Association for Asian Studies Annual Conference 2022
The Southeast Asia Council (SEAC) of the Association for Asian Studies (AAS) is seeking paper proposals from up-and-coming scholars – including graduate students – to join a “Rising Voices” panel on the topic of “Politics of Human Rights in Southeast Asia.” (See below for eligibility) They seek to recruit early career scholars from Southeast Asian countries to form a panel for inclusion in the 2022 Annual Conference of the Association for Asian Studies, to be held in Honolulu, Hawaii from March 24-27, 2022. SEAC will provide partial financial assistance for presenters to attend the 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 ( http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayJournal?jid=TRN).
Panel Topic Description
With many countries in Southeast Asia experiencing democratic declines and/or returns to authoritarian rule, the conditions for recognizing human rights have been deteriorating. This panel will examine the conditions of human rights in Southeast Asia from a wide range of perspectives. Although the title highlights the political aspect of human rights, politics is not the only desirable angle. Perspectives from history, culture, gender, and/or economy are also encouraged. Human rights are broadly defined in this panel as referring to the protection of all people from undue political, legal, and/or social repression and abuse. Panelists may choose to discuss human rights within a given Southeast Asian country or countries, or for a particular group (e.g., identifying in terms of ethnicity, language, sub-region, religion, gender or sexual orientation).
Some questions the panel may consider include:
Has political change in Southeast Asia (e.g., democratic decline, rise of authoritarian regimes) affected the conditions for and recognition of human rights in the region?
Are there identifiable cross-regional trends affecting human rights in Southeast Asia?
Why are some groups protected while others are not? What are reasons for the variation? What are rationales by Southeast Asian states for the violations of human rights in the region?
How have civil society organizations responded to the deteriorating conditions of human rights? Have they been successful or not? In what ways are they successful? In what ways have they fallen short of their goals?
What are the main causes of worsening human rights within a given Southeast Asian country or countries?
Eligibility and Selection Criteria
They 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. However, 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 of the paper proposals as well as the way selected proposals work together as a viable panel.
The 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.
To submit a paper proposal, please submit the following, in the order listed below, all in a single Microsoft Word file or PDF document, by July 15, 2021:
a. Applicant’s Name, affiliation, and contact information, clearly indicating applicant’s current country of residence.
b. Paper abstract. 250 words in the format of the standard AAS paper proposal.
c. Brief bio-sketch of 200-300 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 graduate student website.
d. Current curriculum vitae.
e. Please save the file with the following filename convention: RisingVoices2022_ApplicantsFamilyName.doc
Completed applications should be sent to the attention of Dr. Eunsook Jung and Dr. Eric Thompson to the following address: aas2022.risingvoices@gmail.com by 15 July 2021.
