Call for Papers: Yale Indonesia Forum-Northeastern Conference on Indonesia

Women’s Eyes at All Issues: On Indonesia

14^th Northeastern Conference (NEC) on Indonesia

April 15-16, 2016 – Yale University

Hosted by the Yale Indonesia Forum (YIF)

with the Cornell Indonesian Association (CIA)

Call for Papers

A great nation is a nation that honors the service of its heroes, President Soekarno once said. It was during his administration (1945-1966) that Kartini Day was instituted to encourage women to participate in the project of national development. As Soekarno had also stated that we should learn and be aware that matters concerning the society and the state are also issues that deal with both men and women, male and female, and that things related to women are the business of the society and the state. Indeed, it is now commonly acknowledged that besides the great historical figures, numerous ordinary citizens regardless of age and gender have sacrificed their lives for Indonesia, both before and after the country’s independence. Nonetheless, the discourse on Indonesian women and their roles - economic, social, cultural, historical, educational, political, military, etc. - in Indonesian and Southeast Asian studies is still inadequate.

Aiming to address this gap in the scholarly literature, and to commemorate the Kartini Day (April 21), the Yale Indonesia Forum (YIF), in collaboration with the Cornell Indonesian Association (CIA), will be holding the 14th Northeastern Conference on Indonesia to be held at Yale University. The organizing committee is seeking proposals that will critically engage with the following questions: What is the role of gender in the modern history of Indonesia? How have Indonesian women contributed to Indonesia’s development over the past seven decades (for example, What do we know about Indonesian Women’s Congress in 1928 and Indonesian women’s movements and their roles in Indonesia and Southeast Asia at large)? To what extent have their contributions been recognized or obscured? How do external or international actors imagine and represent the role of Indonesian women in society? How has gender been constructed historically? How might we interrogate the taken for granted representations of women in Indonesia? How do gender, power, traditions intersect? How has form of femaleness power been controlled or managed? How do women learn/exercise agency in negotiating laws and resisting various authorities? What are the challenges in conducting research on women/gender studies and what new methodologies are available/can be developed through these challenges?

The program will begin on April 15th, 2016 (Friday-noon) at Yale University with an interactive 2016 YIF Spring Dialogue that will feature scholars who have extensively researched and written on Indonesia, as well as art practitioners who have developed their creative projects based on the traditions in various regions of Indonesia. Attendees are encouraged to join the dialogue, which will be facilitated by a moderator. On April 16th, 2016 (Saturday), the discussion continues through the 14th Northeastern YIF-­CIA Conference on Indonesia with a keynote address and paper presentations.  See http://cseas.yale.edu/womens-eyes-all-issues-indonesia for updates on program and schedule.

Proposal/Abstract Submission

Please contact the organizers at necatyale@gmail.com if you have any question(s) regarding the YIF Spring Dialogue and the Northeastern Conference. The participants are encouraged to seek funding from their home institutions. The conference committee will provide accommodation (1 night) for selected contributors.

Please submit your proposal as a .doc or .docx file only. The proposal is limited to 450 words. Please include in your proposal: 1) a description of your project; 2) research questions; 3) perspective(s) or theoretical framework; 4) methods; 5) substantiated conclusions/tentative key findings; and 6) the significance of the work. In addition to your proposal, please provide a short list of references (at the end of your proposal), situating your work within the literature.

Please send your proposal to necatyale@gmail.com and provide your name (and co- presenters (if any)), institutional affiliation(s), status (undergraduate or graduate and what year), title of the paper/presentation, email address, and phone number within the body of the email.

Proposal Submission Deadline: March 14, 2016 at 12 a.m. EST.

Notification of Acceptance: by March 21, 2016 (via email).