Appel à contributions et volontaires : Projet “Roots of Diaspora”

Les racines de la diaspora : Les trajectoires migratoires comptent, elles nous forment.

rootsofdiasporabanner3

 

Racines de Diaspora (Roots of Diaspora) est un projet interactif sur la migration et l’asile politique qui vise à recueillir des histoires personnelles et familiales de la fuite et de l’émigration de Tamouls de Sri Lanka depuis l’indépendance de l’île en 1948. Le projet vise à tracer les itinéraires, les modes de déplacements, les rencontres et les expériences, de près d’un million de Tamouls qui ont quittés l’île de Sri Lanka pour chercher refuge à l’étranger. Le but de ce projet est de cartographier aussi bien les migrations d’avant la guerre, celles qui se sont développées pendant le conflit et enfin celles qui se poursuivent depuis la victoire finale de l’armée sri lankaise sur le LTTE. Ce travail cartographique nous permettra d’avoir une meilleure compréhension de l’impact des politiques discriminatoires et des violences ethniques qui ont affectées la principale minorité de l’île.

Avec ce projet, nous visons à défaire le statu quo diasporique et trouver des réponses à des questions en relation à ce qui s’est passé après le départ définitif de Sri Lanka. Où les Tamouls désiraient-ils émigrer ? Par quel(s) point(s) de transit(s) sont-ils passés ? Comment ont-ils passé les frontières et les obstacles naturels ? Comment s’est déroulé leur voyage ? Comment le contexte géopolitique des frontières et les politiques nationales d’accueil des migrants (et notamment des réfugiés) plus ou moins favorables dans les pays développés ont-ils influencé leurs parcours et le choix de la destination finale Ce sont quelques-unes des questions auquelles ce projet à l’intention de trouver des réponses.  L’objectif est donc de retracer, en replaçant dans leur context historique, les départs, les arrivées et surtout la période entre le départ et l’arrivée des migrants et des réfugiés tamouls.

En tant que communauté, nous avons fait peu d’effort pour collecter et archiver les récits de l’histoire migratoire des Tamouls, de leurs difficultés, de leurs souffrances et de la violence de ce processus auquel ils ont du faire face. Avec ce projet, nous espérons lutter contre le silence qui entoure les questions de migration au sein de la communauté tamoule et nous espérons encourager les conversations et les échanges entre les membres de diaspora tamoule dispersée à travers le monde et préserver ainsi nos souvenirs et nos identités.

Nous souhaitons vous inviter à nous rejoindre à ce projet et à contribuer à cette aventure collective.

Vous pouvez nous suivre sur Facebook : facebook.com/RootsofDiaspora et Twitter : twitter.com/rootsofdiaspora. Un site officiel sera bientôt lancé.

Pour les propositions et autres questions, contactez nous à l’adresse suivante : rootsofdiaspora@gmail.com.

 

Équipe, contributeurs et collaborateurs :

Sinthujan Varatharajah, fondateur de Roots of Diaspora, est le fils de réfugiés tamouls. Il est né et a été élevé en Allemagne. Il est écrivain, poète, photographe et “distortioniste” numérique. Sinthujan est actuellement doctorant en géographie politique à l’University College London et détient une Maîtrise en race, l’ethnicity et Postcolonial Studies de la London School of Economics and Political Science.

Amarnath Amarasingam est né à Mullaitivu (Sri Lanka) et s’est réfugié avec ses parents au Canada, à Toronto, alors qu’il n’avait que six ans. Il est actuellement chercheur post-doctoral au Centre for Refugee Studies de York University et enseigne également à l’University of Waterloo et à la Wilfrid Laurier University. Il est l’auteur de Pain, Pride, and Politics: Sri Lankan Tamil Activism in Canada, qui va prochainement être publié.

Abinaya Balasubramaniam est une Tamoule de la diaspora canadienne. Née à Jaffna, elle a grandi au Canada. Elle se définit comme un être diasporique, voyageuse et danseuse dont le parcours a influencé son intérêt pour l’activisme social et l’écriture. Elle est actuellement étudiante en Master à l’Université de Toronto. Elle suit un double cursus avec en majeur Equity Studies & Women and Gender Studies et en mineur Diaspora and Transnational Studies.

Delon Madavan est un Tamoul de la diaspora française. Il est né et a grandi à Paris. Docteur en géographie à l’Université de Paris-Sorbonne, ses premiers travaux de recherche portaient sur les conséquences du conflit intercommunautaire sri lankais pour la ville de Jaffna et ses habitants. Il a étudié dans sa thèse l’intégration socio spatial de la minorité tamoule à Colombo, Kuala Lumpur et Singapour. Il est également un des co éditeurs du site en ligne Sri Lanka & Diasporas

Ahila Poolagaindran est la fille de réfugiés tamouls et a grandi au Canada. Elle s’intéresse aux questions liées aux migrations, à l’asile et l’immigration, les politiques publiques et la planification urbaine. Elle est actuellement inscrite en Public Policy and Refugee/Migration/Urban Studies à l’Université de Toronto et a obtenu sa Maîtrise en Development Studies à la McGill University de Montréal.

Jeyabharati Sivan est une Tamoule de la diaspora britannique. Née de parents réfugiés en Inde, elle a été élevée au Royaume-Uni. Elle s’intéresse aux questions liées au développement de projets artistiques, au marketing des arts et elle est impliquée dans la scène artistique sud asiatique londonienne. Elle travaille actuellement comme gestionnaire de licence pour le Financial Times et détient une Maîtrise en études commerciales de la London Metropolitan University.

Nayani Thiyagarajah appartient à la diaspora tamoule jaffnaise. Elle est née et à grandi à Toronto au Canada. Elle est écrivain, réalisatrice de film, artiste et suit une formation pour devenir accompagnante en périnatalité. Elle termine actuellement son Master en Interdisciplinary Studies (Diaspora/Performance/Women’s Studies) à la York University et détient une Maîtrise en journalisme de la Ryerson University  à Toronto.

Ram Sabaratnam appartient à la diaspora tamoule canadienne. Il est né et a été élevé à Toronto. Il s’intéresse à la théorie féministe et à la théorie démocratique et termine un MSc en théorie politique à la London School of Economics and Political Science. Il détient une Maîtrise en Science, Philosophy, and Women’s Studies de la McGill University de Montreal.

Nous sommes actuellement à la recherche de bénévoles pour aider à développer le projet. Si vous avez un intérêt pour les questions liées à la migration et la diaspora et que vous avez des compétences dans les médias sociaux, les relations publiques, la conception de sites Web, la photographie, les interviews, la recherche et l’édition, n’hésitez pas à nous contacter pour nous rejoindre à l’adresse suivante : rootsofdiaspora@gmail.com

Ce projet est géré de manière indépendante et n’est affilié à aucun parti politique, institution académique ou organisme de financement alternatif.

Call for contributions and volunteers: Project “Roots of Diaspora”

Roots of Diaspora: Journeys matter, journeys shape us.

rootsofdiasporabanner3

Roots of Diaspora is an interactive project on refugeehood and migration which aims to collect personal and family stories of flight and immigration of Tamils from Sri Lanka dating back as far as 1948, the year the postcolonial state was born. The project aims to trace the routes, modes of transportations, encounters and experiences of an estimated one million Tamil refugees and immigrants who left the island of Sri Lanka to reach sanctuaries abroad. The aim of this project is to map journeys of pre-war, war and post-war migration to provide visual understanding and context for the impact of racial violence and discriminatory policies on affected communities.

With this project we aim to undo the diasporic status quo and find answers to questions such as what happened following the final departure from Sri Lanka, where did Tamils desire to move to, which points of transit did they go through, how did they cross borders and natural boundaries, what did they experience throughout their journeys, what was the context of borders and geographies then, which policies aided/obstructed their decisions on their final pathways or where did they finally arrive at and how? These are just few of the questions this project intents to find answers to along this journey. The core idea behind this project is to historicise departures, arrivals and importantly the period in between departure and arrival of Tamil refugees and migrants.

As a community we have so far spent few efforts and resources on documenting the many stories of hardship, violence and displacement we have faced. With this project we hope to counter the profound silence surrounding questions of migration amongst the Tamil community and hope to incite meaningful conversations and exchanges between people across different oceans on our diasporic presence, identities and memories.

We want to invite you to join and contribute to this collective journey. Please do lend us your support and keep your ears and eyes open for more news to follow.

We can be found on Facebook: facebook.com/RootsofDiaspora and Twitter: twitter.com/rootsofdiaspora. An official website will be launched in due time.

For submissions, interests and other queries, please contact us under rootsofdiaspora@gmail.com.

Team, contributors and collaborators:

Sinthujan Varatharajah, founder of Roots of Diaspora, is the son of Tamil refugees, born and raised in Germany. He is a writer, poet, photographer, digital distortionist and collector of stories. Sinthujan is currently a PhD student in Political Geography at University College London and holds a MSc in Race, Ethnicity and Postcolonial Studies from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Amarnath Amarasingam was born in Mullaitivu, Sri Lanka, and sought refuge in Canada with his parents, arriving in Toronto at the age of six. He is currently a post-doctoral fellow in the Centre for Refugee Studies at York University and also teaches at the University of Waterloo and Wilfrid Laurier University. He is the author of Pain, Pride, and Politics: Sri Lankan Tamil Activism in Canada, to be published in the near future.

Abinaya Balasubramaniam is a daughter of the Canadian Tamil diaspora, born in Jaffna and raised in Canada. She considers herself a diasporic body, traveller and dancer whose journeys have influenced her interest in social activism and narrative writing. She is currently doing a BA double major in Equity Studies & Women and Gender Studies, and a minor in Diaspora and Transnational Studies at University of Toronto.

Delon Madavan is a Tamil from the French diaspora, born and raised in à Paris. He holds a PhD in Geography from Université de Paris-Sorbonne. His early research focused on the consequences of the Sri Lankan interethnic conflict for the town of Jaffna and its inhabitants. He studied in his thesis the socio spatial integration of the Tamil minority in Colombo, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. He is also one of the co editors of the online website Sri Lanka & Diasporas.

Ahila Poolagaindran is the daughter of Tamil refugees, raised in Canada. She has an interest in Migration, Asylum and Immigration, Public Policy and Urban Planning. She is currently studying Public Policy and Refugee/Migration/Urban Studies at the University of Toronto and has received her BA in Development Studies from McGill University, Montreal.

Jeyabharati Sivan is a daughter of the British Tamil diaspora, born to Tamil refugees in India and raised in the UK. She has an interest in developing arts projects, marketing the arts and is involved with the Southasian arts scene in London. She currently works as a Licence Manager for the Financial Times and holds a BA in Business Studies from London Metropolitan University.

Nayani Thiyagarajah is a daughter of the Yalpanam-Tamil diaspora, born and raised in Toronto, Canada. She is a writer, a performance artist, a filmmaker, and a doula in training. She is currently completing her MA in Interdisciplinary Studies (Diaspora/Performance/Women’s Studies) at York University and has a BA in Journalism from Ryerson University, Toronto.

Ram Sabaratnam is a son of the Canadian Tamil diaspora, born and raised in Toronto, Canada. He has an interest in Feminist Theory and Democratic Theory and is completing his MSc in Political Theory at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He holds a BA in Political Science, Philosophy, and Women’s Studies from McGill University, Montreal.

We are currently looking for volunteers to help the project grow. If you have an interest for migration and diaspora and have skills in social media, PR, webdesign, photography, interviews, research and editing, please contact us under rootsofdiaspora@gmail.com

The project is run independently and is not affiliated with any political body, academic institution or alternative funding body. 

CFP: “From Violent Conflict to Peaceful Coexistence: A Dialogue on Justice, Memory and Social Reconstruction” by International Centre for Ethnic Studies, 27, 28 February, 1 March 2014

Post-Conflict and Transitional Justice

 

Scholars have long attempted to understand, theorize and interrogate the ways in which societies emerging from violent conflict – whether from armed hostilities or prolonged periods of unrest – come to terms with their past. These studies have focused on issues of reconciliation, memory, governance, justice and transition and have given rise to the particular discipline of Transitional Justice.

Transitional Justice [TJ] refers to the processes, methods and practices used by societies seeking to overcome legacies of mass human rights violations or authoritarian governance. These processes may be judicial or non-judicial: ranging from truth-commissions, prosecutions, reparations, vetting, guarantees of non-recurrence and institutional reform.

Recent decades have seen the wide diffusion of the practice of TJ through the work and influence of a loose network of lawyers, politicians, activists and victims. The emergence of a number of influential INGOs specializing in the field has contributed to the globalization of TJ. The establishment of an International Criminal Court [ICC] has supported the internationalization of formal justice mechanisms. The United Nations has also played a key role in the formulation and diffusion of TJ. The Human Rights Council’s creation of a mandate for a Special Rapporteur on the Promotion of Truth, Justice, Reparation and Guarantees of Non-Recurrence is a recent example of the UN’s interest in the area.

Accompanying this proliferation of post-conflict and TJ practice is the normative and empirical research generated by scholars who have engaged critically with the subject.  This research has produced a rich body of interdisciplinary scholarship around the normative and empirical claims within post-conflict and TJ discourse. TJ has thus become a site of contestation between the discourses of human rights and development, law and political science, the domestic and the international.

This scholarship has also spawned a tradition of critical work challenging the dominant assumptions within TJ discourse. In their seminal piece in International Security, Snyder and Vinjamuri famously initiated a longstanding debate on the efficacy of traditional TJ mechanisms such as prosecutions and truth-commissions in situations of political turmoil. Others have sought to problematise orthodox TJ’s conception of victimhood, questioning if its legalistic understanding of victims as those directly affected by violations of civil rights excludes victims of other types of deprivations, and gives rise to hierarchies of loss. Another type of critique views the globalization of TJ practice as limiting indigenous initiatives and imposing western, liberal and/or Judeo-Christian norms upon other cultures. These place-based perspectives urge a more victim-centered and less legalistic approach to TJ.

 

Post-Conflict and Transitional Justice in Asia

While Asia has not experienced the proliferation of TJ processes to the degree witnessed in Africa, Europe and Latin America, recent developments in Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Timor-Leste demonstrate that local and international factors have compelled countries to adopt TJ practices.

In Cambodia, a hybrid tribunal functioning under the aegis of the United Nations and the government continues to prosecute senior Khmer Rouge leaders for their alleged crimes, while in Bangladesh, the International Crimes Tribunal has prosecuted and convicted several individuals for the atrocities committed during Bangladesh’s war of liberation. Debates around reconciliation in post-war Nepal have included questions of TJ, with Nepal’s government committing publicly to evolve a TJ mechanism in line with international standards. India has also attempted – through domestic and civil society processes – to reckon with the outbreak of racial violence in Gujarat.

In Sri Lanka, while offering divergent accounts of the conduct of Sri Lanka’s armed forces during the last stages of the war, reports by the UN Secretary General’s Panel of Experts and the domestic Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission [LLRC] appeared to agree on critical aspects of TJ such as the importance of ensuring truth, justice and reparations in respect of the past. Japan and Korea have also attempted in some measure to reckon with their legacies of violence and activists and academics continue to urge accountability for past abuses in those societies.

Despite this recent trend towards the implementation of TJ processes in Asia, Asian scholarship has yet to evolve a systematic exploration of TJ praxis in the region. This under-theorisation leaves a number of questions unanswered.  Do TJ processes in Asia possess unique distinguishing characteristics?  What role do Asia’s religious traditions – particularly Buddhism and Hinduism – play in shaping TJ discourse and practice?

The ICES has a long commitment to the values of pluralism, inclusivity, dissent and critical scholarship, particularly in respect of Asia.  Building on this legacy, this conference is intended to address two specific needs: first, expose the Asian scholar and activist audience to contemporary debates in the global post-conflict TJ discourse, and second, generate original Asian scholarly contributions to the existing corpus of post-conflict TJ scholarship.

The ICES will invite globally renowned TJ scholars and practitioners to present their perspectives on major theoretical and practical issues within contemporary TJ discourse. In addition, we also call for original contributions from Asian scholars, activists, practitioners from the public and private sectors, and students.

Selected papers will be divided for presentation into thematic panels, and will address Asian perspectives on the relevant themes.  We welcome papers dealing with any of the conference’s themes that seek to critically engage, interrogate and analyse post-conflict TJ processes in Asia, the reception and diffusion of TJ processes and theory in Asian societies, and the interplay between TJ and Asian socio-political constructs.  In this regard, we are particularly interested in comparative analyses of the post-conflict justice experiences of countries, and the applicability of these experiences for Asian societies.  We are also interested in papers that seek to interrogate and rethink dominant orthodoxies within TJ discourse, particularly from an Asian perspective.  The following are non-exhaustive groups of questions that papers may address under each theme.

 

Transitional Justice, Peace, Development

To what extent are TJ mechanisms essential in the transition out of conflict towards peace?  Do TJ processes support – or undermine – prospects for peace and national reconciliation?  To what extent may sequencing and timing of TJ processes address perceived tensions between TJ and peace?  Could and to what extent does economic development substitute TJ processes?  What is the relationship between TJ processes and the legitimization of a new regime? How may TJ processes open the door to examining the structural causes of abuse, and their more systemic impacts?  What is the relationship between individual and collective justice claims, or between civil and political rights violations and economic and social rights violations?

 

Prosecution and Truth-Telling

To what extent does the pursuit of non-judicial truth-seeking mechanisms assist in the institution of criminal prosecutions, and vice versa?  Does an honest truth-seeking mechanism sans criminal prosecution satisfy a state’s moral and legal obligations to deal with the past?  What does ‘truth’ in truth-telling entail, and are there different versions of the truth?  How do the demands of international law for investigation and prosecution relate to domestic political movements for truth and/or justice?  To what extent does prosecution act as a deterrent at an individual and institutional level? Do prosecution and truth-telling mechanisms fulfill the expectations of victims, or do they reinforce false expectations?

 

Forms of Exclusion and Transitional Justice

To what extent is TJ gendered, and what does it mean to evolve a gendered critique of TJ processes?  Do TJ processes in Asia adequately reflect the experiences of ethnic minorities, women, sexual minorities, youth and the disabled and how may these deficits – if any – be addressed?  Do TJ practices transform – or entrench – patriarchal and other systems of oppression? To what extent do domestic and international laws address gender violence as a weapon of war?

 

Religion

What doctrinal approaches do Asia’s major religious traditions offer in respect of concepts of truth justice and reparations, particularly in the aftermath of atrocities? How do religious traditions and teaching mediate the tension between ideas of justice, farness, and consequence with notions of compassion, forgiveness, restoration and mercy?  Is cultural difference an appropriate factor in prescribing certain types of TJ processes over others?

 

Internationalization

What is the role of international pressure in shaping TJ processes and reconciliation?  To what extent do international mechanisms differ from domestic mechanisms in generating impacts within the country?  What are the limitations of international TJ mechanisms and how may they be overcome?  How does the application of the complementarity principle affect domestic political will to undertake TJ processes?  Are hybrid mechanisms appropriate alternatives to purely international – or purely domestic – processes?  Is TJ an essentially western imperialistic project?   How may concerns over cultural and political neo-liberalism be addressed in the design and implementation of TJ processes?

 

Civil society, community-based approaches and Transitional Justice

What role should civil society actors properly play in post-conflict TJ processes, and to what extent do civil society actors ‘represent’ victims? How should TJ processes navigate potential tensions between the demands of different types of civil society actors, or between civil society actors and victims’ political representatives? What factors influence the nature, ideological biases and quality of civil society contributions to TJ discourse in specific contexts? Are there any commonalities, or divergences, that characterize community-based approaches to TJ in Asian post-conflict contexts? How do these community-based approaches that draw from local traditions interact with more formal TJ processes? Do these approaches tend to enhance – or compromise – reconciliation within the community and victims’ rights?

 

Constitutional transitions and political and institutional reform

How may post-conflict constitution building set out to address the causes and manifestations of violent conflict? How may political and constitutional reforms be crafted in ways that contribute to TJ processes, and similarly, how do TJ processes impact on the preparation, negotiation and implementation of constitutional and political reform? Do well-designed ‘constitutional transitions’, in which formerly disenfranchised and subjugated groups struggle and achieve a measure of political power, substitute formal TJ processes?

 

Memorialisation

Memorials have been used to foster healing and promote social reconstruction after violent conflict. Memorials take a variety of shapes and forms and remember those who suffered or died in a conflict. Through this recognition and acknowledgement they seek to promote reconciliation and co-existence, provide symbolic reparations to survivors and to create a more accurate account of the past. This session will interrogate memorialisation through case studies that will look at process, impact and the politics. In particular, the session will look at the following questions: how does TJ manage the politicization of memory, and have initiatives for memorialisation exacerbated cleavages in society?  What tools must TJ use to navigate the challenges of memorializing in societies where memories are the site of ethnic or religious contestation?

 

Reparation and economic justice

What are the challenges to designing and implementing an equitable reparations program?  To what extent does the legalization of reparations requirements strengthen – or weaken – a society’s struggle for restoration? Are such economic justice mechanisms substitutes or complements to judicial accountability?  Should these mechanisms be driven by victims’ right to reparation, citizens’ interest in financial accountability or the broader interests of addressing resource disparities?

Through this conference, ICES hopes to encourage the production of a critical mass of Asian post-conflict TJ scholarship, and help build an academically interdependent community of TJ scholars in the region.  In addition, ICES hopes to help TJ practitioners and opinion makers in the region access the debates and tensions confronting the practice and theory of TJ in the rest of world.  With this in mind, we anticipate that the conference will result in the publication of a dedicated volume.

Parallel to the conference and within the conference venue, ICES will provide a space within which artistic expressions relating to post-conflict justice may be exhibited. We invite proposals for installations or other projects in this regard.

Abstracts of approximately 500 words are invited by 1st December 2013.

 

International Centre for Ethnic Studies

2 Kynsey Terrace

Colombo 8

Sri Lanka

icesjustice@gmail.com

www.ices.lk

Appel à contribution des ateliers de l’AJEI : Travail, mobilité et mobilisations en Asie du sud

Vous trouverez en pièce jointe l’appel à contribution des  16ème Ateliers Jeunes Chercheurs de l’Association Jeunes Études Indiennes (AJEI).

« Travail, mobilité et mobilisations en Asie du sud »
Delhi, Inde (du 11 au 14 Février 2014)

En collaboration avec le Centre for Informal sector and Labour Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi

Les propositions de communication peuvent être envoyées jusqu’au Vendredi 8 novembre (ateliers@ajei.org).

AJEI – Appel a contribution (fr) – 2014

AJEI – Call for Papers (Eng) – 2014

Association Jeunes Etudes Indiennes

http://ajei.hypotheses.org/

appel à contribution: Valeurs indiennes : la diaspora au féminin pour le numéro 3 de la revue DESI.

Nous diffusons dessous  l’annonce de l’appel à contribution pour le numéro 3 de la revue DESI. La revue pluridisciplinaire à comité de lecture DESI (Diasporas: études des singularités indiennes) prépare un numéro thématique (n°3) consacré aux relations entre migration, genre et valeurs indiennes (parution prévue pour auto mne 2014). Toutes les contributions questionnant les valeurs indiennes (contenu, signification, évolution de ces valeurs en fonction des multiples dé- et re-placement), la place des femmes et l’évolution des rapports sociaux dans la migration et leurs effets sur la définition de ces valeurs seront les bienvenues. L’appel s’adresse aux chercheurs jeunes ou confirmés et issus de différentes disciplines.

La littérature et le cinéma indiens apparaissent comme des témoins privilégiés du champ de multiplicités qui se tisse de nos jours entre l’Inde et l’Occident. Si un des thèmes de prédilection de ces deux domaines artistiques de la diaspora reste la rencontre avec le monde occidental et la redéfinition identitaire qui en découle, force est de constater qu’aujourd’hui, les mutations de la société indienne contemporaine et les nouvelles formes d’immigration (mouvements de dé- et re-placement) ont provoqué d’importants changements dans la représentation du migrant indien.

Que cela soit dans ces deux domaines artistiques, ou encore dans des disciplines des humanités (géographie et anthropologie particulièrement), le migrant indien est généralement présenté comme acteur d’une migration qui s’envisage de moins en moins comme une rupture définitive avec son pays d’origine que comme une opportunité d’ascension sociale et d’accession à des biens de consommation (Percot, 2005). Ce qui a également changé, « c’est l’identité des producteurs d’exotisme : ils ne sont plus largement occidentaux, mais indiens eux-mêmes. Des Indiens hors de l’Inde, qui la reconstituent chaque jour à leur(s) façon(s), à l’étranger » (Béneï, 2005). Cet exotisme est largement le fait de NRI, principaux producteurs des imaginaires de la diaspora et de l’indianité. Songeons par exemple à la figure du NRI souvent incarnée au cinéma par Sharukh Khan – que cela soit dans Pardes dirigé par Subhash Ghai en 1997, ou encore dans Dilwale Dulhania Le jayenge dirigé par Aditya Chopra en 1995.

Ces films de Bollywood de la décennie 1990 dépeignent les NRI, comme des personnages à mentalité cosmopolite, parlant avec l’accent anglais ou américain, mais restés fidèles de coeur et d’esprit à tout ce qui est indien. En cela, ils participent souvent à la diffusion d’une image de l’Inde mythique, unie et essentiellement hindoue, dans laquelle les valeurs indiennes sont essentielles. Et il semblerait, qu’au sein de ces images, pour se réinventer un pays dans l’autre, les femmes constituent les « gardiennes des traditions », celles qui sont le plus à même de transmettre ces « valeurs indiennes ».

Dans plusieurs oeuvres de la littérature diasporique (par exemple dans celles de Jhumpa Lahiri, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni ou encore chez l’écrivaine sri-lankaise Roma Tearne) les personnages féminins occupent une position particulièrement conflictuelle dans un champ de tensions où l’intégration des valeurs « non-indiennes » est généralement perçue par leurs communautés (contraintes du cadre de la famille élargie notamment), et parfois par elles-mêmes, comme une trahison de valeurs typiquement « indiennes » : le sens d’appartenance reste parfois conditionné à un cloisonnement culturel qui a pour effet de figer les traditions dans le temps et de rendre les rapports de genre plus rigides. Dans beaucoup de ces oeuvres littéraires, mais également dans ce qui est décrit par certains chercheurs l’installation dans un pays occidental est loin d’être un support d’émancipation et génère au contraire des situations de dépendances nouvelles du sujet féminin vis-à vis de son époux.

Ces situations sont sans nul doute à mettre en perspective avec le projet migratoire, généralement initié par les hommes, ou du moins construit en tant que tel. En effet, prenant le cas des Etats-Unis, la migration des femmes n’est souvent pas une « success story » comme le souligne Shivali Shah (2004). Les femmes anglophones indiennes hautement qualifiées venant aux Etats-Unis pour rejoindre leurs époux (après un mariage arrangé) disposant d’un visa H-1B également hautement qualifiés, ne sont pas autorisées à travailler en vertu des dispositions du visa H-4. Ces « H-4 wives » comme on les appelle sont particulièrement vulnérables, et deviennent parfois des victimes de violences domestiques. Ici, les politiques publiques, apparemment neutres, produisent des effets genrés et créent notamment des situations de dépendance.

Ainsi, si une migration massive des hommes conduit, dans certains cas, comme au Kerala, à une autonomie plus grande pour les épouses restées au pays (Gulati, 1993), il semblerait que la migration des femmes indiennes pour rejoindre leurs maris NRI est souvent source de tensions et parfois même de meurtrissures. A l’opposé, Marie Percot (2005), a montré que le projet migratoire des indiennes qualifiées (en l’occurrence les infirmières) initié par une volonté familiale d’ascension sociale et d’accès aux biens de consommation, aboutit à faire naître chez leurs filles et/ou belles-filles des aspirations à plus d’autonomie et plus d’individualisme qui aboutissent à une remise en cause, de fait, des valeurs sociales traditionnelles.

L’ambition de ce numéro est double. Il s’agit, d’une part, de questionner à travers les arts, le cinéma et la littérature indienne de diaspora les représentations du genre en migration ; et d’autre part, déterminer qu’est-ce qui en migration change dans les rapports de genre et de quelles manières ceux-ci s’éloignent-ils du modèle dominant en Inde.

Toutes les contributions questionnant les valeurs indiennes (contenu, signification, évolution de ces valeurs en fonction des multiples dé- et re-placement), la place des femmes et l’évolution des rapports sociaux dans la migration et leurs effets sur la définition de ces valeurs seront les bienvenues.

Bibliographie

  • Véronique Bénéï. « L’Inde à l’étranger. Imaginaire, diaspora et nationalités ». L’Homme, EHESS, 2005, n°173, pp. 177-185.
  • Christian Ghasarian, Honneur, chance et destin. La culture indienne à La Réunion. Paris, L’Harmattan, 1992.
  • Sissy Helff, Unreliable Truths: Transcultural Homeworlds in Indian Women’s Fiction of the Diaspora. Amsterdam : Rodopi, 2013.
  • Marie Percot. Les infirmières indiennes émigrées dans les pays du Golfe : de l’opportunité à la stratégie. REMI, vol 21, n°1, 2005, pp. 29-54.
  • Parvati Raghuram et Nirmal Puwar, South Asian Women in the Diaspora, Oxford : Berg Publishers, 200.
  • Shukla Sandhya. India Abroad. Diasporic cultures of postwar Amarica and England, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 2002.
  • Shivali Shah. “Trapped on a H-4”. The Hindu, 28 november, 2004. En ligne: http://www.hindu.com/mag/2004/11/28/stories/2004112800380300.htm
  • Sunaina Maira, Desis in the House: Indian American Youth Culture in New York City, Philadelphia, Temple University Press, 2002.

Conditions de soumission

Date limite d’envoi des propositions de contribution (250 mots avec court cv) :

1 décembre 2013

Date limite d’envoi des articles pour soumission à comité de lecture : 15 mars 2014

Publication du n°3 de Desi, La revue :novembre 2014

Responsabilité scientifique

Coordination du numéro :

  • Anthony Goreau-Ponceaud, Maître de conférences, Université de Bordeaux IV
  • Paul Veyret, Maître de conférences, Université de Bordeaux 3

Contact :

Anthony Goreau-Ponceaud : anthonygoreau@yahoo.fr

Paul Veyret : Paul.Veyret@u-bordeaux3.fr

source: http://calenda.org/262912

2014 Tamil Studies Conference Call for Papers: “In Many Worlds: Kudi / Kudiyurimai, Belonging, and Citizenship in the Tamil Imaginary”

The call for papers for the 2014 Tamil Studies Conference, which is sponsored by the University of Toronto and the University of Windsor, is now available.  The conference will take place in Toronto on May 16-17.  The deadline for paper proposals August 31, 2013.  For details, see http://www.tamilstudiesconference.ca/

Source: AISLS

Call for editors for a Sri Lanka volume of new writing in English

Following the publication of five anthologies of new writing in English from around the world in its World Englishes Literature
(Fiction) series (WELF), CCC Press is now calling for an editor(s) of a Sri Lanka volume of new writing.

The WELF series focuses on the production of new writing in English, specifically new World Englishes fiction – a term which is defined in the introduction to each collection. The volumes are compilations of short stories which range from 3,000 to 10,000 words in length, allowing a country’s writers to explore a variety of contemporary themes and concerns as well as exhibiting the linguistic diversity of the land in question. The imprint as a whole explores writing which is beyond the postcolonial. This stance diverges markedly from anthologies compiled using already published (and recognized) literature, as well as anthologies which are compiled from “the Western armchair”. Most of the writers presented in the anthologies will not be known to the Western reader and also possibly not even to many readers in their own countries. This is a basic aim of the series: to promote new, emerging writers, often unknown to the West, writers who have not been “endorsed” by Western publishing houses The WELF series has so far published anthologies of stories from Cameroon, Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya and Malaysia and you can preview the World Englishes Literature series here: http://www.new-ventures.net/. This editorial opportunity is particularly suited to those interested in the role of language in literature.

The deadline for applications is: 30 September 2013.
For full details and the application form, please see
www.cccpress.co.uk/WELFcallforeditors.pdf

Emma Dawson Varughese
worldlits@googlemail.com
www.beyondthepostcolonial.com

source: AISLS

“Oral History in South Asia: practices, uses and possibilities”, International Workshop at Royal Holloway, University of London, 5th and 6th July 2013.

This workshop brings together scholars and oral history activists from Pakistan, Nepal, India and the UK to debate the future of oral history in South Asia. We are broadly interested in four questions:

1) What can oral history contribute to historical research in South Asia and how does it fit in with documentary evidence?

2) Does the South Asian context require a particular oral history methodology, and if so, how can it be developed further and how can it be taught?

3) What are the political uses of oral history in the South Asian context? How do they contribute to community empowerment, to participation in – or challenge to – established nationalist paradigms?

4) How can oral history practice be effectively shared across South Asia and between the UK and South Asia? How can research material be made accessible and archived?

This workshop is part of a British Academy Mobility Grant linking Royal Holloway, University of London, and Government College University, Lahore. It is our long-term aim to institutionalize this collaboration and to widen it to include additional partners across the region.

For further information please contact

Dr. Markus Daechsel, Senior Lecturer in Muslim Societies
Royal Holloway, University of London,
markus.daechsel@rhul.ac.uk.

Call for Papers (14 June 2013): ARI Conference on Theorising Mobilities in/from Asia

Asia’s rapid ascension to become a beacon of 21st century development has ostensibly rendered the region that much more dynamic and fluid. In particular, the continent now seems abuzz with activities involving the circulation of large numbers of people and goods between and within countries and urban centers. While mobilities have long been a staple in Asian societies and a force of social transformation throughout history, a greater need/desire for mobility in recent years has impelled new ways of being on the move in Asia. Of note, fresh outlooks have emerged in relations to the organisation of. as well as people’s aspirations for, migration and transport mobilities—at times resulting in new innovations and phenomena, and at others, seeing the importation and re-circulation of different models.

Shifting the focus to these themes inevitably plugs Asian social research to literatures subscribing to the mobilities turn. Of note, there is growing awareness among scholars that societies are principally loose formations shaped and reshaped by the very condition of flux and restlessness, rather than stable, self-evident entities. From how urban rhythms alter the city’s fabric to how international travel is governed, scholars have outlined the disparate ways in which places are animated, made meaningful, and moulded out of mobile ideologies and practices. The resulting scholarship is also one that does not seek to locate stasis, but one that tries to unfix apparent, but misleading, ‘fixities’.

Despite this newfound emphasis, the mobilities literature has remained rooted in the Anglo-American context within which it first gained prominence. Its disposition, it seems, remains to valorise, even universalise, ‘western’ theories, terminologies and perspectives about moving, so much so that ‘Other’ expressions of mobilities have been silenced or excluded. This conference thus invites scholars to explore ways of retrieving these lost knowledges of mobilities through a deliberate (re)turn to ‘Asia’. In particular, the region is taken as a collective of centres for re-understanding and re-theorising mobilities in their plurality and, especially, how migration and transport have compelled new social outlooks and modes of organisation in ‘Asian’ contexts. In building such a cosmopolitan case, participants are encouraged to engage with the following questions:

• What do mobilities (and mobile subjects) mean in the region, and how are they expressed through migration and transport?
• How have mobilities in Asia developed over time and through disparate historical pathways?
• What are the impetuses for mobilities in Asia, particularly where organised movements are involved?
• How do different forms of mobilities intersect and to what extent have they challenged regulatory regimes in Asian contexts?
• How do we theorise mobilities in Asia vis-à-vis other regions?

SUBMISSION OF PROPOSALS

Paper proposals should include a title, an abstract of 300 words maximum and a brief personal biography of 150 words for submission by 14 June 2013. Please send all proposals to Mr Weiqiang Lin at weiqiang.lin.2011@live.rhul.ac.uk.Click here for the Paper Proposal Submission Form. Successful applicants will be notified by 14 July 2013 and will be required to send in a completed draft paper (5000 – 8000 words) by 14 October 2013.

Based on the quality of proposals and the availability of funds, partial or full funding will be granted to successful applicants. Participants are therefore encouraged to seek funding for travel from their home institutions. Full funding cover air travel to Singapore by the most economical means, plus board and lodging for the duration of the conference.

Date

:

14-15 November 2013
Venue

:

Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore
Website

:

http://www.ari.nus.edu.sg/events_categorydetails.asp?categoryid=6&eventid=1425

 
 

CONTACT DETAILS

Convenors

Prof Brenda YEOH
Asia Research Institute, Department of Geography,
and Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, National University of Singapore
 
Mr Weiqiang LIN
Royal Holloway, University of London, UK
E| weiqiang.lin.2011@live.rhul.ac.uk

CFP: Feminist Pre-Conference, South Asia Annual Meeting, Madison, WI, 17 October 2013

Call for Presentations:  Feminist Scholarship: Genealogies and New Directions-
Having completed the 10th Year of the Annual Feminist Preconference, this is an excellent time to evaluate the field and reflect on its
histories.  Therefore, this year–17 October 2013–we ask that participants present their current research to reflect the latest scholarship in “Feminist Studies” (broadly conceived) and, at the same time, examine the intellectual threads that have influenced it.  What scholarly trajectories does this new work advance and which ones does it challenge, reject, or re-imagine?
Several overarching themes seem to be emerging in our related fields, often blurring the boundary between our respective disciplines.
Feminist studies have helped to reorient the study of comparative literature and history, as well as analyses of globalization and neoliberal economics whether by recasting the historical project or focusing attention on the effects of neoliberalism on women.  This in turn has led to, among numerous other issues, rethinking subject formation, relations of field research, disenfranchisement and
displacement, and the shift from government-based and directed aid to non-government organizations. What is the role of feminist research in examining these issues and interrogating old concepts such as “empowerment,” “civil society,” “transnational,” or even “feminism” itself?  How are these trends being interpreted in (and perhaps led by) South Asian Studies?  South Asianists in both Social Sciences and Humanities also have been at the forefront of theorizing and pushing the boundaries in fields that shape feminist studies. When scholars talk about “queering the archive,” they point to a total reexamination of existing research categories.  How has our research led or contributed to these discussions and debates?
There is a valuable questioning prevalent in South Asian Studies of liberal assumptions that pervade much feminist theory, human rights frameworks, and the privileging of secularism as the most central discourse of emancipation. And while earlier scholarship focused on the inclusion of women and gender issues, there now seems to be renewed attention to questions of subjugation, violence, economic disparity and real or metaphorical “dirt.”  What do these changes mean and how are they different from the focus on similar themes that took place in colonial or orientalist scholarship?  Again what role is South Asian feminist analyses playing in this reexamination?
The Feminist Pre-Conference therefore looks to highlight new scholarship that reflects feminist approaches to your disciplines and
subfields on these or other issues that you deem most important.  Plus it asks you to provide an analysis of how that research fits into the history or genealogy of Feminist inquiry.
We look forward to a state-of-the-field discussion that looks ahead with attention to the past.  Pleas submit proposals for papers (250
words in length) to both Wendy Singer singerw@kenyon.edu AND Shelley Feldman rf12@cornell.edu by 30 May 2013.
 Source: AISLS

Call for papers: Benevolent Goddesses of South Asia.

A Call for Scholarly Papers:  Nidan:  An International Journal for the Study of Hinduism  invites the submission of original scholarly articles that address the topic

“BENEVOLENT GODDESSES OF SOUTH ASIA.”

Articles  should be about 6,000 words. Authors are encouraged to approach the issue creatively and to treat the topic either (1) methodologically   (e.g., “Can we find strictly benevolent goddesses in South Asia??), (2)  anthropologically/ descriptively (e.g.,  a descriptive  study of a single goddess or a particular group of goddesses),  (3)  sociologically (e.g. what might benevolent goddesses reflect or how  might they function in the communities where they are found?) or  aesthetically (e.g. artistic conventions associated with good goddesses)  . These suggestions should not be understood as restrictive: any  scholarly piece that contributes to the accumulated knowledge addressing  benevolent goddesses in South Asia is welcome for consideration. This  issue of Nidan we propose to bring out in December, 2013. It will appear in the context of the December, 2012 issue of Nidan on “Fierce Goddesses in South Asia.” Nidan is a relatively new journal and has a history of publishing articles written from a variety of perspectives.

For information about the journal, please consult the website at:
http://nidan.ukzn.ac.za/Homepage.aspx

Please  contact me if you have either questions or suggestions. Our policy  involves a reasonably quick turn-around, and each submission will be  reviewed by at least two external readers. Thanks for your interest in  this project.

Bill Harman
Dept. of Philosophy and Religion
Dept. 2753
232 Holt Hall
615 McCallie Avenue
U. of Tennessee at Chattanooga
Chattanooga, Tennessee 37403
tel. 423-425-4336
fax 423-425-4156

source: H-Asia

Call for Book Chapter proposals: for an edited volume of essays on “Women’s roles in South Asian Society, government and other aspects related to Gender Equality and Development”

This Call for Chapters looks for scholarship that focuses on women’s roles in South Asian Society, government and other aspects related to Gender Equality and Development. Questions for consideration may include, but are not limited to:

In what areas have women been able to achieve parity with men? In what areas do women encounter specific disadvantages based on their gender?

How have women’s concerns and problems been addressed by the governments in this region with the aim of encouraging gender    equality?

Himanshi Raizada
Lamar University
(409) 880-8110
Email: hraizada27@gmail.com

source: H-Asia

CFP Panel: “Precolonial Encounters of South & Southeast Asian Art”, ACSAA, Los Angeles, Nov. 7-10, 2013

South and Southeast Asia boast centuries of prolonged artistic
exchange with diverse cultures including those of the Middle East,
Turkey, Persia, and various Asian countries. This panel seeks to chart
the multivalent forms of material exchange in South and Southeast Asia
and their connection to the transmission of knowledge across cultures.
Numerous scholars have enriched the historiography on the material
cultures of these regions by analyzing the role of European
colonialism and by utilizing subsequent post-colonial and Orientalist
interpretive methodologies. While these methods have their place in
the study of the 19th and 20th centuries, this panel attempts to look
outside this approach by focusing on pre-colonial forms of artistic,
cultural and scientific interchange and by advancing new
methodological approaches for thinking about cross-cultural contact
outside of a colonial paradigm.

Can and should post-colonial models and their attendant applications
in visual culture be adapted to account for contact between pre-modern
South and Southeast Asia’s many empires and their subjects? What new
models can be formulated for interpreting the production, circulation,
and collection of art objects across cultures outside of a colonial
framework? How did malleable trade networks create visual
entanglements among various artistic traditions?  What were the
possibilities and limits of knowledge transmission and translation in
a visual format in the pre-colonial world of South and Southeast Asia?

Papers addressing artistic and cultural interchanges in South and
Southeast Asian historiography from the medieval period through the
18th century or papers that deal with intra-regional exchange between
diverse cultures are welcome.
http://www.acsaa.us/careers-a-conferences/1192-acsaa-2013-precolonial

Please email abstracts to: elizabetholiver2013@u.northwestern.edu

Deadline for submission: March 31, 2013

For more information on the 2013 Symposium of the American Council
for Southern Asian Art (ACSAA), held 7-10 November 2013 at the
University of California, Los Angeles, visit:
http://www.acsaa.us/careers-a-conferences/1174-acsaa-2013-symposium

source: H-Asia

CFP Panel 2013 Annual Conference on South Asia for “Media and the State in Colonial India”

This message is to announce a panel for the 2013 Annual Conference on South
Asia tentatively titled: “Media and the State in Colonial India”

We are looking for scholars who work on cinema and media in the colonial
period and who are particularly interested in the relationship between
cinema and media and the colonial state policies, practices, and/or
perceptions.  We are defining media broadly and will like to include
scholars, who work on print or who are interested in any form of visual or
oral media. We are hoping to spur a conversation between historians of
empire and cinema and media studies scholars.

Participants currently include:
Isabel Huacuja Alonso, Department of History, University of Texas at Austin
Suzanne Schulz , Department of Radio Television and Film, University of
Texas at Austin

Please send a tentative title and abstract for 300-400 words
toisabel.huacuja@gmail.combefore March 25th if you’d like to
participate.

source: H-Asia

CFP International Conference on “Asian Art, Culture and Heritage” Colombo, Sri Lanka, 21st-23rd August 2013

The Centre for Asian Studies of the University of Kelaniya is pleased to announce the International Conference on Asian Art, Culture and Heritage organized in collaboration with the International Association for Asian Heritage (IAAH) and the Ministry of Culture and the Arts which will be held from 21st to 23rd of August 2013 at the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute, Colombo , Sri Lanka. All interested academics are invited hereby to submit the abstracts of their research papers on or before 20th April 2013 on the following themes to be considered for presentation at the conference.

1. Recent studies in Archaeology
2. New perspectives in History
3. Trends in Heritage Management, Museology and Tourism
4. Critical studies in Religion, Language and Literature
5. Aspects on Arts, Culture and Society

The abstracts should be between 250-500 words in font size 12 Times New Roman and should contain the title of the paper, name of the author, the text and a few Keywords. A brief CV not exceeding one page including educational qualifications and institutional affiliations should also be sent along with the abstract.

Abstracts and all other correspondence should be channelled through iaahlanka@yahoo.com which is exclusive for this conference. Acceptance of abstracts will be notified case by case till 10th May 2013. Full papers of the accepted abstracts are required on or before 15st June to be considered for publishing.

Registration:
All participants should be registered before attending the conference by paying the registration fee according to the category they belong to. Registration fee includes the conference kit, food and beverages during the conference

Registration fee :
Students : 20$ (South Asians ) 30$ (Non South Asians
Others : 100$ ( South Asians ) 150$ ( Non -South Asians)

Accommodation:
Basic accommodation will be provided for foreign students and IAAH members. Request for accommodation for other participants may be considered according to the availability of hostel facilities at the Sri Lanka Foundation where the conference will be held. Accommodation will be arranged on first come first served basis and therefore payment of the registration fee at the earliest is encouraged to secure accommodation.

Post Conference Tour:

All foreign Participants are invited to attend the Post Conference Tour to the historic city of Galle on the final day of the conference. The Galle Fort is the best preserved Dutch Fort in Asia and a good example of living heritage site in the country. An additional fee of $15 from students and $30 from others will be charged for the tour.

Anura Manatunga,
Director/ Centre for Asian Studies,
University of Kelaniya,
Sri Lanka.

Anura Manatunga,
Centre for Asian Studies,
University of Kelaniya,
Sri Lanka
Email: am@kln.ac.lk
Visit the website at http://www.kln.ac.lk

source: H-Asia