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"Community, Identity, Change" -- First UCLA Indonesian Studies Graduate Student Conference

Call for Proposals

UCLA's newly established Indonesian Studies Program, which was created in 2008 through a generous grant from Robert Lemelson, invites proposals from graduate students whose research interests focuses upon the formation and fluidity of community and identity in contemporary Indonesia (c. 1945-present) for a conference to take place April 17-18, 2009.  (The Indonesian Studies Program is part of UCLA's Center for Southeast Asian Studies, and is designed to support the study of Indonesia by UCLA graduate students and faculty through conferences, faculty lectures, and graduate fellowships.)

In what ways is “community” being created, sustained, redefined, expanded, disrupted, or articulated among Indonesians today?  How does “identity,” in all of its transfigurations, continue to shape Indonesian experience and everyday life? This conference aims to unite scholars from across the disciplines in a shared quest to reexamine classic concepts within Indonesian Studies as well as to investigate emerging theories/queries/concerns that will guide us in future activism and research.

Some ideas to consider:
• New approaches to or re-assessments of the impact of cross-cultural encounter and trade from the colonial period to the present
• “Real” or “imagined” communities emerging within Indonesia
• Alternative meanings of and reflections upon Indonesia’s oft-quoted motto, “unity in diversity”  
• Contemporary issues within Indonesia’s Islamic communities
• Gender and sexuality in modern Indonesia
• The articulation of global discourses on human rights, environmentalism, public health and feminism within modern Indonesia
• The influence of immigration, transnationality, and citizenship upon the formation of Indonesian communities and identities
• Disaster, disease, healing and reconstruction in contemporary Indonesian communities
• Indonesian arts and cultures

Graduate students working in the following disciplines as well as other related fields whose research serves to enhance understanding about community and identity in modern Indonesia are encouraged to submit proposals: Anthropology, Archeology, Arts and Cultures, Business, Education, Economics, Environmental Studies, Ethnomusicology, Geography, Governance, Health, History, Linguistics, Literature, Performance Studies, Philosophy, Politics, Population, Sociology, Women’s Studies and Urban & Regional Planning.

We welcome individual paper submissions as well as proposals for panels of no more than 3 presenters. Completed papers as well as works-in-progress will be accepted on a competitive basis. For paper submissions, please send a CV and a 200-300 word abstract to <cseas@international.ucla.edu>.  For panel submissions, please send a brief description of the panel theme as well as a 200-300 word abstract for each individual paper to <cseas@international.ucla.edu>.  Presentations should be no more than 20 minutes and will be followed by 10 minutes of discussion.

Financial aid for travel expenses up to $750 is available for conference participants who request it.

Submission Deadline: February 6, 2009

Notification of Acceptance: February 20, 2009

Robert Lemelson, Ph.D.,  is an anthropologist who received his M.A. from the University of Chicago, and his doctorate from the UCLA Department of Anthropology. He is currently a research anthropologist at the Semel Institute of Neurosciences at UCLA, and lecturer in the Depts of Anthropology and Psychology.   He is also the president and founder of The Foundation for Psychocultural Research, a non-profit research foundation supporting research and training in the neurosciences and social sciences, and the director of Elemental Productions, a ethnographic documentary film production company.

Date Posted: 1/15/2009