Announcements The Network | 37

The Newsletter | No.69 | Autumn 2014
The Network | 37
Announcements
Artistic Interventions. Histories, Cartographies and Politics in Asia
Two-day workshop, 30-31 March 2015, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong, China
Call for papers: deadline 15 november 2014
ORGANISED by IIAS, the Amsterdam Centre for Globalisation
Studies (University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands) and Hong
Kong Baptist University. This event is part of the research
network ‘Rethinking Asian Studies in a Global Context’,
funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in New York
and coordinated by IIAS in collaboration with numerous
institutions in Asia, the United States, Europe and Africa
(see p45 of this issue; www.rethinking.asia)
This call for papers and art projects is for PhD students and
artists to submit their abstract for a two-day workshop to be
held on 30 and 31 March 2015 at Hong Kong Baptist University.
The workshop aims to move beyond the traditional
paradigms of western scientific representation by re-examining
the fundamental concepts of time and space in the construction of knowledge of and from Asia. During the first day of the
workshop, leading scholars in the field of history and cultural
studies, and artists from different localities in Asia, including
Hong Kong, Japan, Indonesia and South Korea, will question the
politics of history and cartography and explore new possible
forms of knowledge.
This call for papers and art projects concerns the second day,
during which PhD students and artists are invited to present
and discuss their work with these scholars. Limited funding for
travel and accommodation is available. The workshop itself will
be free of charge.
The Workshop
The Artistic Intervention workshop aims to critically interrogate
prevailing categorisations of the history and cartography of
Asia as institutionalised in Western humanities and open up
alternative and new forms of knowledge and practices. During
the two days we will discuss the fundamental concepts of
time and space in the construction of knowledge of and from
Asia. While area studies continue the endeavors of knowledge
production, its inevitably intricate connections with national
histories and geographies are increasingly foregrounded.
Call for papers and art projects
for PhD students and artists
Applications should include:
an abstract of your paper, max. 300 words
a one-page CV, including contact details of two referees
Applications should be sent by 15 November 2014
to Ms. Miyan Cheung c/o Dr. Chow Yiu Fai at
miyancheung@gmail.com
Selected candidates will be notified by 15 December 2014.
Knowledge of Asia is still very much constructed by temporal narratives as vigorously
and imaginatively as by spatial fixations: in other words, by their histories and geographies. Given that national histories are often deeply entrenched in authoritative
discourses that maintain the imagined boundaries of the nation-state, and thereby
erase or silence other possible histories and geographies, Prasenjit Duara’s call to
rescue history – and geography, we add – from the nation, remains as urgent as ever.
We think of the arts, the role of artists, artist-activists and artist run spaces, as a
potential rescue tool, capable of moving beyond traditional paradigms of Western
scientific representation. The workshop aims to question how artistic practices
can help reimagine both time and space in the context of Asia, when put into an
intimate dialogue with area studies and related methodologies and disciplines, such
as anthropology, art history, cultural studies and so on. The alleged ‘rise of Asia’
feeds into different nationalisms in the region and beyond, making such reimaginations even more urgent. Its dependency on a meta-discourse on development
and modernity are resonances of concepts that are deeply entrenched in social
Darwinism, making this discourse on ’the rise of Asia’ all the more complicated,
especially in its denial of human complexity and a human craving for aesthetic and
political aspirations.
The workshop seeks to probe into artistic and activist practices that proffer alternate histories, as well as processes that present different mappings of the world,
the country or the city; these will be put in dialogue with area studies knowledge
production that also seeks to destabilise existing cartographies and historical
accounts. A transnational and diasporic remapping of Asia,
in conjunction with exploring its multiple histories, holds the
potential to question if not undermine emerging nationalisms
and prevailing reifications of the idea of ’national cultures’.
Confirmed speakers
• Dr. Zheng Bo (Assistant professor at the School of Creative
Media, specializes in socially engaged art, City University
of Hong Kong)
• Zoe Butt (Executive Director and Curator of Sàn Art,
Ho Chi Minh City)
• Tiffany Chung (Artist, Ho Chi Minh City)
• Xing Danwen (Artist, Beijing)
• Gridthiya Gaweewong (Artistic director of the Jim
Thompson Art Center, Bangkok)
• Edwin Jurriëns (Lecturer in Indonesian Studies at the Asia
Institute, Faculty of Arts, the University of Melbourne)
• Dr. Anson Mak (Academy of Visual Arts, Hong Kong Baptist
University and artist)
• Prof. Eva Man (Executive Associate Dean of Graduate School
& Professor in Humanities and Creative Writing, Hong Kong
Baptist University)
• Tozer Pak Sheung-Chuen (Conceptual artist, Hong Kong)
• Dr. Y-Dang Troeung (Assistant professor, specializes in
contemporary literature, film, and cultural studies in
English, City University of Hong Kong)
Organisers
• Dr. Sadiah Boonstra (IIAS) s.n.boonstra@vu.nl
• Dr. Yiu Fai Chow (Department of Humanities and Creative
Writing, Hong Kong Baptist University) yfchow@hkbu.edu.hk
• Prof. Jeroen de Kloet (Amsterdam Centre for Globalisation
Studies, University of Amsterdam) b.j.dekloet@uva.nl
• Dr. Việt Lê (Visual Studies Program | Visual + Critical Studies
Graduate Program, California College of the Arts)
vle@cca.edu
Australia warmly invites Asia Scholars to ICAS 9
The 9th International Convention of Asian Scholars
5-9 July, 2015, Adelaide, Australia
Hosted by an international team of experts, spearheaded by Adelaide’s three leading universities:
University of Adelaide, Flinders University of South Australia and the University of South Australia;
in cooperation with the Asian Studies Association of Australia. Interested parties can participate
as commentators, speakers (paper, panel, roundtable), exhibitors, contestants (ICAS Book Prize),
or presenters (books and dissertations).
Important deadlines and links:
REGISTRATION
NOW OPEN
Register before
28 Feb 2015
and benefit
from our early
bird fees!
Submit your abstracts, panels and roundtables
by 30 Oct 2014
For application forms go to: www.icassecretariat.org
Apply to present your book or pitch your PhD
by 30 March 2015
Book presentations: www.icassecretariat.org/proposal-book-presentation
PhD Pitch Proposals: www.icassecretariat.org/proposal-phd-pitch
Display your products at ICAS 9
During the convention, publishers and (academic) organisations in the field of
Asian studies have the opportunity to display their products to the public in the
ICAS Exhibition Hall. Book your space at our special event site: www.icas9.com