Call for Papers
11th Annual South Asia Graduate Student Conference
The Self in South Asia
University of Chicago
April 17-19 2014

The University of Chicago Committee on Southern Asian Studies (COSAS) is pleased to invite paper submissions for the Eleventh Annual South Asia Graduate Student Conference (SAGSCXI), which will take place April 17–19, 2014 at the University of Chicago. Graduate students from all over the world, working in all disciplines, and at all stages of study, are welcome to present their latest research to a supportive yet critical audience.

We are very happy to announce that Dr. Donald S. Lopez, Arthur E. Link Distinguished University Professor of Buddhist and Tibetan Studies at the University of Michigan will be our keynote speaker. We will also be welcoming a second distinguished faculty speaker, Dr. Leela Prasad, Associate Professor in Religion and Faculty Director of the Center for Civic Engagement at Duke University.

This year’s conference will be on the theme of “The Self in South Asia”. We encourage presenters to consider the self—variously conceived in terms of subjectivity, collective or individual identity, narrative or historical agency or authorship, religious or political selfhood, etc.—as both a site for and a product of all manner of discursive and other practices. We hope that various interdisciplinary concerns will converge around these and other concepts. In the same vein, with the phrase “South Asia”, we wish to include parts of Central and Southeast Asia in addition to the Indian subcontinent. We welcome, then, papers that engage “The Self in South Asia” from a range of regional and disciplinary perspectives.

For those coming from outside of Chicago, we may be able to offer small reimbursements for travel and lodging, but we encourage all conference participants to seek support from their home institutions as well. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, and refreshments will be provided on conference days.
We invite graduate students at all stages to submit abstracts for individual paper presentations. Panel proposals will not be considered. Abstracts should not exceed 300 words, and should be sent to sagsc2014@gmail.com in PDF format no later than 31 January 2014. Applicants will be notified of a decision by 15 February 2014. Please do not hesitate to contact us with questions about accommodations, travel, or other concerns.

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