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Call for Papers Theme: Modernity and its Discontents Type: Early Career South Asian Studies Workshop Institution: Princeton University Location: Princeton, NJ (USA) Date: 26.–27.4.2013 Deadline: 1.12.2012 __________________________________________________ The recent crescendo of public opinion, as well as less conspicuous rumblings of the past, has called into question the trajectories of political and economic development in modern South Asia. In academic debate, these critiques are not restricted to the postcolonial state and its government but trace longer genealogies of power structures and knowledge formations. This workshop aims to bring different disciplines in conversation on the theme of modernity and the voices of difference and discontent that resist it, or are silenced by it. We invite papers from early career scholars (graduate students and junior faculty) in all disciplines that engage with South Asia. Papers could address, but are not limited to the following sub themes: - Genealogies of Modernity: How do we untangle the long genesis of forces, relationships, and tropes which inform the conflicts associated with modernity? This sub-theme may include issues such as transitions to early modernity in the subcontinent, the "invention" of tradition, and the production of identities and practices connected to debates over modernity. - The State and its Insurgents: Unification and separation present a deep tension in modern state building projects in South Asia. Despite attempts to standardize and unify independent post-colonial nation states on the subcontinent, there were other voices and projects that called for separation, differentiation and recognition. - Stages of Capital: Does Capital trace a different path in non-western cultures and does this path subsume in its travels all other economies? Is there an indigenous economy that can contest the flow of Capital in different cultures? We invite papers that locate difference in economic practices, discuss terminologies like crony capitalism and trace parallel economies in the history of Capitalism. - Texts of Power: How does privileging archives constituted by law, science or statistics inform our understanding of modernity? What are the languages and expressions of resistance and difference? Are they to be found in popular literature, Dalit fictions, populist movements, or more hidden transcripts that the scholar must learn to read? - Multiple Modernities: Can we trace the alternate routes of the modern as it travels cultures? How does the modern find its place in regional literature, art, architecture, urban spaces, music, and films? Does a shift in focus to the region meaningfully inflect our idea of the modern? - Gendered Modernity: Recent feminist studies have explored new theories of modernity, foregrounding the social construction of gender and challenging our understandings of modern masculine/feminine binaries. How do such theories reconfigure perceptions of modern gendered social relations? Paper proposals should include a title, a 300-word abstract, institutional affiliation and contact information. Please submit proposals to <[email protected]> by December 1, 2012. The University will provide for accommodation for two nights and will contribute towards travel expenses. Organizers: Isabelle Clark-Deces, Radha Kumar and Nabaparna Ghosh, Princeton University. Contact: Nabaparna Ghosh, Doctoral Candidate Department of History Princeton University 129 Dickinson Hall Princeton, NJ 08544-1017 USA Email: [email protected] __________________________________________________ InterPhil List Administration: http://interphil.polylog.org Intercultural Philosophy Calendar: http://cal.polylog.org __________________________________________________
