[Tlc] T-conference

[justinm at ucr.edu]

FYI.
Thanks,
justin

Call for Papers: 
“The Phantasm in Southern Thailand: Historical Writings on Patani and the Islamic World”
Chulalongkorn University, 11-12 December 2009

 
The Regional Studies Program, Walailak University, the Department of History, Chulalongkorn University, the Thailand Research Fund, and the National Discovery Museum Institute are pleased to announce a call for papers for an international conference on the subject of the historiography of Patani, titled “The Phantasm in Southern Thailand: History Writing on Patani and Islamic World”.

Following the renewed outbreak of violence in the border provinces of southern Thailand since 2004 the attention of academics, media, and indeed governments has focused on the role that Islam - or more precisely, a political ideology based on Islam – has played in the conflict. Such an emphasis on religion risks neglecting other more salient factors that have played a role in the conflict. What is particularly lacking in the contemporary debate about the violence in southern Thailand is the role that historical consciousness plays in the minds of the militants and the people in the region - in particular the influence that nationalist historiography about the former Malay sultanate of Patani has played in forming this historical consciousness.

Expressed in its classic form in Ibrahim Syukri’s Sejarah Kerajaan Patani Melayu (History of the Malay Kingdom of Patani), Patani Malay nationalist historiography depicts the history of Patani as an ongoing struggle for independence from the Siamese state. It portrays Patani as a once powerful, prosperous and independent trading state and a prominent centre of Islamic scholarship in Southeast Asia, until it came under the Siamese yoke in the late eighteenth-early nineteenth century. Patani has been struggling to break free from Siamese control and injustice ever since. The historiography of Patani thus reflects the nationalist historiographies of other formerly colonized Southeast Asian states, except that the struggle is not against a Western colonial power, but the Siamese state. The story is one of bitterness and nostalgia for a glorious, independent past. This narrative of Patani’s history is in stark contrast to official Thai accounts which view Patani as a vassal state of Siam since the Sukhothai era.

The aim of this conference is to critically evaluate historical writing about the Patani Malays and to assess the extent of its influence in southern Thailand today.

The conference will be held over two days from 11-12 December 2009 at Chulalongkorn University.

We would greatly appreciate if your program could bring this conference to the attention of interested staff, graduate students, researchers and other potential participants. Further details are available at the conference website at www.patani-conference.net which will be updated regularly. The conference poster is attached with this message.

The deadline for submission of conference paper abstracts (no more than one page) is 30 May 2009. Please send abstracts to davisakd.puaksom at gmail.com or history at chula.ac.th

Conference Organizing Committee

______________
Dr. Justin McDaniel
Dept. of Religious Studies
3046 INTN
University of California, Riverside
Riverside, CA 92521
951-827-4530
justinm at ucr.edu
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