NEWS & EVENTS

CALL FOR PAPER

ENGAGING THE CLASSICS IN MALAY AND SOUTHEAST ASIAN STUDIES: WHERE TO FROM HERE?

A Conference-Workshop organised by the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies and Malay Studies Department, National University of Singapore, with support from Majlis Ugama Islam Singapura (MUIS) and Jamiyah

Institute of Southeast Asian Studies
Heng Mui Keng Terrace, Pasir Panjang, Singapore
17-18 June 2010

Call for Paper

Southeast Asian Studies as a discipline is certainly no stranger to self-critique. From the examination of colonial values in its early anthropological investigations, the inherent Cold War strategic interests in area studies, to the perceived threat or challenges posed by postmodernism and cultural studies, Southeast Asian Studies has occasionally taken a critical look at its own methodological and theoretical predispositions and practices.

However, while the intellectual trends and political influences on Southeast Asian Studies have been interrogated, far less scholarly attention has been paid to the authorial capital and status of Southeast Asian works themselves. The high levels of authorial capital enjoyed by key texts in Southeast Asian Studies – otherwise known as “classics” – need to be subjected to closer scrutiny and re-evaluation given the Western dominance over Southeast Asian Studies, the exclusion of non-English texts from the canons, and the absence of new and regionally-cognizant ways of framing Southeast Asian subjects. Such classics include the early colonial works of giants like Furnivall and Firth, the contributions of Geertz, Anderson and Scott during the height of area studies in the 1970s to 1980s, as well as the interventions of Southeast Asians themselves like Thongchai, Ileto, Rafael, Sartono, and Alatas.

This conference-workshop is jointly organized by the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) and the Malay Studies Department, National University of Singapore. It seeks to achieve three broad objectives: firstly, to interrogate the authorial capital of these classics as well as to re-assess their contemporary relevance; secondly, to offer younger Southeast Asian scholars (or “home scholars”, to borrow Thongchai’s term) the platform to creatively appropriate or re-interpret such classics for alternative and novel modes of intellectual inquiry; and thirdly, to identify or lay the conceptual pathways for emerging classics.

This two-day conference-workshop, to be held at ISEAS, will endeavor to address the following issues:

1. How may the categories “classics” or “canons” be defined? Is there a need to re-assess the criteria for defining the classics or canons in the field?
2. How do local scholars engage the classics and what are the outcomes of such engagement? Are there classics in the vernacular worth highlighting, and if so, how are their insights translatable to other Southeast Asian contexts?
3. In general, the classics engage with issues related to social change and the transformation of Southeast Asia, such as the impact of colonialism and global capitalism on local economies and societies, especially the agricultural sector, and the transition to modern nation-states. Are these issues still relevant today? Are there other issues that should capture our imagination and occupy our scholarly efforts?
4. In engaging the classics, what are the implications on the trajectory of the development of Southeast Asian Studies? Is there scope for suggesting a new canon of “emerging classics”? If so, what are they and in what way(s) do they define our reflections on Southeast Asia?
Southeast Asian Studies scholars are invited to submit abstracts (250 words) to the conference-workshop organizers. Papers should attempt to address one, if not more, of the issues laid out above. The deadline for the submission of abstracts is 15 November 2009. Selected participants will be notified by 15 December 2009. Full length papers (6,000-8,000 words) are due on 1 May 2010.

ISEAS, the Malay Studies Department and MUIS are pleased to announce that there are modest funds available to provide for the air-travel and accommodations of paper presenters from Southeast Asia. Selected papers will be published in an edited volume by ISEAS.

Abstract submissions, accompanied by a bionote, should be sent to:
engagingtheclassics@gmail.com

Any conference-related inquiries may be sent to any of the following conference organizers:

Rommel A. Curaming (mlsrc@nus.edu.sg)
Syed Mohd Khairudin Aljunied (mlsasmk@nus.edu.sg)
Hui Yew-Foong (yfhui@iseas.edu.sg)
Terence Chong (terencechong@iseas.edu.sg)