CfP: Rising Voices in Southeast Asian Studies: Southeast Asians in the Anthropocene

Shared on behalf of the Southeast Asia Council (SEAC) of the Association for Asian Studies

Association for Asian Studies Annual Conference 2025 (AAS2025 @ Columbus)
Submission deadline: July 15, 2024

The Southeast Asia Council (SEAC) of the Association for Asian Studies (AAS) is calling for paper proposals from up-and-coming scholars to join a “Rising Voices” panel on the topic of “Southeast Asians in the Anthropocene”. We seek to recruit early career scholars, or “rising voices,” including graduate students, independent scholars, and untenured faculty, with preference for those based at underfunded institutions from Southeast Asian countries (see below for eligibility). Accepted paper proposals will form a panel for presentation and inclusion in the 2025 Annual Conference of the Association for Asian Studies, to be held in Columbus, Ohio from March 13-16, 2025. SEAC will provide partial financial assistance for presenters to attend the annual conference and meetings. In addition to receiving financial support from the AAS/SEAC, this year’s Rising Voices Panel also has financial support provided by TRaNS: Trans- Regional and -National Studies of Southeast Asia.

Panel Topic Description

It has been almost a quarter of a century since the term “Anthropocene” became widely used to encompass the human impact on the Earth’s geology and ecosystems. While the multitude of challenges synonymous with the Anthropocene including climate change, soil subsidence, air and water pollution, food insecurity, forced migration, resource-driven conflicts and exploitation, extended heatwaves, and biodiversity loss have long pasts, the responses of Southeast Asians have only recently come into sharper focus. This panel is a call to explore the individual and collective ways that Southeast Asians have navigated the complexities of the Anthropocene and its associated problems. It invites critical reflection on how Southeast Asian individuals, communities, states, cultures, and ecosystems have shaped, and been reshaped by, the trajectories of the Anthropocene. Panelists are encouraged to approach the Anthropocene through an historical and/or contemporary lens that provides both empirical and theorical insights. Interdisciplinary methodologies and ethnographic approaches that push the concept of the Anthropocene in new directions are welcome. Proposals can focus on specific Southeast Asian sites or adopt a comparative analysis across the region and its diaspora.

Some questions papers may consider include:

1. How have Southeast Asians responded to environmental degradation? What strategies, for example, have agriculturists taken to deal with the challenges of the Anthropocene? How have coastal communities adapted to rising sea levels and increased frequency of extreme weather events? How and why have these strategies succeeded, or failed, to meet their goals?
2. How have indigenous knowledge and practices influenced sustainable resource management? What have been the political, cultural, and social stakes of individual and community-based conservation efforts? What have been the cultural and spiritual dimensions of such efforts?
3. How have artists, film-makers, poets, and writers contributed to climate change adaptation and resilience strategies? How have states attempted to regulate and/or encourage such activities? What innovative solutions are emerging from grassroots movements and civil society organizations in Southeast Asia to address environmental challenges in the Anthropocene?
4. How have government policies and international agreements interacted to shape biodiversity conservation? What specific roles have international organizations, states, and local communities played in ecosystem restoration initiatives? How have war, and preparations for it, defined the Anthropocene?
5. What trends have affected the socio-economic impacts of environmental changes on local communities across Southeast Asia? How have such changes differed across the region? How have phenomena such as fossil fuels reliance, electrification, and deforestation been shaped by socio-economic realities?
6. What policy responses and governance frameworks have Southeast Asians adopted for sustainable development? How have frameworks developed by Southeast Asians traveled outside the region?

Eligibility and Selection Criteria

We seek papers by Southeast Asian scholars who are early career scholars, or “rising voices.” Rising voices are defined here as advanced graduate students (currently writing dissertations based on original field or archival research) or untenured faculty members (including tenure- track assistant professors, adjuncts, and lecturers, or the approximate equivalent based on the academic tradition from which the scholar is coming). Applicants may be currently enrolled as students in, or employed by, any institution of higher education in the world. Preference may be given to students or faculty currently based at underfunded institutions in Late Developing Countries (LDC) in Southeast Asia. Please note that the definition of LDC used by the AAS excludes the following Asian countries: Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, New Zealand, Republic of China (Taiwan), Republic of Korea (South Korea), and Singapore.

In addition to the stated goal of supporting rising voices from Southeast Asia, the primary criteria for selection will be the quality and cohesiveness of the proposals to form a viable panel. Most importantly, the Rising Voices panel is intended to be a Southeast Asia-focused panel. Submissions that do not substantively address issues pertaining to the region will not be considered.

Please note that neither published papers nor papers under review can be accepted to Rising Voices. Moreover, scholars may not submit the same paper proposal to both Rising Voices and the JSEAS-sponsored panels. The selected panelists will be expected to attend the conference in person and comply with the deadline for paper submissions.

To submit a paper proposal, please provide the following items in the order listed below, all within a SINGLE Microsoft Word file or PDF document, by July 15, 2024:

1. Applicant’s name, affiliation, and contact information, clearly indicating applicant’s current country of residence.
2. Paper abstract. 250 words in the format of the standard AAS paper proposal. Abstracts should clearly indicate how the proposed paper aligns with the panel’s theme.
3. Brief bio-sketch of 200 words describing current and recent scholarly positions, a brief sentence or two about current research, and any significant publications. The model for this should be the standard blurb one sees on a faculty or student website.
4. Current curriculum vitae. Maximum 4 pages.

Please save the file with the following filename: RisingVoices2025_ApplicantsFamilyName.pdf

Completed applications should be sent to the attention of the AAS Rising Voices 2025 committee at aasrisingvoices@gmail.com by the July 15, 2024 deadline. Late submissions or submissions that do not follow the above instructions will not be considered. Applicants should confirm in their email that their paper has not been published or submitted for review elsewhere.