performance in different societies, at different times.

More specifically, it can be argued that religious and ethnic affiliation affects social norms, institutions, social networks, as well as cultural practices such as business practices (e.g. Islamic banking) or the formation of trust. In a wider sense, it also provokes more complex questions of how the experience of migration, discrimination, inclusion and exclusion, and in-group dynamics shape economic orders and business cultures of ethnic/religious groups.

This workshop aims to bring together and discuss research from a historical, social science and cultural studies perspective, guided by the following overarching questions:

-       How does religious and ethnic affiliation influence economic performance, for example by shaping social and cultural norms or institutions?

-       How does economic practice affect the cohesion and historical development of religious and ethnic communities?

-       What theoretical, methodological and empirical insights can we learn from an interdisciplinary approach to the study of religion, ethnicity and economic performance?

We encourage both new empirical studies and theoretical concepts from different fields of research (History, Sociology, Jewish Studies, Theology, Anthropology, Economics of Religion, etc.).  In particular, we are interested in case studies about different religious/ethnic minority groups and their economic history, e.g. Jews, Armenians, Catholics, Protestant denominations, Roma and Sinti, Chinese, Mexicans, etc..  It is our expressed interest to explore the raised questions with an interdisciplinary approach.

Applications from senior, postdoctoral and advanced doctoral level scholars are welcome.

The workshop will be held in Berlin on March 5-6, 2015.

Stefanie Fischer, PhD, stefanie.maria.fischer@uni-potsdam.de, Center for Jewish Studies Berlin-Brandenburg/Potsdam University, Germany
Martin Lutz, PhD, martin.lutz@hu-berlin.de, History Department, Humboldt University Berlin, Germany
Ariane Wessel, M.A.,ariane.wessel@geschichte.hu-berlin.de
History Department, Humboldt University Berlin, Germany


Please send a short abstract (maximun 300 words) and CV (maximum one page) by March 31, 2014 to: stefanie.fischer@orinst.ox.ac.uk

Call for Applications: Language, Science and Aesthetics International Summer Academy

INTERNATIONAL SUMMER ACADEMY
FOR DOCTORAL AND POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHERS

As a member-institute of the Max Weber Foundation - German Humanities Institutes Abroad, the Orient-Institut Beirut along with the Forum Transregionale Studien would like to invite scholars from the fields of Literature, Philology, History, Art History, Cultural Anthropology, History of Science and Musicology to apply for an international Summer Academy that will convene from 11 to 19 September 2014 in Beirut on the topic:

Language, Science and Aesthetics - Articulations of Subjectivity and Objectivity in the Modern Middle East, North Africa, South and Southeast Asia

PROGRAMME

This Summer Academy offers early-career scholars an opportunity to follow up on the debates about modernity, its preconditions and its aftermath by focusing on the multifarious processes and often unique ways in which societies outside Europe have adopted, translated, rejected or produced the global, the modern and tradition since the seventeenth century. It places a specific focus on the notions of subjectivity and objectivity, the individual and the subject, as key notions of modernity, and addresses systems and practices of knowledge production, communication and authority as they developed in the region that extends from Morocco to Indonesia. The Summer Academy engages with the debates on the writing of a more global history by paying particular attention to changing textual and aesthetic practices and language policies.

Subjectivity and objectivity are to be approached as discursive practices which are intrinsically linked to each other: subjective formations (individual reason, freedom, choice, affect, etc.) are inseparable from the supposedly objective categories (science, knowledge, law etc.) through which the world is constructed and experienced. These notions are closely related to the question of how we perceive and look at things. The distinction of both notions and their co-constitutive relationship is reflected in both science - with its strong connotations of rationality and objectivity - and aesthetics/art, which is associated with intuition and subjectivity. Along with language - which is as much a medium as it is an autonomous domain of linguistic and aesthetic study - these three interrelated domains describe a broad range of possible intellectual and sensory activities and thus reflect a part of social reality which can be cognitively grasped.

The Summer Academy aims to provide a framework for research investigating the discursive processes through which the subjective and objective appear as separate and separable categories, emerging from textual practices or from analytical approaches to them. It thereby examines the actors/agents, the content, nature and sites of such articulations as well as the ways in which they become institutionalized, i.e. 'canonized'. This dynamic field of inquiry has an inherent political dimension, as it questions the institutional frameworks, policies and interests which inform these discursive practices and thereby examines conventional ascriptions of agency within modern state formations such as (colonial) empires or nation-states.

The Summer Academy therefore aims to adopt a transregional perspective by looking at transfers and translations, resistances and counter-movements of linguistic, scientific and aesthetic practices, and the circulation of concepts and ideas within the region stretching from contemporary Morocco to Indonesia as well as between these societies and "the West".

The Summer Academy revolves around three main axes of debate:

Language
While in the regions under investigation language has long been a primary field of scholarly inquiry, it has emerged as a central trope for the remaking of the self in the name of modernity. The project of ordering, collecting and reshaping language was undertaken in many language communities. In which way did the work on language and translation relate to the emergence of modern identitarian categories? What kinds of new boundaries were created by processes of canonization, and what kind of texts were rendered 'homeless' by the choice of a particular tradition? We think it is important to link research on these fields of intellectual production to their socio-historical contexts for a comparative study of the emergence of language as an object of pioneering scientific inquiry and a renewed medium of articulation. Potential themes of inquiry are, for example:
- The opposition between orality and literacy, vernaculars and written languages
- The 'grammatization' of language and the collection of lexicons as well as modern encyclopedias and pedagogic texts
- The evolution of new concepts as well as neologies and phrases

Science

Modernity and science are intractably linked in multiple constitutive ways, and both notions are connected to the emergence of the autonomous subject and its historical becoming. In recent years, the history of science has developed and refined a genealogical approach of embodied practices, whereby science is not a transparent concept but one imbricated in its discursive, institutional and social sites of production, transmission and consumption. It might therefore be interesting to explore continuities and losses in the modes of knowledge production. Attention will thus be given to the multitudinous and always-situated understanding of the concepts and practices of knowledge production itself. Broad questions for exploration include:
- Which institutional sites (laboratories, universities, archives etc.) gave scientific discourses their authority? And how did they compete with, transform or supersede other spaces of scientific production?
- How are different conjunctions of science's empirical, methodological and theoretical dimensions generative of modern knowledge?
- Under what conditions did particular theories and disciplines become institutionalized, and with what social and political consequences?

Aesthetics
Aesthetics in this context is understood as a configuration of aesthetic practices extending to the reception of art works and evolving theoretical reflection. This section is concerned with the question of whether the transformations that took place from the seventeenth century onwards led to an 'aesthetic turn' that resulted in new perceptions, practices and social realities constitutive of an increasingly educated middle class. It is thus an enquiry into the actors of change, into concepts and modes of articulation together with their institutional and technical prerequisites. To what extent do subjective approaches (i.e. gaze, perception, taste, interest, aesthetic experience) and the emergence of new artistic forms and practices as well as perceptions of reality affect the development of categories (i.e. history of art, canonization of knowledge) and of institutional sites in terms of academies or art schools? Possible questions researchers may engage with are:
- What are the aesthetic and linguistic references used for the description of artistic practices and aesthetic experience?
- What are the parameters for the forming of individual taste and an aesthetic self and how are they related to the notion of the subject?
- What is the relationship between art and culture?


CONDITIONS OF APPLICATION AND PROCEDURE

21 doctoral and postdoctoral scholars from different countries and academic backgrounds will be given the opportunity to present and discuss their current research in an international and multidisciplinary context. Participants will receive a stipend covering travel and accommodation. The programme is aimed at doctoral and postdoctoral researchers in Literature, Philology, History, Art History, Cultural Anthropology, History of Science and Musicology who wish to present their ongoing projects in a comparative perspective in relation to the questions raised above. The researchers? work should be clearly relevant to the themes of the Summer Academy; transregional comparative approaches are especially encouraged. The working language will be English. The application should likewise be in English and consist of
- a curriculum vitae
- a three to five-page outline of the project the applicant is currently working on, with a brief summary thereof
- the names of two university faculty members who can serve as referees (no letters of recommendation required)

sent by e-mail as one pdf file or in one word document.

The application should be received no later than April 15 and should be addressed to:

summeracademy@orient-institut.org

Contact: Dr. Monique Bellan
Orient-Institut Beirut
Zokak el-Blat, Rue Hussein Beyhum
P.O. Box 11-2988, Beirut - Lebanon
Tel +961 1 359 181
Fax +961 1 359 176

INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK

The Summer Academy forms part of the strategic cooperation between the Forum Transregionale Studien and the Max Weber Foundation - German Humanities Institutes Abroad. It is supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Bundesministerium fur Bildung und Forschung, BMBF).

The Berlin-based Forum Transregionale Studien is a research organization that promotes the internationalization of research in the humanities and social sciences. The Forum provides scope for collaboration among researchers with different regional and disciplinary perspectives and appoints researchers from all over the world as Fellows.

The Orient-Institut Beirut (OIB) is a German academic research institute focusing on the Arab world and the wider Middle East. Based in Beirut since the 1960s, it conducts and supports research in the humanities and social sciences. The systematic study of primary sources and cooperation with regional actors and institutions provides a common conceptual framework for the institute's research activities.

For more information please visit:
www.forum-transregionale-studien.de
www.orient-institut.org
www.maxweberstiftung.de

CFP: Awareness of the Past Among Khmer People and their Neighbours: Linguistic, Historical, and Ethnological Approaches

THE AWARENESS OF THE PAST AMONG KHMER PEOPLE AND THEIR NEIGHBOURS.

LINGUISTIC, HISTORICAL AND ETHNOLOGICAL APPROACHES

I. Call for papers

(Abstracts submission deadline: May 1, 2014)

Linguistics, History and Ethnology - three of the disciplines practised in Khmer studies - have attempted in ad hoc fashion to describe the perceptions of the past, but too often they have done so in terms of “what is missing”. For example, the fact that the Khmer language hardly uses any clearly recognisable temporal markers might affect the perception of duration. Likewise, the scarce and often inaccurate narrative documents could imply a reduced historical awareness. Moreover, villagers’ poor genealogical awareness, sustained by chthonian cults harking back to a mythical founder-ancestor, could be the sign of a memory deficit. This even extends to the hyperbolic image of Angkor in the consciousness of the Khmers, this "burden of history", which has been described as the result of foreign involvement, in this case French.

The value of these works, both diverse and scattered, stems from their pioneering nature in identifying a specific relationship to the past. However, most of them are still in thrall to an ethnocentric approach, an approach which it is possible to overcome today. Instead of employing grammatical categories drawn from the experience of Indo-European languages, we will prefer to study the linguistic units in the diversity of their uses and semantic values – of which the aspectival uses (perfective versus imperfective) are only one part – in order to gain a more subtle understanding of the units traditionally identified as temporal markers. Instead of lamenting the scant historical value of the sources, we will be able to uncover a “texture of history” in genres that seem at first glance not to be historical by identifying the narrative techniques used in them to refer to the past. Instead of the simple analysis of the foundation myths, we will opt for a comparativist study of rites and the reuse of the objects and monuments, which constitute a host of memory traces betokening an active awareness of the past.

More generally, this symposium calls for an in-depth consideration of the experience of the past, based, as far as possible, on recent research outcomes, both Orientalist and Europeanist. Since representations of the past cannot be understood outside of their defining environments, special attention will be paid to the materiality of the Indochinese world within which the Khmer people live, be it sites constructed through narration (rivers and ponds; forests and

trees; knolls and mounts; toponyms) or objects showing the "durability of the world" (temples, ritual objects, oral texts, etc.). These traces, which are often perceived as being those of deceased ancestors, link temporal perspectives to one another and thus become the medium for the successive development of representations of the past on the basis of present events and expectations of the future.

Practical Guidelines :

The Archaeology Department of the Royal University of Fine Arts in Phnom Penh, in collaboration with the Structure and Dynamics of Languages Research Unit (SeDyL - UMR 8202 - INALCO/IRD/CNRS) and the Exchanges and Training for Khmer Studies Society (Association d'Echanges et de Formation pour les Etudes Khmères), intends to host a panel of

specialists in order to explore representations of the past within the Khmer and, more broadly, the Indochinese, world, pursuing four approaches which are not moreover necessarily mutually exclusive:

1- A linguistic approach: the linguistic units that can be used to construct the values of perfectiveness and the past in the Khmer language; the markers of repetition and anaphora; the lexical field of memory and forgetting in the Khmer language; the study of words as traces of an historical past.

2- An historical approach: representations of the past through textual sources and the realia of ancient and modern Cambodia (from the 6th to the 19th Century); the awareness and use of genealogical bonds in the struggle for power (circa 1863-1993).

3- An ethnological approach: the representation of the past through myths, rites and the remains of temples, which supply a host of religious bridges to ancient Cambodia.

4- A comparativist approach within the framework of the aforementioned three disciplines; the past of the Khmers as seen against that of the peoples of the Indochinese Peninsula (the perception of the Khmers’ past by the peoples of the Indochinese Peninsula and vice versa; representations of the past among the peoples of the Indochinese Peninsula).

II. Proposals for papers

A summary of the communication (1 page) including the title of  the article, name and surname, associated establishment, e-mail address should be submitted along with a short resume before May 1, 2014 to the following address: colloque2014@free.fr. On the advice of the Scientific Committee, the Organisation Committee reserves the right to retain or reject proposals, within a period of one month after that deadline. The language of the conference is French-English; the speaking time allotted to each participant will be 30 minutes (25 minutes for the oral presentation followed by 5 minutes for questions).

III. Deadlines

May 1, 2014: Abstracts submission deadline 

June 1, 2014: Notification of acceptance 

November 30, 2014: Full papers submission deadline

IV. Invited speakers and Organisation Committee

Invited speakers

- Denis CROUZET

Professor of Modern History, the University of Paris-Sorbonne, Head of the Roland Mousnier Research Centre.

- Charles MALAMOUD

Directeur Research Director, Indianist anthropologist, Ecole pratiques des Hautes-Etudes.

- Annie MONTAUT

Professor of Hindi and Linguistics, SeDyL-INALCO.

Organisation committee

- BONG Sovath (RUFA’s president) - Joseph THACH (INALCO- SeDyL)

- Nasir ABDOUL-CARIME (AEFEK) - Grégory MIKAELIAN (CNRS-CASE)

V. Website

For more details, visit the symposium website: http://cambodge2014.free.fr

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

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 1 May 2014. The review process will be completed by 1 June 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 1 September 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 (omri.bassewitchfrenkel@mail.mcgill.ca).

Omri Bassewitch Frenkel
Indian Ocean World Centre
Peterson Hall
3460 McTavish Street, Room 100
Montreal, Quebec, H3A 0E6
Canada
Email: omri.bassewitchfrenkel@mail.mcgill.ca
Visit the website at http://indianoceanworldcentre.com/iowcconf2014

CFP: Globalization and Health: East and West

CALL FOR PROPOSALS

Flying University of Transnational Humanities (FUTH):
Globalization and Health: East and West
June 22-26, 2014, University of Pittsburgh

Each year beginning in 2010, the Flying University of Transnational Humanities (FUTH) has gathered graduate students and young scholars in the humanities and social sciences for a summer school centering on presentations by leading scholars and sharing of information and perspectives by all present. The Flying University of Transnational Humanities, based at Hanyang University, Seoul, was brought into existence through the energies of Professor Jie-Hyun Lim, director of the Research Institute for Comparative History and Culture.

During the week of June 23-26, the University of Pittsburgh will host the 2014 FUTH meeting, on Globalization & Health: East and West. The summer school will address globalization in its socio-cultural and health dimensions. It centers on the East  the various regions of Asia in two ways. First, it focuses on the nature and impact of globalization and health in the East, present and past, tracing the nature of globalization in the region of densest population. Second, it focuses on the impact of Eastern processes of globalization and health on other regions in the world, notably Europe, the Americas, and Africa.

The program is to include lectures, discussions, and panels of papers presented by participants. Distinguished speakers include Edmund Burke III (Univ. Cal-Santa Cruz),  Rila Mukherjee (Hyderabad Univ.), Naoki Sakai (Cornell Univ.), Joanna Waley-Cohen (New York Univ.-Shanghai), James L.A. Webb (Colby College), Christine Yano (Univ. of Hawaii), and others TBA. FUTH 2014 will include up to 40 participants from around the world. Conference facilities, including food and lodging, are on the university campus.

We invite applications from graduate students and junior scholars in all disciplines. Prospective participants should send proposals that include a title, a 500-word abstract, a short (2-page) CV, and names of two referees to worldhis@pitt.edu by February 28, 2014.  Proposals should include a clear topic and may include methods, temporal organization, and reference to any links between the proposal and broader global, historical, and especially interdisciplinary approaches and questions. Participants will be selected for paper presentations or as discussants in transdisciplinary workshops. Those admitted will be notified in mid-March..

FUTH Sponsoring Universities: Hanyang University, University of Leipzig, St. Andrews University, University of Pittsburgh, and University of Tampere.

FUTH Steering Committee: Jie-Hyun Lim and Sunghee Hong (Hanyang Univ.); Matthias Middell and Frank Hadler (Leipzig Univ.); Patrick Manning and Molly Warsh (Univ. of Pittsburgh); Konrad Lawson and Bernhard Struck (St. Andrews Univ.); Pertti Haapala (Univ. of Tampere).

FUTH 2014 at University of Pittsburgh: Co-directors Patrick Manning and Urmi Engineer. Sponsoring units: World History Center (www.worldhistory.pitt.edu), Global Studies Center (www.ucis.pitt.edu/global/), Humanities Center (www.humcenter.pitt.edu),


Urmi Engineer
Postdoctoral Associate
3702 WW Posvar Hall
Department of History
University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, PA 15260
Office: 4500 WW Posvar Hall
Email: ufe1@pitt.edu

Email: ufe1@pitt.edu

CFP: Crossroad Asia Conference: Crossroads Studies: Mobilities, Immobilities and the Issue of Positionality for Rethinking Area Studies

Call for Papers – Crossroads Asia Conference at Center for Development Research, Bonn, Germany,November 27-28, 2014

Crossroads Studies: Mobilities, Immobilities and the Issue of Positionality for Rethinking Area Studies

Deadline for Paper Submissions: April 30, 2014

The research network Crossroads Asia: Conflict, Migration, Development, funded by the Area Studies Initiative of the German Ministry of Education and Research since March 2011 questions the validity of the conventional ‘world regions’ of Central and South Asia as defining bases for Area Studies as conceptualized, organized and taught at German universities. The increasing mobility of people, goods and ideas along Asia’s crossroads – so the networks assumption – does not  justify a division of the world in territorially fixed ‘areas’, defined by certain character traits to be found on the ‘inside’, but instead demands for concepts that take these dynamisms into account. The network chose Norbert Elias’ concept of figurations to generate knowledge transgressing conventional areas and brought together researchers trained in Central, South Asian and Iranian Studies with geographers, political scientists, sociologists, linguists and social anthropologists.

The here proposed conference on ‘Crossroads Studies’ as research programme aims to bring together the empirical research conducted by the network members with empirical, conceptual and methodological debates on the rethinking of Area Studies – from Asia just as much as from other parts of the world. It is the explicit aim to identify several empirically-based common lines of thought and emic patterns of  defining socio-cultural and physical spaces relevant for the rethinking of disciplinary constructs of those, namely for Area Studies.

Our research into the everyday lives of people living between Eastern Iran and Northern India, as well as the Aral Sea and Western China strongly indicates that different mobilities, just as much as immobilities, and thus different types of borders and boundaries are negotiated, take on shape, come into being or are deconstructed again in and as a consequence of human communication and interaction processes.

The notion of ‘Crossroads Studies’ therefore refers not only to the study of different types of mobility and immobility along some of Asia’s crossroads and the reflection of the researcher’s own position in this. But in addition it refers to the conscious reflection of these border/boundary negotiations as processes of the communicative construction of socio-cultural and physical spaces at the crossroads of Area Studies and ‘systematic’ disciplines. We thus locate ourselves, ‘Crossroads Studies’, in the centre of what Knorr-Cetina (1999: 12) calls “the disunity of science” and “the diversity of the manufacturing systems from which truth effects arise”. It is this diversity – with reference to ‘systematic’ disciplines, Area Studies and geographic regions of the world that we hope to nurture in this conference on rethinking of Area Studies, by studying the dynamisms and the blockades of today’s world.

We thus would like to encourage the submission of innovative papers related to the rethinking of Area Studies from any disciplinary or Area Studies perspective as well as of empirical and/or conceptual nature. For submission please send a max. 2 page long abstract and a short CV to Dr. Anna-Katharina Hornidge (Mail: crossroads@uni-bonn.de) by latest April 30^th. Selected speakers will be expected to submit a full draft of the conference paper by October 15, 2014. The conference organisers will cover the travel expenses of all invited speakers.

CFP: Technologies of relatedness: Different practices of intimacy in Asia

Call for papers: Panel 040: Technologies of relatedness: Different practices of intimacy in Asia, EASA (European Association of Social Anthropologists), Tallinn University, Estonia, 31 July - 3 August, 2014

Convenor: Roberta Zavoretti (Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology)
Discussant: Janelle Lamoreaux (University of Cambridge)

Short Abstract

This panel explores the connections between technologies of the self and the emergence of particular modes of relatedness in the context of Asia's increasingly liberalised economies and societies.

Long Abstract

This panel explores the connections between technologies of the self and the emergence of particular modes of relatedness in the context of Asia's increasingly liberalised economies and societies.

'Technologies of the self' can be interpreted broadly, ranging from material ways in which individuals modify or treat the physical body to more Foucauldian notions of self-discipline and regulation. 'Relatedness' indicates those modes of sociality that provide social actors with a horizon of development, as well as with a sense of identity. We conceptualise self-regulatory efforts as practices that require constant, everyday commitment from the part of social actors, and are therefore pivotal to the fostering of relatedness: the building of a shared past, present and future.

We are specifically interested in examining new ways in which social actors practice intimacy in the context of Asian countries' wider neoliberal economic and political changes. On the one hand, states and markets increasingly reward those particular forms of collaboration and connection which validate entrepreneurialism and transactional relations; on the other, these institutions need to rhetorically reconcile market logics with other, often contradictory, discourses of morality and intimacy. The panel interrogates the ways in which different social actors deal with these discursive tensions and the reasons behind their different trajectories. In some cases, social practices aim at mediating between different, apparently divergent, discourses of intimacy and relatedness. In other instances, the presence of competing discourses provides social actors with a space for re-negotiating the boundaries of hegemonic models of intimacy.

The deadline for paper submission is 27/02/2014.

Please submit your abstract proposals through the EASA website.

CFP: Reimagining Indonesia: Ideals, Actions, and Challenges

REIMAGINING INDONESIA:  IDEALS, ACTIONS, AND CHALLENGES

APRIL 11-12 2014, YALE UNIVERSITY
HOSTED BY THE YALE INDONESIA FORUM

CALL FOR PAPERS

2014 will witness the emergence of a new national leader from the upcoming Presidential election in Indonesia. Once again, the question of development has been bought to the fore, upon which hope of national progress rested. Recognizing the importance of a visionary and systematic transformation, the Indonesian people look forward to seeing better management of national resources, which should be liberated from the grip of elite interests and dedicated instead toward the greater good of public sovereignty.

Rising above the excitement of the national elections, the 2014 Yale Indonesian Forum Spring Dialogue seeks to revitalize discussions on how local and regional cultures could invigorate considerations on the development policies of the new regime. What are the viable alternatives for future development in Indonesia? What has been missing from the discussions of the new leadership in Indonesia and the future of the nation and how the nation is re-imagined? What might be other modes of thinking, inquiry, knowledge, practices, and spaces of explorations, development, and potentials available in local and regional areas in Indonesia that will enable us to reimagine Indonesia? How can the new visions of Indonesia be realized? How can the new visions mobilize and unite the diverse cultures and interests across the archipelago? What are the challenges lying in the broad spectrum of cultural, social, political and ecological variability?

Endowed with rich resources and cultural diversity, Indonesia does not face a paucity of ideas to tackle the challenges arising from resource mismanagement. The effort to re-imagine a vibrant and sustainable Indonesia will depend on a deep grasp of existing problems, the quality of the vision and the commitment of substantive implementation.

In alignment with this aim and theme, the Yale Indonesian Forum (YIF) and Cor­nell Indonesian Association (CIA) invite paper submissions for their 11th Northeastern Con­ference on Indonesia. We welcome submissions from graduate and undergraduate stu­dents from any disciplines at any stage engaged in original research on Indonesia related to the themes highlighted above. While these themes will certainly be highlighted in the program, proposals not directly related to the themes above are also explicitly encouraged.

The program will begin on FRIDAY, APRIL 11TH, 2014 at Yale University, New Haven, CT with an interactive 2014 YIF SPRING DIALOGUE featuring 3 invited scholars with various areas of expertise, who have researched and written extensively about Indonesia. Attendees are encouraged to join the dialogue. There will be a moderator assisting the dialogue.

ON SATURDAY, APRIL 12TH, 2014, the discussion continues through the 11th northeastern YIF-CIA CONFERENCE ON INDONESIA with a keynote address by Professor R. William Liddle, The Ohio State University and paper presentations by students.

Please contact organizers at yifconference2014@gmail.com  if you have any question(s) regarding the dialogue and the conference. The participants are encouraged to seek funding from their home institutions. The conference committee will provide accommodation for selected contributors.

Please submit your proposal in .doc or .docx file only. The proposal is limited to 350 words. Please include in your proposal the description of your project, the research questions, perspective(s) or theoretical framework, methods, substantiated conclusions/tentative key findings, and the significance of the work. In addition to your proposal, please provide a short reference (at the end of your proposal), situating your work.

PLEASE SEND YOUR PROPOSAL TO yifconference2014@gmail.com  and provide your

 -name (and co-pre­senters (if any))
 -institutional affilia­tion(s)
 -status (undergraduate or grad­uate)
 -title of the paper/presentation
-email address
 -phone number with­in the body of the email.

Proposal Submission Deadline:

MARCH 14, 2014 AT 12 A.M. EST

Notification of Acceptance:
by March 22, 2014 (via email)

Summer School: Politics of Near Future: Possibilities, Prophecies, Prognoses

Summer School: "Politics of Near Future: Possibilities, Prophecies, Prognoses" (July 27-31, 2014, Heidelberg, Germany), Asia and Europe in a Global Context Cluster of Excellence.
*****************************************************************
The Cluster of Excellence "Asia and Europe in a Global Context" welcomes applications for its Summer School 2014 "Politics of Near Futures: Possibilities, Prophecies, Prognoses." It will take place from July 27 to 31, 2014, at Heidelberg University in Germany.

This year's Summer School will explore historical and contemporary ways of making sense of the future and bringing ideas of worlds-to-come into the spheres of politics, science and cultural production. As the world of the
21st Century is shaking at all ends, deliberations about humanity's possible near futures have regained heightened urgency and importance across the registers of politics, science and religion. The Summer School will study transcultural ideas of human and non-human near futures. That is, futures that are imagined by narrating contemporary potentialities into the future: As prophecy, estimate, prognosis, demographic planning, extrapolation or statistical calculation.

The Summer School addresses graduate students in humanities and social sciences with an interest in transcultural ideas of the end of times and ideas of possible futures. It is designed as an academic programme, which combines insights in the research of renowned experts in the form of lectures with discussions with fellow participants. The invited scholars represent a wide range of backgrounds and share an interest in engaging in
critical dialogue across regional and disciplinary boundaries. The confirmed speakers include Michel Garenne (Institut Pasteur, Paris), Jennie Chapman (University of Hull), Eben Kirksey (University of New South Wales) and from Heidelberg University Anthony Santoro, Sophie Roche, Katja Rakow, Kerstin von Lingen and Daniel Muenster.

In addition to the academic program, a range of excursions and leisure activities in and around the city of Heidelberg will be offered.

The application form can be found on our website and is to be sent together with a letter of motivation by May 31. For more information see http://www.asia-europe.uni-heidelberg.de/en/summerschool/.

Please circulate this information among potentially interested graduate students.