IPSA RC 41 - Geopolitics

The International Association for Political Science Students (IAPSS) is looking for a new team for its own Think Tank. We are looking for 16 (sixteen) Political Science students and young researchers aiming at developing their research for the IAPSS Think Tank.

This year’s topic will be Global Governance and New Trends: Analysis and Prospects. In there, researchers will analyse the new geopolitical strategic trends on the global world, under four main geographic subdivisions (corresponding to an equal number of working groups):

1. US Foreign Policy and Asia-Pacific;

2. African and Latin American Political Regimes;

3. The European Union as a global player;

4. The economic rise of the Asian “tigers”

The topics will be addressed by the groups in a policy-oriented perspective. Contributions will be added from various angles: human security, military power, regional cooperation, multilateralism and international organizations, youth and social networks; other relevant related perspectives.

In order to apply, please send us your CV + cover letter containing your motivation to be part of this Think Tank and what you consider to be your main contribution to this Think Tank.

The deadline is set to July 26th. Candidates will get the results of their application by July 29th . We are looking forward to receive your applications.

Best regards,

Ana Isabel Xavier Think Tank Coordinator International Association for Political Science Students thinktank@iapss.org

Rodrigo Vaz Head of the Academic Department International Association for Political Science Students academic@iapss.org

“ H I S T O R I A N S I N S P A C E ”

Concepts of Space in recent European Historiography

7th Annual Graduate Conference in European History

April 25-27, 2013

Budapest, Central European University

Organized by the Central European University, Budapest in co-operation with the European University Institute, Florence and the University of Vienna.

Historicize space! This injunction has not always been on the agenda of historians. Traditionally, historians were tempted to take space for granted. The boundaries of the nineteenth century nation-state were regarded as the natural presupposition of much historical research. These established “mental maps” still continue to influence the structure of history writing today. However, historians were not entirely immune to the effects of the “spatial turn” and can probably no longer be accused to treat space as if it were “packed solidly on to the head of a pin,” as Edward W. Soja did in his Postmodern Geographies in 1989.

History is primarily about time, about what happened when. Concurrently, it should not be forgotten that events and processes took place somewhere. Historical phenomena have a setting, a location – their place. However, taking their cue from geography, anthropology and sociology, some historians have come to broaden established notions of space. The concept may not refer merely to “geographical” or “real space” which “contains” peoples, nations and cultures. Rather, it may as well point to socially and culturally constructed objects of inquiry and how these are perceived by individuals or groups. In other words, space is understood as being framed through social and cultural relations, as Henri Lefebvre showed already in his path-breaking The Production of Space (1974).

Thus, some historical phenomena are essentially marked by their spatial dimensions and can thus be better approached from the vantage point of spatiality alongside temporality. The 7th Graduate Conference in European History (GRACEH) is inviting graduate students and young researchers to reflect on the rather ambiguous relationship historians entertain with the category of “space.”

We are welcoming abstracts which interrogate the various understandings of space, those which present new methodological approaches to the topic, and case studies which are placed within a wider theoretical context. Possible topics include, but are not limited to the following:

Historians and Space: methodological and theoretical approaches Representations of space Going Global: linking local, regional, national, transnational history Symbolic geography and cultural spaces: for example ‘Europe’, ‘Central Europe’, ‘Southeast Europe’ or the ‘Balkans’, the ‘Levant’, the ‘Orient’, etc. The spatial constitution of politics: empires and nation states (territoriality, kinship) Economic history: world systems, ‘core’ and ‘periphery’, ‘backwardness’ Spatial dimensions of everyday life: approaching gender, ethnicity, class, religion Urban spaces (morphology, planning; spaces of production, consumption and exchange, urban/rural divides) Geographies of knowledge: production and transfers Space and Memory Digital technologies and tools for writing spatial history, visualizations, Geographical Information Systems The working language of the conference will be English. Please send an abstract of no more than 400 words and a brief CV to gracehatceu.hu by January 20, 2013. Full papers will be pre-circulated and grouped into thematic panels of 3 to 4 contributions. We would like to ask all participants to prepare a presentation of no more than 15 minutes, in order to allow ample time for discussion and questions.

Final papers are due on March 31, 2013.

Call for proposals – Belgeo 2-2013 Modelling and benchmarking of borders

Guest editors: Anne-Laure Amilhat-Szary, Gregory Hamez, Didier Paris, Bernard Reitel, Olivier Walther

The study of cross border spaces is often conducted with reference to a specific context to the extent that no border can be understood without analysing the unique constellations of States, regional and local entities bound together by a shared history. This special issue of Belgeo intends to open new directions to overcome the monographic approach and to reach a modelling of these spaces. Modelling often implies a quantitative methodology, which can be difficult to execute in border studies where data comparability can be an issue. Therefore, this issue will also focus on qualitative approaches to border modelling and welcomes contributions that address methodological and conceptual issues. The papers will contribute to such a theoretical framework, on any of the following themes: - Modelling of cross-border spaces and their evolution (modelling in terms of spatial analysis, geopolitical analysis, spatial patterns (choreme), textual analysis, narratives analysis) - Methodological approaches to collecting and representing cross-border data. How to define a cross-border space, according to what criteria? Among other things, this raises the question of the cartographic representation as well as the innovation in standards and the MAUP – Modifiable Areas Unit Problem - The qualitative or quantitative approaches taking into account the representations or perceptions related to borders. The border is a meaningful limit which structures the identities. By what concepts approaching the degree of appropriation of cross-border spaces, and the sense of spatial belonging expressed by the people? - The qualitative or quantitative approaches to evaluate the integration and construction of cross border territories. Some cross border spaces tend to institutionalise as planning entities, especially in Europe. Are there identifiable models of cross border cooperation and of governance? Which evaluation procedures can be applied to the development strategies and governance tools? - A comparative approach to spaces. Are models necessarily constructed at the global scale, or are there distinctive continental/regional models that are emerging?

The papers may also address the question of benchmarking and the exemplary nature of interaction and integration processes across some borders, under the following themes: - Which typology of borders can account for the levels of dissymmetry, interaction and their evolution? - What are the links between “model” and “good practices”? Which links and differences occur between both approaches, and how can these be analysed? - Which analytical framework could be used to compare the cross border spaces in different regions of the world? - Can and should the European cross-border context be considered as an example for other world regions in a process of integration? Are other world regions adopting different, alternative, models of cross-border coordination?

Proposals should be sent to Belgeo’s publishing secretary and guest editors (cvdmotte@ulb.ac.be and gregory.hamez@univ-lorraine.fr) by the end of October 2012. Please provide a title and a short text outlining the subject and the aims of the paper. Full papers should be submitted before mid-February 2013 to Belgeo (cvdmotte@ulb.ac.be).

One of the principal challenges of the 21st century is whether the division of Eurasia into Europe and Asia is still valid? Since from geological point of view there is no such thing as the continent of Europe, shouldn't we then consider Eurasia as one whole and common habitat of Eurasians? The more so that Asians have hardly accepted Asian identity as their own. Let us therefore challenge the Ural Mountains in their capacity of the border between Europe and Asia! Let us explore and ease the barriers determine continental affiliation! We the denizens of European Union are Western Eurasians and Russians, Indians and Chinese are Northern Eurasians! Our query thus will concern main aspects of human activity such as economy, politics, culture, religion, and mental barriers. The aim is to identify and describe diverse barriers that have to be brought down or sometimes scaled up to bring about the possibility of an Eurasian entity. Rector Edmund Wnuk-Lipinski welcomes our group to Collegium Civitas located in the palace of Culture and Science in the very centre of Warsaw. For our disposal will have 4 auditoria - each of them for 130 people, plus 15 class rooms with a capacity from 25 to 50 people. Also, a big auditorium with a capacity of 500 persons can be used for the inauguration and closing ceremonies. Electronic equipment is available that allows parallel participation of 12 speakers - microphones, loudspeakers and power-point facilities will be provided. Hotels in Warsaw close to the centre are anticipated to cost below $100 a night. For more information on the conference, contact:

Jacek Kugler (Claremont Graduate University), jacek.kugler@cgu. edu Tadeusz Kugler (Roger Williams University), tkugler@rwu.edu Paulina Codogni (Collegium Civitas), paulinac_2000@yahoo. com

Theme: The Politics of International Diffusion: Regional and Global Dimensions

The ongoing global financial and economic crises, the upheavals throughout the Middle East, the emerging dispersion of power toward a broader G-20, and copycat protest movements across all regions highlight both the continued centrality of diffusion to contemporary international politics and the difficulty of predicting diffusion patterns. A conventional wisdom argues that the speed and reach of diffusion is unlike anything we have seen in the past. People, power, authority, capital, property rights, international law, religion, technology, democracy, electoral systems, flower and color revolutions, sub-national and supranational governance systems, conventional and unconventional weapons, wars, peace, regional institutional designs; norms about gender, minority, children and other human rights; knowledge, culture and information; financial, fiscal and economic crises; open and closed economic models; patterns of state expansion and retraction; and emotions regarding each of these categories are among the many politically-consequential phenomena that cross borders within and across regions. They do so however, at different rates, through different mechanisms, and with diverse effects. Of crucial concern is the need to assess what we know and what we don’t know regarding the sources, agents, mechanisms, speed, spatial and temporal domains, consequences, and desirability of international diffusion.

The 2013 conference will seek to improve our understanding of regional and global diffusion across several dimensions. What phenomena diffuse faster, why and how? What phenomena do not diffuse? Why is non/diffusion so hard to predict? What are the barriers to diffusion and how do they operate? What explains differential rates of diffusion across time and space? How can different epistemological and methodological tools be used to study those processes? What are the areas of consensus and dissent in the study of international and transnational diffusion? And what are the normative and policy implications of different findings? In addressing these general puzzles, we invite proposals that take stock of the following additional aspects of contemporary international/ transnational diffusion:

What is diffusion and how can it be studied? Interest in the specific content of diffusion (norms, trade, technology, etc.) has generally overwhelmed a focus on diffusion itself as a core concept in international studies. Hence, there is ample room to improve conceptualization that could enhance our ability to analyze, measure or compare the extent and rate of diffusion across time and space. Research relying on different methods, epistemologies, disciplines, regions, and core substantive interests often proceeds along different tracks, depriving the study of diffusion from potential synergies. Yet the analysis of diffusion renders itself an ideal subject for transcending particular international studies paradigms, methods, modes of analysis, and region-specific expertise.

What diffuses, what doesn’t, how and why? The rate of diffusion of different phenomena is uneven as is the spatial and temporal domain within which it occurs. Indeed there are instances of non-diffusion (democracy in Eastern Europe and the Middle East for several decades preceding 1989 and 2011 respectively); stalled diffusion (supranational regional institutions beyond Europe); and counter-diffusion (higher barriers to migration and citizenship; EU efforts to contain a spreading financial crisis). Hence, to avoid potential selection biases evident in at least some of the existing literature on diffusion, our understanding of what does not diffuse should be as central as what does.

Who are the agents and what are the causal mechanisms carrying out or blocking diffusion? When are agents and power structures mutually enabling or disabling diffusion? Governments, regional and international institutions, non-governmental organizations, inter-governmental associations, multinational corporations, social movements, hedge funds, political/moral entrepreneurs, and networks, among others, acts as agents of diffusion through top-down or bottom-up mechanisms. Some state bureaucracies may seek to halt immigration whereas others encourage it. States may seek to block or accelerate the diffusion of power through war, balancing, soft power, or international institutions. Causal mechanisms of interest also include coercion, persuasion, emulation, socialization, adaptation, translation, resistance, competition, bargaining, signaling, emotions and learning.

What are the spatial and temporal domains of diffusion? While analysis of global diffusion rode the wave of post-1989 globalization studies, regional processes of diffusion in the last couple of decades, and the relationship between the regional and the global, demand closer attention. What diffuses (or doesn’t diffuse) more commonly or more rapidly at the regional than the global levels? Conversely, what makes global (systemic) diffusion more likely? What diffuses from the West to the rest and vice-versa? What patterns of diffusion can be observed across different regions? When is global-to-regional, regional-to-global, or region-to-region diffusion more common? What phenomena diffuse across democracies (or autocracies) at different rates than they otherwise would?

What are the outcomes of diffusion? Will democracy be the outcome of the 2011 Arab uprisings? How does global diffusion alter the boundaries of regions? How does it affect in/equality? Some regard the diffusion of capital, technology and markets as harbingers of more egalitarian economic capabilities around the globe; others see such diffusion as perpetuating skewed distributional effects. Some see the spread of international power and authority to more states increased multipolarityas inducing greater equality; others foresee a dilution of human rights norms as a result. Some regard the rapid diffusion of bilateral and plurilateral trade and investment agreements as beneficial to a world of open economies; others foresee weakened global rules.

How desirable is diffusion? Beyond disagreements over empirical findings, intellectual excitement over the potential diffusion of public goods must be tempered with sober assessments of undesirable diffusion of public bads. Furthermore, there are bound to be contested normative standpoints regarding the diffusion of particular political phenomena. And even where consensus on the desirability of diffusing democratic institutions and human rights may exist, debates over appropriate mechanisms and their unintended effects remain. Many agree that international contagion of financial crises is an undesirable outcome but disagreement remains high on the solutions, given their implications for the kinds of arrangements in state-society relations that may emerge after the crisis. Studies of human migration can dwell on its normatively desirable and undesirable consequences.

These are suggestive rather than comprehensive sub-themes that can be complemented with other ongoing research on the nuts and bolts of international, transnational, and regional diffusion. Panel proposals that bring together methodologically and epistemologically diverse groups of scholars interested in diffusion will be of particular interest. They may lead to productive collaborations in the effort to untangle the sources, nature, speed, mechanisms, and firewalls in the diffusion of international political phenomena.

The deadline for paper and panel proposals, made through the MyISA system, is June 1, 2012. Inquiries to the program chairs should be directed to isa2013@isanet.org. The call for papers has been archived on our website here .

The Geography Department at UNC Chapel Hill invites you to join us in a discussion about the future of the political. As struggles around the world capture our collective imaginations, the legitimacy of existing social orders and previously acceptable avenues of political action have been called into question. What comes next? What connections between body and world, knowledge and practice, and reclamation and revolt are working through and beyond the limits of the current moment? What future worlds are emerging from the conflicts, contradictions, and movements that characterize the now? While informed by our mutual commitment to developing new knowledge and practice that responds to these struggles, our task is to commit focus to the discordant realities that inform our research and political engagements with the world. We invite a wide range of academics, non-academics, activists, and artists to present on these volatile times and the possibilities they portend.

The conference will take place November 2-4, 2012 and will be hosted by the Department of Geography at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. On Friday, November 2nd, our opening plenary will feature Heidi Nast (DePaul University). Arturo Escobar (UNC Chapel Hill) will host a brunch conversation on possible political futures on Sunday November 4, 2012, as our closing event.

Work, Collaborate, Present This year, the conference will be organized around four broad themes that foster inquiries into the near future (see themes below). We encourage you to propose panels that speak to the issues described here to foster dialogue and collaboration. If your panel crosses more than one theme or asks new or different questions, let us know and we will work with you to make accommodations. Please let us know as early as possible if you require additional technical support or if you have questions about the conference.

Join us in extending the traditional conference proceedings by submitting proposals for your work in a wide range of formats. We encourage paper presentations, panel discussions, interactive workshops, collaborative roundtables, visual presentations of film, dance and art, and alternative offerings that generate new theory, practice and opportunities for future work. Deadline for submissions is Friday, August 31. Abstracts or proposals should be 250 words. Please include contact information, titles, and institutional/organizational affiliations. Also include information on which of the themes below (1 through 4) your panel addresses. We strongly encourage you to think about how your proposal can build better connections between research and practice, particularly with non-academic audiences.

Proposals can be sent to: criticalgeography@unc.edu.

Additional information about the conference is coming soon. Please check back for additional information about conference programming, and details regarding logistics and accommodations.

We look forward to seeing you in November!

Themes (1) Occupation and Decolonization in the Current Crisis Three years after the peak of the financial crisis of 2008, people took a cue from the Arab Spring uprisings and took to the streets of major US cities, highlighting the plight of the 99% while denouncing the concentrated power of the 1%. We invite papers and panels that address the following: What are the contemporary dynamics of this crisis? What is the relationship between the often-highlighted sector of finance in this crisis, and the broader functioning of capital as a whole? What is the composition of the contemporary struggles responding to this crisis? And how might an attempt to shift the theoretical and empirical focus from occupation to decolonization assist or impede the conversation about building a movement that is most likely to enact profound social change?

(2) Living and Dying in a Material World Political ecologies, bio/necropolitical analyses, and materialist engagements explore the making and intertwining of social and natural worlds. Central to these inquiries is the stuff of political life: how the political is constituted and redefined around things/bodies and through contests over ontology and meaning, and how this informs struggles over spaces, resources, rights and territory, life and death. In what ways do engagements with things/bodies allow us to rethink and address current moments of crisis, be it financial, ecological, energetic, institutional, or territorial? We invite work that provides a forum for these debates and engagements, including but not limited to questions of circulation and the movement of value, energy, waste, decay, and consumption, metabolisms of nature and capital, and geographies of crisis.

(3) Embodied Knowledge as Practice Feminist geographers, queer theorists, and a wide range of non-representational scholarship have situated the body as a complex yet crucial focus of geography, calling to task the political, economic, and social imbrications that are tied up in the creation of bodies. Just as importantly, work around the body brushes against the limits of the translatable, raising both theoretical and methodological difficulties yet also untested potentials, as bodies everywhere form new knowledges, practices, and actions to meet the challenges of contemporary precarity and flux. We invite work that either uses the body as a site of empirical research or seeks to embody research-as-practice in ways that push the boundaries of traditional research exploration and presentation.

(4) Territories of Resistance Over the last decades we’ve witnessed a series of revolts on the world stage, ranging from El Alto in Bolivia to the Arab Spring. We’re interested in papers that inquire into these tremors, specifically: their relation to prior struggles, neoliberalism, occupation, global colonialism, war, and austerity; the geopolitical implications of their international encounters; and the conceptions of space, claims to territory and subjectivity, and visions of collective life at work in them. We’re also interested in papers situated domestically, where anti-neoliberal struggles – largely informed by the continued legacy of race radicalism – have centered on the construction of just cities. Often, communities of color are seen as mere objects of neoliberal policy; in contrast, we are interested in papers that recognize them as producers of viable post-neoliberal forms of urban life.

The BRIT XII (Fukuoka-Busan 2012) Organizing Committee invites all academic researchers and practitioners working on borderlands policy and border studies to participate in the BRIT XII Conference, a multi-disciplinary/area studies scientific meeting dedicated to the study of borders in all parts of the world. The conference will take place in Fukuoka, Japan and Busan, Korea, November 13-16, 2012. These locations provide an ideal setting for further understanding the realities of cooperation and conflict over Northeast Asia’s maritime and land borders. The conference will include an opportunity to participate in a special tour of beautiful Tsushima Island which lies halfway between Fukuoka and Busan. While papers on all topics and geographical areas related to border studies are welcome, the theme of BRIT XII is Borderland Voices: Shaping a New World Order. Papers addressing this theme will examine how those living in borderlands have been affected by the “bordering” processes of the state and central authority; how the voices of borderland communities can challenge the prevailing nation-state order; and the strategies and initiatives that people in the borderlands have devised in order to seize opportunities and overcome the difficulties associated with life on the border. Views from the borderlands give us fresh insights into the dynamic relationship between state and society; center and periphery; security and insecurity; politics and identity; territory and belonging. The theme of BRIT XII comes as a timely reminder that it is border communities (often marginalized, overlooked and powerless) who are most sharply affected by the global shifts represented by the terms “de-bordering” and “re-bordering.” However, these communities are not passive actors but part of a two-way process where those living in the borderlands are forming new kinds of connections and spaces. For borderland communities the power, violence and connectivity of the border are part of the very fabric of daily life. The border really matters to those living on it and border studies can uniquely engage with those metaphorically and geographically on the margins. It is a scholarly endeavor that has a humanitarian significance beyond the boundaries of academia. BRIT XII offers opportunities to use multiple lenses (from local to global) as well as cross-disciplinary approaches to refocus on the border in new and innovative ways. As part of this innovation, BRIT XII seeks to promote the development and advancement of theoretical and methodological approaches to border studies. Therefore, panels on theory and methods will be particularly welcome. Among other topics, we are also interested in accepting papers and panels on the following: •Local initiatives and borderland interest groups •Maritime border studies: conflict and cooperation •Comparative studies on land and sea boundary issues•Re-framing border discourses •Non-state dialogue across boundaries •Borders and the reconfiguration of geopolitics in Northeast Asia • “Mobile” and “hyper” borders •Natural environment and shifting borders •Borders in a world of supra-state organizations •Borders as a global-local nexus •Spaces beyond the state •Borderland identities •Locating and defining contemporary borderlands •Borders, migration and diasporas •Gender divisions on and across borders In order to advance collaboration between universities and policy makers, both academic researchers and practitioners working on border issues are warmly invited to attend. With the aim of promoting BRIT as a forum for exchanging ideas and overcoming disciplinary boundaries, individual papers will be particularly encouraged this year. These papers will be carefully considered by the BRIT XII Committee and organized into stimulating and engaging panels. Panel proposals are also acceptable though it is unlikely that panels with presenters exclusively from one country will be accepted. Panel organizers are encouraged to approach scholars from different disciplines and countries before submitting their proposal. Panel proposals must include all abstracts of the presenters involved. The Organizing Committee reserves the right to reallocate presenters in order to encourage the transgression of disciplinary boundaries. Outstanding papers will be invited to publish in journals such as Geopolitics, Journal of Borderland Studies, Eurasia Border Review and the proceedings of the conference. The final deadline for proposals is April 10, 2012 (For a limited number of Ph.D. candidates whose papers are judged by the Organizing Committee to best address the theme of this year’s conference, local accommodation in Fukuoka and Busan will be provided in the conference hotel. For those Ph.D. candidates who wish to be considered for accommodation, the deadline is March 30, 2012). The panel or individual proposal must include the title of the presentation, the name of the presenter(s), affiliation, e-mail address of the author(s), contact number and audiovisual needs. Abstracts should not exceed 200 words. Proposals should be submitted to: brit2012@borderstudies.jp After being notified of your proposal’s acceptance, you should register on our website: http://www.borderstudies.jp/brit2012/top.html

If you have further questions, please contact: Akihiro Iwashita, Coordinator of BRIT XII (Fukuoka-Busan 2012) iwasi@slav.hokudai.ac.jp Paul Richardson, Special Assistant to the Coordinator of BRIT XII paulrichardson@borderstudies.jp

Deadline for applications: 1 December 2011 Conference dates: 12 - 15 October 2012

Host: Centre for Southwest Borderland Ethnic Minority Studies, Yunnan University (YU), Kunming, China

Convenors: Prof. He Ming (YU), Dr. Joy Bai (YU), Dr. Tina Harris (University of Amsterdam, UvA), Prof. Willem van Schendel (UvA) and Dr. Erik de Maaker (Leiden University)

Extensive land and maritime networks have crisscrossed Asia for centuries, providing the basis for encounters between diverse ethnic, linguistic, economic, religious, and political groups. Today, developments such as new infrastructural projects, an increase in media access, and renewed interest in shaping cross-border cultural identities serve to both underscore these long-standing linkages and create new forms of connections across Asia. During the 3rd Asian Borderlands Research Conference in Kunming, we invite submissions that address continuities and ruptures along routes and borders in Asia, broadly related to the theme, "Connections, Corridors, and Communities".

Connections: How are Asian borderlands made more (or less) visible through the study of cross-border connections? In what ways does the idea of the "borderland" remain resilient throughout political and historical ruptures? What are the characteristics of various kinds of connections that are being created (as well as cut off) in Asian borderlands?

Corridors: Are networks and paths throughout Asian borderlands being forged, reopened, diverted, or closed, and what are the effects of such processes? Can one conceive of "corridors" in relation to maritime or island borderlands, information technology networks, or bodily borders in Asia?

Communities: What constitutes a "community" or "communities" in and across Asian borderlands, and how might these be contingent upon other factors, such as politics, environmental issues, and history? What are some of the barriers and restrictions to the creation of communities in the context of Asian borderlands? In what ways is a community defined by the state, by organizations, and/or by local individuals?

Since one of the main goals of this conference is to spur collaboration and conversation across diverse fields in the hope of building up a more nuanced picture of the intersections and relationships across Asian borderlands, submissions are invited from scholars, writers, policy studies researchers, artists, filmmakers, activists, the media, and others from a wide variety of disciplinary backgrounds. We invite conceptually innovative papers, based on new research, in order to develop new perspectives in the study of Asian Borderlands.

Only a small number of individual papers will be selected. We therefore encourage you to submit a full panel or roundtable proposal. We will consider proposals for panels and roundtables that have a thematic focus, are of a comparative character, and involve scholars or practitioners affiliated with different institutions.*

• New to this Asian Borderlands conference, the roundtable format is

intended to allow for a more open forum on a broader theme. Typically, panelists will each address the main issue or topic of the roundtable, and the remainder of the time is open for an informal discussion between the panel members and a more extended question-and-answer period with the audience. Some examples of wide themes in relation to Asian borderlands may include, but are not limited to: migration; security; gender; technology; environmental issues, etc.

Please visit http://asianborderlands.net to submit proposals. The deadline is 1 December 2011.

Participants will be notified towards the beginning of the year 2012.

Very limited financial support may be made available to specific scholars residing in Asia and some junior or low-income scholars in other parts of the world. If you would like to be considered for a grant, please submit along with your abstract for a panel and/or paper a short letter stating the motivation for your request. Please also specify the kind of funding that you have applied for or will receive from other sources. Please note that the conference operates on a limited budget, and will not normally be able to provide more than a partial coverage of the costs of travel.

Further information about registration fees, the venue, and logistics will be provided on the ABRN website once the panels have been accepted.

For more information, please visit the website at http://asianborderlands.net, or email info@asianborderlands.net

Please, see the attached file.

Portugal

Supported by Miami University: Havighurst Center for Russian and Post-Soviet Studies Department of Geography International Studies Program College of Arts and Science Office of the Provost Supported by Miami University:

Havighurst Center for Russian and Post-Soviet Studies

Department of Geography

International Studies Program

College of Arts and Science

Office of the Provost

Miami University Organizers

Carl T. Dahlman, Department of Geography

Scott Kenworthy, Department of Comparative Religion

Neringa Klumbyte, Department of Anthropology

Plenary Session Speakers

John Agnew, a political geographer whose work on contemporary configurations of sovereignty and territory includes an examination of the states of the former Yugoslavia.

Robert Donia, a historian at the University of Michigan whose scholarship contributed to his expert testimony in the trials of Slobodan Milosevic and others in The Hague.

Robert Hayden, an anthropologist at the University of Pittsburgh whose work on Yugoslavia’s constitution and dissolution has set important themes for other scholars.

Scope: A two-day multidisciplinary conference promoting new and continuing scholarship on the countries and peoples of the former Yugoslavia. The timing and title of this conference recall the changes wrought by the violence that began two decades ago. We welcome scholarship dealing broadly with the dissolution, changes, and outcomes of the former Yugoslavia, especially the post-Yugoslav scene and its current prospects. We encourage scholars whose work deals with the transformative effects of the last 20 years on the social, political, cultural, and economic life of any part of the former Yugoslavia.

Targeted Participants: The disciplines we hope to have represented include any of the social sciences, humanities, and fine arts. We are especially eager to include younger scholars whose PhD or post-doctoral research draws from new conceptual perspectives and/or empirical sources to shed light on the persistent questions raised by the experience of people living in the former Yugoslavia. Travel support will be provided for select young researchers (see below).

Organization: The conference will utilize an online social networking site to facilitate conference organization, encouraging scholars to engage with each other prior to writing their papers and to share their work during the drafting phase. We expect that this model will help the group develop their ideas more fully while identifying crosscutting themes that will be used for session organization. This model will also help to coalesce diverse perspectives around themes that can be used for publication proposals.

Outcomes: During and after the conference, select young researchers and other invited scholars will be expected to prepare a prospectus for an edited volume or special issues of journals.

Deadlines:

November 15. Deadline for abstracts and travel support applications.

February 10. Paper submission. Deadline for fees.

Abstract Submission:

Please send an abstract (250-500 words) outlining the scope of your paper appropriate for a broad scholarly audience. Include your curriculum vitae. Please email to fYplus20@listserv.muohio.edu by November 15, 2011.

Selection Criteria:

The conference space limits the number of participants we can accept (approximately 25-30). The organizers seek papers that translate the author’s specialization with the broad themes of the conference. Selection will favor quality scholarship but the organizers will also consider the mix of topics and disciplines represented.

Financial Support for Young Scholars: The organizers have funding to help young scholars attend the conference. We can support up to 12 people and will cover their fees, accommodation, and $500 of their travel expenses. We define young scholars to include PhD (or similar degree) students who are writing their dissertation (ABD) and faculty who have received their terminal degree since 2005. Others may be considered in consideration of specific circumstances, which they should explain in their application. Young scholars seeking support should include with their abstract submission, a written request for support. Awardees will be notified as quickly as possible.

Additional information:

Additional information about the conference will be posted to http://fyplus20.wordpress.com/