[Tlc] TLC-call for papers

[justinm at ucr.edu]

CALL FOR PAPERS
ASSOCIATION FOR ASIAN STUDIES, ANNUAL MEETING
CHICAGO, March 26-29, 2009

Proposed Panel:
Southeast Asian Grotesques: Wonder, Curiosity, and Horror in Perceptions of Southeast Asia

The 1705 publication of Rumphius’s "Ambonese Curiosity Cabinet" marked a new way of looking at Southeast Asian fauna and, within Europe, a new attitude to the systematic study of the exotic. A century later, Siam's conjoined twins Chang and Eng emerged as Southeast Asia's first international celebrities, hailed by audiences in the West and the East as symbols of the region's unnatural powers. The marvelous, wondrous, and grotesque -- important categories in early modern European intellectual history -- have previously been studied largely from a Western point of view. But these concepts have been active in a Southeast Asian context as well, either as imports from the West or indigenous modes of thought and experience. This panel invites papers that examine how the grotesque has been defined in Southeast Asia and used to shape Southeast Asian self-perceptions, East-West perceptions, or relations among Southeast Asian peoples and polities. Of particular interest are papers that look at interdisciplinary intersections among intellectual, visual, cultural, or political history. Papers may range chronologically from the time of European contact to the present. We plan to pursue publication of an edited volume including some of the conference papers, so please submit abstracts for research that you have not published previously. Our own research into Southeast Asia and the grotesque includes the Siamese twins, Agent Orange, and the Siamese reception of European scientific marvels in the 17th century.

Please e-mail a brief CV and abstract of no more than 250 words by 1 August 2008 to:
• Richard Ruth (History Department, United States Naval Academy), ruth at usna.edu
• Sarah Benson, sbb6 at cornell.edu

Richard A. Ruth
Assistant Professor
History Department
U.S. Naval Academy 
______________
Dr. Justin McDaniel
Dept. of Religious Studies
3046 INTN
University of California, Riverside
Riverside, CA 92521
951-827-4530
justinm at ucr.edu