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Newsletter or here, please contact Teresa Spence at tspence@asian-studies.org.
Print Newsletter deadlines are: January 1, April 1, September 1, and November 1.
NOTE: Please limit your announcement (print or online) to approximately 500 words.
[ AAS ANNUAL MEETING | AAS REGIONAL CONFERENCES ]
Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore, 25–26 June 2009
This international symposium explores the relationship between minority rights claims and citizenship in Asia. It considers important questions about the rights and responsibilities that the status of ‘citizen’ confers to Asia’s ethnic minorities, and the extent to which minorities become ‘subjects’ when their civil and political rights may be implied but are subverted, or lack the legal certainty that citizens tend to experience. How are ethnic minorities in Asia transformed from subjects into citizens? Under what conditions are ethnic minority rights claims to citizenship justifiable? What are the duties and obligations of states to accommodate their ethnic minorities as citizens? How have the post-colonial ideologies of multi-ethnic Asian states, which were often constructed as political entities along arbitrary colonial borders, influenced their conferral of citizenship to ethnic minorities? And, how have the philosophies that Asian states and their ethnic minorities attach to citizenship changed over time, and in their interactions with each other?
Promoting a multidisciplinary approach, the symposium combines conceptual debates about citizenship with case studies of ethnic minorities from across the Asian region. It considers the nature of citizenship in the broader sense of identity, belonging, and the individual and collective rights and responsibilities of ethnic minorities vis-à-vis Asian states. Themes of the symposium include citizenship, constructions of national identity, separatism, conflict management, government decision-making processes, democratization, autonomy/ decentralization, public sector reform, civil and political rights, post-colonialism, regional security and political and legislative development.
For further information and registration follow this link: http://www.ari.nus.edu.sg/events_categorydetails.asp?categoryid=6&eventid=848.
The Tenth International Bhakti Conference is going to take place in Romania July 15–17, 2009. With a location in Central Europe we hope to be able to provide an opportunity for scholars from India and the West to meet their colleagues from Central and Eastern Europe, which also has a long but less visible tradition of studying South Asia. Keeping in line with its tradition the conference aims to investigate in the light of the latest research how bhakti in general contributed to the formation of early modern literary culture in north India. It encourages a diversity of perspectives without prioritizing Hindu ways-Muslim, Sikh, Jain, and other. We welcome papers investigating sectarian and courtly literatures in their social, economic, and political settings, especially those that flourished from 1500-1800 C.E. in north India. The conference will be organized in 110-minute panels as well as fifteen-minute presentations of research. Advanced graduate students are also encouraged to submit paper proposals and attend. Cogent pre-organized panels with three or four presentations are welcome. Panels should have a discussant who will comment on the presented papers and act as a moderator for the discussion. In order to get the best of a panel papers must be circulated among the members of the panel well ahead of the conference but not later than the first week of July. Individual proposals for inclusion into panels or for short presentations on research are also welcome. Insofar as possible, individual papers will be arranged into panels by the organizers and circulated for comment, as in case of the pre-organized panels. Since the conference operates within a limited time-frame, it is regretfully possible that not every proposal can be accommodated on the program. Deadline for applications with the submission of 300-word abstracts is November 30, 2008. For updated information please visit the conference website at http://www.csik.sapientia.ro/bhakticonference. If you intend to apply or if you have any questions please write to imre.bangha@orinst.ox.ac.uk.
August 14–16, 2009, Otago University, Dunedin, New Zealand
The flowering of Japanese modernism in the 1920s and early ‘30s, in all fields of the arts as well as in popular culture and everyday life, had profound and lasting effects on Japanese culture, society, and thought that still leave much for scholars of Japan to ponder. By adopting an open, multidisciplinary approach to the topic, this conference will aim to shed new light both on the specific achievements and also on the unexpected interrelationships of the artists and thinkers involved in this rich and complex episode of modern Japanese cultural history. Papers are welcome to consider the conference topic from any disciplinary or theoretical perspective.
While the central focus of the conference will be on Taishō and early Shōwa modernism as an aesthetic or cultural movement, papers are also welcome which address such diverse but related topics as: Meiji modernity as a precursor to Taishō modernism, “overcoming modernity” and other anti-modernist tendencies, the politicized “alternative modernities” of the left and right, modernism and the Japanese colonial empire, the postwar revival of Japanese modernism, and the latter-day phenomenon of postmodernism in Japan (especially as considered in its relationship to modernism).
A refereed volume of selected conference papers will be published by a major international publisher.
Those who are not able to attend the conference in person are welcome to submit papers for circulation or reading in absentia. These papers will also be considered for the final publication.
Please send abstracts of paper proposals by May 30, 2009 to Roy Starrs at: roy.starrs@otago.ac.nz
See the conference website for more info: www.otago.ac.nz/japanese/news/index.html
The Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, will host the Islamic Resurgence in the age of Globalization conference, September 4–6, 2009. Invited are interdisciplinary paper proposals dealing with the Islamic resurgence in the late 20th and early 21st centuries from the perspective of three key concepts: myth, memory and emotion. Myth is used here especially in Roland Barthes’ sense as a form of meta-language in which given symbolical signs are appropriated and stripped of their original contexts, history, and significances only to be infused with new and “mystifying” conceptual content. Examples of myths could be the new significances ascribed to Saladin and the Crusades, Jerusalem and Karbala, the hijâb and the siwâq. This connects to memory (remembering and forgetting), either collective (such as different - liberal, radical, Sufi “remembrance” of the legacy of al-salaf, of the Ottoman Empire, of the “orthodox” Sultan Awrangzeb, etc.) or private (inspired by childhood experiences, persecution of relatives, etc). Finally, emotion refers to the social and psychological mechanisms which motivate people to adopt religious attitudes, join Islamic organizations and movements of various types and shades, and sometimes even be prepared to sacrifice their lives on the path of God. It is intended that an edited volume will be published, based on the proceedings of the conference. Traveling expenses and accommodation for paper presenters will be covered by the organizers, as will be an excursion to the fjords and a concluding dinner. Abstract proposals (maximum 400 words, with a brief CV, maximum two sentences) should be sent by January 31, 2009 to: Ulrika Martenson ulrika.martensson@hf.ntnu.no, Itzchak Weismann weismann@research.haifa.ac.il and Mark Sedgwick mjs@teo.au.dk Acceptances and rejections will be notified by April 2, 2009.
The University of Warwick, UK will host the Japanese Literature and World Literature Conference on Thursday, September 17, 2009. World Literature is an ascendant theme. The conference aims to make an intervention in positioning Japanese literature in this growing field of World Literature. Seeking to revise the premises and methodologies of traditional comparative literary studies, some World Literature scholars investigate exchanges and circulation of many aesthetic and cultural practices, taking great consideration of the material and historical conditions involved. Japanese literature is a particularly interesting subject for many who want to explore how the specificities of Japanese history-notably the drastic progress of modernity-interact with its literature. We invite papers of no more than 20 minutes, to be delivered in English, whose topics will include, but are not limited to: Literary history and translations into and out of Japanese, comparing modernisms, visions of empire, Japanese imperialism, literature and education, Japan and world systems, post-war Japan and/in literature.
Please submit your abstract of no more than 250 words to Katsura Sako (Katsura.Sako@gmail.com) by May 15, 2009. This event is funded by Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation. There is no fee for attending the conference, but advance booking is required as places are limited. Please email Katsura Sako to book your place. Conference details will be updated on http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/english/events. For general inquiries, please contact one of the organizers: Dr. Katsura Sako, Keio University, Tokyo, Katsura.Sako@gmail.com or Dr. Michael Gardiner, University of Warwick, M.Gardiner@warwick.ac.uk.
An international conference at Bucknell University, Pennsylvania, October 2, 2009
On October 1, 2009, the People's Republic of China (PRC) will be 60 years old. What a turbulent jiazi (60 years)! To mark this significant occasion, Bucknell University will be hosting an international conference to reflect upon the past and explore the future of the PRC in October 2009. We are planning to have three panels: two on China's domestic challenges, one on China's foreign relations.
We encourage established and promising scholars on China to submit paper proposals on political, economic, social, environmental, technological, and diplomatic challenges that China faces today from a historical perspective. Proposals that are theoretically grounded and empirically informed are most welcome. Bucknell University will provide accommodation and offer honoraria to the selected panelists for their contribution to the conference. Papers of the highest quality will also be published in an edited volume by a reputable publisher. The conference is coordinated by the MacArthur Chair in East Asian Politics at Bucknell University and co-sponsored by the University's Office of the Provost and relevant programs. Located in central Pennsylvania's beautiful Susquehanna Valley, Bucknell University is ranked among the top liberal arts institutions in the United States.
Please submit a paper proposal of no more than 300 words and a short bio as a word document to zz004@bucknell.edu before March 15, 2009. Please put "PRC at 60 Conference" as the subject.
Deadline for Paper Proposal: March 15, 2009.
Notification of Paper Acceptance and Invitation to Conference: April 15, 2009
Completed Paper Due: September 15, 2009.
Conference: October 2, 2009 (arriving on Oct. 1, leaving on Oct. 3)
Revision of Paper Due: November 15, 2009
Publication of Book: Early 2010
Contact: Zhiqun Zhu, Bucknell University, Lewisburg, PA 17837, USA; Tel: 570-577-2050; Email: zhiqun.zhu@bucknell.edu
The annual conference of the Cultures and Languages Across the Curriculum Consortium will be held October 15–16, 2009 at Baldwin-Wallace College, Berea, OH. This conference on Cultures and Languages Across the Curriculum (CLAC) is designed for students, faculty, international education professionals, and campus administrators interested in exploring the use of languages and cultures as a tool for internationalizing the curriculum across all disciplines. Teachers from elementary and secondary schools will also find useful information that can be adapted to their instructional circumstances.
A specific focus of the 4th annual conference on Cultures and Languages Across the Curriculum will be on global or intercultural competency across the curriculum. While existing LAC programs at institutions across the country are remarkably diverse in their shape and structure, as a general rule they tend to focus on language use and on the development of content-specific language skills. The 'C' in CLAC represents a new focus on integrating cross-cultural perspectives into Languages Across the Curriculum programs and into courses in all disciplinary areas.
We invite individual presentations and panels that address any of the following themes:
Cultures and Languages Across the Curriculum: How can CLAC programs highlight culture and intercultural communication and analysis? Can we use improvements in cross-cultural competence as a “hook” to promote language use throughout the curriculum and the adoption of CLAC methods?
CLAC and Co-curricular Programs (Study Abroad, Service Learning, Internships, others): How can CLAC be used before, during, and after such activities to maximize acquisition of intercultural knowledge and skills? How might language and cultural learning be enhanced by innovative use of language and cultural knowledge outside the classroom?
CLAC and Assessment: How should we assess CLAC programs and learning? Are language proficiency and cross-cultural skills assessment tools (such as ACTFL standards and the IDI) appropriate to the goals of CLAC?
CLAC and K-16 Articulation: How can we establish workable K-16 articulation models that promote international and multicultural education?
The conference organizers also welcome and encourage proposals for creative presentations. This might include videos, examples of CLAC assignments and exercises, or testimonials from student and faculty CLAC participants.
Deadline for proposal submissions is Saturday, August 15, 2009. Submissions and questions should be directed to the Program Chair, Dr. Javier Morales-Ortiz at clac2009@bw.edu. Please review the program proposal requirements, theme descriptions, and abstract format description located in the Call for Proposals. Only proposals submitted using the online proposal form will be considered. For more information about online proposal submission process, please visit the conference site at http://www.bw.edu/clac2009/ You will be informed about the status of your proposal by September 1, 2009. The preliminary program will be posted by September 15.
October 16–17, 2009, Annapolis, Maryland, U.S.A.
While the United States was deeply involved in negotiating peace between Israel and the Palestinians and fighting terrorism in Iraq and Afghanistan, countries in East Asia and Southeast Asia have been quietly developing frequent economic, political, and cultural interaction with the Middle East. Countries such as China and Japan pay close attention to the Middle East because of their strong ties to the region. Indeed their roles in the Middle East have become so prominent that they should be acknowledged and closely observed. The “Transcending Borders: Asia, Middle East, and the Global Community” conference, hosted by the U.S. Naval Academy’s Center for Middle East and Islamic Studies, the Shanghai International Studies University, and the Library of Congress Asian Division, aims to provide a platform for western and Asian scholars to converge and exchange views on major issues concerning the Middle East and its relationship with Asia, the U.S., and the rest of the world.
The 2009 Biannual International Forum on Asia-Middle East Studies plans to invite scholars with strong interest and specializations in Asia-Middle East relations to present their papers on the following suggested subjects: Energy and environment; Economy and trade; Cross-regional relations; and Social/cultural perspectives. This list is meant to suggest possible topics, although other topics are welcome if they establish their general relevance to the subject of the encounters between the global and local powers in the Middle East. Both broad theoretical studies and specific case studies are welcome. Paper proposals (no more than 200 words) & a 1-page biography are due by 1 May 2009, and should be submitted electronically to: Transcending Borders: Asia, Middle East, and the Global Community, Center for Middle East and Islamic Studies, U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland USA 21402; Tel.: 1-410-293-2990; Fax: 1-410-293-2994; Email: cmeis@usna.edu
This is an interdisciplinary conference. Participants will include academics, diplomats, military officers and other interested individuals. Authors of accepted proposals will be notified by 1 June 2009. Final papers must be submitted by 15 September 2009. Paper presenters and participants must cover their own travel and accommodations to participate in the conference. Registration fee is $95.00 and is due by 16 September 2009. Registration information for this conference will be available by 1 April 2009 at
www.usna.edu/MiddleEast
San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA, November 6-7, 2009
We are looking for papers exploring issues related to the genre of autobiography: please submit paper proposals of 500 words and 50-word abstract to http://www.pamla.org/2009/proposals by March 15, 2009. Please direct your proposal to Autobiography session.
Association of Japanese Literary Studies 2009 Conference to be held at Rutgers University, November 6–8, 2009, welcomes proposals that approach gender in innovative ways and examine its relationship to, or intersection with, any issue relevant to Japanese literary and visual culture. Deadline is June 1, 2009 for receipt of abstracts of no more than 250 words.
We welcome individual submissions as well as three-or four-person panel proposals. Abstracts should be submitted by e-mail attachment and must include the presenter’s name, institutional affiliation, and e-mail address. In the case of panel proposals, the organizer of the panel should send a cover sheet briefly explaining the panel’s unifying rationale along with the abstracts for each paper and the name of a chair and discussant.
Presentations will be organized in 1½-hour time blocks. The conference languages are English and Japanese. Papers and panels are especially welcome that address the life and literary legacy of Oba Minako (1930–2007). Abstracts should be sent to ajls2009.rutgers@gmail.com. Other correspondence may be directed to the organizers: Paul Schalow, schalow@rci.rutgers.edu or Janet Walker, jwalk@rci.rutgers.edu.
The Department of Political Science and the Graduate Institute of Political Economy of National Cheng Kung University in Taiwan will hold an international conference on “The New Asian Political Economy: The Global Financial Crisis and Beyond,” on December 10 and 11, 2009.
While many in Asia and throughout the world blame the United States for the global recession, the current crisis has also underscored the deep econo-political inter-dependence of Rim nations and America. It is obvious that close economic cooperation and political coordination are essential for both sides. The wild card in this deck, however, is the political impact of falling economic expectations. This conference encourages a wide range of perspectives on all aspects of the “new” Asian political economy amid the global financial crisis.
Call for Papers: This conference is organized by Professor Jenn-Jaw Soong, Director and Chair, Associate Professor Chih-Chieh Chou and Assistant Research Professor Songok Han Thornton of the Department of Political Science and the Graduate Institute of Political Economy at National Cheng Kung University (address: No. 1, University Road, Tainan, Taiwan).
We invite you to send 250-300 word proposals on topics including but not limited to: The nature and scope of the global crisis; The old and new capitalisms; Recovery debates; Social and cultural impacts; Political and geopolitical implications; Anti/alter globalization; New U.S.-Asian relations; The West and the Rest; Asian political economies in transition; Sustainable development and human development. Deadline for submission of abstracts: August 31, 2009.
Conference Website: http://www.ncku.edu.tw/~polsci/NAPE2009/Untitled-1.html.
For further information and abstract submission, please contact: Songok Han Thornton; sohan@mail.ncku.edu.tw or ccchou@mail.ncku.edu.tw or em50255@email.ncku.edu.tw; Tel: 886-6-275-7575 (ext. 50255; 50253); Fax: 886-6-276-6498.
February 25–27, 2010
Sponsored by the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures, Asian Studies, the Confucius Institute at USC, and Women’s and Gender Studies
Directed by Jeanne Garane, Jie Guo, Yvonne Ivory, and Ed Madden
Plenary Speakers: Shigehisa Kuriyama, Harvard U, East Asian Languages and Civilizations and Peter McIsaac, York U, German
A lot has been said about bodies, yet the body still remains one of the most contested concepts in a wide range of fields, such as art, anthropology, history, literature, medicine, philosophy, religion, as well as the study of gender and sexuality. Thinking about bodies has occasioned ongoing encounters, clashes, and border-crossings between these disciplines. The Program in Comparative Literature at the University of South Carolina invites submissions to an interdisciplinary conference entitled “Bodies,” to be held in Columbia, SC, February 25-27, 2010. We welcome papers and panels that examine bodies from any angle, and we especially encourage cross-cultural and interdisciplinary approaches. Suggested topics include, but are not limited to:
the ghostly body; the anorexic body; the medical body; bodies and biotechnology; the self-destructive body; the religious body; the Oriental body; racialized bodies; emotional bodies; animal bodies; cross-dressed bodies; transgendered bodies; invisible bodies; viewed bodies; philosophies of corporeality; corpses; the “undead” body; robots & cyborgs; the disabled body; the thinking body; the body in the arts; the body as metaphor; bodies of knowledge; loving bodies; corporeality and writing; body modification; border-crossing bodies; speaking bodies; bodies and the grotesque; bodies “East” and “West”
Please send 300-word proposals and short bios to jieguo@sc.edu and yivory@sc.edu by November 15, 2009.
University of Warwick, 22–24 April, 2010
This international conference to be held at the University of Warwick will bring together experts in a wide range of disciplines and geographical areas to explore the cultural and intellectual dimensions of the movement of ceramics in the early modern world. How exactly did Chinese ceramics filter into different societies to become part of everyday lives across the globe, and why were some places resistant to their impact? Did a potter in Europe, South America or the Middle East attempting to incorporate Chinese styles into local manufacture consider their place of origin? What effects did ceramics have on the nature of global connections, and who were the brokers and dealers involved in these processes? This conference will provide an opportunity to move beyond object-based analyses and reflect on such questions in light of recent developments in the field of global history.
Further details of the objectives of the conference including a call for papers are now available through the Global Jingdezhen project website: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/history/ghcc/research/globalporcelain/.
Abstracts must be received by 15 June 2009.
For further information, please contact Dr Stephen McDowall (s.j.mcdowall@warwick.ac.uk).
We are planning a workshop on the Liao dynasty to be held at Yale University and/or Bard Graduate Center in the fall of 2010. We hope to produce a book that does for the Liao what Perspectives on the Tang did for the Tang: namely to introduce the field to outsiders while introducing the latest research. Our focus will be on new discoveries and new approaches. We are particularly interested in the following topics: Writing (update on the deciphering of Khitan scripts, the importance of epitaphs in both Chinese and Khitan); Material and visual culture (including architecture, urban culture, and painting); Foreign relations and cultural interaction (in particular with people from the east and west); and Religion (including both Daoism and Buddhism). Please send paper proposals (maximum 1,000 words) to: valerie.hansen@yale.edu and louis@bgc.bard.edu by January 1, 2009.
An international conference organised by Hans van de Ven, University of Cambridge and Zheng Yangwen, University of Manchester, to be held on 30-31 July 2010 in Singapore or Xiamen.
Some four hundred pieces of ceramics from the oldest shipwreck found in Southeast Asia were on display in Singapore in June 2005. The ceramics did not bear any resemblance to the familiar Ming or Qing wares. Neither did they look like the Song or Yuan wares. Made in a kiln in Changsha during the Tang dynasty, these were the long vanished 长沙窑or “Changsha ceramics”. The “Tang cargo”, as named by excavators and archaeologists, originated from Yangzhou, the Changsha ceramics in other words travelled a long way from South China to North China from where they were sent across the seas. They were re-packaged into large jars made in Vietnam and were destined for Arabia as the porcelains were painted with Arabic characters. The vessel bears the hallmarks of Arab shipping technology whereas the wood used to build it was from India.
This “Tang cargo” example lends force to the new perspective that this conference wishes to advance, namely the significance of water in shaping China’s history. Whereas the Great Wall is often used as a symbol of a closed-off China resisting engagement with the outside world, the Grand Canal, a comparable feat of engineering with probably a more profound social and cultural impact, is rarely pressed into service as a symbol of anything except for chronic mismanagement and corruption. Yet it illustrates that there was a ‘China on the Water’, not just a ‘Walled Kingdom’.
This conference aims to investigate how the water world shaped China. Islam and Christianity came via the water world; so did fragrances, tobacco and opium, maize, clocks, bicycles and ballet. We are interested in how waterways linked China with other parts of the world from the Tang dynasty onward. We are also interested in how water structured Chinese localities socio-culturally, religiously, materially, and architecturally, and the technologies that sustained China’s water-borne worlds, ranging from ships (junks), harbours, Custom Houses, warehouses, docks, and sluices to lighthouses and other aids to navigation, as well as structures to control rivers and canals. This conference seeks to bring the significance of waterways back into our historical perspectives; it aims at revising historical approaches that have dictated the study and research of China. For conference themes and the full Call for Papers, seehttp://www.ccs.humanities.manchester.ac.uk/research/conferences.html.
Inquiries and abstracts of no more than 250 words, plus 5 lines of biographical information, should be sent to David.Woodbridge@postgrad.manchester.ac.uk before 30 September 2009. Those accepted to present at the conference will be notified before the end of 30 December 2009. The organizers aim to publish selected conference papers in an edited volume/s. Accommodation and food will be provided during the conference but paper presenters must look for their own funding for travel.
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