Call for Papers: Asia Intermedialities: New Objects, Themes, and Methods at the Convergence of East and Southeast Asian Cultural and Media Studies (2018.05.25-26)
CIACSI
Call for Papers
Asia Intermedialities: New Objects, Themes, and Methods at the Convergence of East and Southeast Asian Cultural and Media Studies
Centre for Cultural Studies
Department of Cultural and Religious Studies
The Chinese University of Hong Kong
25-26 May 2018
Convener: Elmo Gonzaga (Cultural and Religious Studies, CUHK)
In the past decade, increased scholarly focus has been devoted to Asian media flows under the rubrics of ‘Inter-Asia,’ ‘TransAsia,’ and ‘Global Asia.’ This new emphasis on the study of cultural affinities and interactions within the Asian region has accompanied the shift of the world market toward economies like South Korea and the People’s Republic of China, and the emergence of new trade blocs such as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations or ASEAN.
Reflecting on different areas of Asian Studies, Benedict Anderson and Harry Harootunian have highlighted the importance of situating intermediality amid the complexities of particular social milieus and media ecologies. This workshop aims to make an intervention in this critical debate by uncovering and exploring linkages between two fields, East Asian and Southeast Asian Cultural and Media Studies, which are often treated as disciplinarily separate. Through the course of this workshop, we hope to formulate questions for inquiry, identify objects of study, and develop methods for analysis in examining the diverse intermedial encounters and exchanges that transpire among East and Southeast Asian cultural and media flows and processes. The intent is to bring salient theories, issues, and materials from these two fields into dialogue with each other with the goal of extending and redefining our existent knowledges and approaches without reinstating former hierarchies or establishing new ones.
The workshop is open to current practitioners of Inter-Asia, TransAsia, or Global Asia approaches, as well as disciplinary specialists who might be interested in expanding the geographical, theoretical, and methodological scope of their research. We invite papers that inquire into how objects, theories, themes, and methods specific to the two distinct fields of East Asian and Southeast Asian Cultural and Media Studies might overlap and cross-fertilize. Presenters should try to address one or more of the following questions:
1. What media objects and modalities distinct to different localities from these two geographic areas could be seen to bear affinities in terms of genre or form?
2. How might variations in the practices of displaying and consuming media content from different localities unveil disparities in or tensions over their parameters and functions?
3. How might cultural and media flows be transmitted across national borders through East Asian and Southeast Asian infrastructures and networks in ways that expose, challenge, and transform the limits of these paradigms and their affordances?
4. What themes, theories, and methods salient to one field of study might be useful for comprehending and analyzing texts from the other field? How would this exchange allow such themes, theories, and methods to be deployed with a new understanding of their possibilities and efficacies?
5. How are particular social milieus and media ecologies constituted as sites of encounter, negotiation, and interchange between East Asian and Southeast Asian cultural flows?
Confirmed speakers include Bliss Cua Lim (University of California, Irvine), Bao Weihong (University of California, Berkeley), Rolando Tolentino (University of the Philippines), Kim Jihoon (Chung-Ang University), and Brian Bernards (University of Southern California).
Proposals in English of up to 300 words, along with a brief CV, should be sent to cu...@cuhk.edu.hk by 11 December 2017.
Presenters will be informed of their acceptance by early January 2018. The aim is for the scope of the workshop to reflect a diversity of critical objects and geographical areas. To facilitate discussion, accepted papers are expected to be circulated among the participants before the workshop.
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