Call for Book Chapters- Social Work and Social Change: Education, Research and Practice (Springer)

 

Social work as human service-based profession has a long and rich history of being intricately linked to social change. From early reformers advocating for better living conditions to contemporary practitioners working for poverty, inequality, racial justice, crime, drug addiction and so on, the profession has consistently strived to create a more equitable society. This edited book aims to explore the complex relationship between social work and social change, exploring how the profession contributes to positive societal transformations and how the concept of social change itself is understood within the social work field. Social work, at its core, is a profession dedicated to promoting social justice and fostering positive societal transformations. While social work is inherently tied to the pursuit of social justice and equity, little is known about the specific mechanisms through which the profession actively contributes to social change. This book seeks to bridge this gap by offering a comprehensive exploration of the multifaceted ways in which social work education, practice, and research intersect with and contribute to broader processes of social transformation. Furthermore, this proposed volume explores the intricate and dynamic relationship between social work and social change, focusing on the critical roles of education, practice, and research in driving meaningful progress. We will explore how these three pillars work together to equip social workers with the knowledge, skills, and evidence-based practices necessary to be effective change agents. 

The contribution in this volume should be in position to explore the following questions:    

• How is the concept of social change itself conceptualized within social work broadly and particularly in its different specializations (e.g., child welfare, gerontology, mental health, social justice social policy, community organizing etc.)? 
• How does social work education, research and practice contribute to social change at micro, macro and meso levels?
• What are the various frameworks and approaches used by social workers to promote social change?
• How do issues of power, oppression, and social justice influence social work's role in social change? 
• How can social work better measure and document its impact on social change efforts?
• How do global and technological advancements influence the ways social workers approach and achieve social change? 

We invite social work educators, scholars, practitioners, and researchers engaged in social work and social change to submit chapters that address the central themes outlined above. Contributions can be theoretical, empirical, research-based or practice-oriented, offering diverse perspectives on how each area (education, practice, research) contributes to social change within the social work. We aim to include 15 chapters (maximum) for this proposed volume. 

Contact Information

Dr. Koustab Majumdar, email- koustabm@ranchi.rkmvu.ac.in

Contact Email: koustabm@ranchi.rkmvu.ac.in

URL

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/379485517_Call_for_Contributions_Book-…

Call for Abstracts: #Education and Role-Playing Games: #Theory, #Pedagogy, and #Practice

Analog role-playing games (tabletop role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons, larps [live action role-play], etc) provide opportunities for formative and educative experiences for players. The game’s elements of role-play demand a level of imagination, participatory commitments, self-reflection, creative problem solving, and collaboration from players that most leisure activities do not. This proposed volume will focus on analog role-playing games and their educative capabilities. We are interested in how people learn and are formed by these games, both in and outside of formal educational environments. The volume seeks to examine how these games do (or do not) facilitate educative growth both through theorizing as well as concrete analysis of practice. Both theoretician-oriented and practitioner-generated pieces are welcome, but all pieces should seek to examine broader themes and questions around education, knowledge, and growth through the lens of analog RPGs. 

The editor gladly invites proposals for chapter submissions on, but not limited to, the following topics: 

Theories of education, knowledge, and pedagogy in analog role-playing games:

• RPGs and theories of learning, construction of knowledge
• RPGs and experiential/active learning 
• RPGs and vicarious experience 
• Bleed and education
• RPGs and civic / democratic education
• The role of AI in RPG play

Analog role-playing games and education broadly through:

• Education around conceptions of race, gender, sexuality, neurodivergence, etc
• Social participation, group membership, social mores
• Conflict resolution and violence in games
• Identity formation and self-discovery
• Transgressive play and education
• Consent practices and boundary setting
• RPGs and depictions of colonialism and exotification

Challenges/Benefits of utilizing RPGs in formal educational settings in regards to:

• RPGs and critical thinking, literacy, social emotional learning, etc
• RPGs and neurodivergent students
• RPGs as distinct from simulations or case studies
• RPGs and math education
• “The dice tell a story” - RPGs and data visualization 
• Ethics of usings RPGs in the classroom, especially when dealing with sensitive or controversial subject matter 
• Challenges around time management, assessment, and participation
• Considerations/Benefits when using RPGs with specific populations (i.e. children, seniors, ESL, etc)
• Pre and post game practices & reflection
• RPG practices of consent as practiced in a classroom
• Teacher as GM / GM as Teacher

 

Interested authors should send chapter abstracts of 250-500 words (excluding sources cited), a paragraph author biography, and a CV or resume to educationrpgpedagogy@gmail.com.

The call for chapters ends July 1st, 2024. Authors will be notified of accepted proposals on July 15th, 2024. Authors will submit their accepted chapters of a minimum of 4500 words in length by October 1st, 2024.

All contributors should engage with the existing academic literature on role-playing games. While the editors will not prescribe particular sources or methodologies, proposals should reflect acquaintance with current scholarship on role-playing games.

The project will be submitted for consideration as part of the Education and Popular Culture series. The series is unique as it equally values practitioner-generated pieces on using mass/popular culture as it does theoretician-oriented pieces on studying mass/popular culture, as well as works that exist in the intersections between these worlds. Works in this series take up issues surrounding popular culture in education broadly through pedagogical, historical, sociological, and critical lenses.

Contact Information

Dr. Susan Haarman

Loyola University-Chicago

Contact Email

educationrpgpedagogy@gmail.com

CFP: International Conference on Understanding Authoritarianism/Fascism in South Asia -Nov 2024

 We are proposing a panel on “Understanding Authoritarianism/Fascism in South Asia” at the 52nd Annual Conference on South Asia, organized by the South Asia Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  

While South Asia, a diverse and dynamic region, has witnessed various forms of governance throughout its history, in recent times, concerns have been raised about the rise of populism and/or authoritarianism. This panel seeks to explore the nature of fascism/authoritarianism in this region. Is the nature of fascism/authoritarianism the same in this region compared to Western/European counterparts? In response to Ramin Jahanbegloo's question "Is there an Indian fascism?" Ashis Nandy argues, “Indian civilization, which has no direct experience of that particular version [European] of authoritarianism and has always worked with ill-defined, open ended concept of evil, finds it more difficult to deal with various modern versions of authoritarianism” (Nandy 2006). 

This panel invites theoretical and/or empirical research that critically examines the features (distinct or otherwise) of authoritarianism/fascism in the South Asian context and beyond. We aim to identify and analyze historical antecedents contributing to the emergence of authoritarianism and to explore the socio-cultural factors influencing the development and sustenance of authoritarian regimes. Simultaneously we plan to investigate the role of technology, media, civil society, developmentalist narratives, nationalist discourse, discourse of national security and so on in shaping and reinforcing authoritarian tendencies. 

We invite 200–300 word abstracts with a short bio (100 words) on topics including but not limited to: 

• Authoritarianism/Fascism in South Asia (Any historical moment to now) 
• Biopolitics
• Manufacturing the consent 
• Nation-building and Authoritarianism 
• Extra-judicial killings 
• Resisting Authoritarianism (past or present) 
• Silencing the narratives
• Radical Alternatives 
• Democracy and Populism
• Anti-Authoritarian Political Thoughts in South Asia
• Secular/religious authoritarianism
• Vote Rigging to "Dummy" election (in the context of Bangladesh)
• Politics of Propaganda

Please send your abstract and short bio along with any questions, to zehsan@wisc.edu 

Submissions are due by March 28, 2024.

Accepted papers will be notified by April 05, 2024.

Contact Information

Zunayed Ehsan, Department of Anthropology, University of Wisconsin-Madison.  

Contact Email

zehsan@wisc.edu

CFP: International Conference on The Ends and Means of Liberal Education -- Extended Call for Papers -May- 2024

 he Ends and Means of Liberal Education in the Twenty-First Century

May 2nd to 4th 2024

Mount Royal University, Calgary, Canada

The powerful, transformative forces reshaping contemporary societies both challenge liberal education and provide it with new opportunities. The Ends and Means of Liberal Education in the Twenty-First Century conference will explore the relevance and possibilities of undergraduate liberal education given the advent of artificial intelligence, digital media, political polarisation, cultural fragmentation, and growing economic and social instability.

Proposals are invited for papers on any aspect of the nature and provision of liberal education. Broad theoretical reflections, particular case studies, and reasoned, evidenced polemical presentations are all welcomed. The conference will be a forum for voices from disciplines across the humanities, natural and social sciences, and professions.

The conference keynote speaker will be Professor Henry Giroux, Chair for Scholarship in the Public Interest​ at Macmaster University and the Paulo Freire Distinguished Scholar in Critical Pedagogy.  Professor Giroux is a leading exponent of critical pedagogy and author of more than 70 books including the influential University in Chains (2007), Neoliberalism's War on Higher Education (2014, 2020), and Pedagogy of Resistance: Against Manufactured Ignorance (2022).

For the full call for papers, please see: https://bit.ly/LibEd2024

Proposal Abstracts due: 15th March 2024 (extended)

Contact: David Clemis: liberal.education@mtroyal.ca

Contact Information

David Clemis, Director of Liberal Education, Mount Royal University

Contact Email

liberal.education@mtroyal.ca

URL

https://bit.ly/LibEd2024

Call for Papers/Panels: Chautari Annual Conference –Kathmandu, Nepal on November 27−29, 2024

 Call for Papers/Panels

Chautari Annual Conference – 2024

Martin Chautari (MC) is organizing the Chautari Annual Conference in Kathmandu, Nepal on November 27−29, 2024. The aim of this conference is to promote research culture in the humanities and social sciences in Nepal. MC invites submission of abstracts of research papers or abstracts of the theme-based panels from eligible researchers or institutions who will have completed their research by the abstract submission deadline.

Preferences

• The theme of the research should be related to Nepal; comparative work is also welcome provided that Nepal-related content is substantial.
• Young/women researchers are highly encouraged to submit the abstracts.

Abstract guidelines

• Abstracts can be in English or Nepali and should be of 500 words.
• The title of the proposed paper, a short description of the research base, and the paper’s main arguments/findings must be clearly stated.
• Abstracts for panels should consist of its title and a brief description, and the abstract of each paper in the panel should also be included.
• A one-page CV of the authors including their current contact details should be attached.
   

Notifications

• The receipt of abstract submission will be acknowledged by e-mail.
• All participants, including paper presenters and panelists, are required to register to attend the conference (Registration fee NRs. 700 per person).
• Participants are expected to make their own arrangements for travel and accommodation.
   

Important dates
Call for abstracts: January 18, 2024
Abstract submission deadline: June 10, 2024
Announcement of accepted abstracts: July 25, 2024
Deadline for the submission of full papers (max 5,000 words): October 31, 2024
Announcement of accepted papers: November 10, 2024
Conference days: November 27−29, 2024
 

 

Contact Information

Abstracts and queries should be sent to
conference@martinchautari.org.np and mcannualconf@gmail.com

Further information can be obtained from:
Conference Organizing Committee
Martin Chautari
27 Jeetjung Marg, Thapathali, Kathmandu, Nepal
Phone: (+977 1) 5338050/4102027/4102243

Contact Email

conference@martinchautari.org.np

URL

https://martinchautari.org.np/events/call-for-papers-panels-chautari-annual-con…

CFP: Intersecting Ecologies: Navigating Crises, Traumas, and Movements in Asian Comparative Literature and Film _ October 10- 12, 2024,

CFP: Intersecting Ecologies: Navigating Crises, Traumas, and Movements in Asian Comparative Literature and Film

Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association 77th Annual Convention

Conference Date: October 10-12, 2024

Location: Las Vegas, Nevada

The “Intersecting Ecologies and Narratives: Navigating Crises, Traumas, and Movements in Asian Comparative Literature and Film” panel welcomes scholars to an interdisciplinary exploration at the intersection of ecological themes, migration and refugee experiences, medical humanities, and the post-COVID era within the context of Asian literature and film.

Our panel aims to engage in comparative analyses across various regions and genres within Asian literature and film, focusing on their navigation of crises and traumas, particularly those related to ecological themes. We invite contributions that dissect not only ecological crises and traumas from diverse perspectives but also complex relationships between humans and nature, cultural identities and environmental narratives, ecofeminism, and ecology's implications in the age of globalization.

We seek to foster a dialogue that connects Asian comparative literature and film with the broader fields of environmental humanities, migration and refugee studies, medical humanities, and reflections on the post-COVID world. We encourage submissions that explore the intersections of ecological crises with human health, displacement, environmental activism, and migration narratives, offering new insights into the challenges and opportunities these intersections present.

Highlighted topics for exploration include but are not limited to:

• Reflections on nature and the human condition within Asian literary traditions.
• Analyses of nature, technology, and modernity, and their implications for health and displacement in Asian contexts.
• Intersections between environmental and medical humanities focus on Asian narratives that address the health implications of degradation.
• Explorations of gender and nature within the framework of feminist ecologies in Asian contexts.
• Investigations into the portrayal of animals and anthropomorphism in Asian literature and cinema.
• Cross-cultural and interregional narratives of ecology, crisis, and movement, including Forrester (forest-based) fiction that envision alternative ecological futures.
• Discussions on the dynamics between ecology, globalization, and their impacts on health, migration, and the environment in Asian comparative literature and film.
• Insights into the post-COVID landscape through world literature and cinema, with a lens on ecological activism.

Contact Information

Submissions should consist of a 250-word abstract and a brief biography (2-3 sentences), formatted as a DOC document, to be sent to Yueming Li at yul282@ucsd.edu by March 15, 2024. The convention’s presentations will be conducted in English.

Contact Email: yul282@ucsd.edu

Call For Applications: Inlaks Shivdasani #Scholarships for Indian Students to Study in USA, UK, and European institutions in a full-time Masters, MPhil, or Doctoral programme.

ABOUT THE SCHOLARSHIP

Since 1976, Inlaks Shivdasani Scholarships have been granted to over 480 Indian students to read at top-rated USA, UK, and European institutions in a full-time Masters, MPhil, or Doctoral programme.

We award up to USD 100,000 to cover programme tuition as well as scholars’ living expenses, healthcare, and one-way airfare for the scholar.

The Foundation has joint-scholarship arrangements with Imperial College, London, the Royal College of Art (RCA), London, the University of Cambridge (Cambridge Trust), Paris, King’s College London (for PhD. Students*) and Hertie School, Berlin.

The Foundation gives scholarships in a variety of subjects but  DOES NOT  fund the following courses:Business and Finance

• Computer Science
• Engineering**
• Fashion Design
• Film and Film Animation***
• Hospitality and Tourism
• Indian Studies without Contemporary Relevance
• Management Studies (i.e. MBA)
• Medicine, Dentistry, and related therapies
• Music****
• Public Health

*Faculties of Social Sciences, Public Policy, Arts & Humanities only.

**We consider applications to pursue study in Engineering and Natural Sciences at Imperial College, London.

***We consider applications to pursue Documentary filmmaking.

****We consider applications to pursue study in Western Classical singing.

TERMS OF THE SCHOLARSHIP

The maximum funding given by the Foundation is USD 100,000.

If the total funding required to complete the proposed course of study exceeds the above amount, at the time of application candidates must show evidence that they can cover the additional costs on their own with proof of documents.

If successful, applicants are required to report any additional funding sources, to the Foundation when they are received.

Applications made to Imperial College, London, the Royal College of Art (RCA), London, the University of Cambridge (Cambridge Trust), Paris and King’s College London and Hertie School, Berlin will benefit from additional funding through the Foundation’s joint scholarships with these institutions and can exceed the USD 100,000 limit while making an application.

A candidate’s proposed course of study cannot require long duration of fieldtrips to India during the study tenure. Applications made under the King’s College London collaboration covering PHD students in Social Sciences, Public Policy, Arts & Humanities are exempted from this condition.

If the scholarship does not commence within nine months of award, it will be forfeited.

ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA

1. All Indian passport holders who are resident in India at the time of application born on or after 1st January 1994 and hold a degree from a recognised university in India.

2. Candidates who hold a good undergraduate degree from a recognised university abroad must have resided continuously, been employed, or have been studying in India for at least two years after their under-graduation are eligible to apply. If you are in the final year of graduation and awaiting results, you are eligible to apply.

3. Required minimum percentage/grade

1. For Social Sciences, Humanities, Law, Fine Arts, Architecture and related subjects, candidates must have a minimum academic grade of 65%, CGPA 6.8/10, or GPA 2.6/4 from a recognized university/institution.

2. For Mathematics, Sciences, Environment and related subjects, candidates must have a minimum academic grade of 70%, CGPA 7.2/10, or GPA 2.8/4 from a recognized university/institution.

4. It is essential to have prior admission to the institution and course chosen at the time of the application. The Foundation will not consider candidates without evidence of admission.

5. Candidates who have an English language certification as a conditional part of their offer letter need to attain that certification before applying for the scholarship.

6. Candidates who have received a deferred offer of admission must have a valid offer for the academic year 2024-25 to be eligible for the 2024 scholarships

7. Candidates having a postgraduate qualification (e.g. Master’s or PhD) from an institution abroad are not eligible to apply.

8. Candidates who are already studying or have started their postgraduate education at an institution abroad are not eligible to apply.

APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS.

1. Please read all the instructions carefully and have all your documents and information ready.

2. The last day to submit your application is till 12:00pm (afternoon) on 22nd March 2024.

3. Please do not wait till the last day/minute to submit your application.

4. This is a one sitting online application submission. It cannot be saved.

5. Only one submission per candidate will be accepted. Incomplete applications will not be accepted.

6. When you begin to fill your application, make sure you have good internet connectivity and uninterrupted time in hand

7. On starting to fill the form, you will receive a verification code on your email address which needs to be entered in the form so keep your email open.

8. You cannot save your progress while completing the online application and you will not be able to edit the application after submission. Please do not refresh the page at any point.

9. Please take screen shots as you progress through the online application in case you face a technical error while submitting your online application, send an email with a screenshot of the error indication to: techsupport@inlaksfoundation.org

10. For any other query please write to applications@inlaksfoundation.org

11. When you click ‘Submit’ it may take some time for the application to be submitted. Please be patient and do not click any additional buttons or you may lose your work.

12. The Application form comprises 7 sections

1. Personal Information

2. Proposed Programme

3. University Education

4. Work Experience/Projects pursued

5. Statement of Purpose

6. 2 References

7. Declaration

13. Each section has varied number of fields to be filled along with documents to be uploaded

14. Fields marked with ‘*’ and drop downs are mandatory. You will not be allowed to proceed or submit the application without filling these fields

15. Please keep the following documents handy in PDF file format since you will need to upload them at various points in the application under different sections

1. Mandatory

1. Passport – (if expired, continue to upload old passport along with the receipt of application made for a new one as one PDF file document)

2. Updated Resume/Curriculum Vitae

3. Photo (JPEG or PNG)

4. Admission/offer letter. *If you have not received your admission/offer letter by 22nd March, kindly attach the acknowledgement of your application to the said University in a PDF file format. You can separately email the admission/offer letter to applications@inlaksfoundation.org latest by 12pm (afternoon) 31st March 2024 and we will attach it to your application. However, this will only be accepted if you have submitted your full application form by 22nd March and not accepted in isolation.

5. Fee Statement

6. Proof of additional funding

7. Degree certificates and marksheets

8. Course related portfolio/links/writing samples

9. Optional and/or if relevant

i. TOEFL/IELTS/GRE score sheets (if relevant to your programme)

ii. Academic distinctions, grant, scholarships, prizes etc if any

iii. Extracurricular attainments if any

16. On format of documents

1. Your photograph must be uploaded in JPG or PNG format and documents must be in PDF format.

2. Once you select your choice of subject, a relevant prompt will appear in the application for you to attach your portfolio/links/writing sample.

Please scroll down to the prompt, select and attach them

1. Applicants for Documentary film, Dance, Theatre, and Music (Western classical-vocal) must paste links to their performances

2. Applicants for Media and Journalism, English Literature must upload their writing samples in PDF file format and / or links.

3. Applicants for Architecture, Fine and Applied art, Urban planning and related subjects must upload their portfolios in PDF file format.

17. All the academic qualifications beginning from your first degree that have been completed/are in progress have to be mentioned at the time of making an application for the scholarship.

18. Eligible Percentage

1. For Social Sciences, Humanities, Law, Fine Arts, Architecture and related subjects, candidates must have a minimum academic grade of 65%, CGPA 6.8/10, or GPA 2.6/4 from a recognized university/institution.

2. For Mathematics, Sciences, Environment and related subjects, candidates must have a minimum academic grade of 70%, CGPA 7.2/10, or GPA 2.8/4 from a recognized university/institution.

19. On fees and funding (In case this information is incorrectly filled, the application will be disqualified.)

1. Applicants must indicate the tuition fees and health insurance for the entire duration of their course. For information on the health insurance amounts check with the university for the exact amounts.

2. If you are making an application to read for a PhD programme, please ensure that you mention the fees for all the years of your study.

3. With respect to the fee statement to be uploaded

1. If the tuition fees are mentioned in the offer letter, then highlight the fee and upload the letter in the fee statement section as a PDF File format document.

2. If the tuition fee is not mentioned in the offer letter, then from university website, download the tuition document and highlight the fees of the course you have admission of and upload it as a PDF file format.

4. For proof of additional funding, you may attach one or more of any of the following (as ONE PDF file format only):

1. Personal bank statements

2. Parents/Relative bank statements and/or investment with letter of authority

3. Personal investment documents (no property documents allowed)

4. Approval letter of educational loan

5. If you have already received and/or additional scholarship, please upload a proof of document from the University or scholarship organisation. If you are waiting for results then kindly let us know through email with proof by 10th April 2024 at applications@inlaksfoundation.org .

6. Living allowance is ‘auto-calculated’ as per Foundation guidelines. Travel amounts for a one-way ticket will be provided in addition to the tuition, maintenance and health insurance

7. The total support from the Foundation cannot exceed USD 100,000. The Foundation does not give any scholarships for visas, travel and health insurance in isolation.

20. On your references

1. Please inform your referees, that they will receive an email from the Foundation with a link to upload their reference letters; these links are valid for 7 days from the day of application and cannot be extended.

2. For applications made on 22nd March 2024, the referee link will be valid for seven days post submission till 29th March 2024.

3. The reference letter must be on a letterhead.

4. For students, 2 academic referees are required, for those working, one of the referees can be a professional one

5. In case the referee cannot find the email, ask them to check their spam folder

21. On submitting the application

1. Confirmation of your submitted application will be emailed to your verified email address.

2. If you encounter an error while submitting your online application, send an email with a screenshot of the error indication to:techsupport@inlaksfoundation.org

22. For any other query please write to applications@inlaksfoundation.org

SELECTION PROCEDURE

An independent, Inlaks Selection Committee is appointed to select successful applications for scholarships.

Applicants are assessed on not only their past and present achievements but also on their future potential. Candidates applying for scholarships in art and design (fine/performing arts) will be primarily assessed on their portfolios.

The selection process consists of three stages:

(1) Review of eligible applications

(2) Online preliminary interviews with candidates chosen from the review and

(3) A final in-person interview with those who succeed in the preliminary interview.

Candidates who do not receive any communication from the Foundation by 19th April 2024 must assume that their applications have not been successful.

For More Details, Please Visit: https://www.inlaksfoundation.org/scholarships/how-to-apply/

CFP: #ICSSR Sponsored International #Conference on Backwash: #Voices on Environmental #Colonialism and #Post-colonials from the Global South-Centre for #Australian Studies, Bankura University

 

Concept Note:

Slowly but surely, the contemporary world order is shifting – from the West dominated unipolar order to a multipolar promise with its tilt towards the Global South, especially Asia. This shift of centre of geo-political gravity began primarily in the Asian Century and necessitates a re-ordering of narratives, a re-writing of histories, an acceptance of non-metropolitan perspectives, and invoking a backwash – of voices formerly considered residual and irrelevant. . . One of the formative moments of that hegemony began on a warship in 1941 when Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt made their Joint Declaration of “hopes for a better future of the world”, which would provide the basis for the later Charter of the United Nations in 1945 and its grand rhetoric of committing to the rights of “all the men in all the lands”. The New World Order thus created fortified only the Anglo-American alliance and the hold of imperial and proto-imperial powers that aimed to rule the world as a post-colonial alibi, the Charter having provided the legal basis for anticolonial and anti-imperial movements across the Global South.

Coined in 1969 by Carl Ogelsby who argued that “the North’s dominance over the global South . . . [has] converged . . . to produce an intolerable social order” in relation to the Vietnam War, the term “Global South” gained traction in 1974 with the United Nations ‘Declaration on the Establishment of a New International Economic Order’ and became synonymous with the Third World after the 1980 Brandt report drew an imaginary line based on GDP per capita. The imaginary of the Global South has had little to do with physical location and latitude. India located in the northern hemisphere qualified for the “South” and Australia and New Zealand located in the southern hemisphere became honorary recruits to the “North”. While the term Third World went out of favour post Cold War, the 134 countries strong Global South comprising a conglomerate of postcolonial countries like India has since grown in geo-political stature and constitutes today a diverse and distinct coterie of countries having disparate interests and yet braided by common motivations and interests, through their diverse identities. It is such a Global South brand that India and Australia, among other nations, have recently envisioned and aimed to collaborate in creating, for instance through the first and second ‘Voice of Global South Summit’(s) held in January and November 2023 respectively to materialise the vision of a more equitable and inclusive global economy and politics, based on sustainable development and economic growth with the desire to create and sustain a more multipolar world order. 

In the Introduction to The Global South Atlantic (2018), Joseph R. Slaughter and Kerry Bystrom label the Global South as “a geopolitical region … yet at the same time … also a vision, an ideal or aspiration of solidarity and interconnection” (04) and a network of “transactions, and systems of interchange and imagination that have historically defined the South Atlantic (and that continue to drive its futures) but are obscured or suppressed by the hegemonic North Atlantic orientation of knowledge production and the division of disciplines tasked with producing it” (Slaughter and Bystrom 04). While Nour Dados and Raewyn Connell believe that the term critiques imperialism, neo-imperialism and social inequity in a geopolitically divided world, having morphed into a tool to problematize Eurocentric epistemologies post Industrial revolution in international activism and academia, the publication of Kenneth Pomeranz’s The Great Divergence (2000) led to the eruption of  non-Eurocentric literatures that have since aimed to redress the history of capitalism across geographies.

Environmental colonialism, apparently rooted in positioning the developing nations at the receiving end of the blame game, seems to consider the environmental crisis to be an unprecedented phenomenon, erasing centuries of resource exploitation initiated by the European merchants and companies who steered the first phase of globalisation or capitalist expansion of Immanuel Wallerstein’s “world system”. While indigenous island peoples of oceanic islands like the Canary Islands faced extinction, Richard Grove contends that forest clearances and collapse of ecological balances in the Europe-desired “Edenic” islands like Mauritius and St Helena led to the extinction of the dodo and to humans becoming denatured. Ironically the  exploitative colonial system also established the first conservation protocols, propagated notions of sustainability and espoused protection of fragile planetary island-ecosystems for future generations. The narrative of environmental colonialism, derived from Pierre Poivre’s theoretical linking of deforestation in the islands to decline in rainfall and regional climate change, and germinating from the 1764 Tobago Ordinance, argues that the “historical lesson to be learned, perhaps, is that … global environmental well-being is generally an accounting irrelevance.” (Grove 55). Contemporary environmentalism aimed to “save” Africa and bled the neocolonial colour-characteristic of Western environmentalism. 

Thus while settler colonialism has often unequivocally displaced centuries-old indigenous entanglements with the environment, has the apparent Western withdrawal post independence in such decolonised nation spaces mitigated underdevelopment, exploitation and environmental injustice? Aligned to Anne McClintock’s version of postcolonialism as a “history of hopes postponed” (92), it is imperative that the post-colonials find their voices -- not as a mere rejoinder or collage of write-backs to colonialism but as one which retrieves and espouses the centuries-old indigenous nous of the planet.

In an era of intersections of contrapuntal relationships between environment and humans, in which environmental justice paradigms seem applicable only to indigenous and postcolonial communities who have been and continue to be dependent on the use/exploitation of vulnerable environments for their survival, the need of the hour seems to be enfranchisement of transitional decolonised communities and nations of the Global South and initiating discourses at global and glocal levels in the Global South – to “write back” and repudiate  the xenophobic, economic and colonial inequalities often set as templates across mainstream commercial, governmental and environmental formulations.  Since at least Tom Sawyer’s whitewashing of the fence, whitewashing of histories and the past have became a favourite pastime across geographies. But with every onward wave of colonialism from the Global North and its subsequent whitewashing, a backwash has laid bare both the reality and barely habitable truths of unsettled, indigenous and island communities.This conference, scheduled a couple of months after COP28 (UN Climate Change Conference - United Arab Emirates, 30 Nov - 12 Dec 2023) aims to look at environmental colonialism, its afterlives and postcolonials emergent from the Global South, climate change and race and vulnerability, and explore the backwash. “Postcolonials” could be thought of as a counter-category to “universals”. The term “backwash” creates a susurrus – of  waste and residue in the aftermath of the colonial deluge, yet also an attempt to turn the tide when it comes to alternative imaginings of the future braiding the planet and its humans, limned sometimes in the under-acknowledged positions of countries, territories in the Global South surviving through resilience and adaptive capacity, and the radical premise of alterity to the regime of “developments”.

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> 

           SUB THEMES:

•          Climate Colonialism/ Environmental Colonialism 

•          Representations of Climate Colonialism / Environmental Colonialism in Literature

•          Nature and Indigenous Communities

•          Global Warming and Beyond

•          Us and Climate Change

•          Postcolonial Writings responding to Environment and Climate Change 

•          Global South and the Environment\

• Garbage-fiction

•          Pollution 

•          The age of speed, and plastic

•          1.5 Stay Alive

•          Propaganda and Denial of Climate Change

•          Ecological Consciousness and Climate Change 

•          Climate Exodus, Climate Refugees

•          Climate of Doubt

•          Climate Change and Cultural Entropy

•          Eco-literacy in the Global South

•          Eco-literatures from the Global South

•          Climate and Microclimates

•          Climate Change and rural communities in the Global South

•          Climate Change and grassroots activism

•          Climate Blueprint 

•          Environmental Justice and the Global South

•          Environmental Law and Climate Change

•          “Backwash” in imagining Environmental Responses

•          Climate Change and Ocean Peoples

 

Highlights of the Conference: 

 

Key Note Address : 

Dr Ruth Morgan

Associate Professor & Director, Centre for Environmental History, School of History, ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia.

 

Plenary Address I:

Dr Paul Sharrad 

Fellow of the University of Wollongong, Wollongong, Australia.

 

Plenary Address II:

Dr Helen Pringle 

Associate Professor, School of Social Sciences, Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.

 

Call for Papers: 

Abstracts (not exceeding 250 words) may be emailed to:

centre_australianstudies@bankurauniv.ac.in

 

EXTENDED Deadline for sending of abstracts           : 26 January, 2024

Selection of abstracts would be conveyed by                : 29 January, 2024

 

Registration Fees:       2000 INR (Indian delegates)

                                    1000 INR (Research Scholars)

                                    500 INR (Postgraduate students)

                                    50 USD (International delegates)

         20 USD (International delegates presenting papers via video-link)

Accommodation:

The convenors have received approval of conference support from Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR), Ministry of Education, New Delhi.

Hence, the conference team is happy to provide partial support for both hotel accommodation (with breakfast & dinner) on a twin-sharing basis for a stay of 2 nights at Bankura and transport between the conference venue at Bankura University Main Campus and the hotel, to all delegates.

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Registration Fees with accommodation:

2000 INR + 800 INR (Indian delegates)

1000 INR + 800 INR (Research Scholars)

If you need accommodation, please contact the conference team beforehand. Please drop a mail here with your requirements: 

centre_australianstudies@bankurauniv.ac.in

Publication:

Selected papers will be published in a blind peer-reviewed Edited Volume / Conference proceedings by a reputed publisher.

Chief Patron of the Conference:

Professor Goutam Buddha Sural, Vice Chancellor (Acting), Bankura University 

Convenors: 

Professor Sarbojit Biswas, PhD                                                                                                               

Jt. Coordinator, Centre for Australian Studies & Head, Department of English, Bankura University, Bankura, WB, India. (sarbojitbiswas@bankurauniv.ac.in)

&

Dr Ipsita Sengupta                                                                                                                           

Jt. Coordinator, Centre for Australian Studies & Associate Professor, Department of English, Bankura University, Bankura, WB, India. (ipsita444@gmail.com)