Ateneo de Manila University, PHILIPPINES
26 to 28 November 2009

On 26 to 28 November 2009, the Philippines plays host, through the Ateneo de Manila University, to the 14th English in South East Asia (ESEA) Conference. This conference carries the theme “English Changing: Implications for policy, teaching, and research.”

The ESEA conference series is the result of collaboration between the National Institute of Education (Singapore), the University of Malaya (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia), the University of Brunei Darussalam, Curtin University (Perth, Australia), Ateneo de Manila University (Quezon City, the Philippines), Hong Kong Institute of Education, Sanata Dharma University (Yogyakarta, Indonesia), King Mongkut’s University of Technology (Thonburi, Thailand), and the University of Waikato (New Zealand).

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International Institute for Asian Studies and the University of Amsterdam
Amsterdam, the Netherlands
9 September 2010

The maritime Sama peoples make up on of the most widespread cultural groups within the southeast Asian island region.  They can be found in the Philippine Sulu Archipelago, southwestern Mindanao, Sabah, Borneo, east Kalimantan, and Sulawesi, and across many of the eastern Indonesian islands.  One specific, so-called “sea-nomadic” Sama group refers to itself as “Sea Sama” (Sama Diluat, also known as Bajau Laut).

This conference looks at the Sama Dilaut’s performing arts, focussing on kulintangan and other types of instrumental music, song repertoire, and dance. Music and dance are central to the Sama Dilaut’s identity negotiation and maintenance of cultural memory. Music and dance are direct tools in the processes of identity negotiation that localise the Sama Dilaut ‘in-between’ rather than ‘here’ or ‘there’. ‘In-between’ like the beach is in-between the land and the sea, which is difficult to define sharply because of a constant coming and going of high and low tides that blurs the line between the one and the other; but also ‘in-between’ like the present is a bridge between yesterday and tomorrow. This ‘in-between’ is, at the same time, the clear space of the Sama Dilaut’s ‘Own’.

Contact Dr. Birgit Abels at birgitabels@gmail.com | more info | Deadline: 15 January 2010

UC Berkeley and UCLA Joint Conference
University of California, Berkeley, USA
2 – 3 April 2010

Spatial relations in Southeast Asia have long underpinned, stimulated and framed key works on political organization in the region, from Stanley Tambiah’s ‘galactic polity’ to to Thongchai Winichakul’s ‘geo-body’ to Benedict Anderson’s ‘imagined communities’ to James C. Scott’s ‘zomia.’ This conference proposes to re-examine these formulations, while exploring new research and new understandings about space, landscape and human impact in Southeast Asia.

program | Deadline: 19 January 2010