CALL FOR PAPERS
Southeast Asia and Taiwan Conference
April 25-26, 2024
University of Washington, Seattle
Co-hosted by the UW Center for Southeast Asia & its Diasporas, Taiwan Studies Program, and East Asia Center
Southeast Asia and Taiwan have been linked for millennia by migrations of indigenous peoples and maritime trade. Today, both have become rising economies and embroiled within global political conflicts. This conference seeks to bring together scholars working on broad issues between Southeast Asia and Taiwan, historically and contemporary.
We invite scholars working in social sciences and humanities disciplines to present their ongoing research projects in a two-day workshop. Potential topics and questions include, but are not limited to:
- Rising authoritarianism and reactions to authoritarianism, either comparatively or transnational. For example, how have societies in Southeast Asia and Taiwan responded to authoritarian resurgence, either within its own borders or abroad?
- Transnational indigeneity. Indigenous peoples of Taiwan share a common Austronesian linguistic history with many peoples across mainland and archipelagic Southeast Asia. How do struggles for land justice, environmental justice, etc. compare across the two regions?
- Capitalism, political economy, and economic exchanges between Taiwan &
Southeast Asia. Trade between Southeast Asia and Taiwan, historically centered around Dutch, Chinese, and Japanese colonial maritime networks, has now shifted to Taiwanese manufacturing investments in Southeast Asia as Taiwan seeks to diversify its supply chain dependence. What are the consequences of this for both Taiwan and Southeast Asia? How does Taiwanese investment compete with or supplant investment from other East Asian powers, i.e. Japan, South Korea, and China? How do Southeast Asian societies resist, co-opt, or integrate economic ties with Taiwan? - Southeast Asia is one of the largest growing sources of immigration and migrant labor to Taiwan. What are experiences of Southeast Asian “new immigrants” and migrant laborers in Taiwan as they face daunting legal obstacles, exploitative labor practices, and racial discrimination?
- Taiwan’s relations with Southeast Asia as reflected in the New Southbound Policy. Taiwan’s New Southbound Policy encourages Taiwanese businesses to reorient their investments to Southeast Asia and seeks to shift Taiwan’s center of gravity away from East Asia to Southeast Asia. What effect does the Policy have on Southeast Asian countries and societies? How is it changing Taiwanese society and politics?
- Science, technology, environment, and society. Though Taiwan is often thought of as part of “East Asia,” Taiwan and Southeast Asia share significant environmental challenges due to their linkages across oceanic spaces, climate similarities, and archipelagic formations. We welcome topics on, for example, ecocriticism, political ecologies, pandemic controls and public health, human-animal interactions, energy extraction, climate change, maritime interactions across Taiwan and Southeast Asia.
- Other aspects of Southeast Asia and Taiwan are also welcome
Participants will be expected to pre-circulate substantive works-in-progress, such as dissertation/manuscript chapters or journal articles.
Three nights of local accommodation, up to $250 in airfare subsidy, and meals will be provided for all participants. We especially welcome junior scholars (such as PhD candidates, postdoctoral fellows, non-tenure track and adjunct faculty).
HOW TO APPLY:
Please send an abstract (250-350 words), title, and brief academic biography (1-2 paragraphs) as a single PDF file to seataiwan@uw.edu by September 1, 2023. If the abstract is for a part of a larger project (i.e. a manuscript, dissertation, etc.), please also provide brief context (2-3 sentences) of the larger project.
Submission deadline: September 1, 2023
Decision notification: September 15, 2023
Please send any inquiries to seataiwan@uw.edu