Call for Papers: Links and Fractures (23rd Cornell SEAP Graduate Student Conference)

The global pandemic presented many obstacles for communities engaged with Southeast Asia to stay connected and thrive. At the same time, the limitations on meeting in person or conducting fieldwork inspired new ways to forge dialogues, shake old conventions, and embrace creative, often technological, change. As graduate students, we witnessed a boom of new and revamped platforms that emerged to connect those separated geographically by COVID-19 and enable academic, social, and professional relations. On the other hand, physical limitations within our communities have produced severe economic and personal fractures that have not yet been remediated.

These patterns of Links and Fractures have long existed before COVID-19 in Southeast Asia, arising out of historical processes of colonization and decolonization, religion, commodity, and cultural exchanges, migration, language, information technology, economic expansion, social unrest, political upheaval, and more. Within these patterns are both opportunities and losses for a wide range of diverse Southeast Asian communities, creating “new normals” before the “new normal” instigated by COVID-19.

For the 23rd annual Southeast Asia Program Graduate Student Conference, we invite submissions that explore how these Links and Fractures have shaped communities in Southeast Asia. Specifically, we are seeking PhD and Master student-level research united by this common theme across all academic disciplines. During the conference, we also hope to foster new ways of circulating and engaging with your research within the conference community and Cornell SEAP faculty.

The conference will be held virtually from March 19-21, 2021. Abstracts are due by December 18, 2020.

For more information, download the full Call for Papers as a PDF here.