Funded Scholarships - 5th International Congress

on Social Sciences

July 12-14, 2017 | Madrid, Spain | 

Universidad Rey Juan Carlos

The Scientific Committee is pleased to announce that the Call for Papers for the International Congress on Social Sciences is now open. We invite all those wishing to participate to submit a proposal to present their work, which can be a lecture, a workshop, a poster exhibition, or talking circle, addressing the social sciences through one of the official themes.

Cultural Studies

Role of social, political, and cultural interactions in the development of identity.

Personal identity as a function of an individual’s culture, time, place, geography, interaction with groups, influences from institutions, and lived experiences.

Role of diversity within and among cultures.

Aspects of culture such as belief systems, religious faith, or political ideals as influences on other parts of a culture such as its institutions or literature, music, and art.

Cultural diffusion and change over time as facilitating different ideas and beliefs.

History, Geography, Humans and the Environment

History as a formal study that applies research methods.

Reading, reconstructing, and interpreting events.

Analyzing causes and consequences of events and developments.

Considering competing interpretations of events.

Relationship between human populations and the physical world (people, places, and environments).

Impact of human activities on the environment.

Interactions between regions, locations, places, people, and environments.

Spatial patterns of place and location.

Development and Transformation of Social Structures

The natural and the social: interdisciplinary studies.

Role of social class, systems of stratification, social groups, and institutions.

Role of gender, race, ethnicity, education, class, age, and religion in defining social structures within a culture.

Social and political inequalities.

Expansion and access of rights through concepts of justice and human rights.

The influence of education.

The role of the media.

Power, Authority, and Governance

Power, Authority, and Governance.

Purposes, characteristics, and functions of various governance systems as they are practiced.

Individual rights and responsibilities as protected and challenged within the context of majority rule.

Fundamental principles and values of constitutional democracy.

Origins, uses, and abuses of power.

Conflict, diplomacy, and war.

The role of mass media and the Internet.

Civic Ideals and Practices

Basic freedoms, rights and responsibilities of citizens in democracies.

Role of the citizen in the community and nation, and as a member of the global community.

Civic participation and engagement.

Respect for diversity.

Civic ideals and practices in countries other than democracies.

Struggle for rights, access to citizenship rights, and universal human rights.

Creation, Expansion, and Interaction of Economic Systems

Production, distribution, and consumption.

Scarcity of resources and the challenges of meeting wants and needs.

Supply/demand and the coordination of individual choices.

Economic systems. Economic policies.

Trade, interdependence, and globalization.

Role of government in the economy.

Personal finance.

Science, Technology, and Innovation

Scientific and intellectual theories, findings, discoveries, and philosophies.

Applications of science and innovations in transportation, communication, military technology, navigation, agriculture, and industrialization.

Relationship between science, technology, and innovation and social, cultural, and economic change.

Social construction of science and technology.

Global Connections and Exchange

Past, current, and likely future global connections and interactions.

Cultural diffusion; the spread of ideas, beliefs, technology, and goods.

Role of technology.

Benefits/consequences of global interdependence (social, political, economic).

Causes and patterns of migration.

Tension between national interests and global priorities.

SUBMIT PROPOSAL

Next deadline: May 28th, 2017

For more information.. please click here.

CALL FOR PAPERS : The Politics of Distribution: Migrant Labour, Development and Religious Aid in Asia     

16 Nov 2017 - 17 Nov 2017

           Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore 

                               

CALL FOR PAPERS DEADLINE: 2 JUNE 2017

Migrant labour has been viewed as an important factor in growth, productivity and poverty reduction in Asia where rapid economic development has raised many to middle income countries. However, parallel to the growth of these economies has arisen new challenges and tensions as well as continuing underdevelopment (Rigg 2015). This includes what some scholars have identified as the formation of a labour surplus population in many parts of the world, where a decline in small agriculture and new industries generating less employment has resulted in a labour over supply that has made many “redundant” in the global production system (Ferguson 2015, Li 2010). Instead, distributive practices and “relations of dependence” (Ferguson 2015) have increased in the context of not only diminishing employment opportunities but also in uncertain and precarious employment, as is in the case of migrant labour which has often been linked to abuses over working conditions and wages.

In this sense, religious aid is one significant and diverse form of distributive practice. This is particularly the case where the rise in global civil society and non-state actors make up for many of the “structural holes” (Faist 2009) in social services neglected by the State. The absence of the State in this area, particularly in the global South, has led to an opening up of a space for alternative actors to ‘fill in the gap’, including faith-based actors where religious spaces have become simultaneously humanitarian and development spaces. This is particularly the case for migrants, refugees and asylum seekers, who as ‘non-citizens’ are often marginalised in their access to formal work and social services.

The workshop will engage with Ferguson’s concept of distributive practices (Ferguson 2015) to interrogate whether it is applicable to religious aid in the Asian context as a significant form of contemporary labour. This is in recognition of the fact that cultivating the social relationships which make distributive flows possible is not a passive condition, but rather the outcome of a particular type of labour (Ferguson 2015, 97). Although having always existed in the form of remittances, kin-based sharing, patronage, “corruption” and relations of dependence on others such as NGOs and corporations, distributive practices have taken on a new amplitude with the decrease in the availability and increasing precariousness of waged labour.

The workshop will examine forms of contemporary distributive practices in Asia as they are enacted by religious actors, whether through religious aid organisations, religious networks or informal religious giving, within the context of migrant labour and how these interrelate with wider development processes in the region. Migrant labour is taken to encompass those who engage in rural-urban migration as well as what are usually assumed to be binary categories of legal and illegal, temporary and permanent, economic migrant and refugee/asylum seeker; in the recognition that these categories are often not fixed but fluid and permeable.

This workshop aims to bring together scholars and practitioners who are not only critically engaged with the politics of distributive practices, but who are specifically interested in exploring a politics of distribution that is grounded in and emerges out of practices in Asia. We therefore invite papers embedded in empirical case studies which explore one or more of the following lines of inquiry:

• What are the multiple ways in which religious actors intervene in, facilitate, and mitigate the domain in which migrant labour and development processes meet in order to deliver ‘aid’ or engage in distributive practices of religious giving in Asia? What is the significance of these on our understanding of contemporary distributive practices in Asia and how they relate to economic development and livelihoods?
• In what ways do religious understandings of development, livelihood, and human fulfilment permeate religious actors’ aid and distributive practices; are these conceptions given a distinct form and meaning? How does religious actors’ engagement in migrant labour with its own ‘development truths’ challenge or uphold prevailing ideas of development? How are these experienced, produced and negotiated by local, as well as transnational actors?
• How are relations of dependence and belonging cultivated in religious distributive practices? How do both distributive practices and religious theologies challenge the assumptions of an emancipatory, self-sufficient liberal conception of the individual? What languages of religious belonging are used in distributive labour practices by faith-based actors and the recipients of their aid, particularly for migrants who are often marginalised by the State? What are the implications of this on conceptions of citizenship and belonging?
• Asocial inequality is the lack of relations in a morally binding membership group, where networks of affect have been replaced by atomized individuals with little or no social attachments (Ferguson 2013). In what ways do religious actors address asocial inequality in their aid?
• What does labour and livelihoods, understood as distributive practices, look like in Asia? What can an understanding of religious distributive practices within the context of migrant labour tell us about how social inequality and precarity in Asia might be addressed?

SUBMISSION OF PROPOSALS

Paper proposals should include a title, an abstract (250 words maximum) and a brief personal biography of 150 words for submission by 2 June 2017. Please submit your proposal, using the provided proposal template to Ms Tay Minghua at minghua.tay@nus.edu.sg. Successful applicants will be notified by early July 2017 and will be required to send in a draft paper by 20 October 2017.

CONTACT DETAILS

Workshop Convenors

Dr May Ngo
Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore
E | arinmy@nus.edu.sg

Dr Bernardo Brown
Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore
E | aribeb@nus.edu.sg

Secretariat

Ms TAY Minghua
Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore
E | minghua.tay@nus.edu.sg

Contact Person(s)

Minghua TAY

For More Details  Visit:https://ari.nus.edu.sg/Event/Detail/f3f0722f-8b9f-4bd6-9414-57662eb74901

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS: Residential Workshop: Summer School on Marxism-2017

Module- II: “Doing Marxism Today”

Dates: (09 days) 3rd to 12th June, 2017

Venue: NCR(Tentative)

Closing date for applications: 10th April 2017 (midnight IST)

Who can apply: Anybody can apply!!

Application Requirement: The only condition is to answer atleast two questions out of the given questions. [The language will be mainly English and Hindi due to logistical constraints.]

Course Content

1. On Epistemology & Praxis

i) Marxist Epistemologies

ii) Different schools of Marxism

iii) Praxis

2. On Cultural Question

iv) Identity – On Subjectivity

v) Gender – Reproduction, affectivity & Gender

vi) Religion – Marxism & Religion

vii) Caste – Caste in Capitalism

3. On Political Theory

viii) Class & Organization

ix) Theorizations on Power

x) State & Capital

xi) Hegemony & Politics

xii) Justice, Rights & Law

xiii) On Social Movements

4. On Economic theory

xiv) Neoliberalism

xv) Advanced Capitalism under Globalization

xvi) On Capitalist Development 

Methodology

The course will employ multiple methods of teaching over and above the regular classroom pedagogy. Methods such as classroom teaching, group discussions, multimedia, theater etc. will be used.

Answer any two of the following questions

1. Using the distinction between mode of appropriation and exploitation, assess critically the nature of ‘socialism’ that evolved in the Soviet Union?

2. Take the following four paragraphs from Communist Manifesto and assess critically whether and how far the analysis of Marx and Engels have been borne out by the evolution of capitalism.

i.) Modern industry has established the world market, for which the discovery of America paved the way. This market has given an immense development to commerce, to navigation, to communication by land. This development has, in its turn, reacted on the extension of industry; and in proportion as industry, commerce, navigation, railways extended, in the same proportion the bourgeoisie developed, increased its capital, and pushed into the background every class handed down from the Middle Ages.

ii.) We see, therefore, how the modern bourgeoisie is itself the product of a long course of development, of a series of revolutions in the modes of production and of exchange. The bourgeoisie, historically, has played a most revolutionary part……….

iii.) The bourgeoisie, wherever it has got the upper hand, has put an end to all feudal, patriarchal, idyllic relations. It has pitilessly torn asunder the motley feudal ties that bound man to his “natural superiors”, and has left remaining no other nexus between man and man than naked self-interest, than callous “cash payment”. It has drowned the most heavenly ecstasies of religious fervour, of chivalrous enthusiasm, of philistine sentimentalism, in the icy water of egotistical calculation. It has resolved personal worth into exchange value, and in place of the numberless indefeasible chartered freedoms, has set up that single, unconscionable freedom – Free Trade. In one word, for exploitation, veiled by religious and political illusions, it has substituted naked, shameless, direct, brutal exploitation.

iv.) The bourgeoisie has stripped of its halo every occupation hitherto honoured and looked up to with reverent awe. It has converted the physician, the lawyer, the priest, the poet, the man of science, into its paid wage labourers.

3. How does the Indian experience help us think about the relation between democracy and capitalism from a Marxian standpoint?

4. How would you understand the organization of production process and capital accumulation keeping in mind the ideas of relative and absolute surplus value production in India?

5. Is there is a decline of revolutionary working class politics in South Asia or the working class politics needs to be rephrased to organize a struggle that would transcend the capitalist system? In what way would you suggest modification of the constituents of the revolutionary block? Do you think that this requires any modification of the concept of the party, its internal constitution and its relation with the ‘revolutionary’ masses?

Logistics

Accommodation will be on twin sharing basis. Simple food will be provided. Boarding and lodging as well as course materials will be taken care of by the host organizations. Participants coming from outside Delhi will be reimbursed part of their travel expenses, their travel from their respective locations to Delhi and back. Travel from Delhi to the venue and back will be arranged by the organizers.

PLEASE NOTE: The course is strictly residential. Participants are expected to stay at the venue even if they are from nearby. All participants are expected to stay through the entire course and not leave halfway unless there are compelling reasons like a sudden family emergency. Applicants must remember that leaving midway without sufficiently valid reason is likely to affect the prospects of others from their university/organization that might apply for other courses at SAU in the future. These restrictions are designed to ensure equity and inclusiveness across all participants.

How to Apply

Application with your name, institutional affiliation, address, education qualification and answer to the questions may be sent to the following email id: marxistschool2014@gmail.com such that it reaches us before midnight IST latest by 10th April 2017. In case if you have queries you can mail or write it down to:

Atul Chandra, Project Assistant/Senior Researcher, Room No: 337 ‘A’, Third Floor, Akbar Bhawan, South Asian University, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi-21

 International Conference
The TRAFILM 

Barcelona, 30 November- 1st December 2017

A remarkable number of films and television shows display more than one language (Inglourious Basterds, Jane the Virgin, The Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones…); they include different languages or a language with significant internal variation. The translation of such written and audiovisual texts poses important theoretical and practical challenges, since language variation can manifest itself in different forms and fulfil various functions, which might be stylistic, pragmatic or discursive. These texts are often referred to as multilingual, polylingual, plurilingual or even heterolingual.

The TRAFILM project aims to describe the reality of the translation of multilingual audiovisual texts. We aim to discover professional and social practices along with the norms and criteria of this specific translation challenge. We also hope to validate and refine existing theoretical models on audiovisual translation and multilingualism by describing and analysing a rich collection of data. The TraFilm Conference is conceived of as a meeting point for exchanges, research experiences and proposals for an increasingly important topic within Translation Studies.

Topics

We invite proposals for papers on any of the following topics: 

• The translation of language combinations within the same film, TV product, or written work of fiction.

• The translation (or nontranslation) of constructed languages, i.e., languages made up by the author within a work of fiction.

• The translation of conditioned language utterances within a work of fiction, i.e. when communication is conditioned by cognitive or articulatory hindrances, because of the effects of overexcitement, intoxication, exhaustion, psychological condition, speech impairment. 

• The rendering of dialects and/or sociolects within a work of fiction or non-fiction, when they are used as distinct forms of communication from a standard language operating as the main language of the source text. 

Translation creativity when dealing with stylistic and/or linguistic varieties and language combinations 

• Instances of code-switching, diglossia, bilingualism, heritage languages within works of fiction or as parts of translation of non-fiction. 

• The stylistic and functional effects and implications of linguistic variety as explained in the previous points, above, e.g. humour, stereotyping, xenophobia, censorship, character portrayal, narrative and rhetorical devices. 

• Reports of professional experiences and practices on translation and multilingualism.

Abstracts (up to 300 words), along with the author’s name, communication information, and short bio-bibliographical note should be sent to trafilmproject@gmail.com with the indication “Trafilm Conference Proposal” on the subject line. 

Important dates

Submission of abstracts: 18th April 

Notification of acceptance: 30th May 

Early bird registration: 30th June

Fees

Participant: 110€ (early bird)  - 140€ (after 30th June)

Student concession: 40€ (early bird) - 60€ (after 30th June)

Organizing committee

Montse Corrius (Universitat de Vic-UCC, Spain)

Eva Espasa (Universitat de Vic-UCC, Spain)

Miquel Pujol (Universitat de Vic-UCC, Spain)

Laura Santamaria (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain) 

Patrick Zabalbeascoa (Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain) 

Scientific committee

Frederic Chaume (Universitat Jaume I, Spain)

Irene De Higes (Universitat Jaume I, Spain)

Jorge Díaz-Cintas (University College London, United Kingdom)

Elena Di Giovanni (Università di Macerata, Italy)

Eva Duran-Eppler (Roehampton University, United Kingdom)

Irene Ranzato (Università la Sapienza, Italy)

Marta Mateo (Universidad de Oviedo, Spain)

Stavroula Sokoli (Hellenic Open University, Greece)

Keynote speakers

Michael Cronin (Dublin City University, Ireland)

Reyne Meylaerts (University of Leuven, Belgium)

Marta Mateo (Universidad de Oviedo, Spain) 

Venue

Espai UVic

Via Augusta, 123, 08006 Barcelona.

For More Details: 

http://trafilm.net/Blog/post/Trafilm-news/2089/TraFilm-Conference-Call-for-Papers/#.WNCnk_qw0cE.facebook

SUMMER INTERNSHIP IN SOCIAL SCIENCES 

AT ISEC, BANGALORE - 2017

       Institute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC) is one of the earliest and largest premier inter-disciplinary research institutions working on social science research in India. Established in 1972, ISEC has been instrumental in carrying out robust and competent research studies on various issues in social sciences. It has also been providing valuable policy feedback to bring about integrated social, economic and political transformation, with emphasis on equity and justice. Through both macro and micro-level studies, with inter-disciplinary approaches, the Institute’s mandate is to generate knowledge and provide information to improve the quality of policy-making and serve as a centre for excellence in research and training in social sciences. The Institute has been accredited with a team of renowned economists, sociologists, political scientists and educationists who are well known for their scholarship. Capacity building among the young researchers is one of the main thrust areas of the Institute.

Objectives:

The core objective of this initiative is to make the young students (post graduate level) to undergo internship in various social science disciplines to understand nuances of and participate in the inter-disciplinary social science research.

This is achieved through: 

Providing a platform for understanding the rigour in the social science disciplines and enhance the understanding towards analyzing and addressing the social problems through hands-on training.

Facilitate, instruct and orient the students in developing the research questions either for further studies or for independent research activity.

Interaction with faculty, researchers and PhD scholars of nine different academic centres of ISEC.

First hand exposure in the arena of research and policy interplay and understand how research and policy complement and/or contradict with each other.

Duration:

Internship demands a full time commitment for two months between 1 April 2017 and 31 July 2017. There will however be sufficient flexibility regarding the timing of programme. The student will be required to assist and discuss with the concerned faculty.

Allowance:

The selected candidates will be paid a monthly stipend of Rs.5,000/- based on strict attendance and diligence.  Free accommodation for a period of two months can be provided if accommodation is available.  Out-station students may be given preference for allotment of accommodation. Selected outstation candidates will be reimbursed to and fro second class sleeper train charges upon production of ticket/travel proof.  The interns will have to bear expenditure on food and all other expenses during stay.

Essential qualifications:

Students of social sciences should preferably be in the middle of their post graduation.  In exceptional cases, those who have completed post-graduation recently or those pursuing M.Phil may also be considered.

Areas for Research:

Economics, Trade and Development; Decentralised Governance and Education, Decentralization, and Development; Urban Studies, Bangalore Surveys; Economic Value of Eco-system Services, Green Accounting, Population and Health.

How to apply:

Application form can be downloaded from here; Application form (.pdf). The filled-in application accompanied by two recommendation letters issued by the Head of the Department and a senior faculty member from the Department should be submitted to

The Registrar, Institute for Social and Economic Change, Dr VKRV Rao Road, Nagarabhavi PO, Bangalore 560 072.

Last date

Filled-in applications will be received until March 20, 2017.

Application Form (.pdf)

For  More Details Visit Us at http://www.isec.ac.in/summer-internship.htm

12th International Conference 

On

Theatricality in Theatre and Other Mimetic Forms

4-6 April 2017

Organised by  

BANGALORE UNIVERSITY

Department of Performing Arts

In Collaboration With

ASSOCIATION FOR KARNATAKA THEATRE RESEARCH

Bangalore University is located in the Garden City of Bangalore aptly hailed as the “I.T. Capital of India”, was established in July 1964 as an off shoot of the University of Mysore, Bangalore University has completed Fifty-two years of fruitful existence and has come to be hailed as one of the largest universities of Asia. Though originally intended to be a federal university, it has eventually emerged as an affiliating University. The University was first accredited in 2002 by NAAC with Five Star Status, re-accredited in the years 2008 and Nov. 2016 in 2nd and 3rd Cycles with ‘A’ Grade.

Bangalore University has achieved milestones by establishing MOUs with Universities and Institutions of national and international repute. To cater to a student population of over three lakhs, the University is striving to provide access, expansion and excellence in higher education. The vision of the University is to make distinctive and significant contributions to the cause of higher education in Humanities, Social Science, Law, Commerce, Science & Technology. The University is providing quality teaching and encouragement to research in frontier areas with social relevance that would reflect its mission and goals aptly symbolized by its emblem ‘JNANAM VIGNANA SAHITHAM’.

The Department

The Department of Performing Arts was started in the year 1973. The Department is located at Kala Bhavana, Jnanbharathi Campus, Bangalore. The Department has well equipped class rooms and labs. It also has ‘theatre on wheels’, a programme that provides a platform for students to perform plays based on contemporary issues in different parts of Karnataka. The syllabi and the performances of the Department focus on modern trends and innovations in the field of Performing Arts. Along with this, the Department also has important outreach activities like the annual National and International conference, World Theatre Day, Drama productions and presentation of Ballets and Music concerts.

 Call for Papers

Theatre research is and always has been an interdisciplinary area of research. The present conference continuing this tradition would like to place the theatrical performances along with other performing arts Theatricality is one of the basic foundations of theatre, and is what defines it. But it is also used as a mode of representation or as a medium in other mimetic forms. Especially with the entry of new media forms in the wake of technological developments, it seems to be relying exclusively on the mode of theatricality to reach out in the era of late capitalism. The question that this seminar poses is whether theatre research which hitherto grappled with the notion of theatricality could throw light on the uses of modes of theatricality in the new media. Are “real” events staged before camera as theatrical events and not as social events? There is live streaming of certain events over internet, which amounts to theatricality. Thus there is urgency in understanding the question of theatricality in theatre and other mimetic forms. 

We call for papers exploring the issue of theatricality in various mimetic forms.  Questions regarding expanding the notion of theatricality to cover these developments or limit to it, or use the conceptual tools generated in theatre research to address them, could be presented. The following are the suggested topics but the researchers need not limit themselves to the following

Topics:

• Changing notions of Theatricality,  
• Dance and theatricality. Art shows as theatricality. 
• Television shows and theatricality. 
• Theatricality in the age of technology
• Theatricality in Life.
• Cinema and theatricality. 
• Theatre and Tourism.   
• Theatre and Mass Media.
• Theatre and new media. 
• Theatricality of domestic disputes in media.
• Deconstructing power: Role of theatre and other mimetic forms.
• Decentralizing power rhetoric/ Rhetoric of power: Role of theatre and other mimetic forms, Social preformation as theatre and other mimetic forms.
• Theatre and other mimetic forms and their participation in social construction, Performatives in theatre and other mimetic forms.
• Social changes through theatre and other mimetic forms.
• Radical theatre and social performatives, Defining performative in social sphere, Power in cognitive sphere and role of rhetoric, Power establishment in rhetoric performative, Discrimination of people’s rhetoric through theatre of power.
• Cinema of the oppressed and performativity of the censor board. Power rhetoric in television and radio.

Important  Instructions for Abstract Submission.

• Abstract not exceeding 500 words should be sent latest by 25th March 2017 through email to the following email address:  buconference@gmail.com

• The authors should state their institutional affiliation, designation, postal address, e-mail, fax and mobile number.

• The organizing committee reserves the right to accept/reject the abstract without giving any reasons

 Last date to send full papers and for registration: 30th March 2017

Selected papers will be published with ISBN 

Registration fee: General Conference: Rs.2500/-    50$ for foreign delegates

Research scholars: Rs.1000/-     25$ for foreign delegates.

For more details, visit: Bangalore University website or contact:

Dr. V. Nagesh Bettakote 

Conference Coordinator 

Department of Performing Arts, Bangalore University,

Jnanabharathi Campus, BENGALURU-560056

Phone: (O) 080-22961708/1701, Mob: 9902130384

Email: drvnb1965@gmail.com