CFP: power in Southeast Asia

[Nick Long]

Dear all,

I tried to send out this CFP last week, but seemingly without success. many 
apologies if you are receiving it for the second time. I hope some of you 
will be interested in attending the conference - we are keen to host 
speakers from a full range of disciplines, from languages and literature 
through to politics, economivcs and anthropology.

Best wishes,
Nick


CALL FOR PAPERS

'Continuity and Change: (Re)conceptualising Power in Southeast Asia'

March 26th-28th 2009
Hosted by CRASSH (Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and
Humanities),
University of Cambridge, UK

Keynote Speakers:
James Scott (Sterling Professor of Political Science and Professor of
Anthropology, Yale University)
Shelly Errington (Professor of Anthropology, UC Santa Cruz)

The study of power in contemporary Southeast 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 Southeast Asia, there seems to be
little specifically Southeast Asian about it contemporary scholarly
analyses. This is both puzzling and ironic given the central role that
earlier ethnographic studies of Southeast Asia once played in identifying
distinctively regional modalities of power, prompting us to reconsider
how 'power' could be most profitably studied in Southeast Asian contexts.

'Continuity and Change' will be a major interdisciplinary and international
conference on Southeast 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 will include:

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

We invite papers from scholars working in the arts, humanities and social
sciences whose research illuminates novel, exciting and challenging
dimensions of power in Southeast Asian contexts across space and time.

Abstracts, 250 words in length, should be submitted to
sea.continuity.change at googlemail.com

For further details, see our website:
http://www.crassh.cam.ac.uk/events/542, or email us at the address above.

Key dates:
Submission of Proposal: 1st October 2008
Announcement of accepted proposals: 1st November 2008
Circulation of Paper Abstracts and Panels: 1st March 2009


Organizing Committee:
Liana Chua
Joanna Cook
Nick Long
Lee Wilson

University of Cambridge


=========
Nick Long,
Department of Social Anthropology,
Free School Lane,
Cambridge
CB2 3RF

Tel: +44 (0)1223 364241
Mob: +44 (0)7870 589676

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