Call for Papers

The Tenth Annual South Asia Graduate Student Conference: The Place of Literature

University of Chicago 4-5 April 2013

The University of Chicago Committee on Southern Asian Studies (COSAS) hosts an annual graduate student conference, where students from all over the world working on South Asia can present their latest research in front of a supportive yet critical audience. This year, the Tenth Annual South Asia Graduate Student Conference will take place on 4-5 April 2013 at the University of Chicago.

We are very pleased to announce that this year’s keynote speakers will be Dr. Whitney Cox (SOAS, University of London) and Dr. Azfar Moin (Southern Methodist University).

Inspired by the interests of our keynote speakers, we hope that this conference will provide a forum for the discussion of a wide variety of literary genres in the service of a variety of disciplinary aims. We encourage thinking of literature beyond the confines of textual history, and invite reflection on literature as a wider arena for the cultivation of particular forms of value, scholarship, aesthetics, imagination, and belonging. For instance, papers could examine literature as a place for the expression of modes of political consciousness, historiography, philosophy, enjoyment, ethics, and more.

With this in mind, we invite proposals for individual papers that approach literature in this broad sense, engaging texts of any genre, in any South Asian language, from any region and historical period. Methodological and disciplinary diversity is particularly welcome.

For those coming from outside Chicago, we will be able to reimburse you partially for travel and lodging, though we encourage you to seek support from your home institutions. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, and refreshments will be provided on both days.

We invite students to submit papers individually. Panel proposals will not be considered. Abstracts should not exceed 300 words, and should be sent to sagsc2013@gmail.com in pdf format no later than 15 January 2013. Graduate students at all stages of study, research, and dissertation-writing are encouraged to apply. Applicants will be notified of a decision by 30 January 2013. Please do not hesitate to contact us with questions about accommodations, travel, or other concerns.

Sincerely, Ishan Chakrabarti and Jane Mikkelson The SAGSC-X Organizing Committee sagsc2013@gmail.com lucian.uchicago.edu/blogs/sagsc