Workshop Invitation: Temples, Rituals and the Transformation of Transnational Networks: Chinese Communities in Southeast Asia

Five-year project on Temples, Rituals and the Transformation of Transnational Networks: Chinese communities in Southeast Asia. This will be funded by the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity in Göttingen.

We are inviting applications to participate in a workshop on the topic , to be held in Singapore on 18 October. The application would consist of a CV and a brief paper (5-10 pages, on the topic of the project). Deadline: 1 October.

If your application would be acceptable we would like you to prepare a 20 minute presentation at a workshop on 18 October in Singapore on the emerging roles of Chinese temples within transnational networks within the region you are studying. The workshop Is also meant to find potential candidates for a postdoctoral fellowship.

Workshop Statement for the Preparatory Workshop on Temples, Rituals and the Transformation of Transnational Networks: Chinese communities in Southeast Asia.

Temples, rituals and the transformation of transnational networks:

an ethnographic study of the revival of the interconnections between Southeast Asian Overseas Chinese temples, native-place and common surname associations and their founding temples and ancestral halls in coastal Southeast China.

               For six centuries, a vast overseas Southeast Chinese trading empire spread from the coast of China all around the coastal ports of Southeast Asia, replacing the earlier established Arab trading networks that had extended all the way from the Gulf of Arabia to the port of Quanzhou in Fujian, China. The new Fujian Minnan (Hokkien speaking) coastal trading empire was built up through the extension overseas of several social and cultural institutions which structured local society in the Minnan region. These included temples dedicated to regional deities and lineages, native place association and brotherhoods, and a distinctive form of Chinese capitalism. This network expanded in size and complexity in the 19^th century, when migrants speaking Cantonese, Teochow, Hainanese, and other dialects established their own communities and institutions in Southeast Asia. 

               Over the past 30 years, this entire network, which evolved differently in the distinct countries of Southeast Asia, has turned its energies back towards China – sending substantial remittances to family members back home, and investing tens of millions of dollars in factories, schools, hospitals, and other facilities in their home towns and villages in Southeast China.  They have also invested millions of dollars for the reconstruction of their founding temples, ancestral halls and Buddhist monasteries, many of which were destroyed or damaged during the Cultural Revolution.  Beyond paying for repairs, they have also subsidized rituals and religious processions. What is more, many Chinese overseas business leaders have returned to participate in village rituals, sharing their ritual knowledge and often introducing ritual changes that took place within Southeast Asia.

               Across China, and especially in Southeast China, over a million temples have been rebuilt. This restoration of these localized but simultaneously transnational cultural networks is a major phenomenon in world history, but it has scarcely been studied. Inside the Chinese temples in the ports of Southeast Asia were the huiguan (the native place merchant associations), which handled the business of the community. This project seeks to map the spread of these temple networks across Southeast Asia, and to examine the ways in which these networks have been revitalized in the past 30 years.  These flows of capital, local ritual knowledge, trade linkages, and cultural ties present unique features that can enrich the theoretical understanding of transnational networks.

               In this project five research teams will conduct ethnographic research over five years in sites across Southeast Asia (South China, Vietnam, Burma, Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Singapore). The research team will meet in annual workshops, leading to a final interdisciplinary conferences, in which new research findings and new theoretical insights will be developed into monographs and edited volumes. GIS maps of the network, with linked image databases and textual information, will be developed into an open, public, interactive and searchable website to allow stakeholders and the interested public to access information on the network. The project will reveal an unexpectedly complex and heterogeneous dimension of China’s interaction with Southeast Asia, beyond simplistic and nationalistic models of the spread of Chinese “soft power”.  

               This project will result in  several volumes of focused ethnographies on specific links in the Chinese temple network in Southeast Asia, centering on the role of ritual in bringing the community together and fostering a wide range of interactions including business dealings within closed groups, generation of trust through collective participation in and funding of rites and processions, collective expression of “Chinese” identity, and the range of interactions with surrounding communities and political agencies.  These studies will provide new understandings of the inner workings of the most central institutions in Overseas Chinese life, the Chinese temples, and explore the rise of Chinese self-identification within evolving Chinese communities across Southeast Asia.  The sites for focused ethnographies will include Chinese temples in Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Myanmar and the Philippines.  Issues that will be studied include the returned Chinese in Vietnam, and new assertions of Chinese identity through the building of large temples and huge statues of deities, large-scale processions in Indonesia and Thailand and Vietnam.  Other themes will include the development of unique cults to local deities in Southeast Asia such as the Nine Emperor cult in Thailand (Phuket Vegetarian festival) and the cults to Lin Guniang in Pattani and Zheng He in Indonesia. In addition, following the method of multi-sited ethnography, researchers will explore the transnational networks that developed out of specific temples and lineages in “qiaoxiang (Chinese overseas) villages” in Fujian and Guangdong by visiting their branch temples and lineage halls situated in several ports across Southeast Asia.  The project will thus explore the broad range of activities and functions of the Chinese temple network in Southeast Asia. This project will give policy makers, businessmen and scholars new insight into current developments in the South China sea, while deepening historical and ethnographic understandings of the region.

Anticipated results of Research Project :

By the end of October 2014, identify four or five individuals to lead research projects in Singapore/Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines and China.

By end of Aug. 2015, K. Dean completes essays on Putian networks and second overview essay on Singapore temples and their links back to China.

By end of 2015 receive preliminary reports from Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, and China (Hokkien qiaoxiang). 

End of 2016 receive preliminary ethnographies from these four areas, and preliminary reports from Philippines

End of 2017: final reports (monographs) from 4 sites; preliminary ethnographies from Philippines

End of 2018: second ethnographic monograph from 4 sites; ethnography from Philippines.

End of 2019: Comparative monograph on Chinese temple networks in Southeast Asia.

Professor Kenneth Dean (McGill)

Professor Peter van der Veer (Max Planck, Göttingen)

CFP: Wars, Memories and Cities: Relationships among wars, cities, and memories in twentieth century Asian literature

2015 ACLA Call for papers: 

250-word abstracts and short CV. by Sept 2014; Yu Min Claire Chen (yumchen@umail.iu.edu)
At the turning of the twentieth century, with the rapid rise of modern industrial nations utilizing military power and sea exploration, the east encountered the west more fully than ever before. Within the backdrop of modernization, globalization, internal strife and international wars followed by colonization among nations; competition, conflict and influences across nations became evident. Social, economic structure, and traditional values had been confronted, challenged, and overturned. The panel solicits papers to explore literary works from the list below:

• The impacts of international/ internal wars, such as life changing events, changes of values, identities, languages. Perspectives from different nations on the same war.
• The destruction and construction of cities. City as a symbol of loss, nostalgia toward the past, uncertainties toward the future, decadence, energy. City as a space of heaven/ infernal, a space that conjures up the past in ruins, making stories and dreams turn real. 
• Tragedy, trauma, and memories between the collective and the individual.  Different literary genres that depict narratives of memories.

CFP: The 12th Northeast Conference on Indonesia

Deadline for submissions: September 14, 2014

Notification of Acceptance: September 21, 2014

Date of Conference: October 25, 2014

Cornell Indonesian Association invites submission of abstracts for the 12th Northeast Conference on Indonesia hosted jointly with the Yale Indonesian Forum. We welcome abstracts for oral presentation on Indonesian studies for these four areas of study:

1.     Science and Technology

2.     Sociology, Anthropology and History

3.     Economics and Politics

4.     Language, Arts, Culture and Religion

Abstracts should be submitted in English and should be no more than 500 words. Authors may submit no more than one individual and one joint (co-authored) abstract. All abstracts will be submitted to blind peer reviews by a committee of graduate students of the areas of study. To submit an abstract, please send it in a PDF file to: cia-conference@cornell.edu with the title of your paper as the name of the file. The abstract should not include author’s name and affiliation.

Each presenter will have 20 minutes for presentation and 10 minutes for question and answer session. Presentation can be in English or Indonesian but not both of them. Should you decide to present in English, you should support your presentation with a PowerPoint display in Indonesian. Similarly, a presentation in Indonesian should be accompanied by an English PowerPoint display. This is done to promote the use of Indonesian for academic purposes.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact us at cia-conference@cornell.edu

Organizing Committee: Maria Yosephine Nadia Putri, Ekarina Winarto, Ferdinan Okki Kurniawan, Kevin Sim, Jolanda Pandin, Indriyo Sukmono

Supported by the Cornell Indonesian Association Executive Board

CFP: The Year of ASEAS: Integrating Southeast Asia

March 20-22, 2015

4th Southeast Asian Studies Symposium

Sunway University, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Submission deadline: October 1, 2014

The 2015 Symposium is organized by Project Southeast Asia at the University of Oxford and hosted by the Jeffrey Cheah Institute on Southeast Asia and will focus on the theme of "The Year of ASEAN: Integrating Southeast Asia." See the website for more information and to submit a proposal projectsoutheastasia.com/academic-events/sea-symposium-2015/call-for-panels. 

CFP: Wild Spaces and Islamic Cosmopolitanism in Asia

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	:	http://www.ari.nus.edu.sg/events_categorydetails.asp?categoryid=6&eventid=1579

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

Call for Papers: Religious Authority and Activism: Ulama' in Contemporary Muslim Societies

The 7th al-Jami'ah Forum has issued a Call for Papers 

(deadlineAugust 22, 2014)

By and large, ulama play key roles in the development of Muslim societies, not only in religious life but also in economic, social, political and cultural ones. There are ulama who are actively engaged in particular political parties, Islamic economics, people’s empowerment, cultural activities, and humanitarian reliefs, but there are also those who take distance from “worldly lives”. However, their roles are not measured merely by their direct involvement in various activities, but also by their absent in or even rejection to them. Both their activism and passivism have certain impact on Muslim societies. Morevover, their roles are different from one Muslim society to another. Ulama in majority Muslim societies, for instance, have different roles from those in minority Muslim societies. This is also true for ulama living and serving in urban and rural areas. Even in one society, ulama’s role has been very dynamic. The impact of media and globalization on their role has been also significant; people can just surf on the internet for seeking particular religious information. The involvement of certain ulama in some political or economic misconducts has also certain impact of people’s perception of ulama in general. It is important, therefore, to study the dynamic of ulama’s roles in various Muslim societies, either in Indonesia or in other countries.

This seventh al-Jami’ah Forum will bring together scholars and researches from various scientific and nationality backgrounds to share their research interests and findings pertaining to the role of ulama in different Muslim societies. The forum deals with, but not be restricted on, some issues, such as:

    Ulama, State and Politics
    Ulama, Islamic activism, and Counter-Radicalism
    Ulama and Shari‘a Economics
    Ulama, Women, and Gender Issues
    Ulama and Social-Humanitarian Activities
    Ulama, Culture and New Media

Anyone interested in participating the conference, please send abstract of presentation (150 – 300 words) and short CV to forum@aljamiah.org

Important dates:

Abstract submission deadline: 22 August 2014

Announcement of selected abstract: 1 September 2014

Deadline for full paper submission: 15 November 2014

Promising papers, after the process of peer reviews, will be published by al-Jami’ah: Journal of Islamic Studies in the next year edition.
Sayyidah Aslamah

Research Center Building
Sunan Kalijaga State Islamic University
jl. Marsda Adisucipto Yogyakarta 55281 Indonesia

Phone and Fax: +62 274 558186

Email: forum@aljamiah.org
Visit the website at http://www.aljamiah.org

CFP: Grasping 'Everyday Justice': An Ethnographic Approach

6 - 7 February 2015

Hosted by the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (CRASSH), University of Cambridge, UK

Just as the effects of the law do not belong to any specific institutional space or domain, but manifest themselves in everyday life, so too does justice permeate the everyday (e.g., Merry 1990; Greenhouse, Yngvesson, & Engel 1994; Ewick & Silbey 1998; Sarat & Kearns 2009). Justice is woven into the fabric of everyday existence at different levels and in manifold ways. People understand, perceive, receive, experience and accomplish justice in many forms, either by themselves or through the mediation of other actors. Justice is plural in its meanings and expressions, while regimes of justice range in scale from family arbitration and indigenous forms of justice, to the International Criminal Court. It therefore seems inevitable that justice will remain both a familiar ideal or norm, and a difficult concept to specify.

This conference aims to generate a cumulative account of the 'everyday nature of justice'. We invite theoretically grounded papers offering ethnographic insights into the plural nature of 'everyday justice' across the globe. By bringing together scholars whose work teases out the multiple locations and layers of 'everyday justices', our goal is to spotlight the process of everyday justice formation in all its ambiguity, complexity and plurality.

We encourage papers addressing any of the following broadly defined lines of inquiry:

• Contributions that explore the intersection of institutionalized forms of justice and the everyday. The aim here is to link key actors – such as judges, lawyers, leaders and mediators who have dealings with formal or informal justice in both their institutionalized professional practice and their daily lives – to more 'ordinary' actors who experience justice from an day-to-day perspective, in typically less institutionally specific, yet often more pervasive ways.
• Contributions that document 'justice pluralism' (Brunnegger & Faulk n.d.), i.e., the plurality of meanings and experiences that people attach to justice, including but not limited to 'institutional/non-institutional' interfaces. For example, papers on this theme might explore how people understand justice (as an idea or norm) in their daily lives, or investigate how justice interventions unfold or otherwise make their presence felt in daily contexts, such as the operations of 'transitional justice' mechanisms.
• Contributions that highlight or complicate our understanding of 'everyday justices' by exploring, what Clarke and Goodale (2010)'s label 'the constitution of everyday justice,' where justice is understood as a constitutively ingrained grid. This theme explores how justice and concepts of ethics, morality, peoples' rights, the law and other forms of political discourses intersect in everyday and institutionalized ways.

In soliciting work at the junction of 'justice' and the 'everyday', we intend to provoke a reconceptualization of justice across multiple settings, one that brings a wider and more plural range of scholarship to bear on currently intractable social conflicts. Papers should lend ethnographic substance to our understandings of the multiform ways in which everyday notions of justice are rooted in social processes of meaning-making.

Please send abstracts of up to 500 words along with a brief biographical statement to Sandra Brunnegger <sb529@cam.ac.uk> by October 24, 2014. Decisions will be made by October 31, 2014.

Further information can be found at http://www.crassh.cam.ac.uk/events/25658.

Conference: The States of Southeast Asian American Studies

Southeast Asians in Diaspora Conference | October 2 & 3, 2014

University of Minnesota-Twin Cities

The conditions that “brought the field into being” have shifted in light of recent events and new scholarship across various fields and communities. Hosting this event in Minnesota is significant given the vibrant Southeast Asian population in the state. Minnesota has experienced dramatic demographic shifts over the past few decades, becoming an immigration hub for people from Southeast Asia and elsewhere. This timely event will bring together scholars, artists, activists, and other members of Southeast Asian American communities to consider the past, present, and future of these communities.

Please visit our website www.cehd.umn.edu/ci/sseaconference to view schedule, speaker, and registration information. We encourage you to register by September 15, 2014. The program has not yet been finalized so please visit the site for updates and changes. 

Please email us with any questions: SEADconference2014@gmail.com 

CFP: Council on Thai Studies

Call for Papers and Organized Panels

Council on Thai Studies Annual Meeting

October 17-19, 2014

Center for Southeast Asian Studies

University of Wisconsin-Madison

The Council on Thai Studies (COTS), established in 1972, is a consortium of universities with a particular interest in Thai Studies.  In 2014, the University of Wisconsin-Madison is hosting COTS’ annual meeting, which is designed to provide scholars and students with opportunities to present both preliminary and more developed research findings, mainly in the social sciences and humanities, related to Thai Studies, broadly defined.

The original deadline for individual abstracts and panel proposals was July 31, 2014. The deadline has now been extended toAugust 31, 2014. All submissions should be sent to Dr. Ian Baird, ibaird@wisc.edu (Chair, COTS 2014).

For questions related to logistics, please contact Mary Jo Wilson at CSEAS, wilson6@wisc.edu

CFP: Frontiers and Peripheries: Vietnam Deconstructed and Reconnected

November 5-7, 2014

Eugene, Oregon, USA

Website: www.engagingwithvietnam.com/

We invite participants to think of Vietnam not as a self-contained entity as in the conventional way. Instead, we want to deconstruct Vietnam, both as a frontier or periphery of larger entities and as containing in itself distinct frontiers and peripheries. The larger entities of which Vietnam constitutes a periphery or frontier can be some larger geographical/historical/cultural/economic/political zones, such as wet-rice economy, Chinese civilization, the Indo-Malay world, European imperialism, the Roman Catholic Church, Cold War camps, the K-pop wave, transnational social movements, transnational crimes, global capitalism, and diasporic communities.

Deadline for abstract submission: August 30, 2014. Please address all queries regarding the conference toengagingwithvietnam@gmail.com.

CFP: People, Pots and Places: New Research on Ceramics in Cambodia

Siem Reap Conference on Special Topics in Khmer Studies

Siem Reap, Cambodia — December 6-8, 2014

Ceramics permeate almost every aspect of our daily life, and their ubiquity in the archaeological record makes them the quintessential cultural material in our endeavour to understand the human past. While initially neglected in favour of a focus on monuments, statuary and inscriptions, over the last few decades ceramic studies in Cambodia have contributed enormously to our understanding of Khmer cultural history. Yet despite this the diachronic and stylistic variations in Khmer ceramics are still poorly understood and chronological categories are typically very broad. New research broadens the scope of our understanding and often challenges conventional narratives about Cambodia’s past. The 5th annual Siem Reap Conference on Topics in Khmer Studies is therefore dedicated to New Research on Ceramics in Cambodia.

Conference participants will present theories, methods and interpretations derived from new data brought to light over the last few years. Each speaker will have 20 mins to present and 10 mins to field questions. Sessions will be structured around three themes: ceramic production, consumption and importation. Source characterization and investigations into kiln technologies constitute the primary advances in ceramic production studies. Likewise the recent surge in archaeological investigation in Cambodia has led to a more nuanced understanding of consumption and trade patterns, while imported wares function as important chronological markers and bear witness to the breadth of ancient trade networks. The full chronological extent of Cambodian ceramic culture will be considered, from the earliest times until the present day, and experimental and ethnographic studies are also encouraged.

Colleagues who wish to present a paper at the conference should submit a paper title and abstract (approx 150 words) bySeptember 16, 2014 to: committee@siemreapconference.org

CFP: Islamisation: Comparative Perspectives from History

University of St Andrews, 20-21 March 2015Submissions are invited for this international conference which covers Islamisation down to c. 1800 in all areas of the Muslim world.
Research Fellow in Middle Eastern Studies
School of History (Middle East)
St. Katharine's Lodge
The Scores
St Andrews
KY16 9AL
United Kingdom
Email: bdn@st-andrews.ac.uk
Visit the website at http://https://www.islam-anatolia.ac.uk/?page_id=149

To apply please send an abstract (500 words) and short (1 page) CV toiran@st-andrews.ac.uk by 15 September 2014. All papers must be based on previously unpublished research and the participants must be ready to submit their papers for consideration for publication in the conference volume, subject to peer review. Travel and accommodation costs will be covered for participants whose abstracts are accepted.

Dr. Bruno De Nicola

Conference: Museum of our Own: In Search of Local Museology for Asia

Date : 18th-20th November 2014
Venue : University Club Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM), Yogyakarta, Indonesia

Background
Over the last three decades there has been a rise in museum criticism. What were common practices in museology are now being challenged; especially the ways museums curate their collections, or work with their different stakeholders. Under the pressure of such critique, museum practices have changed significantly worldwide. Museums in the so-called West, for example, have been attempting to ‘decolonize’ their practices, if only partial and incomplete, confronting their colonial roots, while trying to develop new methodologies deemed more suitable for collections and display in the post colonial present. Similarly methodological shifts have been happening in areas of museum conservation and education. 

Co-terminus with this rethinking of museums in the West has been similar developments in museology in so-called non-traditional museum spaces, including, and perhaps, especially in Asia, with significant rise in the number of museums as well as an increase in museum training programmes. Despite these sea changes, and the long history of established museum tradition in many non-western societies – in many instances since the 19th century – these local museums remain marginal institutions. In fact, the word 'museum' still remains uncommon within the cultural vocabulary of many such societies. Recently academics have tried to identify non-western museological models, where, for example, preservation practices that parallel those in conventional museums can be found. Still these models have not developed sufficiently. Nor are they sufficiently valorized and embedded within museum practice to have the desired effect of improving the status of museums in and the value of museums to these societies.

In response to the need to strengthen museum practice in several of these countries, numerous
museum professionals travel to Europe and North America to study museology. This is complemented by a growing number of locally based museology training programmes in Asia. In Indonesia, for example, formal training programs in the field of museology were recently developed in a number of Universities. The archaeology departments of the Universitas Gadjah Mada and Universitas Indonesia have museology training programs at both the Bachelors and the Masters levels. These programmes were developed with the assistance of institutions in the West. But have these local based programs worked? Or, do those who return with ‘western’ museology training really impact the local situation enough?

Five years into the museology education programs Universitas Gadjah Mada, it is now timely to reflect on the state of museums and museum education in Indonesia and Asia in general. More than a critical assessment of the programs themselves, we want to ask questions about how to rethink museological practices that have been already defined in the West for our own museums. We now have museology training programs but do they sufficiently serve our needs? Is the limited valorization of local museums based solely in the fact that they are ‘innately’ western institutions or are there other, more practical reasons for their shortcomings? How do we further develop a training program that responds to local needs? What histories of museums should be mobilized to inform a local museum practice? What, we want to ask, is a museum of our own? The conference will be divided in a number of interrelated sessions addressing different topics in in museology, both at concept and practical levels.

Topics and Convenors 

While the topics will be developed based the expressions of interest of the potential participants, we already set out five themes that we deem productive for a discussion of these questions, namely:

Writing Museum in Southeast Asia
Convenor: Prof. DR Bambang Purwanto (Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indonesia)

Museums in Southeast Asia emerged at the end of the nineteenth century, through initiatives by both local authorities and colonial governments. Especially in the latter case these museums functioned within a colonial context, as part of a technology of colonial rule. After independence museums in Asia adopted new functions, and were mobilized as part the new national government’s attempt to fashion national narratives. As new museums emerge and old museums try to redefine their missions and visions for contemporary society, what critical histories can we write of these institutions and the ways they have functioned in different Asian societies over the years? In what ways do these histories impact on the current role that these museum play, or can play today? Can any regional tendencies in museum histories and practices be detected in the ways that these museums developed? The conveners of this session want to explore these histories from different perspective looking at the relationship between national and regional histories and the development of museums.

The West and the Rest, the development of the theory of museology. 
Convenor: DR. Wayne Modest (National Museum of Worldcultures, The Netherlands)

Since Macdonald and Fyfe’s 1998 call for ‘theorizing the museum’ a large and robust body of literature has developed that could be regarded as museological theory. Drawing on different disciplinary frames from anthropology to art history, from history to archeology, much of this theorization has occurred in the so-called ‘West’ with limited attention paid to non-western museum practices. Where calls for a non-western museology have occurred, for example Kreps, these have often not taken hold, resulting in little real attempts to think through what such a model for museology could look like? But is there really a need for a non-western museology or are the models that are developed in the west applicable to other places across the world? Should models for museological theory and practices be locally based? If yes what could this look like?

Museum and Heritage
Convenor: DR. Tular Sudarmadi (Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indonesia)

The long existence of museums in countries such as Indonesia as well as the different points of view on collections is inseparable from the dynamics of heritage discourse locally and globally. How do we take these histories as well as past and present heritage discourse into account as we train museums professionals or formulate strategies for more successful museum practices?

Conservation
Convenor: DR. Mahirta (Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indonesia)

Traditional museological practices have maintained rigid rules and standards for preservation/conservation. These rules have for decades been applied universally and are taught through museum training programmes or global heritage governance organizations such as ICOM or ICCROM. More recently, these standards have been questioned, demanding more flexible applications mindful of local situations. But are there ethno-conservation standards or other more locally sensitive procedures acceptable to take care of the museum collections? If yes, how should local standards for preservation be developed and embedded in practices? How do these take ground mindful of collaborative practices across Global North/South divide and discourses of International Development.

Museology Education in Indonesia
Convenor: Pim Westerkamp, MA (National Museum of Worldcultures, The Netherlands)

Museums in Southeast Asia have developed since the end of the nineteenth century, through initiatives by both local authorities and colonial governments. Especially in the latter case these museums functioned within a colonial context, as part of a technology of colonial rule. After independence museums in Southeast Asia adopted new functions, and were mobilized as part the new national government’s attempt to fashion national narratives. As new museums emerge and old museums try to redefine their missions and visions for contemporary society, what critical histories can we write of these institutions and the ways they have functioned in different SEA societies over the years. In what ways do these histories impact on the current role that these museum play, or can play today. The conveners of this session want to explore these histories from different perspective looking at the relationship between national and regional histories and the development of museums.

CRP: People, Pots and Places: New Research on Ceramics in Cambodia

Ceramics permeate almost every aspect of our daily life, and their ubiquity in the archaeological record makes them the quintessential cultural material in our endeavour to understand the human past. While initially neglected in favour of a focus on monuments, statuary and inscriptions, over the last few decades ceramic studies in Cambodia have contributed enormously to our understanding of Khmer cultural history. Yet despite this the diachronic and stylistic variations in Khmer ceramics are still poorly understood and chronological categories are typically very broad. New research broadens the scope of our understanding and often challenges conventional narratives about Cambodia’s past. The 5th annual Siem Reap Conference on Topics in Khmer Studies is therefore dedicated to New Research on Ceramics in Cambodia.

Conference participants will present theories, methods and interpretations derived from new data brought to light over the last few years. Each speaker will have 20 mins to present and 10 mins to field questions. Sessions will be structured around three themes: ceramic production, consumption and importation. Source characterization and investigations into kiln technologies constitute the primary advances in ceramic production studies. Likewise the recent surge in archaeological investigation in Cambodia has led to a more nuanced understanding of consumption and trade patterns, while imported wares function as important chronological markers and bear witness to the breadth of ancient trade networks. The full chronological extent of Cambodian ceramic culture will be considered, from the earliest times until the present day, and experimental and ethnographic studies are also encouraged.

Colleagues who wish to present a paper at the conference should submit a paper title and abstract (approx 150 words) by September 16th 2014to: committee@siemreapconference.org

More info here: http://siemreapconference.org/index.php?page_id=1

CFP: Educational Resilience among Asian Children in Challenging Family Environments

(DEADLINE: 15 SEPTEMBER 2014)

Date	:	4-5 February 2015
Venue	:	Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore
Website	:	http://www.ari.nus.edu.sg/events_categorydetails.asp?categoryid=6&eventid=1573

Educational resilience (also called academic resilience) for an individual refers to academic competence despite being high risk or stressful environments (Martin, 2002; Masten, 1994). Understanding the processes involved in achieving academic resilience could provide theoretical and policy relevant tools for breaking the intergenerational cycle of poor academic achievement, poor job prospects and poverty for those less privileged individuals. 

We propose to organize a conference to invite leading scholars to investigate the pathways to educational resilience, particularly focus on protective factors specific to Asian contexts that can buffer the negative effects of low socio-economic status, dysfunctional, or migrant family environments on Asian children’s educational outcomes. Currently, the booming economy and the large population (4.6 billion — more than a half of the world) make the study of Asia more important than ever. In addition, a series of challenging problems such as large poverty rate, uneven distribution of resources between regions, rural poor migrating to cities, and high family divorce rates may adversely shape children’s educational development through influencing their family resources, functioning and circumstances. Family, as the most influential system plays critical roles in individual’s development. Therefore, eliminating/ reducing the pile-up of family risk factors and improving family’s capacity to promote resilience development of Asian children faced with these challenging life circumstances are meaningful and necessary.

The proposed conference aims to offer an excellent opportunity for scholars to put their unique cases in contexts, to learn from other countries, and ultimately to develop new research agendas and methodologies for further comparative research on the issue.

This conference will bring together family scholars to examine the following themes:

1.       Investigate the salient factors that ‘protect’ children from the negative influences of poor, migrant or divorce family environments on educational outcomes in Asian context.

2.      Examine the effectiveness of educational resilience intervention programs delivery in Asian countries.

3.       Compare the effects of protective factors on children’s educational outcomes across Asian countries.

We call for papers that use either qualitative or quantitative method to examine these issues. Cross-national comparisons and longitudinal studies are particularly welcome. We will focus on Asian context, but not limited to the Asian context. Some comparisons between eastern and western will be encouraged. Researchers can include other non-family factors that help us to further understand the role of family relative to these non-family factors. Thus everyone can include their non-family factors of interest, but they must ensure that family is one of the major concerns in their paper.

References:
Martin, A. (2002). Motivation and Academic Resilience: Developing a Model for Student Enhancement. Australian Journal of Education, 46(1), 34-49.
Masten, A. S. (1994). Resilience in Individual Development: Successful Adaption Despite Risk and Adversity, in M. C. Wang & E. W. Gordon (Eds.), Educational Resilience in Inner-city America: Challenges and Prospects (pp.3-25). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

SUBMISSION OF PROPOSALS

We invite those interested in participating in the conference to submit original paper proposals. We expect to publish selected papers from those accepted for presentation in a monograph/special journal issue. Paper proposals should include a title, an abstract of 300 words, a short biography of 150 words for submissions by 15 September 2014. Please send all proposals to NUS ARI Academic Resilience Workshop atari.resilience@gmail.com. Click here for the Paper Proposal Submission Form. Decisions on acceptance of proposals will be sent out no later on 1 October 2014. Final papers (5,000-8,000 words) will be due 18 January 2015 for circulation to all participants before the workshop.

Based on the quality of proposals and the availability of funds, partial or full funding will be granted to successful applicants. Participants are therefore encouraged to seek funding for travel from their home institutions. Full funding will cover air travel to Singapore by the most economical means, plus board and lodging for the duration of the conference.

CONTACT DETAILS

Abstract Submission

NUS ARI Academic Resilience Workshop

Email | ari.resilience@gmail.com

Conference Conveners

Dr Haibin LI

Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore
Email | arilih@nus.edu.sg

Prof Wei-Jun Jean YEUNG

Asia Research Institute, and Department of Sociology, National University of Singapore

Email | ariywj@nus.edu.sg