MCLC: East Asia in Performance--cfp

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: <agrewal at uchicago.edu>
Subject: East Asia in Performance--cfp
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Dear List Members,

Please find below details and submission information for an upcoming
graduate student conference at University of Chicago.  I am not the
organizer, so please send inquiries  to jperson at uchicago.edu and
hfindley at uchicago.edu. Submissions may be sent to eastasiachicago at gmail.com

³East Asia in Performance²
Graduate Student Conference in East Asian Studies at the
University of Chicago

Whether viewed as a discrete sociopolitical sphere of influence or a
distinct field of academic inquiry, the putative unity suggested by the
term ³East Asia² belies much of the historical and social fluidity that
has marked its construction and transformation in time throughout the
modern period.  Performance, here broadly understood as a process of
communication, provides an important lens through which to examine the
multiplicity and heterogeneity which mark the emergence of ³East Asia² as
both object and subject of discourse.  How have disparate semiotic
modalities (e.g., ritual, oratory, poetics) aided in the discursive
creation of East Asia?  What are the mechanisms through which these
embodied practices and events are framed?  In attempting to
address these and other related questions, this conference seeks to
provide a forum for discussion of the many ways in which performative
practices ­ from Meiji Buddhist homiletics, colonial magazine culture, to
writing practices in Maoist China ­ have contributed to the creation,
negotiation and competition of various figurations of modern East Asia.
We thus welcome submissions from graduate students working in all fields
related to East Asian studies, including, but not limited to, history,
literature, film, art history, religion, anthropology, economics and
sociology.  We especially encourage papers which are transregional and
interdisciplinary in focus.

Keynote Speaker: 

Mark Driscoll, Associate Professor
Japanese Media and Cultural Studies
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

The conference will be held the weekend of April 27-28 at the University
of Chicago International House.  Limited travelsubsidies are available for
selected participants. Lodging and most meals will be provided.

Please send abstracts (approx. 250 wds.) to: eastasiachicago at gmail.com

Deadline for submission of abstracts is January 15, 2012.

Any additional questions may be addressed to the conference organizers:
John Person (jperson at uchicago.edu) or
Helen Findley (hfindley at uchicago.edu)