Department of Sociology - Faculty of Social Sciences
South Asian University
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| Performance by Bandu Manamperi, Colombo, Sri Lanka, December 2012 |
Call for Papers
Debating
Identity:
Dialogues Across Boundaries
(Conference
for Young Scholars and Researchers)
16 AN D 17 October 2014; SAU, New Delhi
Concept and background
“An entity without an identity cannot exist because
it would be nothing”, declared Aristotle. Contemporary history
is replete with assertions rooted in questions of identity and representation. Identity
formation occurs in the context of one’s relative position within the larger
frameworks of class, caste, citizenship, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation,
race and religious affiliation and so on. The location within these is often
essentialised and further negotiated through social, political, economic and
cultural processes. Also, other large-scale processes of industrialisation, migration
and urbanisation guided by certain prototypes of development, especially in the
contemporary discourses, lead to issues of acculturation and assimilation where
new forms of self get created and included with pre-existing ones. This very
idea of inclusion calls for deliberation on the notion of exclusion and
question of identities that are alienated.
The
first half of 20th century witnessed mass annihilation and destruction.
Colonisation and the two World Wars were consummated through the construction
of excluded identities. The pogroms for elimination of indigenous populations
in Australia and Americas and genocide of Jews trace their lineage to the issue
of identities. In the context of South Asia, the two partitions implicating
India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, the civil unrest in Sri Lanka, the question of Madheshis and Pahadis in Nepal are not circuitously but directly linked to the
issue of identity. If early 20th century was a struggle against
colonialism, the latter part has been about struggles pertaining to identity
formation and assertion of the Global South in the aftermath of colonialism and
in the face of neo-liberalism. Neo-liberalism and globalization created new avenues
identity formation and expression. Unprecedented changes have taken places in
the realms of production and consumption; conspicuous consumption is on the rise
thereby making it the new “opium of the masses”. Catchphrases such as ‘global
village’ allude to a certain ‘global identity’. How are such identities
constructed with respect to spatiality and temporality and how do they locate
their subjectivities within larger frameworks? Further, in the present day
‘network society’, questions of manufactured identities in the wake of
cybernetics and the biopolitics of biometric identity cannot be left aside. Thus,
identity is not only a product of social processes but also an ingredient that
goes into the making of these processes. Once created, identities are routinely
maintained, altered and transformed over time. These transformations are set in
intricate social, political and economic milieus.
Problematics
pertaining to identity — ontological or epistemological are intricate, and
therefore call for reflection and dialogue. Given these complexities, how does
one engage with the category of identity? Do we start from the idea of the
individual and the collective self and traverse across other zones of identity
formation? What happens when multiple identities, coalesce, diverge and get
juxtaposed as binaries? How do beings with several, coterminous identities view
themselves within the larger structures they occupy? When we talk about
binaries, are these felt binaries or are merely imposed upon by the observer? The category of identity is unproblematic; it
is the language of identity that is
problematic. This takes us to George Orwell words: “The worst thing one can do
with words is to surrender to them”. Taking this spirit forward, we will engage
with and problematize the language as well as categories and multiple
expressions of identity and explore how identities in different contexts get
mediated and negotiated in assorted multi-layered settings.
It is in
the context outlined above that the Department of Sociology at South Asian
University presents its first conference specifically for young scholars and
researchers based on broad theme, ‘Debating
Identity: Dialogues Across Boundaries.’
Eligibility
Papers are invited from candidates in MA and MPhil/PhD
programs in social sciences and humanities at recognized universities and
research organizations in South Asia. We also welcome contributions from individuals
who are currently not enrolled in any university provided no more than one year
has lapsed since their graduation with the last degree at the level of MA or
above.
Conference sub-themes
Identity,
self and subjectivity
Identity:
Spatiality, Geography and Cartography
Identity,
Migration and Displacement
Cosmopolitanism
and multiculturalism
Poetry and
the arts of resistance and assertion
Identity
and changing epistemologies
Commodification
and commercialization of Identity
Submission of guidelines
Initially,
by 30th May 2014, an
abstract of no more than 500 words has to be forwarded by email as an attachment to: The Coordinator, Debating
Identity: Dialogues across Boundaries, Department of Sociology, Faculty
of Social Sciences, South Asian University, Akbar Bhawan, Chanakyapuri, New
Delhi 110021, India. Email address: scholars-conf@soc.sau.ac.in
Authors
of selected abstracts will be informed by email by 30th June 2014, and complete papers have to be submitted
for plagiarism review by 15th
September 2014.
Submission format
- Abstract: 500 words; font should be Calibri
point 11; 1.5 line spacing; no references and no footnotes.
- Papers: no more than 7,000 words including
footnotes and references; font should be Calibri point 11; 1.5 line
spacing. For referencing and style guidelines please visit: http://www.sau.ac.in/pdf/SAU-SOC-JournalStyleGuide.pdf
- Abstracts and papers must be submitted
as MS Word documents via email.
- The name of the file should be
YourName_InstitutionAffiliation _DepartmentAffiliation.
- The subject of the email should be: SOC-FSS-SAU-Young
Scholars and Researchers Conference.
Inquiries
