CFP: (Re)Constructions: Researching and Rethinking Asia.

–On behalf of Vanessa Lamb–

Dear Graduate Students:

**Abstract Deadline Extended to December 10th**

Please consider submitting abstracts to the York Center for Asian Studies’ (YCAR) graduate student conference scheduled for 26-27 April 2013. This graduate student workshop offers the opportunity to present your work and receive feedback from fellow graduate students, in addition to discussions with YCAR faculty and keynote presenters. We will be able to offer a limited number of small travel grants to graduate students, especially those who are coming from outside Canada or Toronto. We will also be able to offer discounted accommodations for graduate students during the conference. Questions and abstracts can be sent to: YCARreconstructions2013@gmail.com

York Centre for Asian Research (YCAR) Graduate Student Conference
(http://www.yorku.ca/ycar/Events/reconstructions_graduate_conference.html)
York University, Glendon Campus, Toronto, Canada: April 26 and 27, 2013

Keynote Speaker: Vinay Gidwani, Department of Geography and Institute of Global Studies, University of Minnesota

How does scholarship of or about “Asia” contribute to dispelling geographies of ignorance?* How can our own work better contribute to understanding, and pointing out the mis understandings, of the categories, spaces and frameworks constructed as part of Asian Studies within and beyond the territorial limits of “Asia”?

The question of reconstructing the conceptual frameworks for research in Asia and Asian Diaspora has been actively debated in the last few decades, reflecting dynamic changes in both scholars’ and broader society’s notions of “Asia.” These discussions pay critical attention to the modern politics of constructing Asian spaces and identities, and of disseminating knowledge of the area throughout the world. The disciplinary divides traditionally associated with Area Studies are also being contested, and more interdisciplinary approaches are being demanded for researching Asia.

Taking up this challenge, the conference seeks graduate student research that can speak to ways of rethinking the epistemologies and methodologies of researching Asia, and reconstructing conventional categories and frameworks from a broad range of disciplines. The theme for this conference seeks to build upon the successful YCAR Graduate Student Conference in 2008 .
Topics may include, but are not limited to:

• Art history and visual culture
• Epistemologies of Asian Studies
• Global capitalism and resistance
• Globalization and “worlding cities”
• Indigeneity as right and discourse
• Literature and translation
• Media and technology
• Methodology and fieldwork
• Migration and diaspora
• Mobilities and borders
• Music and performing arts
• Orientalism and re-Orientalism
• Political ecology and politics of nature
• Positioning and subjectivity
• Race, gender and class
• Sexuality and the body
• Social movements and social justice
• Urban s paces and industrialization

Interested participants should submit a paper title, abstract with keywords (250 words maximum) along with brief biographical information (name, affiliation, stage of graduate study) by December 1, 2012. Successful candidates will be contacted by January 15, 2013 and must submit completed papers by March 25, 2013. Please email submissions to the conference organizers at: YCARreconstructions2013@gmail.com

There may be an opportunity to collaborate on a common peer-reviewed publication, which will be discussed at the conference.

More information about the conference can be found on the conference website: http://www.yorku.ca/ycar/Events/reconstructions_graduate_conference.html

*The term “geographies of ignorance” draws on Willem van Schendel’s 2002 article titled “Geographies of knowing, geographies of ignorance: jumping scale in Southeast Asia” published in Society and Space.