Category Archives: Conferences

Call for Papers: The Politics of Indigenous Identity: National and Global Perspectives

Organised by: Research Committee on Politics and Ethnicity (RC14)

Where: Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia  Google Maps

When: 11-14 July, 2013

Application Deadline: 15 March, 2013

Contact: stephanie.lawson@mq.edu.au

 

Conference Overview:

The assertion of indigenous identity generally involves claims not just to recognition but to particular rights and interests usually based on prior occupation of territory, a valued way of life associated with the land, and a need to safeguard indigenous heritage for future generations. This further assumes that indigeneity is associated with a degree of dispossession and subordination within a larger sociopolitical sphere dominated by another larger and more powerful ethnic group which effectively controls the state. General questions raised by these issues include: How and by whom is ‘indigeneity’ defined and deployed? Is indigenity necessarily associated with minority status? How are indigenous claims to identity and/or rights theorized? How have different legal and political regimes attempted to reconcile indigenous interests with other interests? What forms might indigenous self-governance take? To what extent have indigenous movements become globalized? What can we learn from the history of indigenous movements?

Paper proposals relating to any of the above themes are invited in the form of an abstract of no more than 400 words to be sent to the chair of the local organizing committee, Professor Stephanie Lawson, at stephanie.lawson@mq.edu.au.

The deadline for receipt of abstracts is 15 March 2013.

The deadline for full papers (of no more than 8,000 words) is June 15th, 2013.

Conference Chair Opportunity: ASEN’s 22nd Annual Conference

ASEN, the world’s leading organization for the study of ethnicity and nationalism, is pleased to announce an opportunity to act as one of the two Conference Chairs who will lead the ASEN Annual Conference that has developed into a major international event over the past 22 years. ASEN is unique, in that it is a research association run almost entirely by postgraduate students.

The Conference Co-Chairs of the Association work closely with the Executive Committee in managing a diverse range of activities within this research association and academic network. The successful applicant will be primarily involved in organizing and managing the 2013 ASEN annual conference, and is in charge of the conference sub-committee.

The Conference Chair’s duties generally encompass 6 hours per week and the appointment is from October 2012 until May 2012. Ideally, the Conference Chairs will regularly work from ASEN’s headquarters at the London School of Economics; although, flexible working arrangements will be considered. Applications from postgraduate students in the London area are encouraged.

The position is unpaid yet the Conference Chairs are provided with a work space in the ASEN office (to be used for both ASEN and personal work), administrative support by an Office Manager and access to LSE academic resources. Managing the conference also provides an excellent opportunity to work with leading scholars within the field and the proceedings of previous conferences have resulted in a number of publications, including edited volumes. In addition, the Conference Co-Chairs sit on the Editorial Teams of ASEN’s two leading scholarly journals: Nations and Nationalism (N&N) and Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism (SEN).

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Video of Rogers Brubaker on Language, Religion and the Politics of Difference

Monday’s Ernest Gellner Memorial Lecture, given by Professor Rogers Brubaker on “Language, Religion and the Politics of Difference”, is now available on YouTube (just follow this link ).

The Gellner Lecture is an annual event sponsored by the Association for the Study of Ethnicity and Nationalism (ASEN) and published by Nations and Nationalism, in memory of Professor Ernest Gellner. You can find out more about the Gellner Lectures here.

The Gellner Lecture also precedes the annual ASEN conference, which this year has been dealing with the topic of “Nationalism, Ethnicity and Boundaries”. You can find out more about the ASEN conference by visiting the conference website.

Nationalism, Ethnicity and Boundaries: ASEN Conference 2012

By Jennifer Kimberly Jackson and Lina Molokotos-Liederman, ASEN 2012 Conference Chairs

The 22nd Annual ASEN Conference “Nationalism, Ethnicity and Boundaries” will take place at the London School of Economics and Political Science from the 27 to29 March 2012 and will feature an exciting range of keynote addresses and workshops.

The central concerns of this year’s conference are the origins, formulation, enforcement and conflicts related to national boundaries. Disputes arising from claims over boundaries both originate and intensify nationalist assertions and actions in pursuit of such claims. The second thrust of the conference is a focus on social and symbolic boundaries and how they influence nationalist behaviour within nation-states. Citizenship rules, symbolic representations of the national, and practices of discrimination highlight and enforce many kinds of boundaries which often cut across the physical boundaries of nation-states and national homelands.  A third focus point of the conference is the fluidity of boundaries – where boundaries may once give rise to fierce conflict, they can at another time either be forgotten or transformed into a site of agreement and reconciliation.

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