CFP: Columbia University Conference, “Radical Increments: Toward New Platforms of Engaging Iraqi Studies” REVISED Call for Papers for a conference entitled “Radical Increments: Toward New Platforms of Engaging Iraqi Studies,” to be held at Columbia University, New York. Please note the date change to 24-25 April, 2015 Submission date extended to February 1, 2015 The rift between theory and application in Iraqi studies has grown over the past three decades, with Iraqi scholarship curtailed at home due to geographic isolation during the Iraq-Iran war, dearth of funding and faltering of infrastructure during the embargo years, sectarian violence in the post-2003 phase, and funding sources in the west channeling knowledge to achieve strategic geopolitical ends. The result in many cases has been the production of scholarship on Iraq that falls short of looking closely at informal networks of practice and their relational dynamics with the state and civil society. Radical incrementalism is a process wherein existing frameworks of knowledge are not paradigmatically changed but rather modified, extended, or repositioned to allow for new possibilities of application and action. Applying this conceptual framework, the conference encourages the creation of new platforms of engagement with the current Iraqi debacle, platforms that may generate a provisional meta-framework for the making of engaged theory tailored specifically for the Iraqi case. We seek to create an informed space to address the following questions in a manner that bears practical utility. Possible questions include: --What roles do regional powers play in intensifying the current conflict and its attendant political/identity transformation? How does that reflect on local networks/site of actions, definition of identities, conception of statehood, and modes of sociality within the fragmented urban space of Iraq? --Can we chart out new Iraqi social formations in the midst of the dismantling/departure of old ones? What is the relationship between centers and peripheries of cultural production in post-1991 Iraq? How does regional literary and artistic output negotiate its identity as the centrality of Baghdad diminishes? --What new lenses can we use to examine the informal communities of practices that defy the former homogenized characterizations of Iraqi society of the 20th century? --How do we approach the study of Iraqi minorities, especially ones that are endangered or nearly fully displaced from the former nation-state, such as Iraq’s Christian and Yezidi communities? --What Iraqi communities, cultures, and practices are at the interface between the Global North and South or Western and Eastern processes and ideas that could make innovation in theorizing about Iraq possible (for example, how do we characterize the differences between the U.S. and Russian influences on the articulation of Iraqi modernity)? --Are there intermediary bodies that are slowly shifting institutional power strategically and progressively (might Kurdish government and cultural sphere fall under such scrutiny)? --As Baghdad’s central authority diminished amidst the violence and fragmentation of the 1990s-2014 decades, what became of the distinct expressions of ‘Iraqi culture’ associated with the city? Was the capital city ever as central to the making and maintenance of Iraqi national identity as it was once assumed to be? Why do individuals and communities that are linguistically, religiously, administratively, and now geopolitically severed from the influence of the national center continue to identify as ‘Iraqi’? --How do environmental concerns, global and local, figure into the new socio-political equation (the revival of the Iraqi marshes in the south, petroleum politics, etc.)? In sum, how close can we get to providing functional maps of how the Iraqi people are acting--or might act--with each other locally and transnationally to create relational engagement between state, civil society, and the private sphere? Submissions from various disciplines in the humanities and social sciences are invited. We especially welcome contributions that endeavor to theorize for practical course of action on a collective scale. Please send abstracts of 200 words and short bio to Professors Muhsin al-Musawi of Columbia University ([email protected]) and Yasmeen Hanoosh of Portland State University ([email protected]) by February 1, 2015. We will be in touch shortly thereafter to confirm participation. If your abstract is accepted, please ensure that your paper is prepared with an eye towards publication, as selected papers will be chosen to contribute to a special issue of the Journal of Arabic Literature. We expect almost completed papers by the time of the conference (April 25-26). Conference Co-organizers: Professor Muhsin Al-Musawi, professor Yasmeen Hanoosh, and Abeer Shaheen Yasmeen Hanoosh Arabic Section Head Assistant Professor of Arabic Studies World Languages and Literatures Portland State University Office: NH 496 Phone: 971-270-6574 [end of doc]
Posted on: Fri, 23 Jan 2015 05:29:15 +0000
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