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Call for Papers

Deadline of Submissions
November 30, 2023
(CLOSED)

This conference is a platform for centering Southeast Asian scholarship within Asia.  Insofar as global academic metropoles are recognized centers of knowledge production, the notion of De/Centering involves the twin processes of provincializing capitals of power while affirming the unique and compelling contributions of, and from, the region. “De/Centering” is defined here as a shift in one’s analytical position away from a dominant center towards the periphery in order to strengthen expertise, amplify voices, and resist subordination in these peripheries.  De/Centering challenges the dominant narratives and perspectives historically centered in the “West” and its gaze on Southeast Asia, instead highlighting diverse and complex experiences, histories and cultures of the region as told by Southeast Asians themselves. Scholars from, and of, the region can take ownership of their own narratives and histories, which have often been erased, marginalized or misrepresented.

The 2024 edition of the SEASIA biennial international conference and movement comes a decade after the need for the platform was first conceived. Much has changed since that time, regionally and globally. Heightened political repression, online disinformation in the service of in-real-life manipulation, threats to Asian regional security from the Russia-Ukraine war, and conflict over land and seas between China and its neighbors, the devastation wrought by  the COVID19 pandemic crisis, the continuing strain of widening inequality, and calamitous climate change are among the most ominous of challenges that we face.

This conference is a platform for centering Southeast Asian scholarship within Asia.  Insofar as global academic metropoles are recognized centers of knowledge production, the notion of De/Centering involves the twin processes of provincializing capitals of power while affirming the unique and compelling contributions of, and from, the region. “De/Centering” is defined here as a shift in one’s analytical position away from a dominant center towards the periphery in order to strengthen expertise, amplify voices, and resist subordination in these peripheries.  De/Centering challenges the dominant narratives and perspectives historically centered in the “West” and its gaze on Southeast Asia, instead highlighting diverse and complex experiences, histories and cultures of the region as told by Southeast Asians themselves. Scholars from, and of, the region can take ownership of their own narratives and histories, which have often been erased, marginalized or misrepresented.

The 2024 edition of the SEASIA biennial international conference and movement comes a decade after the need for the platform was first conceived. Much has changed since that time, regionally and globally. Heightened political repression, online disinformation in the service of in-real-life manipulation, threats to Asian regional security from the Russia-Ukraine war, and conflict over land and seas between China and its neighbors, the devastation wrought by  the COVID19 pandemic crisis, the continuing strain of widening inequality, and calamitous climate change are among the most ominous of challenges that we face.

As has been the case historically, Southeast Asian responses—from state and society alike—will matter. In what ways are these challenges salient to the  peoples of Southeast Asia and scholars on and from the region? As scholars, how do we advance instruction, research and outreach—toward what aims, and why? Do we enjoy the academic freedom to enable us in these pursuits?

This conference seeks to promote a more nuanced understanding of the region, as well as provide a platform for Southeast Asians to reclaim their agency and identity. It also aims to facilitate a more inclusive and equitable dialogue, creating an opportunity for mutual learning and understanding, engendering greater empathy, respect, and solidarity among Southeast Asianists in the region and beyond and across epistemic communities. Rather than being exclusive, the platform is inclusive—opening new vistas critically rather than closing them.

Frontiers and Challenges in Autonomous Knowledge Production in Southeast Asia
  • Prerequisites and prospects for autonomous social sciences in SEA
  • Sharing autonomous social science traditions
  • Indigenous knowledges and ethnosciences
  • Advocacy and community-based research and knowledge production
  • Marketizing the social sciences, commodifying knowledge production, and addressing the challenge of scientometrics, academic performance measurement, and rankings
Politics and Governance
  • Democratic backsliding, polarization, and collapse
  • Policy reforms for good governance, and progressive politics
  • Rule of law, justice, and human rights
  • Civil society, opposition politics, parties, and contestation
  • Post-pandemic politics and governance
Changing Political Economy
  • “Emerging” Southeast Asia and its discontents
  • Whither the developmental state? New modes of public and private capture 
  • Rise of Southeast Asian MNCs: Sovereign fund and dynastic conglomerates
  • Digital economy and structural transformation
  • Sustainable Development Goals in the post-pandemic SEA
Transnationalism in Southeast Asia
  • Mobilities, connections, and exchanges within and beyond SEA 
  • Historicizing places, identities, and ethnicities 
  • Youth movements
  • Exile, diaspora, migration, and refugees 
  • Internationalization of Higher Education
Performance and Heritage: (Re)/Creating SEA
  • Colonial encounters, expressions of hybridity
  • Gender and performativity
  • Managing arts, culture, creative industries, heritage preservation 
  • Repatriating knowledge and material culture
  • Globalization and local expressions of modernity
Social Life in Southeast Asia
  • Social inequalities and communities in the margins, urbanism and its peripheries
  • Religion, ethics and aesthetics
  • Linguistic diversity, education and imperialism (mother tongues and “other” tongues)
  • Processes of cultural change
  • Technology as a public good
Geopolitics, Diplomacy, and International Relations
  • Maritime and resource conflicts: Issue of sovereignty and regional commons 
  • Challenges of ASEAN regionalism
  • Geopolitics and great power competition in the Indo-Pacific
  • Foreign policy in Southeast Asia: Disruptions and distractions
  • Nontraditional security: alternative and human security discourses
Global Ecological Crises and Southeast Asia
  • Climate justice and critiques of techno-finance solutions 
  • Politicizing climate disaster
  • Social dimensions of biodiversity
  • Pollution as violence
  • Communities of practice that address ecological crises
Critical Perspectives on New Media and Emerging Digital Technologies
  • Digital cultures and digital divides in the Global South
  • Disinformation and historical distortion on digital platforms
  • Digital archiving, repatriation, and curation
  • Digital Humanities and the Digital Turn
  • Rising to the challenge of Artificial Intelligence (AI)