Concept Note:
Margins are not mere physical outlying areas, or geographies at the edges of state, capital and socio-cultural worlds. They are products of various complex processes in colonial and postcolonial times and have been produced in various moments of contestations, fragmentations and negotiations. As such, margins are not inert spaces; they are active sites in which creative practices and connections have taken place. Such practices and connections include cultures, politics, histories, societies, and economies that inhabit either the border of a state or a “geo-body.” In this regard, various studies focusing on “margins” have enabled us to look at forms of state-making, subject formations, role of capital, circuits and networks, contestations and subversions, including various cultural and political practices across societies and boundaries.
Historically, “margins” such as North East India had connections with societies in the “margins” of neighbouring areas such as Nepal, Bhutan, Tibet, China, Myanmar, Bangladesh, etc. As such, these geographical spaces throw up comparable and significant insights in studying the making of such complex spaces. For instance, these geographies are sites and spaces of various forms of material and non-material transactions and connectivities, including resources, rituals and commodities.
Such transactions and connectivities continue to mark these spaces even in the contemporary times. People continue to have wider social, cultural and (in) formal economic networks, marked by routes and infrastructures that support various forms of mobility. These “margins” have also been sites and spaces where forms of state/non-state violence, contestations, projects of nation-building and developmental interventions of both state and global financial institutions simultaneously have coexisted. This has also included representing these “margins” as the “gateways” and “corridors” of capital, trade and services under the neoliberal economy. Nevertheless, these areas have also been marked by various forms of social and political movements, that resists and negotiates violence and developmental interventions.
Some of the broad concerns and issues that emerge from the above are, what are margins? In what context are margins produced and reproduced? How are margins connected to the wider processes of state, capital and cultural flows? What are the different ways through which societies respond to the shifting dynamics of margin making?
Themes
Themes
This two-day interdisciplinary international conference seeks to explore some of these issues and concerns, especially focusing on North East India and its neighboring areas such Nepal, Bhutan, Tibet, China, Myanmar, Bangladesh, etc. This conference focuses on the following themes, but are not limited to:
- Making state, making margins
- Circuits, networks and infrastructures
- Capital, resource regimes and economy
- Margins and everyday life
- Violence, resistance and margins
- Knowledge, power and practices
- Margins and governance
- Movement and mobility
- Development, ecology and margins
- Memory and narratives
- Margins and gender
- Material culture
Interested research scholars, post-doctoral scholars and early career academics are invited to submit an abstract of about 200-300 words, including a brief CV at neispyoungscholarsconference@gmail.com
Participants from outside India are requested to seek funding from their institutions for travel costs. Partial funding to cover travel costs may be available for selected participants from within India based on availability of funds. Accommodation and local conveyance will be provided for selected participants.
Important dates:
Last date for abstract submission: 21 July, 2018
Intimation of abstract acceptance: 17 August, 2018
Submission of working papers from selected participants: 7 January, 2019
Organizing Team:
G. Amarjit Sharma is Assistant Professor at North East India Studies Programme, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.Bhumika R, Thingminao Horam, Tammoy Das and Robert Lunkhopao Haokip are Research Scholars at North East India Studies Programme, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.
Contact Info:
G. Amarjit Sharma is Assistant Professor at North East India Studies Programme, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.
Contact Email: neispyoungscholarsconference@gmail.com
