"What's Asian about Asia?" Atlanta, Georgia, January 20-22, 2006

Deadline for submissions: October 1, 2005

The Program Committee for the 2006 Southeast Conference of the Association for Asian Studies (SEC/AAS) invites proposals for the January 2006 meeting. The committee is especially interested in panels and papers that engage the question "What's Asian about Asia?” Is Asian Studies is valuable framework for research and teaching? Is Asia a productive framework for discussing politics, history, literature, society, and culture? Should we, as Rhoads Murphey exhorted in his 1988 AAS Presidential Address, seek to become “complete Asianists,” exploring the commonalities of Asian culture? Or is Asia, as Lewis and Wigen argue in The Myth of Continents, an awkward and unfortunate abstraction?

The following list of topics is presented as suggestive, rather than exhaustive:

1) If there is an “Asia culture” what are its defining qualities? Do the cultural boundaries of Asia coincide with physical and spatial boundaries? Where are these boundaries?
2) Has modernity attenuated “Asianess”? Or is there a unique Asia modernity?
3) If we must subdivide Asia, where are the internal boundaries? What defines South Asia? Where does East Asia end? Should we see oceans as boundaries, which divide cultures, or as basins, which connect cultures? How are Asia’s internal boundaries historically situated and historically constructed?
4) Can we speak of an “Asian” diaspora? What makes Asian-American communities “Asian”? How are Asian diasporic communities within Asia different from those in the Americas, Africa and Europe?

The program committee is especially interested in panels that cross the boundaries or regional and disciplinary specialization and enable conversations across our many specializations.

Submissions are encouraged for roundtable discussions or entire panels, although individual papers proposals are also welcome. Only one paper per participant will be accepted. When submitting an entire session, include an abstract that outlines the purpose of the session and please designate one panelist as the contact person. Each paper proposal, whether individual or in a session, should include:

1) A one-page abstract
2) A brief c.v.
3) Contact information, including phone, and email

Please indicate audio/visual needs in your proposal. The Program Committee assumes all listed individuals have agreed to participate.

We urge you to submit proposals by e-mail; but a full paper/panel submission form, along with all the latest information on the conference, can be obtained from the SEC/AAS website at http://www.uky.edu/Centers/Asia/SECAAS/

Proposals should be submitted by October 1, 2005, to the Program Chair, Mark Ravina, by e-mail or post (see addresses/numbers below). Earlier submissions and submissions by e-mail are strongly encouraged. Send proposals to:

Mark Ravina
Director, East Asian Studies Program
Institute for Comparative and International Studies
1385 Oxford Road
Emory University
Atlanta, GA 30322
mark.ravina@emory.edu
phone 404 727 4025
fax 404 727 4959

Annual SEC/AAS dues for 2005-2006 are required for submissions to be considered and for inclusion in the mailing of conference and registration information. Dues are $15; student dues are $5. Dues checks made payable to SEC/AAS should be sent to:

Charlotte Beahan
Department of History
6-B Faculty Hall
Murray State University
Murray, KY 42071-3341

Please use the separate membership form available at http://www.uky.edu/Centers/Asia/SECAAS/members_info.html

Note that dues do not cover the cost of conference registration, $50 for regular members and $25 for student members. Please send conference registration fees, also payable to SEC/AAS to:

Susan M. Walcott, Associate Professor
Department of Anthropology & Geography
Director, Asian Studies Center
Graduate Director, Geography
Georgia State University
33 Gilmer Street, MSC IA0315
Atlanta, GA 30303-3081

Registration forms for the conference, include details about hotel reservations are available at http://www.uky.edu/Centers/Asia/SECAAS/.