[URBANTH-L]CFP: Indigeneities and Cosmopolitanisms

[Angela Jancius]

Call for Submissions

Indigeneities and Cosmopolitanisms
AES/CASCA Joint Conference
May 8-12,  2007
Toronto, Canada

The American Ethnological Association (AES) and the Canadian Anthropology 
Society (CASCA) invite the submission of papers, sessions, symposia, 
roundtables, and workshops for the upcoming joint conference on the theme of 
"Indigeneities and Cosmopolitanisms." The conference will be hosted by the 
University of Toronto.

This e-mail contains information about the conference theme, registration, 
and other relevant issues (including information about the Elsie Clews 
Parsons Prize, the AES award for best graduate student paper).

The deadline for conference registration and submissions is February 15, 
2007.

The latest information on this conference and links for registration and 
submission of proposals can be found on http://www.aesonline.org


Conference Theme:

The "indigenous" and the "cosmopolitan" seem to exist as oppositional 
formations in the imaginary field demarcated by the local and the global. 
While the former seems rooted, timeless, and traditional; the latter appears 
mobile, contemporary, and (post)modern. As recent work by anthropologists 
has shown, both of these characterizations are quite deceptive. 
"Indigeneity" is a deeply current issue, which, over the past decade, has 
relentlessly forced itself onto social, political and academic agendas 
across the planet. While the question of who is and who is not "indigenous" 
was never innocent, it is becoming increasingly crucial in today's global 
and globalising world. At the same time, the genealogy of the "cosmopolitan" 
has been moved back in time. It now appears as a quasi-primordial reference 
point for a social and political vision beyond the nation-state and empire. 
Together, the "indigenous" and the "cosmopolitan" signify the tensions 
animating contemporary anthropology. As the discipline negotiates its 
long-standing commitment to local processes in a rapidly transnational 
world, both the "indigenous" and the "cosmopolitan" have emerged as crucial 
figures for analysis and debate. The notions of "indigeneity" and 
"cosmopolitanism" thus speak to a range of pressing theoretical and 
quotidian concerns: the politics of recognition, inclusion and exclusion; 
rights to scarce resources; the relation between peoples, spaces and places; 
neoliberal visions of the global as open-ended, unanchored flows; 
autochthony, sovereignty and citizenship; conflict and violence; and the 
ways global capitalism generates cosmopolitan imaginaries while 
simultaneously producing novel forms and assertions of emplacement. We 
welcome papers that engage with "indigeneity" and "cosmopolitanism" in a 
broad sense - as predicaments, moral locations, political positions, 
imaginative objects - together with their theoretical, epistemological and 
practical entailments.

A highlight of the conference will be the AES Plenary Session, which will 
feature a keynote lecture by Jean and John Comaroff (University of Chicago) 
and responses by Carol Greenhouse (Princeton University) and James Siegel 
(Cornell University).


Call for Submissions:

The conference organizers invite submissions in a number of formats. We 
especially encourage sessions that bring together participants from 
different institutions and society memberships.


Papers will be 15 minutes each. They may be volunteered individually. The 
program committee will organize individually volunteered papers into 
sessions according to theme and content. Papers intended as part of a 
proposed session (or symposium) must be submitted by the session organizer 
as part of the session proposal form.


Sessions will be 90 minutes each, and will generally consist of up to five 
papers with a discussion period to follow. Please note that if a formal 
discussant will be participating, there should be no more than four papers 
in a session, in order to leave time for general discussion. Organizers may 
schedule as few as three papers if they wish to leave an extended time for 
discussion.


Symposia will generally be formed of at least two sessions of 90 minutes 
each. Symposium parts will be held in sequence, with a break between the 
parts, and where possible, will be located in the same room.

Roundtables are less formal than sessions: participants do not present 
formal papers but discuss an issue or topic laid out by the session 
organizers in their proposal. Roundtables, like sessions, are 90 minutes 
long.

Workshops consist of a small number of participants who gather to discuss a 
theme or subject in a more informal way than a session or a symposium. A 
workshop is the equivalent of a session and is 90 minutes long. Workshop 
organizers should indicate criteria for participation (i.e. pre-circulated 
papers, topic preparation, pre-registration).

Please note: Each participant will normally be limited to presenting one 
paper and acting as discussant once.

Please note also: Prior to submitting proposals for papers, sessions, 
symposia, roundtables or workshops, all participants must be members of 
either AES or CASCA, and have registered for the conference (the 
registration website features the relevant links).

Conference Registration and Submission of Papers and Sessions:

To register for the AES/CASCA conference and submit your paper or session 
proposal, please go to the AES webpage and follow the link for conference 
registration.

The address of the AES webpage is: http://www.aesonline.org

If you have technical problems with conference registration or payment, 
please contact Khara Minter at: kminter at aaanet.org

For general questions about the conference, submitting proposals, 
participation, accommodation, or travel, please contact: 
conference2007 at anthropologica.ca

Deadlines and Fees: The deadline for conference registration and submissions 
is February 15, 2007. Early registration comes with reduced fees. These fees 
are US $80.00 for professionals ($106 after 1/15/07)_ and US $35.00 for 
students ($53 after 1/15/07).

Please note that scholars registering for the conference through AES (and 
via the AES webpage) need to be members of AES (and AAA). A link to the AAA 
membership site is provided on the conference registration website.

Cancellation Policy: If your proposal is not accepted and/or you wish to 
cancel your participation you may apply for a refund of the conference 
registration fees. Requests may be sent by email to 
conference2007-admin at anthropologica.ca up to and including March 15, 2007. A 
$30 processing fee will be deducted. There will be no refunds for 
withdrawals after March 15th, 2007.


Elsie Clews Parsons Prize:

This year AES will also award the biannual Elsie Clews Parsons Prize for the 
best graduate student paper. The winner of the prize receives a medallion 
cast by a Hopi silversmith featuring a design visible on our website as the 
society's logo. Graduate students interested in applying for the Elsie Clews 
Parsons Prize should mail three copies of the complete paper to Fran 
Rothstein, Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Criminal Justice, 
Towson University, Towson, MD 21252-0001 by April 1, 20007.  Papers should 
be no longer than 35 double-spaced pages, previously unpublished, and should 
conform to American Ethnologist style guidelines.