IASA Biennial Conference on Planetary Futures and the Global South-16-18 January 2018,Mohanlal Sukhadia University, Udaipur

 In association with:

DAAD-Global South Network, University of Tuebingen

JNU-UPE-II Project “Asian Crossroads: Indic Neighbourhoods, Global Connections,”

Project on Science and Spirituality, JNU

Samvad India Foundation, New Delhi.

Concept Note 

India has been called the “cross-roads” of the entire region of the Indian ocean oecumene, literally on the “road to everywhere.”[1]For almost every important intellectual, political, and cultural current from East to the West and from West to the East, India became the point of transition, mediation, or even fruition. This is as true of the evolution of British colonialism in Asia and Australia as it is of prior times. The question, however, is how these connections might play out in the future, but also in terms of how futures are to be imagined, designed, and executed from hereon. It is this exciting discursive terrain of future studies that this conference fouces on, with special referene to India, Australia, and the Global South.

The aim of this conference is to study some of these cross currents of Global Futures, to document available knowledge about them, explore alternative futures for Indic-Australian inter-relationships, and to create new paradigms for understanding the globalisation of both India and Australia in this light. Our main objective, then, would be to try to explore Indic-Australian connections from colonialism to global futures and begin to explore the range of ideas and processes implicit to these processes. With this view we plan to engage with the history, politics, and cultural formations of cross-connections between India, Australia, and the Global South, including Africa and Latin America, giving primacy to oceanic and cross-continental intellectual and cultural traffic. In addition, the conference will focus on issues such as traditional knowledge systems, spiritual and sacred practices, Indo-Australasian nationalisms, transfers of science, technology, and culture, and relations in social practices, arts, and media in the region, especially as they impact our thinking on Global Futures.

At its most ambitious, this project is about “re-presenting” India, Australia, and the Global South not just in a post-imperialistic, increasingly globalized world-system, but beyond these into systematic thinking and planning of planetary futures. The word “represent” is used here in both its commonly understood senses, as likeness, bringing to life or going back to its Latin root esse or presence, represent as making present. But every description is, necessarily, also an interpretation. So to represent Indo-Australian connections in their oceanic, global, and futures contexts would also be to reinterpret them. The other meaning of represent is to stand or speak for; to resisting others’ definitions of us, so that we, in India, Australia, and others in the Global South, speak for ourselves, taking charge of how we represent ourselves.[2] Indeed, both ways of looking at Indic-Australian connections are relevant to our conference.

In our shared contexts, this might imply the constructing of new disciplinary paradigms or institutional apparatuses. It might also mean competing for legitimation in how our regions are understood or studied, finally to declare ourselves as interested parties or stake-holders in such a process of designing Global Futures. It would also implicate us in challenging other, for example, imperial representations and to offer alternatives to them. The composition of research groups, with experts from the various communities of India, Australia, and the Global South, to examine their inter-

Themes of the Conference

1. Global Futures for India, Australia, and other parts of the Global South, including Africa and Latin America

2. Crossroads – roots and routes in the India-Australia dialogue

3. Global-Local knowledge flows

4. Alternative Global South: Who’s Futures?

5. Indian Ocean: Culture, Geography, Security

6. Heritage Futures: Epistemology and Identity

7. History and its Shadows

8. Spiritual Pragmatics

9. Traditional Knowledge, Sacred Practice and Spirituality

10. Nationalisms and Beyond: The Politics of local-global interaction

11. Hybrid Knowledge Futures: Science, culture, technology in the India-Australia context, and the Global South, including Africa and Latin America

12. Representations- Media and the Arts – Re-Orient

13. Research as Resistance: Voice and Optimism in a shrinking world

14. Pathways to Meaning and Co-Creation – research collaborations across borders

Important Dates:

Last date for the submission of Abstract (300 words): 30 September, 2017.

Approval of abstracts: 15 November, 2017.

Last date for the submission of Conference Paper (5000 words): 10 December, 2017.

Registration Fee:

Foreign Delegates (with accommodation): USD300

Foreign Delegates (without accommodation): USD 80

Indian Outstation Delegates (with accommodation): INR 5000

Indian Delegates (without accommodation): INR 2500

Special discounted fee for students (without accommodation): INR 1000.

Contact:

General Secretary, IASA and Conference Coordinator,

Professor Pradeep Trikha, Mohanlal Sukhadia University, Udaipur: iasapradeeptrikha@gmail.com

Cell: #91-9460112468

National seminar on “Politics of Difference and (Re)locating Marginality : Reflections in Indian Literature” by Visva-Bharati (A Central University), Santiniketan 9th -11th November, 2017

Concept Note:

Marginality, a major concern in socio-cultural, economic and political spheres, is the focus of this seminar. In a gross sense, the person, who is cornered to the edge of the society and finds himself deprived, depressed and subordinated in his individual as well social life is determined as marginalized. Behind this inequality the politics of difference plays the lead role, which has a multi-faced approach. From the skin colour to gender – a lot of factors stand behind the subaltern capping, which forces some particular groups of people to be devoid of the fundamental rights that they actually deserve. Though there are some common reasons for such discrimination, yet the characters of the politics of difference are divergent according to places and space. In India, the primary roots of marginality lie in religion, caste, and class hierarchies, while lingual hierarchies are determined by the social location of different speech communities. And again, gender bias or the subaltern position of woman in every class of society is a very common face of social discrimination. 

Contrary to the politics of difference, the endeavour to relocate the marginalized people in the main flow of the society is the consequence of the voices raised for equality. Indian Literature witnesses the conflicts between equality and inequality. The Dalit literature certainly has the agency to speak of their own sufferings and identity, but the main stream literature, may be in some different way, also illustrates the scenario. Literature, written in different regional as well vernacular languages of modern era are the main sources of this discourse, as the issue of marginality has come more in the focus since 19th century. Simultaneously, the literature of ancient and medieval India is the other obvious source. While the Brahmanical literature evidences the roots of differences, the Buddhist argued for the equality of all human beings. The social, philosophical and/or religious reforms or movements like Ambedkar’s Dalit Movement or Caitanya’s Bhakti movement became the milestone in the journey of relocating the marginalized people, and the then literature reflects, rather documents these social changes. The social realities along with all other norms of dalit lives and their crisis of identity are the focus of marginal literature. The struggle to get back their own justifiable position is another important issue of such literatures, where the conscious attempt has been made to differentiate it from other literature. Dalit aesthetics challenges the customary norms of literary criticism and tries to project its separate identity by voicing otherness. As this also involves concerns of equity and justices, the issue of legality is also occupies a significant position in Dalit Studies. Film, drama or other media can be included here as literary texts, which time and again involve themselves by questioning and reconfiguring marginality. 

To redefine the problems of marginality in current Indian and the global scenario is very much pertinent, as the society is now facing some sensitive questions. The proposed seminar would be a platform for the interactive discourses on the issues of social politics and relocating marginality from the perspective of Indian literature. It would be interdisciplinary in nature, and it will not deal only with different modern literary texts, but also the ancient and mediaeval literature of India. 

. 

Sub-themes:

The seminar will address, but not remain limited to the following issues:

• Marginality in literary discourses

• Ethnicity, language and marginality

• Speech communities, dialects and question of marginality

• Tribal Languages and Literature –Issues of translation 

• Marginality in oral tradition

• Caste hierarchy and marginality

• Gender discrimination 

• Cultural marginality

• Marginality thinkers

• Socio-religious reforms and marginality

• Social violence and marginality

• Dalit aesthetics 

• Marginality as reflected in film and drama

• Marginality and media

• Marginality and legalists 

Submission of abstracts

• Abstract (within 300 words) should be sent on/before 18th September, 2017 through email to

seminarbhashabhavana@gmail.com, 

Cc to visva2003@gmail.com

• Authors should clearly mention their name, affiliation, contact no, e-mail address and the title of the paper. 

• Language of the paper and abstract : English, Hindi, Bengali; Style sheet : MLA format, 8th edition. 

• The sub themes mentioned are only suggestive. Presentation time will be 15-20 minutes.

• After the blind review of the abstracts the selected authors will be informed through mail and University Website.

Registration

• On receiving the acceptance letter, participants should send the registration fee through demand draft. (Details of DD will be given with the acceptance letter).

• Registration fee includes conference kit, working lunches, dinners, breakfasts, tea, snacks and cultural programme. (Registration fee does not include the accommodation. A list of good hotels near the University will be provided in second circular). 

• Registration fee : Rs. 2500/-, (Outside Visva-Bharati) 

• Registration fee for the faculty, staff and research scholars of Visva-Bharati : Rs.1500/- 

• The participation/ paper presentation certificates will be distributed only in Valedictory session of the seminar.

Important Dates

Submission of abstracts: September 18, 2017

Communication of acceptance: September 25, 2017

Deadline for registration : October 18, 2017

Full Paper submission : November 2, 2017

Contacts:
Dr. Gargi Bhattacharya : 0-9007856721; visva2003@gmail.com

• Mr. Ranvir Sumedh Bhagwan : 0-7585950365, sumedhbhau@gmail.com

Film Studies International Conference on In Search of the Hero(es) within the Genre and Beyond: 23-24 February 2018, BHU,India.

Concept Note:

“A Hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself.”-Joseph Campbell

The world today has become a confused arena populated with masses having no clue of what is going on around them, and more especially, with them. The enthusiasm and optimism that foregrounded the most part of the 20th century, despite the great wars and mass killings, turned pessimistic in last few decades, and now paranoia dictates us. Our present bearing is so fittingly described by Cooper in the movie Interstellar that “We used to look up at the sky and wonder at our places in the stars. Now we just look down and worry about our places in the dirt.” We used to exalt our lives with the sublime conduct by following examples of people like Gandhi and Buddha. We used to be inspired by the stories of people, real or fictional, displaying extraordinary demeanor against hostile forces. Now, we have turned them into commodities with which we satisfy our fetish devours by owning them. What led humanity to arrive here? The old tales are not working now and new ones are not in the making. A bizarre wasteland surmounts us inhabited by a lot that is passive and disinterested, lacking moral convictions, aspiring to be rescued and purged by someone else for their sins. However, whom they chose to be rescued by, that posits the question.

This question consciously or unconsciously has become a part of our day-to-day discourse. Metaphors ranging from the semiotics of avant-garde to pop-culture, from real to surreal, from genres and beyond, wobble around the same question – What sort of hero you want to choose to redeem yourself? But before one can delve into this question, one needs to ask, who and what is a Hero? Joseph Campbell weighs over the concept of hero and elucidates that a hero is someone who makes a journey into an experience that is lacking in life or is not permitted to the members of society. The hero, thus, takes an adventurous journey to have an access to that knowledge and then returns back with some message; hence, a cyclical process of going and returning. If so, can we call each one of us heroes, as Norman Mailer said during Kennedy’s Presidential bid in 1960, “each of us was born to be free, to wander, to have adventure and to grow on the waves of the violent, the perfumed, and the unexpected, had a force which could not be tamed.” If these are the interpretations of being and becoming a hero, then what are the (im)possibilities of academics, theologians, philosophers, and ascetics to become one? One can notice the repetition of journeys that Campbell talks about have been witnessed in the stories ranging from Jesus to Ram to Buddha to Krishna to Beowulf to Ulysses to Robin Hood to Milton’s Satan to even contemporary encashment of “hero-making” and “hero-worshipping” in the likes of Obama to Donald Trump to Vladimir Putin to John Cena to Shahrukh Khan to Batman. It is in the later body of folks where the concept goes awry because by the time one reaches to this end of the string, it becomes hard to decipher between the hero and the image. And thus, is witnessed the emergence of myth-making of heroes from tribal, local, regional, ethnic, racial, gendered, religious, national and international communities.

And it becomes more convoluted and twisted because we are strolling in an age where the stratosphere everywhere is breathing with its own kind of personal and private heroes conflicting with the other. Orrin E. Klapp justly remarks in his article, “The Creation of Popular Superheroes,” which seems to be an astute remark for our times that “an age of mass hero worship is an age of instability,” and it would be rash on our part if we blind eye ourselves to this fact. ‘The best are lacking in all convictions’ as W B Yeats once remarked, ‘and the worst are full of passionate intensity’. Only if one can dare to confront such ‘heroes’ like Bob Dylan emphatically does, “I see through your eyes/And I see through your brain/Like I see through the water/That runs down my drain” (Masters of War). So, what is the solution? Shall the heroes be abandoned? Shall the search be for a Hero rather than heroes? The matter of fact is we are in a mad house and we are all mad as the Cat mentions to Alice in Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland:

‘How do you know I’m mad?’ said Alice.

‘You must be,’ said the Cat, ‘or you wouldn’t have come here.’

Now, if we can’t abandon the idea of leaving the premises of the madhouse, it is better then to reconstruct the formula of madness afresh. If we can’t bail out of our heroes for a Hero (having whom would again be nightmarish), if we can’t go back to the world where heroes acted as a beacon to overcome our mortal fears, then the need is as Paul Meadows illustrates, to ‘identify the social interaction of the hero in its myriad form: social control, leadership, imitation, propaganda, the social movement, crowd psychology’ (“Some Notes on the Social Psychology of the Hero”).

This conference, therefore, aims to bring forth the scholars and researchers to deliberate upon the various concepts and jargons about heroes within the genres and beyond of political, social, cultural, and literary, with hopes to construct and rejuvenate ideas from scratch out of the stale ones.

Following are the sub-themes (but not limited) that this conference aims to dwell upon:

• Hero or Leader
• Hero as Character/Protagonist
• Hero/Anti-hero/Villain/Criminal
• Hero as Poet/Prophet/Philosopher
• Female Hero or Heroine
• Hero in Transition
• Alternative Hero
• Hero as Outcaste/Pariah
• Superhero
• Artist/Author as a Hero
• Hero with Mask
• City/Space as Hero
• Genre Heroes
• Medium/Technology as Hero
• Statesman as Hero
• Nation as Hero
• Hero as Myth/Hero in Mythology
• Hero as Explorer
• Hero as Guardian

List of Speaker(s)

Keynote Speaker:Alicia Maree Malone

The famous film reporter, host, writer and self-confessed movie geek. She first gained notice hosting movie-centric shows and reviewing films in her native Australia, before making the leap to Los Angeles in 2011.Since then, Alicia has appeared on CNN, the Today show, MSNBC, NPR and many more as a film expert. Currently, she is a host on FilmStruck, a cinephile subscription streaming service run by the Criterion Collection and Turner Classic Movies, and she is the creator and host of the weekly show, Indie Movie Guide on Fandango.

She is the writer of the book 'Backwards and in Heels' about the history of women in Hollywood.

Alicia has traveled the world to cover the BAFTAs, the Oscars, the Cannes Film Festival, Toronto Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival and SXSW. She is a member of the Broadcast Film Critics Association, and over the years has interviewed hundreds of movie stars and filmmakers.

Plenary Speaker(s)

Prof. Dr. Ursula Kocher

Professor of General Literary Studies and Older German Literature in the European context at the Bergische Universitaet, Wuppertal, Germany. Prof. Ursula Kocher studied German, Romance, Rhetoric and History at the Otto- Friedrich University, Bamberg as well as Eberhard Karls Universitaet, Tübingen, Germany. From 1991 to 1999 she was a scholarship fellow at the German Cultural Foundation. In 2000 and 2001, Kocher was a research associate of the DFG Research project “The Invisibility of the Imagination in Elizabethan Culture” at the Humboldt-Universität, Berlin, and then until 2006 a scientific assistant at Freie Universität, Berlin. She is pioneer for starting many Projects with Indian. 

Dr. Jyoti Sabharwal

She is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Germanic and Romance Studies, University of Delhi, India. Her expertise lies in German Exile Literature from 1933-1945, with a special focus on India as a place of exile; Representations of India in post war novels and shorter prose, the emergence of migrant writing and questions of history and memory.

Key Points

Last date for sending abstract of the paper: 31 December 2017

Last date for sending complete paper: 28 January 2018

Send abstract/paper to the conference email id: heroconferencebhu2018@gmail.com

Selected Presenters will be notified by 10 January 2018

Conference Dates: 23-24 February 2018

Registration Fee: Rs 2,000 (for Research Scholars); Rs 2,500 (for Faculty Members); and 100 USD (for International delegates)

Format for the Application

Full Name:

Sex:

Address (including telephone and email id): 

Nationality: 

Institutional affiliations:

Department:

Academic qualification:

Presently pursuing any course or present occupation/position:

Publications, if there (mention the best three):

Specific research area/topic (if any):

Abstract of your presentation in the Conference:

For more Details About Conference, Please Mail us  

@ amarsnghbhu@gmail.com

International Multistream Conference on Research and Society 29 October 2017, GGN IMT, Ludhiana Punjab, (India)

ABOUT THE CONFERENCE 

The GGNIMT IMSC-2017 is aimed at providing the researchers, analysts and enthusiasts an opportunity to exchange ideas on the latest issues and challenges in the broad gamut of research driven society. During the event, the researchers, academicians, practitioners and students of various streams from universities/institutions and industries can join their efforts in the form of discussions and debates for bring meaning to a concerted research activity.

CONFERENCE STREAMS

Stream 1: Research driven Commerce/Management & benefits to Society

Stream 2: Research driven Computer Applications & benefits to Society

Stream 3: Research driven in Engineering & benefits to Society

(All Engineering branches & Architecture)

Stream 4: Research driven Social Sciences & benefits to Society

Stream 5: Research driven Pure, Applied & Life Sciences & benefits to Society(Agriculture, Medical, Pharmacy, Nursing, Chemistry, Physics, Maths, Biotechnology etc.) 

Stream 6: Research driven Education & benefits to Society.

The present conference is an earnest effort to bring academicians, business leaders, practioners, professionals and industrialists on a common platform to share views, expectations, and apprehensions and to analyze experiences of life in various contexts of technology and life. Deliberations and exchange of research works on diverse themes ranging from Management, Commerce, Computer Applications, Engineering, Arts, Languages, Sciences & Technical Innovation are expected in the conference. 

Papers are invited on various themes and sub-themes of choice from the above-mentioned streams. Conference will be sub-divided into stream-wise technical sessions. The above-mentioned sub-themes are indicative but not exhaustive in the area under study. The participants can write/present the paper on other topic falling under the broad gamut of “Research & Society”. Kindly mention the stream you want to participate in. One author can present paper in one stream only. In one stream, one author can submit one paper only. Other co-author(s) can make a separate presentation in the same streams. 

PUBLICATION

In case of selection of the paper by the screening panel, the research paper will be published in the form of a book and distributed to various libraries for the reference of faculty, students, industry professionals and researchers. The contributors will be given a certificate of publication on the day of the conference itself. Papers reached on or before due date i.e. 10 October 2017 with an applicable registration fee and separate charges for book i.e. Rs 600 will be considered for presentation and publication. Later additions will not be possible.

WHO CAN PARTICIPATE

Apart from academicians from various universities and institutes, industrialists, managers, consultants, professionals and students can participate in the conference. An abstract of the paper of about 300 words may be sent on or before 30 September 2017 through email (ggnimt.imsc@gmail.com). Based on the recommendations of the Screening Committee, the authors will be informed about acceptance of the papers or otherwise.

Full length papers of words not exceeding 3000 words in word version/Times New Roman font with font size of 12; Line Spacing of 1.5; margin of 1 inch on all sides and A4 paper size must be sent thereafter latest by 10 October 2017 at the same email ID only. The attached registration form, or copy thereof, duly filled in may be sent to the Conference Coordinator along with the necessary registration fee. Those who are interested in accommodation for overnight stay before and/or after the seminar must contact well in advance. Stay arrangements in nearby hotels will be made at reasonable rates on payment.

IMPORTANT DATES

Abstract Submission - 30 September 2017

Full length papers - 10 October 2017

Abstract and Full paper to be submitted by an email at ggnimt.imsc@gmail.com.

The details of IMSC 2017 are available at our website www.ggnimtldh.org

For any inquiries, you may send an email at ggnimt.imsc@gmail.com or you can also call at +919872681111.

Contact us:

GGN INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT & TECHNOLOGY

Civil Lines, Ludhiana-141001, Punjab, (India)

E-Mail ID- ggnimt.imsc@gmail.com

Phone Number – 9872681111

Funded Travel Grants- 1st Symposium on Societal Challenges in Computational Social Science- November 15-17, 2017 London, United Kingdom.

CONFERENCE SCOPE

The Symposium is an interdisciplinary venue that brings together researchers from a diverse range of disciplines to contribute to the definition and exploration of the societal challenges in Computational Social Science, especially around the topics o inequality and imbalance. This is the first in a series of three symposia that discuss societal challenges in computational social sciences. Future events will be focused on "Bias and Discrimination" (Cologne, 2018) and "Polarization and Radicalization" (Zurich, 2019).

We welcome submissions in the intersection of the social sciences and the computer sciences, including (a) new approaches for understanding social phenomena and addressing societal challenges, (b) improving methods for computational social science, (c) and understanding the influence of the Web and digital technologies on society.

We are especially interested in:

* Methods for measuring inequality and imbalance

* Measuring inequality and imbalance on the Web

* Mediating inequalities via computational methods

* Inequality data mining

* Inequality and biases in social networks

* Detecting trends of inequality

* Digital reproduction of inequality

* Online vs. offline inequalities

* Cross-country and longitudinal studies of inequality

* Missing data

* Digital civil society and digital citizenship

* Digital divides and digital inequality

* Global inequality and effects of globalization

* Power imbalances

* Demographics and age structures

* Underrepresented groups

* Wealth and poverty research

* Economic inequality

* Inequality in the urban environment

* Health inequalities

* Models of social capital in the digital age

* Non-users of digital technologies

* Accessibility of and barriers to digital technologies

* Skills and digital literacy

Other related topics are explicitly welcome.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

Original manuscripts should be submitted in English in pdf format to the EasyChair submission system:

https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=eurosymposium17

Submissions should be 1-2 page abstracts (up to approx. 1000 words) summarizing the work to be presented. We encourage researchers to also submit mature work that has already been published and/or submit work in progress. Please give a sufficiently detailed description of your work and your methods so we can adequately assess its relevance. Each extended abstract will be reviewed by a Program Committee composed of experts in computational social science. Accepted submissions will be non-archival, i.e. there are no proceedings. We may however discuss options for publishing selected submissions after the conference (e.g. as a journal special issue or edited collection). Submissions will mostly be evaluated based on relevance and the potential to stimulate interesting discussions.

IMPORTANT DATES

Deadline for abstract submission: September 30, 2017

Notification of acceptance: October 13, 2017

Workshops and tutorials: November 15, 2017

Conference: November 16-17, 2017

TRAVEL GRANTS

Due to the generous funding by Volkswagen Foundation we are able to offer up to 40 travel grants to early career researchers whose talks are accepted for the symposium. Both plenary talk presenters and workshop/ tutorial presenters are eligible for the travel grants.

The travel grant consists of 500 EUR for authors from non-European countries or 250 EUR for authors from Europe and also covers the registration fee for the symposium. Travel grant recipients will be selected by a committee of experts based on their academic excellence, financial needs and diversity (e.g. gender, geographical and disciplinary diversity).

Please indicate in your submission 1) if you wish to apply for a travel grant, 2) your motivation for the grant application and 3) whether you will still attend the symposium without a travel grant.

The grants aim to especially support attendees with limited travel resources and attendees from countries where Computational Social Science is not yet well established.

Website: symposium.computationalsocialscience.eu

Easychair: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=eurosymposium17

For inquiries: css.eurosymposium@gmail.com

National Conference on ‘Development and Governance of Adivasis in Contemporary India’ : 6-7 October 2017 Mumbai

Jointly Organised by NCAS and Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Contemporary Studies, University of Mumbai

Date: 6-7 October 2017

Place: Mumbai

Scholars are invited to submit their research papers for the Conference.




Broad Sub-themes of the conference are:

1. Development strategies for Adivasis post planning era
2. PESA and Adivasi governance (20 years of PESA)
3. Status of Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs)

A 200-word abstract and brief CV can be e-mailed to conference@ncasindia.org
by September 5, 2017.
Please write ‘Abstract/ ARC Conference’ in the subject line.





For More Info: http://ncasindia.org/index.php/2017/08/23/national-conference-on-development-and-governance-of-adivasis-in-contemporary-india/