INTER-ASIA CULTURAL STUDIES SOCIETY
IACS CONFERENCE 2015
Call for Papers IACS Conference 2015
MAIN THEME: Undercurrents: Unearthing Hidden Social and Discursive Practices DATES: 7-9 August 2015 VENUE: Airlangga University, Surabaya,
MAIN THEME:
fUndercurrents: Unearthing Hidden Social and Discursive Practices
DATES:7-9 August 2015
VENUE: Airlangga University, Surabaya, Indonesia
ORGANIZERS: Inter-Asia Cultural Studies Society, University of Indonesia and Airlangga University
KEYNOTE SPEAKER: Prof. Abidin Kusno, University of British Columbia, Canada
CALL FOR PAPERS IACS CONFERENCE 2015
2 September 2014 · by Annisa Beta · in Call for papers, Conferences
MAIN THEME:
Undercurrents: Unearthing Hidden Social and Discursive Practices
DATES: 7-9 August 2015
VENUE: Airlangga University, Surabaya, Indonesia
ORGANIZERS: Inter-Asia Cultural Studies Society, University of Indonesia and Airlangga University
Opening Keynote Speaker: Prof. Abidin Kusno, University of British Columbia, Canada
Closing keynote speaker: Prof. Melani Budianta, University of Indonesia
Plenary panel 1: Hilmar Farid (Institute of Indonesian Social History, Indonesia), Chua Beng Huat (NUS, Singapore), Prigi Arisandi (Ecoton, Indonesia)
Plenary panel 2: Diah Arimbi (Airlangga University, Indonesia), Firdous Azim (BRAC University, Bangladesh), Shunya Yoshimi (University of Tokyo, Japan)
Plenary panel 3: Sri Palupi (tbc) (Ecosoc Rights, Indonesia), Meaghan Morris (University of Sydney, Australia), Goh Beng Lan (SEAS Dept. NUS, Singapore)
CALL FOR PANELS AND PAPERS
Submission deadline
:
Jan 31st 2015 – online submission for panels and papers
Email
:
iacsconference2015@gmail.com
Announcement of accepted panels and papers
:
March 1st 2015
The general theme of the 2015 conference is “Undercurrents: Unearthing Hidden Social and Discursive Practices.” Cultural Studies scholarship has contributed to the humanities and social science scholarship by giving voices to the subaltern, everyday life, popular culture and social movements. Inter-Asia Cultural Studies has furthered the areas of inquiries by bringing down the East- West divide and foregrounding the fluid trans-local knowledge production, which gives a dialogic perspective on the region. However, there are still many social and cultural forces as well as praxis, that shaped everyday reality in Asia, which remain under-theorized and unexplored. This conference aims at bringing the undercurrents into the surface, examining how they intersect with, subvert, or mould the formal structures. By engaging with the undercurrents, the conference hopes to open up new frontiers of inquiries in the inter-Asia cultural studies scholarship.
Subthemes:
1. Courting ecological disaster: movement, subversion, corruption
2. Para-sites: Alternative space and knowledge production
3. ‘Free man’, mafia and underground economy
4. Healing and killing:‘pharmakon’ and alternative modernity
5. Uncharted border, illegitimate transnationality, diaspora
6. Voices of the supernatural: ghosts, cults, spirit mediums
7. Challenging urbanity: rural, underclass, urban guerillas
8. Theorizing emergent movements: arts, youth, social media, politics
9. Surviving political violence: memory, narratives, performativity
10. Secrecy, blasphemy, laughter and promiscuity: grafting unsacred codes
11. Performing sexuality: communities and practices
12. Fetishizing the culinary: foodporn and the body
We welcome panel proposals of 3 – 4 papers based on the subthemes and other important topics in inter-Asia cultural studies today. The Conference encourages trans-local panel proposals and discourages single-university or single-country panels. The call is now open — please submit your panel proposal using our Call for Panels online form.
While we prefer panel proposals, we will be accepting individual paper proposals, on condition that author(s) would accept our decision on the organization of relevant papers into panels and the right to reorganize panels due to withdrawals and other contingencies. The call is now open — please submit your paper proposal using our Call for Papers online form.
Information on Registration fee, Accommodation and other administrative details will be posted soon.
WHY SURABAYA?
Why was the city of Surabaya chosen to host our 2015 IACS Conference? Surabaya plays a critical role in the development of grassroots movements in Indonesia. The country’s struggle for independence from the Dutch colonialism reached its peak with the famed November 10 Battle against the Dutch Army in Surabaya (celebrated as Indonesia’s Memorial Day). The city is also well-known for its multicultural, vibrant, and egalitarian denizens. The rural-urban and boundary-crossing dynamics of this 700-year-old port city is indisputable. It becomes a perfect venue for our conference due to the widely-recognized creativity of its inhabitants in seeking innovative solutions to life problems that the mainstream power structures cannot accommodate in the economic, social, cultural, and political realms. In recent years, Surabaya has impressed the international public in Southeast Asia, as well as Asia, for its pioneering capability of transforming polluted industrial zones marked by densely populated slum areas into a city dazzlingly characterized by dominant public green spaces.
Surabaya is also curiously located very close to the epicenter of the uncontainable underground geological eruptions: the renown – albeit infamous – Lapindo Mud. These eruptions, as well as the prolonged suffering and unyielding struggle of the people affected by the mud flood in seeking reparative justice and steadfastly fighting against the existing power structures, have inspired Cultural Studies scholars both locally and nation-wide. The Lapindo case maintains a symbolic significance as it underscores the intersectionality of ecology, Cultural Studies, and complex, multi-dimensional cultural movements.
