Association for Nepal and Himalayan Studies (ANHS) lance un appel à communications pour la conférence Himalayan Futures qui se tiendra à l’Université de Toronto entre le 13 et le 16 octobre 2022.
Appel à communications :
The central theme of the conference is “Himalayan Futures”. Positioned between the plains of the Indian subcontinent and the Tibetan Plateau, the Himalayas have become a captivating image in contemporary speculations about the meaning of the present and the possibilities of the future in the Anthropocene. The mountain range sits at the centre of both regional and global anxieties about the effects of climate change. Its ice-capped peaks are the source of Asia’s major river systems – and yet, melting snow and receding glaciers signal potential catastrophe in a region that is warming faster than the global average, affecting lives for millions of downstream populations through extreme weather events. Infrastructure development and extractivist capitalism pose further challenges to a geologically unstable region. Increasing state control, border conflicts and tensions over territorial claims manifest in the wake of these developments, complicating the geopolitical stakes for Himalayan nations and those with interests in the region. Meanwhile, communities experience, imagine and navigate change in diverse ways over time, giving rise to multifaceted cultural, artistic and activist expressions.
HSC6 aims to interrogate and upend popular discourses of apocalypse and crisis, and the linear temporalities in which they are embedded. The conference will attend to everyday lives, memories and future imaginaries in the Anthropocene across wide ranging themes, from ethnic politics and insurgencies, to literature, arts and religion. We strive, in particular, to foreground how Indigenous, Dalit and other historically marginalized communities bear witness, sustain hope and take action in the present. Envisioning alternative understandings and trajectories of environmental, social and political change, the conference will engage multidisciplinary perspectives of struggle and solidarity in the making of shared Himalayan futures.
We are excited to invite scholars of Himalayan Studies, development and planning practitioners, artists as well as activists to submit proposals for panels, roundtable discussions and individual papers.
Potential topics may include, but are not limited to:
- Politics, practices and institutions of climate change governance
- Indigenous ecopolitics and ontological frictions
- Utopian imaginaries in arts and literature
- Religious explorations of time and change
- Earthquakes and other natural disasters
- Affective ecologies and multispecies habitats
- Decolonization and movements for environmental justice
- Infrastructure investment, resource extraction and uneven development
- Borders, militarization and securitization
- Health, race/ethnicity and the environment
- Cities, architecture and urban planning
- Trade, migration and transnationalism
- Activist movements, practices and modes of expression
- Politics of knowledge production about the Himalayas
While adherence to the conference theme is not mandatory for acceptance, we especially welcome proposals drawing connection to Himalayan futures.
You can organize and speak in more than one panel or roundtable. Proposals must mention the name of all authors/contributors and their titles, institutional affiliations and emails. Proposals must also include a title and abstract (max. 250 words). Please make sure to send your complete proposal to conference@anhs-himalaya.org.
Date limite pour envoyer ses propositions de communications : 10 avril 2022.