*CFP* "CULTURE IN THE PANDEMIC AGE", INTER-ASIA CULTURAL STUDIES SOCIETY VIRTUAL CONFERENCE

Culture in the Pandemic Age

Inter-Asia Cultural Studies Society Virtual Conference

Main Conference July 28th-30th 2021 + Graduate Conference July 26th 2021

Inter-Asia Cultural Studies Society and the National University of Singapore, Singapore

 

The C-19 pandemic has upended all aspects of everyday work, life and play. From emergency lockdowns that required everyone to shelter at home to the gradual lifting of restrictions where working from home and remote learning continue to remain the norm, no one and no mode of human interaction have been left untouched by the virus. It is a cascading disaster involving health, economic and social challenges. Its measures designed to mitigate the virus have changed patterns of consumption and production. Its viral war metaphors have unleashed hostility between people, groups and nation-states. 

 

As a catastrophic event, it has precipitated ecological changes to unsettle and defamiliarize our traditional sensemaking of the world. While exacerbating structural inequalities and racial injustices, it has also reminded us there are things we should value, such as care and community. 

 

In such times of crisis, we ask: what are the new conditions and conjunctions of culture (cf. Hall, Grossberg)? What are the alternative strategies to think and act critically in ways that do not merely reproduce conventional and confrontational modes of resistance—how can we negotiate the pandemic and its contradictions so we are not just passive conduits of the virus? How can we refuse to be its vector of transmission (cf. Hage)? With the theme of “Culture in the Pandemic Age,” this Conference calls for critical investigation of the various responses to the C-19 with a focus on the specificities of local cultural contexts and practices. We welcome all submissions relating to Inter-Asia Cultural Studies,

especially those from the following sub-themes:

• genealogies, theories and practices: pandemic, crisis, contagion, borders and border closures, transmissions and virality, lockdowns and reshoring, etc.;
• art, culture & work: pandemic activism and social movements; heritage, memory and learning histories; creative work as essential and non-essential; working from home—spatial adaptations and design, etc.;
• digital technologies and screens: digital learning and e-pedagogies; new screen ontologies and fatigue, etc.;
• media & environment: public health and smart city technologies; infodemics and misinformation; social media, platform societies and infrastructures, etc.;
• sustainability & adaptability: anthropocene and climate change; disaster, racial and surveillance capitalisms; social distancing, urban structure, community and density; conditioning the new normal; catastrophe, emergency and resilience, etc.;
• people, space & embodiments: pandemic (im)mobilities; labour and migration; precarity, mutual assistance, solidarity and care; prejudice and xenophobia; rural-urban reaction to the pandemic; masking, contact tracing, hand sanitising, etc.;
• governance & politics: democracy and biopolitics; surveillance and securitization; inter-Asia relations, etc.;
• new Cold-War, new territories & futurism: political economy and industrialization in pandemic; Asia futurism; territoriality and the politics of distance, etc.

Graduate Student Conference (26 July 2021)

The Inter-Asia Cultural Studies Society conference will host its Graduate Conference

(26 July 2021) before theMain Conference (28-30 July 2021). Our objective is to provide a favorable learning environment for graduate students to present their work-in-progress. While graduate students may submit their abstracts to the Main Conference, we encourage graduate students to submit to the Graduate Conference for better networking opportunities and productive faculty feedback.

Format: Hybrid (Virtual/Singapore)--Zoom, in-person, pre-recorded presentations. Delegates are invited to present virtually. The keynotes will be live-streamed and where possible, live in Singapore. Socially distanced and hybrid plenary presentations will take place at National University of Singapore.

Submission Format: individual papers, panels, roundtables.

 

Abstract Submission Deadline: 29 January 2021

 

Announcement of Accepted Panels, Papers, and Roundtables: 26 February 2021