Labnet: CFP: Asian Borderlands: Enclosure, Interaction and Transformation - Chiang Mai University (RCSD), Thailand 11/10

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[Cross-posted, with thanks, from H-Soz-u-Kult. AB]

From:    Chayan  Vaddhanaphuti <info at asianborderlands.net>

CFP: Asian Borderlands: Enclosure, Interaction and Transformation -
Chiang Mai University (RCSD), Thailand 11/10
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Asian Borderlands Research Network
05.11.2010-07.11.2010, Chiang Mai University (RCSD), Thailand
Deadline: 01.12.2009

2nd Conference of the Asian Borderlands Research Network

State-centered views of the world continue to predominate, but it is
increasingly apparent that these restrict perspectives on dynamics
within broader regional fields. In an attempt to leapfrog a definition
of the world in terms of national economies, societies, cultures and
histories, 'borderland' centered perspectives have emerged. But whereas
borderland studies have quickly developed in Africa, Europe and North
America, the field is still in its infancy in Asia. 'Asian Borderlands:
Enclosure, Interaction and Transformation' intends to encourage
scholarship that looks across Asian borders.

The conference takes its cue from an important new book by James C.
Scott, The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland
Southeast Asia (Yale UP, 2009). In this book, Scott focuses on the
mountainous regions of the Himalayas and its lower ranges that run from
the Central Highlands in Vietnam, most of Laos, Northern Thailand,
Southwest China, Northern Burma, Northeast India, Eastern Bangladesh,
Bhutan, Nepal and Tibet. The 200 million people living in this huge
region (over 15 million km2) are geographically dispersed and culturally
diverse, yet they share crucial cultural, economic and social
characteristics: hill agriculture, physical mobility, relatively
egalitarian social structures, as well as commonalities in material
culture and outlook. National borders often appear utterly arbitrary to
them as many groups spill across two or more national borders. In this
way they distinguish themselves from the lowland populations who
dominate the states in which they live. Scott refers to this region as
'Zomia', a term coined by Willem van Schendel (2002/2005).

What is the viability and relevance of a concept such as Zomia for the
study of Asian borderlands? To what extend are people in such border
zones sharing ideas, practices and attitudes? Why and how do they remain
different? How are relationships, alliances and conflicts between hills
and plains people defined? In what ways are cultural and social dynamics
in and beyond such a region influenced by political boundaries? How do
people engage in, and are engaged by, processes of modernization and
globalization?

We invite conceptually innovative papers, based on new research, which
address questions such as these, in order to develop new perspectives on
the study of Asian borderlands. Panels will be considered that have a
thematic focus, are of a comparative character, and involve scholars
affiliated to distinct research institutions. Please visit
http://asianborderlands.net to submit proposals. Participants will be
notified by February 1st, 2010.

Deadline to send in abstracts / panel proposals: 1 December 2009

Participants are expected to fund their own travel and stay. Very
limited financial support may be made available to specific scholars
residing in Asia. If you would like to be considered for a grant: please
submit with your abstract for a panel and/or paper a short letter
motivating your request. Please specify the kind of funding that you
have applied for or will receive from other sources. The conference
operates on a very limited budget, and will not normally be able to
provide more than a partial coverage of costs of travel and stay.

Convenors: 
Dr. Chayan Vaddhanaphuti
Prof. Willem van Schendel 
Dr. Erik de Maaker

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Asian Borderlands Research Network
Scholarly and political boundaries divide Asia artificially into units,
such as South Asia, Central Asia, Southeast Asia, East Asia, and so on.
These divisions not only mask the many and varied commonalities that
transcend such boundaries, they also reinforce the marginalisation of
people who live in the so-called border areas. Yet a better appreciation
of these 'transitional zones' is in fact critical to our historical
understanding of processes of social and cultural change in the states
lying beyond them. Nonetheless, such a focus remains peripheral to area
studies and the disciplines which feed into them.

We believe that a new academic initiative is needed to recognise the
links, both historical and contemporary, that connect people in these
borderlands. The Asian Borderlands Research Network has been developed
with the intention of focusing particularly on the border regions
between South Asia, Central/East and Southeast Asia, where the
prevailing notions of area studies have been particularly limiting.

The purpose of the network is to encourage academic exchange between
both local and foreign scholars from a wide variety of disciplinary
backgrounds in the arts, humanities and social sciences. Its concerns
are varied, ranging from migratory movements, transformations in
cultural, linguistic and religious practices, to ethnic mobilization and
conflict, marginalisation, and environmental concerns. Its aim is to
generate new knowledge and methodologies in order that we should better
understand these transitional zones, and to contribute to a
reconfiguration of theoretical and methodological approaches to
borderlands in general.

It is still open how the network will be organized, and what its
activities will be. We particularly want to invite scholars from any of
the regions involved to participate in the network, and contribute to
the organizational effort. We hope that the 'International Conference on
Northeast India and its Transnational Neighbourhood'
(see link on this page) will be attended by a large number of scholars
who intend to contribute to the growth and activities of the network.
The conference will host a business meeting, at which strategic choices
regarding the future activities and the organizational structure of the
network will be discussed.

Preliminary planning committee
Stuart Blackburn (SOAS, London)
Erik de Maaker (Leiden University)
Willem van Schendel (University of Amsterdam)
Mandy Sadan (University of Oxford)
Sanjib Baruah (Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati and Bard
College, New York)

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Asian Borderlands Research Network
c/o International Institute for Asian Studies
Nonnensteeg 1-3
P.O. Box 9515
2300 RA  Leiden
Netherlands
info at asianborderlands.net

Homepage <http://asianborderlands.net> 

URL zur Zitation dieses Beitrages
<http://geschichte-transnational.clio-online.net/termine/id=12633>