Announcements

Lecture Series: Itinerant Heritage

Interdisciplinary lectures on objects from the colonial age, looted art and the illegal trade of cultural goods

Heidelberg Centre for Transcultural Studies (HCTS) at Heidelberg University. Winter Semester 2021/2022

In the 2021/2022 winter semester, the Heidelberg Centre for Transcultural Studies (HCTS) at Heidelberg University is hosting a lecture series on the topic of itinerant cultural heritage. The focus of the interdisciplinary lectures is tangible and intangible cultural goods of different kinds that move dynamically between different cultures and forms of intercourse. For example, it deals with stolen art, or illegally traded collectables. The lectures – in English – will reflect approaches from anthropology and archaeology, art history, criminology, museum and area studies. Starting on 26 October 2021, they will be livestreamed Tuesdays from 14:00 to 16:00.

The convenors of the lecture series are Prof. Dr Christiane Brosius, professor for visual and media anthropology at the HCTS, and Dr Carsten Wergin, anthropologist and associate professor at the HCTS. “With the series we have foregrounded the mobility and fragility of cultural goods that move in the field of tension between different socio-cultural, political, economic and ecological forces. The focus is, inter alia, on how people engage with their cultural heritage in view of climate change, migration, urbanization, nationalisms or colonialism,” Christiane Brosius explains. Carsten Wergin adds: “With the concept of ‘itinerant heritage’ we highlight the dynamics and mobility of cultural goods – in time and also in space. We are interested in how, and with what consequences, social actors claim cultural heritage for themselves, imagine, transform or critique it.”

Above: Mural, Rajasthan. (Photograph by Christiane Brosius, 2010).

The curtain-raiser for the lecture series on 26 October will be given by anthropologist Prof. Dr Haidy Geismar from University College London (UK) with a lecture on digital cultural heritage. Eight more lectures follow, from November to January 2022, exploring further forms of itinerant cultural heritage with respect to theoretical, methodological and empirical challenges. Besides lectures on handling plundered art from Africa or museum objects acquired during colonialism, the programme also includes sessions on the illegal worldwide trade with cultural goods and the ecological and political-nationalist dimensions of cultural heritage. The final lecture on 1 February 2022 will be given by Prof. Dr Wayne Modest, Director of Content at the Museum of World Cultures (Wereldmuseum Rotterdam) and director of the Research Center for Material Culture in Leiden (Netherlands), on cultural heritage and its colonial history in the Caribbean.

The speakers include internationally acclaimed experts from Australia, Britain, India, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United States. The lecture series “Itinerant Heritage: Tracing Transcultural Dynamics and Mobilities” is being organized in cooperation with the Flagship Initiative “Transforming Cultural Heritage” and the Centre for Asian and Transcultural Studies of Heidelberg University.

For the livestream link email: clare.harris@hcts.uni-heidelberg.de

For the lecture series ‘Itinerant Heritage’ go to: www.uni-heidelberg.de/itinerant_ heritage_lecture

Borderland Futures: Technologies, Zones, Co-existences

7th Conference of the Asian Borderlands Research Network Reconciliation & Coexistence in Contact Zone (RCCZ) Research Center, Chung-Ang University, Seoul, South Korea, 23-25 June 2022

The 7th Asian Borderland Research Network (ABRN) conference focuses on three key themes – technologies, zones, co-existences – that aim to generate broader debate and intellectual engagement with borderland futures. Panels and papers will offer critical reflections on these key themes both theoretically and empirically.

The conference is organised by the Reconciliation & Coexistence in Contact Zone (RCCZ) Research Center; International Institute for Asian Studies; and the Asian Borderlands Research Network (ABRN).

Registration will open in January 2022. Fees are as follows, with special rates for (PhD) students:

Early bird (before 1 March): € 125 / (PhD) students € 70 Regular (before 15 May): € 150 / (PhD) students € 90 On-site: € 175 / (PhD) students € 110

Humanities Across Borders: A Methodologies Book Series

The Humanities Across Borders (HAB) book series aims to trigger discussions on the relevance of normative, top down, and institutionalised standards of knowledge production and transmission in the academy. As conventional models and modes of understanding lose their capacity to explain the human condition in the new global era, the multitude of voices, lives, locales, and journeys emerge as windows into the past and present to give a fresh, more expanded meaning to the Humanities.

Comprising monographs as well as edited volumes, the HAB book series focuses on methodological experiments and reflections across disciplinary, institutional, ideological, national, and sectoral borders. The series will: - Interrogate prevailing, often dominant, conceptual frames and categories. - Posit uncommon entry points to inquiry that bear meaning in the everyday lives of people and are relevant for interrogating wider global issues. - View quotidian knowledge-practices as valuable sources of experiential knowledge (and pedagogies) unfolding over time and space. - Encourage dialogue ‘across borders’, in the spirit of inter-cultural scholarship and educational justice. - Seek collaborative institutional and/or programmatic arrangements that re-invigorate the civic embeddedness and global connectedness of universitybased curricula.

Series Editors Aarti Kawlra, IIAS, the Netherlands, Philippe Peycam, IIAS, the Netherlands

Editorial Board Wendy Singer, Kenyon College, USA Tharapi Than, Northern Illinois University, USA Dzodzi Tsikata, University of Ghana, Ghana Paul van der Velde, IIAS, The Netherlands Françoise Vergès, France

Actively Seeking Proposals The series welcomes scholarly monographs and edited volumes in English, by both established and early-career researchers.

For questions or to submit a proposal, contact the Publishing Director Irene van Rossum. Email: i. vanrossum@aup.nl

Website: www.aup.nl/en/series/humanitiesacross-borders

Call for Papers

Future Practices of Citizenship in Asia and the West. The Care of the Self III

A two-day hybrid conference. Leiden, the Netherlands/online, 25-26 April 2022

We invite the submission of paper abstracts of maximum 300 words by 17 December 2021. Selected papers will be presented as work in progress and should consist of previously unpublished material. At the event you will receive feedback from convenors, fellow participants, and audience members. A selection of papers will then be made into a book.

This conference forms part of the Care of the Self project which has been investigating human agency in society, taking Michel Foucault’s concept of the care of the self as its point of departure. The project’s focus on citizenship and human rights in Asia and the West (and comparisons between them) is one of its unique selling points.

This event is intended to be multi-disciplinary, with contributions from (but not limited to) anthropology, architecture, geography, history, philosophy, political science, religious studies, social science, urbanism, etc. The point of departure is citizenship in Asia and/or the West. Papers should deal with current or imminent challenges to citizenship with regard to (among other things) the built environment, climate change, increasing inequality, the rise of Big Data, Covid-19 and its responses, etc. Papers are free to propose their own definition of citizenship, and those that make comparative analyses between, within, or across the themes listed below will be particularly welcome.

Finally, this conference will be a hybrid event, meaning that while we strongly encourage participants to join in person in Leiden, should this not be possible then arrangements will be made to accommodate online participation by successful applicants. We would prefer, however, for people to attend in person, as this makes the initial peer-review process so much stronger.

This conference is organised by Delft University of Technology (Netherlands), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Urban Knowledge Network Asia (UKNA), and the International Institute for Asian Studies (Netherlands).

Deadline for submissions: 17 December 2021

Detailed information about the programme and submission guidelines can be found on our website: www.iias.asia/events/care-self-iii

For questions, please contact Ms Xiaolan Lin of the UKNA Secretariat at IIAS: Email: x.lin@iias.nl