[Tlc] TLC-conference

[justinm at ucr.edu]

Forwarded from Dr. J.C. Cook.
Thanks,
justin

Dear Colleagues,
I'd like to bring the following conference to your attention.

CRASSH, Cambridge University, Continuity and change: reconceptualising 
power in Southeast Asia, March 26 -28 2009 Conference web page: 
http://www.crassh.cam.ac.uk/events/542/

The study of power in contemporary South-east Asia has never been more 
timely. Over the last half-century, the region has undergone innumerable 
far-reaching changes. It has witnessed the rise of postcolonial 
nation-states, rapid industrialization, economic growth and democratization 
but also genocide, political upheaval and widespread repression.
 
Power lies at the core of these important developments, whether in the form 
of brute military force or as a more capillary 'disciplinary' influence on 
religious and political subjectivities. New religious, economic and 
political movements - all drawing deeply on local traditions while 
proposing new forms of personhood, civil and political society - cut across 
national, cultural, ideological and sectarian boundaries.

Yet for all that power can be detected in the region, there seems to be 
little specifically South-east Asian about contemporary scholarly analyses. 
This is both puzzling and ironic given the central role that earlier 
ethnographic studies of South-east Asia once played in identifying 
distinctively regional modalities of power, prompting us to reconsider how 
'power' could be most profitably studied in South-east Asian contexts.
 
Continuity and Change is a major interdisciplinary and International 
conference on South-east Asia. Its key aim is to reopen the debate on the 
issue of 'power' - both in real life and academic scholarship - as it is 
manifest across the region.

Conference themes and questions include:
 
õ Are there, or were there ever, distinctly 'South-east Asian' notions of 
power that could still exist as alternatives or complements to Western folk 
and political models? õ Are scholars' analytic imaginaries of power in 
relation to nationhood and governance congruent with the imaginaries of 
South-east Asians witnessing or involved in such projects and processes? õ 
What are the forms that 'power' takes? õ How have recent theoretical 
developments within various disciplines reshaped our understanding of the 
nature and location of power? õ How useful is the concept of 'South-east 
Asia' as a geographical, political and analytical entity in dealing with 
these issues?

Keynote Speakers:
James Scott (Political Science, Yale)
Shelly Errington (Anthropology, UC Santa Cruz)

Confirmed speakers: Avery Poole, Adrian Vickers, Andrew Beatty, Tomas 
Larsson, Victor V. Ramraj, Michele Ford, Deidre de la Cruz, Holly High, 
Ingrid Jordt, Catherine Allerton, Jérémy Jammes, Krisna Uk, Lee Kah Wee, 
Sarinda Singh, Markus Schlecker, Yanuar Nugroho, Ruth Toulson, Andrew 
Walker, Nicola Frost, Loren Ryter, Dimitri Tsintjilonis, Shu-Yuan Yang, 
Nicholas Farrelly, David Irving, Heather Maclachlan
 
Accompanying the conference there will be a screening of the documentary 
film 'Terlena' by Andre Vltchek, who will be holding a Q&A session after 
the screening.
 
Film screening: Terlena: the Breaking of a Nation, 26 March, Winstanley 
Theatre, Trinity College, Cambridge.

For conference bookings and all other enquiries please contact Anna 
Malinowska, apm50 at cam.ac.uk Places are limited so please book early.




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