The Twelfth Annual South Asia Graduate Student Conference at the University of Chicago: South Asian Mobilities, March 5-6, 2015
The organizing committee of the South Asia Graduate Student Conference at the University of Chicago has announced the twelfth annual conference, to be held on March 5-6, 2015, on the theme, South Asian Mobilities. The committee invites papers from graduate students exploring the effects of the movement of peoples, objects, and ideas across, into, and out of South Asia.
As a region, South Asia has been characterized by a remarkable degree of interaction between diverse groups and cultures from its earliest periods. Despite ongoing attempts to claim static, homogenous histories for various forms of identity, much of the remarkable dynamism of South Asia has come from the rich and varied movement of ideas and the porousness of borders between regions and communities. We therefore invite papers that will explore questions such as the following: how have concepts been translated into different languages and cultural idioms? How has the physical movement of texts, materials, and peoples formed new sorts of connections? We are interested in starting conversation around the importance of zones of migration, trade, and travel—such as the Indian Ocean—and the interactions between different cultural and religious traditions. The committee is interested in exploring what these questions reveal about the way the diverse regions and cultural strands of South Asia have been in conversation, how we might situate the region itself within a broader global context, and, finally, what South Asia can tell us about the complex ways cultures and communities inform and shape each other.
Potential topics could include:
- Interactions between religions, castes, and languages
- Migration into and out of South Asia, both historical and contemporary
- Diasporas in South Asia/South Asian diasporas
- Translation from/across South Asian languages
- Movement of texts across genres
- Movement of commodities
- Changing social practices/effects of globalization
- Movement of animals and plants across regions
The keynote speakers for the conference will be Nandini Gooptu, Head of the Department of International Development at the University of Oxford, and Nile Green, Professor of History at UCLA.
The South Asia Graduate Student Conference at the University of Chicago brings together graduate students at all stages of research and dissertation-writing from across the world to present research relating to South Asia. Students at any stage of research or writing are encouraged to apply. In the past, we have drawn students from departments including Anthropology, Area Studies, Archaeology, Art History, Comparative Literature, Film Studies, Gender and Sexuality Studies, History, Law, Linguistics, Philosophy, Political Science, and Religion, amongst others. Participants can expect to give 15-20 minute presentations to an audience drawn from across the University of Chicago and from a cross-section of scholars working on South Asia.
Food and lodging will be provided by the University of Chicago. The committee will be able to provide partial reimbursements for travel to and from Chicago, though it encourages students to also seek support from their home institutions.
The committee invites students to submit papers individually. Panel proposals are not required. Abstracts of not more than 500 words should be sent to sagsc12@gmail.com by December 5, 2014. Applicants will be notified of a decision by January 5, 2015.
For detailed information, click here.