[Tlc] TLC-6 call(s) for papers

[justinm at ucr.edu]

See six calls for papers or edited volume submissions below.
Thanks from Tokyo,
justin

(1)
Call for Papers
Challenges of local and regional cultural politics in
Southeast Asia

We would like to invite those of you interested in "Challenges
of local and regional cultural politics in Southeast Asia" to
submit paper abstracts for our workshop at the 10th Biennial
Conference of the European Association of Social
Anthropologists (EASA) that will be held from 26 to 30 August
in Ljubljana, Slovenia. For a more detailed workshop
description and the submission of proposals please visit:
http://www.nomadit.co.uk/easa/easa08/panels.php5?PanelID=291

Workshop organisers: Birgit Bräuchler, Asia Research
Institute, National University of Singapore,
<birgitbraeuchler at gmx.net> Kari Telle, Chr. Michelsen
Institute (CMI), Norway, <kari.telle at cmi.no>.  For more
information on the conference as such see:
http://www.easa2008.eu/en/informacija.asp?id_meta_type=13

We are looking forward to your submissions!

Dr Birgit BRÄUCHLER
Asia Research Institute
National University of Singapore
469A Tower Block
Bukit Timah Road, #10-01
Singapore 259770
Website: www.ari.nus.edu.sg
__________________________________________________

(2)
Call for Submissions
Edited Volume on Buddhism and the Crises of Nation-States in Asia

19-20 June 2008, Asia Research Institute, National UNiversity
of Singapore

This workshop intends to bring together top scholars working
on Buddhism in Asia to examine the "crises of nation-states"
in Asia's Buddhist countries. It aims to explore complex
situations and issues pertinent to the changing status and
role of Buddhism in the far-from-complete processes of
nation-state building and modernization in major Buddhist
countries in the region. It also compares the paths, patterns,
and processes which Buddhism has undertaken in its role as a
traditional source of moral and political authority in various
states. Some of the questions that will be explored are 1) to
what extent has the Buddhist Sangha in each Asian nation been
involved in the politics of nation-building and modernization?
 2) how and why Buddhism negotiates with some of the dynamic
forces of secular governance and overall secularization of
modern culture and society.

The themes of panel discussion for the workshop are:
1.      Buddhist Polity Revisited
2.      Buddhist Visions and Politics of Nation Building
3.      Buddhist Fundamentalism and Nationalism
4.      Militant and Socially-Engaged Monks and Nuns
5.      The Politics of Buddhist Piety and Fragmentation

KEYNOTE SPEAKER: Prof. Charles F. Keyes, Department of
Anthropology, University of Washington, Seattle, USA.

We wish to call for papers that address one or more of the
above major themes. Abstracts of papers should be sent to Dr
Pattana Kitiarsa (seapk at nus.edu.sg) by 28 March 2008. The
abstract should be within 400 words and include name of
author(s) (first name followed by last name, underline the
presenter of the paper), affiliation and e-mail addresses.
Notification of acceptance of paper will be issued by April 1,
2008. Completed draft papers should be submitted by 2 June
2008 and will be made available to conference participants in
advance.

General enquiries about the conference can be directed to: Dr
Pattana Kitiarsa, <seapk at nus.edu.sg>
Contact Persons for submission of papers: Rodney Sebastian
<fasrodn at nus.edu.sg>
___________________________________________________

(3)
Call for Papers
Asian Visual Cultures Workshop

University of California, Irvine, April 13, 2008

Graduate students of the departments of East Asian Languages
and Cultures, Comparative Literature, and Visual Studies at
the University of California, Irvine invite submissions from
graduate students, independent scholars, and visual
artists/filmmakers for a one-day workshop on Asian Visual
Cultures. This workshop aims to create a space for dialogue among
those interested in Asia and visual cultures (including but
not limited to art, cinema, games, theater, architecture,
animation) beyond disciplinary frameworks in order to explore
methodologies, theories, and objects of analysis.  We hope
that this workshop will become an ongoing forum for sharing
ideas, difficulties, and criticism around dialoguing research
interests and dissertation projects.

This workshop will be experimental in nature.  Instead of a
conventional conference format, we imagine spending more time
providing feedback to each presenter in a round-table
discussion after each paper is presented. Also, presentations
need not follow the standard of 'reading' papers. Let's talk
about the work in progress, methodological difficulties, and
theoretical impasses.

While there is no limitation to possible topics, we would be
very interested in the following questions and problematics:

Cinema and Erotics
Affect and spectatorship
Genre Practice and its historicity
Transnational Asian Films: Production and reception
Feminist visual theory and criticism
Film festivals
Memory and history
Familiar/familial space
Queer visual culture
Vernacular modernity and urban space
Medium specificity
Re-imagining field/discipline
Film studies/area studies
Methodology, epistemology, objects of analysis
"Death" of cinema/ "rise" of "digital"

The deadline for submissions is Sunday, March 16, 2008. Please
email a brief abstract (200-350) to: <yunjongl at uci.edu> (Yun
Jong Lee).  Please feel free to contact us for more
information at: <kannoy at uci.edu> (Yuka Yanno) or
<eyhuang at uci.edu> (Erin Huang).
_________________________________________________

(4)
Call for Papers
Crossing Colonial Historiographies: Histories of Colonial and
Indigenous Medicines in Transnational Perspective

St. Anne's College, Oxford, 16-17 September 2008

This conference therefore aims to provide a platform for
exchange to scholars who are working on the history of
medicines in different geographical regions in Asia, Africa,
Austral-Pacific and the Americas and within the varied
contexts of Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, German,
Dutch and British colonialisms. In addition to appealing to
researchers working on these various, seemingly clearly
demarkated colonial and neo-colonial empires, contributions
are invited from those who locate internal colonialism within
the imperial metropoles (such as, for example, the Scottish
Highlands, Canadian Arctic). Presentations on issues of
transnational entanglements, 'circulation' of ideas and
exchanges between different ways of healing within different
colonial/medical contexts are particularly welcome.

Panels on the following themes will be offered:

1. Medical discourses/practices and global/local exchanges;
2. State policies and colonial and indigenous medical practices;
3. Medicine and healing and the contours of colonial and
indigenous communities;
4. Medical theories, treatments and approaches to healing;
5. Medical experts and indigenous healers;
6. Patients, families and social networks.

Panels will be organised on a thematic (not geographic or
'type of colonialism'-related) basis to encourage intellectual
exchange on varied regional experiences. Each speaker will
have 20 minutes for presentation followed by 20 minutes of
discussion, to enable other delegates to engage with each
contribution and provide feedback and comments for the
speaker. There will be a conceptually focused plenary talk
commenting on the historiographic approaches and conceptual
frameworks employed by participants. A roundtable discussion
on the six major panels/themes will highlight the scope and
limitations of the different theoretical and historiographic
traditions/fashions that have been employed. Papers will be
pre-circulated.

Submission of abstracts (300 words) by 1 June 2008:

Could you please design the abstract with the following issues
in mind: The conference aims at facilitating intellectual
exchange and debate between delegates working within different
academic traditions/networks. Emphasis is on the
historiographic approaches and methodologies characteristic of
participants' geographic and network-specific specialisms.
Apart from a brief outline of the topic, geographical area and
period you are planning to talk about, it would therefore be
useful if you also commented briefly on the historiographic
approaches and methodologies that have hitherto been employed
in your field of research. If appropriate, this should be
followed by an indication of the approach/methodology that you
have come to consider most valuable in your own work.

Please submit an abstract only if you are prepared to provide
us with a paper for pre-circulation.  Deadline for submission
of papers for pre-circulation (2,000 words): 1 September 2008.

Please send enquiries and abstracts to Ms Manjita Palit at
<manjita.palit at gmail.com>.
_______________________________________________________

(5)
Call for Papers
Still the Asian Century?

A conference jointly sponsored by the International Political
Economy Research Group and the Asia Research Group, Department
of Political Science and International Studies, University of
Birmingham, 10-12 September 2008

During the 1980s and 1990s it became commonplace to think that
Asia was on its way to becoming the world’s most dynamic and
important region. In the intervening years Japan fell into an
economic torpor it appeared incapable of escaping, while much
of East Asia was gripped by a financial crisis in the late
1990s that seemed set to permanently deflate expectations
about its future trajectory. Not only have the Asian economies
generally bounced back and re-emerged as important drivers of
global economic growth, but the region seems to have found a
new exemplar of unparalleled developmental success: the scale
and rapidity of ‘China’s rise’ has sparked precisely the same
sorts of debates and commentary that earlier accompanied
Japan’s remarkable economic development. Once more we are
being asked to believe that the twenty-first century will
inevitably belong to ‘Asia’, but this time with China as its
driving force. The organizers invite individual paper and
panel proposals that explore these issues in relation to the
five core conference themes outlined below (250-word paper
abstracts; up to four presenters per panel).

Conference themes:

ASIAN REGIONALISM: What are the driving forces behind Asian
regionalism and how is it being defined, contested and
institutionalised?

ASIAN SECURITY: How are regional security dynamics in Asia
evolving, especially given the rise of China and earlier
intra-regional animosities?

ASIAN POLITICAL ECONOMY: Are Asian forms of capitalism
sustainable? Are they likely to converge with ‘neoliberal’
policy trends, or will they continue to offer potential
alternative paths for economic development?

ASIAN POLITICAL SPACE: How is political space in the region
changing, and is this allowing the emergence of more expansive
civil society?

ASIAN FUTURES: What lessons can we draw from the results of
earlier predictions of the region’s political and economic
development? What might we expect to be the key drivers and
directions of political and economic change in Asia in the future?

Confirmed speakers:     Amitav Acharya, Muthiah Alagappa,
Walden Bello, Shaun Breslin, Richard Higgott, Glenn Hook,
Barry Gills, Meredith Jung-En Woo

Deadline for submission of paper and panel proposals: 31 March
2008

Proposals should be sent via e-mail to: <D.Norman at Asiacentury.net>
For more information, please visit http://www.asiacentury.net/
_________________________________________________________

(6)
Call for Papers
Transformations: Researching Asia

York Centre for Asian Research Graduate Student Conference,
York University, Toronto, Canada * September 26 to 28, 2008

What does it mean to “research Asia?”  Asian Studies is a
growing field within and, we hope, beyond Area Studies. Recent
developments in Asian research reflect modern and contemporary
events across a wide range of disciplines. As the body of
research on Asia grows, questions concerning the production
and mediation of “Asia” become more pressing. The critical and
fundamental questions “What is Asia?” and “How to study Asia?”
remain unresolved and contested. As a field, moreover, Asian
Studies remains driven by disciplinary divides;
interdisciplinary intersections remain disappointingly rare.

With this conference we seek to address the epistemology and
methodology of researching Asia within and beyond the
geographical and disciplinary constraints traditionally
associated with Area Studies. We invite papers from graduate
students engaged in interdisciplinary research in Asian
Studies focusing on the modern and contemporary periods.

Possible paper topics could address (but are not limited to)
these sub-themes:
• Epistemology of Asian Studies
* Methodology and Practices in Asian Studies
* Orientalism & Re-Orientalism
* Knowledge/Power
* Time and Temporality
* Modernity * North/South Divide
* Globalization
* Race and Ethnicity
* Migration and Diaspora
* Race, Gender, and Class
* Positioning and Subjectivity
* Body and Representation
* Sexuality
* Media and Technology
* Environmental Challenges
* Art and Visual Culture
* Music and Performing Arts

Interested participants should submit a paper title, abstract
(250 words maximum) and brief biographical information by
April 1, 2008. Selected participants must submit completed
papers by August 1, 2008. Please email submissions to the
conference organizers at:
<transformationsasiaconference at gmail.com>. More information
about the conference can be found on the conference website:
http://www.yorku.ca/ycar/Events/graduate_conference.html

______________
Dr. Justin McDaniel
Dept. of Religious Studies
2617 Humanities Building
University of California, Riverside
Riverside, CA 92521
951-827-4530
justinm at ucr.edu