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(Un)bounding Tradition: The Tensions of Borders and Regions
Eighth Conference of the International Association for the Study of Traditional Environments (IASTE)
The study of traditions has for the most part been grounded in neatly bounded regions. Indeed, it can be said that the understanding of traditions of certain built environments has been as influenced by regional genres of research what in the U.S. academy is called "area studies" as it has been by the mandates of related disciplines.
The current moment of globalization necessitates and provokes a remapping of such intellectual cartographies. The restructuring of nation-states, the emergence of megaglobal institutions, and the speeding up of labor, investment and commercial flows have all served to unsettle old regions and borders. Until recently, the study of tradition has been bounded by preordained geographical regions. Such study has also been accompanied by a belief in the inherent stasis of the "traditional" condition. Contemporary debates about space and place seek to take these changes into account by drawing attention to the traditions endangered through migration, diasporas, and hybrid cultures. At the same time, there is a growing recognition that despite porous borders and shape-shifting regions, despite e-freedom and e-trade, social and spatial fixities continue to intensify.
In a world bearing the premise of global citizenship, the legacy of political borders and thus of identities is creating unprecedented tensions between groups of people, which is manifested in practices of exclusion, segregation and conflict. Thus, border stories have increasingly become identity stories. It is worthwhile to remember that the act of establishing a border between two entities, separating lands and peoples, is based on endorsing and often magnifying differences to the point of binary antagonism. But the border has always had a dual role, which, while defining the "other," has simultaneously validated the self. It is not surprising that the very borders which once served to exclude and differentiate have now reemerged as celebrated icons of cultural overlap and political mediation.
As in past IASTE conferences, scholars and practitioners from architecture, architectural history, art history, anthropology, archaeology, folklore, geography, history, planning, sociology, urban studies, and related areas are invited to submit papers that address one of four main tracks.
1. Reconfiguring Regions
Papers in this track will focus on the tensions between historically and politically defined regions and their complementary traditions. Particularly encouraged are papers that present innovative reconfigurations of regions based on the new traditions of space and place and the impact of new media in the era of globalization.
2. The Space of Borders
Papers in this track will examine borders as regions in and of themselves. Papers are encouraged on the built tradition of borderlands and border zones. Also encouraged are imaginative approaches that explore the real and imagined traditions of the border: those that exceed the limitations of what lies on either side.
3. The Tensions of Hybridity
Papers in this track will examine the impact of migration and the traditions of diaspora communities. Papers are encouraged that explore the notion of hybridity in the built environment and the new tradition of hybrid place, as well as those that explore the often equally stifling limitations and liberating possibilities of the new spaces and places of hybridity.
4. The Place of Ethnicity
Papers in this track will examine relationships between ethnicity and traditional settlements and the ways through which people of different ethnic groups, minorities or majorities, negotiate space and articulate the making of place. Papers are encouraged which examine ethnicity at the border.
SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS
Interested colleagues are invited to submit a hard copy of a short, one-page abstract not to exceed 500 words. Do not place your name on the abstracts, but rather submit an attached one-page curriculum vitae with your address and name. All authors must also submit an electronic copy of their abstract and CV at the same time via e-mail. Abstracts and CVs must be placed within the body of the e-mail and not as attachments.
E-mail this material to: iaste@uclink4.berkeley.edu.
Authors must specify one or two of the above sessions when submitting abstracts. Proposals for complete panels and poster sessions are welcome. All papers must be written and presented in English. Following a blind peer-review process, papers may be accepted for presentation in the conference and/or publication in the conference Working Paper Series.
Contributors whose abstracts are accepted must preregister for the conference, pay registration fees of $350, and prepare a full-length paper of 20-25 double-spaced pages. Please note that hotel accommodations, travel and additional excursions are not covered by the registration fees and have to be paid directly to the confirmed travel agent. Registration fees cover conference program, conference abstracts and access to all conference activities including receptions, key-note panels, and a half-day tour of nearby Hong-Kong sites.
CONFERENCE SCHEDULE
Deadline for receipt of abstracts and CVs: February 15, 2002
E-mail notification of accepted abstracts for Conference Presentation: May 1, 2002
Deadline for pre-registration and for receipt of papers for possible publication in the Working Paper Series: July 15, 2002
Notification of accepted papers for the Working Paper Series: October 1, 2002
Conference Presentations: December 12-15, 2002CONFERENCE SITE
The conference will be held at the Regal Kowloon Hotel in the Tsimshatsui East District of Hong Kong. In order to obtain special conference room rates at the hotel, reservations, accompanied by full payment, will have to be made by September 15, 2002. Hotel and travel arrangements should be made directly with the designated travel agency.
OPTIONAL EXCURSIONS
A number of one-day and half-day trips to nearby sites will also be available to conference participants for an additional fee. These include one-day, three-day and five-day excursions that will take place after the conference.
Please contact the Conference Travel Agent directly, for hotel and travel arrangements as well as for excursions.
Travel Agent:
Dragon Form Travel Limited
Contact Person: Mr. Thomas Liu Tel: 2754-6253 Fax: 2305-0628 E-mail: travel@dragonform.com.hkINQUIRIES
Please use the following information when making inquiries regarding the conference.
Mailing address:
IASTE 2002
Center for Environmental Design Research
390 Wurster Hall
University of California
Berkeley, CA 94720-1839, USA
Phone: 510.642.6801/510.642.2896 Fax: 510.643.5571
E-mail: iaste@uclink4.berkeley.edu
Website: http://www.arch.ced.berkeley.edu/research/iaste
