CFP: Anthropology of the State (grad) (1/1/05; 4/8/05-4/9/05)

CALL FOR PAPERS

First Annual Stanford Graduate Student Conference in Cultural and Social
Anthropology
Anthropology of the State – the State of Anthropology
Friday, April 8 and Saturday, April 9, 2005

Deadline for 100-150 word abstracts: no later than January 1, 2005

This graduate student conference aims to bring together students and
professors from the San Francisco Bay area and beyond in the interests of
interdisciplinary research, with particular regard to anthropology and
cultural studies.

The ideas of the nation and the State, as metaphors for the dynamics of
power and the production of identities, are sites of elaborate theoretical
legacies. Spatial configurations of the local, the global, the national
and the transnational resonate with explicit or implicit references to the
State as a material, as well as ideological, construction. As such,
discussions of the State figure into just about any social analysis.

Rather than reifying the State, we would like to conceptualize it as a set
of discourses and practices - as a site of cultural and social production
that is imbricated in diffuse power relations and forms of
governmentality. Instead of positing a fixed definition of the State,
this conference seeks to explore how an anthropological approach can
contribute innovative ways of conceptualizing power. Through
interdisciplinary dialogue, we will investigate how the State is
implicated in our research, as well as in the changing paradigms of our
fields.

We are seeking the most compelling papers reflecting on a broad range of
topics, from political economy, neoliberalism, race and class, to
religion, violence, performance, texts, science & technology studies,
collective memory, identity, gender, migration, sovereignty, international
human rights regimes, popular culture, medical anthropology, diaspora,
materiality, and questions of national identity.

During the conference proceedings, Panels will give way to a range of
workshops, which will provide a more intimate and slightly less structured
environment for graduate students and discussants to exchange ideas on
conference themes. Presentations will be 15 minutes long (papers should
be 6-7 pages in length).

Faculty discussants will include: Tom Boelstroeff (UC Irvine,
Anthropology), Philippe Bourgeois (UCSF, Anthropology), Carol Davis (UC
Davis, Anthropology), Donald Donham (UC Davis, Anthropology), James
Ferguson (Stanford, Anthropology), Liisa Malkki (Stanford, Anthropology),
Purnima Mankekar (Stanford, Anthropology), Saba Mahmood (UC Berkeley,
Anthropology), Bill Mauer (UC Irvine, Anthropology), Lisa Rofel (UC Santa
Cruz, Anthropology), Roger Rouse (UC Davis, Anthropology), Barbara Voss
(Stanford, Anthropology), Sylvia Yanagisako (Stanford, Anthropology), and
more to be announced in the months ahead.

Guidelines for Submissions:
Paper proposals should incorporate one or more of the themes of the
conference, listed above. A proposal for a paper should consist of a 100-
150 word abstract. Paper proposals must also include the paper title, and
the name, day and evening phone numbers, fax number, e-mail address,
surface mail address and institutional affiliation of the presenter.

Electronic Submissions:
 Please send submissions (as well as inquiries) by email to:
stanford2005conference_at_hotmail.com, either included in the body of the
email message or as an email attachment (in Word DOC or RTF format).

NOTE: A second Call for Papers (CFP) will take place in one month’s time
(i.e., October 15th). The second CFP will have additional information,
including an official Web Page with travel and hotel information, and a
second, Stanford-sponsored email address (e.g.,
anthro.state_at_stanford.edu). Our third Call for Papers will take place at
the 2004 American Anthropological Association Annual Meetings in San
Francisco, California (November 17th-21st).

Non-Electronic Submissions:
If you are unable to email your proposal, you may send either a PC-
compatible floppy disk containing the document (in Word DOC or RTF format)
to:

Submissions, Graduate Student Conference
Anthropology of the State – the state of Anthropology
Department of Cultural and Social Anthropology
Stanford University
Building 110, Main Quad
Stanford, CA 94305

Deadline for receipt of submission of abstract: 5:00 p.m. January 1, 2005

Presenters will be notified of the conference committee’s decision by
email by February 5, 2005.

Presenters must submit a final draft of their paper by 5:00pm March 1, 2005

There will be no conference registration fee.

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Received on Mon Oct 04 2004 - 11:39:54 EDT