CFP: 4th International Conference of the Indian Association for South Asian Studies (IASAS) on #Subalterns in South Asia, 21-22 June, 2024

We are accepting abstracts for the Indian Association for South Asian Studies (IASAS) International Conference, which will take place at Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology, Bhubaneswar, Odisha from June 21-22, 2024. Researchers and scholars from across the disciplines will participate in this two-day conference that will be concentrating on South Asian studies. The central theme for the above is ‘Subalterns in South Asia:.

The term "subaltern," popularized by Antonio Gramsci, conceptualized subaltern groups as those excluded from hegemonic power, encompassing peasants, workers, and other marginalized factions. However, in Subaltern Studies led by Ranajit Guha, the term broadens to denote the quality of being subordinate in South Asian society, irrespective of its manifestation in class, caste, age, gender, or office.

The collective, initially comprising scholars such as Shahid Amin, David Arnold, Partha Chatterjee, David Hardiman, Gyanendra Pandey etc., aimed to give voice to the historically marginalized. Subaltern Studies encompassed diverse subjects, including history, politics, economics, and sociology of subalternity, along with associated perspectives, ideologies, and belief systems. The initiative aimed to counter elitist historiography by allowing subaltern voices to emerge within its pages, representing and amplifying the voices of the oppressed.

The theory posited that the elite in India did not merely have a hegemonic role but played a dominant one, enabling the subaltern to be seen as independent historical actors. This perspective countered the notion that the subaltern were passive recipients of elite guidance, emphasizing their independent agency within the political system. 

In line with the subaltern understanding, this conference extends a warm invitation to panels and paper submissions that specifically emphasize non-elite discourses. The conference aims to spotlight and explore narratives, perspectives, and voices that have traditionally been marginalized or overlooked in favour of dominant, elite perspectives. Connecting historical studies to disciplines like gender studies, cultural studies, sociology, economics, demographics, politics, psychology, and others are also welcome. By prioritizing non-elite discourses, we aspire to create a space for critical discussions and insights that challenge established norms and contribute to a richer understanding of the diverse, often unheard, voices in South Asian societies. 

The conference hopes to be able to encourage more research by generating new perspectives by exploring new as well as alternative and evolving research ideas and methods.

IASAS 2024 conference welcomes panels and papers in English or in Hindi on any theme of South Asian Studies employing interdisciplinary and theoretical perspectives inspired from History, Philosophy, Political Science, Anthropology, Ethnography, Sociology, Psychology etc. Hence, the conference aim is to bring historians and social scientists into conversation with each other. We encourage submissions from research students, early career scholars, faculty members, and independent social scientists whose research falls under the spectrum of South Asian Studies. The conference hopes to generate new perspectives by exploring new as well as alternative and evolving research ideas and methods. 

There would be at least four presenters in each panel session. Presentations will be limited to 20 minutes each.

1. Abstracts of up to 500 words should be submitted on or before 15 April, 2024.

2. Acceptance letters for proposals will be e-mailed by 30 April, 2024. All abstracts will be peer-reviewed.

 

In the Subject window of your e-mails, please type the following words: IASAS Bhubaneswar 2024.

Email: iasasconference@gmail.com

Delegates fees:

For paper presenters:

1. Faculty Members: 6000 INR (with hostel room accommodation single occupancy for two days) 
2. Faculty Members :5000 INR (without accommodation) 
3. Research Students:5000 INR (with hostel room accommodation single occupancy for two days)
4. Research Students : 4000 INR (without accommodation)
5. Guests and Listeners: 2500 INR

Note:

• The organizing committee is not in a position to provide participants with financial support.
• All participants are advised to seek funding through their respective institutions or other sources.
• The venue of the conference is Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology, Bhubaneswar, Odisha.

Contact Information

Centre for Alternative Studies in Social Sciences, New Delhi

Indian Association for South Asian Studies, New Delhi

 

Email: iasasconference@gmail.com

Contact Email

iasasconference@gmail.com

Attachments

cfp-iasas-2024.pdf

CFP: International Conference(Hybrid Mode) on “Posthuman Condition in the Anthropocene” on 02-03 March 2024. -Centre for Research in Posthumanities, Bankura University

CFP & Concept Note:

Humans are no longer biological agents of this planet. They have become geological agents in the Anthropocene era. What does this agentic transmutation imply? Since a ‘geological force has no sense of purpose or sovereignty’(Chakrabarty 2023: 33), how, then, are we supposed to re/configure ‘the human’ who is attributed with autonomy and freedom-seeking agency? Critical posthumanists, who argue for an inclusive way of thinking, might be tempted to rearticulate the normative conception of the human in the first place: who or what is anthropos? Perhaps, the ontic problem rests with the European Enlightenment modernity’s projection of the human, which now stands on an increasingly slippery ground. Bernard Stiegler, Bruno Latour, Michel Serres, Dipesh Chakrabarty, Donna Haraway argue for locating human in entanglements with nonhumans. Many of them even view human autonomy as the mankind’s self-created myth; and also argue that the human is always already entangled with nonhumans. 

Despite the heated debate surrounding the term Anthropocene for promoting the return of white universal man, naturalizing tendency, colonial outlook and exclusivity, the term is nonetheless being used as an operative critical tool for interrogating and re-assessing our understanding of the existing relation between humans and nonhumans. Rather than pondering too much on the term’s limitations, it would be more profitable to think of the future produced by the mingling of human history  and planetary history. It will be worthwhile to think about collaborative survival with other planetary cohabitants. As the humanity’s ecological footprint affect the trajectory of the Earth System, ‘humans now unintentionally straddle three histories (the history of the earth system, the history of life including that of human evolution on the planet, and the more recent history of the industrial civilization) that operate on different scales and at different speeds’ (Chakrabarty 2023: 89).

The collision of human and planetary temporalities calls for a new totalizing framework and requires a new way of thinking in the social sciences and humanities. In the Anthropocene, socio-cultural and political world orders get entangled with material and energy cycles of the Earth, which eventually co-produces a new (post)human condition. The Anthropocene pushes the boundaries of our existing disciplines to their limits and makes the social-only understanding ineffective.

The proposed conference also seeks to cite India’s G-20 presidency (2023) as an articulation, on a diplomatic level, of the theoretical premises of this conference. The pro-planet theme of India’s G20 presidency – “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam”(the world is one family) – significantly seeks to recognise the entangled planetary existence, which embraces both the human and non-human. The emphasis on green and sustainable development, climate finance, ‘net-zero’ carbon reduction testifies to the fact that social-only understanding of human politics is no longer tenable. Incorporation of green elements in its conceptual construction was long overdue.

The proposed conference seeks to focus on, though not strictly limited to, the following areas:

• Re-figuring the anthropos in the Anthropocene

• Problems in Nomenclature: Anthropocene or Capitalocene

or Plantationocene or Homogenocene or Chthulucene?

• Anthropocentrism and its Discontents

• Thinking Through Harman’s ‘OOO’ in the Anthropocene

• Configuring New Onto-Epistemic System in the Anthropocene

• Planetary Crises and Planetary Solidarity in the Anthropocene

• Future of the Humanities and Social Sciences in the Anthropocene

• Greenhouse Culture in the Anthropocene

• Non-human Turn in the Anthropocene

• New Materialisms and the Anthropocene

• Posthumanities and the Anthropocene

• Animal Studies in the Anthropocene

• Plant Humanities and the Anthropocene

• Greening Democracy and International Relations

in the Anthropocene

• (Re)writing Cli-fi in the Anthropocene

• India’s G-20 Presidency and Green Diplomacy

• Plastic Pollution and E-/Waste Management in

the Anthropocene

• Populism and Climate Change Denial

• Re-thinking Carbon democracy in the Anthropocene

• Blue Humanities and the Anthropocene

• Global Climate Activism and Climate Solidarity in

the Anthropocene

[Suggestive Bibliography:

Chakrabarty, Dipesh. One Planet Many Worlds: The Climate Parallax. Brandeis UP, 2023.

Haraway, Donna. Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene. Duke UP, 2016.

Latour, Bruno. We Have Never Been Modern. Translated by Catherine Porter. Harvard UP, 1993.

Stiegler, Bernard. The Neganthropocene. Translated by Daniel Ross. Open Humanities Press, 2018.

Serres, Michel. The Parasite. Translated by Lawrence Schehr. U of Minnesota Press, 2007.]

Key Facts and Necessary Information:

Abstract might be sent to crpbku2.0@gmail.com in within 25.02.2024

(Participants are advised to send an abstract of about 200 words and a short bio-note in single word file. ‘CRP Conference

Submission 2024’ should be mentioned in the subject line of Gmail.)

Registration Form (Mandatory):

Time & dates of the conference: 02-03 March 2024; 09 am to 4 pm IST

Registration Fees:

Faculty: 2000 INR

Researcher and Students: 1500 INR

International Participants: 50 USD

Participation Fees: 800 INR

Fee Payment Details

G-pay/PhonePay: 9832850405
HDFC BANK
A/C- SUKHENDU DAS
Account Number: 50100174070610
IFSC: HDFC0002505, Branch: BANKURA, Account Type: SAVING

Registration fees cover conference kit, tea, snacks, working lunch on both days.

Publication Prospect: Select papers will be considered for an international publication after double-blind peer review process. However, the

discretion and recommendation of the peer-board will be considered final in this case.

Participants are advised to attend the conference in person. Virtual presentation slots are very limited and not open to all.

All queries relating to conference might be directed to the email id mentioned above.