[URBANTH-L]Call For Papers: The Anthropology of Global Productions

[Nikhil Anand]

CALL FOR PAPERS

Second Annual Graduate Student Conference in Cultural and Social
Anthropology
The Anthropology of Global Productions

Friday, April 7, and Saturday, April 8, 2006
Stanford University

Deadline for abstracts: 100-150 words abstracts, no later than 5:00 p.m.
January 1, 2006
Webpage: http://www.stanford.edu/dept/anthroCASA/globalproductions/

The Second Annual Graduate Student Conference in Cultural and Social
Anthropology aims to bring together students and professors from the San
Francisco Bay Area and beyond in the interests of interdisciplinary
research, with particular regard to anthropology, geography, and 
cultural
studies.

Rhetorics and regimes of ‘the globe’ claim a logic and coherence that 
are at
once evaluative and prescriptive of a universal reality.  From 
invocations
of the ‘end of history’ to incantations of post-socialism, 
democratization
and neoliberalism, the language of ‘the global’ imagines the world as a
seamless whole.  Implied in this coherent universe are integrated 
political
economic regimes in which individuated, rational subjects make up 
harmonized
national and transnational populations.  In examining these claims, 
social
scientists often reify their coherence and reach; our criticisms of 
global
projects make counter-claims that can reinforce the
very orderliness we attempt to contest.  Within the discourses of
world-making projects and the knowledge production they inspire are
disorderly and contested relations of power, subjectivity, violence,
affect, civil society, governmentality, and beauty.

The Anthropology of Global Productions will explore such discourses of
world-ordering.  If anthropology often seeks to disaggregate and disable
these discourses, we aim to understand both the content and the effects 
of
these disaggregations.  We wish to raise theoretical and methodological
questions about our own contributions as knowledge producers.  How do we
investigate the patchwork quilt of lived realities in a way that engages
those making global generalizations?  How do we strengthen the 
knowledge of
grounded practices in a way that speaks effectively to and in debates 
about
the globe?  What claims and interventions can we make through 
ethnographic
research?

We are seeking the most compelling papers from a variety of disciplines 
that
engage a broad range of topics.  Relevant topics include (but are not
limited to) political economy, neoliberalism, governmentality, race, 
class,
gender, diaspora studies, nationalism, religion, violence, human rights,
NGOs, environmentalism, labor and commodity production, science and
technology studies, popular culture, mass media, performance, 
literature,
art, affect, identity and the formation of subjectivities.

Panel presentations will be 15 minutes long and papers should be no more
than 7 pages in length.  During the conference proceedings, panels will
give way to a range of workshops, which provide an intimate environment 
for
graduate students and faculty discussants to exchange ideas on 
conference
themes.  The conference will also include two keynote addresses, 
delivered
by James Ferguson and Anna Tsing.

Guidelines for Submissions:
Paper proposals should incorporate one or more of the themes of the
conference, listed above.  A proposal for a paper should consist of a
100-150 word abstract.  Paper proposals must also include the paper 
title,
the name of the presenter, daytime and evening phone numbers, email
address, mailing address and institutional affiliation of the presenter.

Electronic Submissions:
Please send submissions and inquiries by email to:
graduate-conference at stanford.edu
Please include your abstract either in the body of the text or as an 
email
attachment (in Word DOC or RTF format).

Non-Electronic Submissions:
If you are unable to email your proposal, you may send a hard copy or
PC-compatible floppy disk containing the document to:

Submissions, Graduate Student Conference
The Anthropology of Global Productions
Department of Cultural and Social Anthropology
Stanford University
Building 110, Main Quad
Stanford, CA 94305

Presenters will be notified of the conference committee’s decision via 
email
by February 5, 2006.  There will be no conference registration fee.