Call for Papers

Young Scholars International Conference

Margins and Connections

Organized by

North East India Studies Programme

School of Social Sciences
Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi

Date: 7-8 February, 2019

Venue: Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi

Concept Note:

Margins are not mere physical outlying areas, or geographies at the edges of state,
capital and socio-cultural worlds. They are products of various complex processes in
colonial and postcolonial times and have been produced in various moments of
contestations, fragmentations and negotiations. As such, margins are not inert
spaces; they are active sites in which creative practices and connections have taken
place. Such practices and connections include cultures, politics, histories, societies,
and economies that inhabit either the border of a state or a “geo-body.” In this
regard, various studies focusing on “margins” have enabled us to look at forms of
state-making, subject formations, role of capital, circuits and networks, contestations
and subversions, including various cultural and political practices across societies
and boundaries.

Historically, “margins” such as North East India had connections with societies in
the “margins” of neighboring areas such as Nepal, Bhutan, Tibet, China, Myanmar,
Bangladesh, etc. As such, these geographical spaces throw up comparable and
significant insights in studying the making of such complex spaces. For instance,
these geographies are sites and spaces of various forms of material and non-material
transactions and connectivities, including resources, rituals and commodities.

Such transactions and connectivities continue to mark these spaces even in the
contemporary times. People continue to have wider social, cultural and (in) formal
economic networks, marked by routes and infrastructures that support various
forms of mobility. These “margins” have also been sites and spaces where forms of
state/non-state violence, contestations, projects of nation building and
developmental interventions of both state and global financial institutions
simultaneously have coexisted. This has also included representing these “margins”
as the “gateways” and “corridors” of capital, trade and services under the neoliberal
economy. Nevertheless, these areas have also been marked by various forms of social
and political movements, that resists and negotiates violence and developmental
interventions.
Some of the broad concerns and issues that emerge from the above are, what are
margins? In what context are margins produced and reproduced? How are margins
connected to the wider processes of state, capital and cultural flows? What are the
different ways through which societies respond to the shifting dynamics of margin
making?

This two-day interdisciplinary international conference seeks to explore some of

these issues and concerns, especially focusing on North East India and its
neighboring areas such Nepal, Bhutan, Tibet, China, Myanmar, Bangladesh, etc. This
conference focuses on the following themes, but are not limited to:

Making state, making margins

Circuits, networks and infrastructures
Capital, resource regimes and economy
Margins and everyday life
Violence, resistance and margins
Knowledge, power and practices
Margins and governance
Movement and mobility
Development, ecology and margins
Memory and narratives
Margins and gender
Material culture

Interested research scholars, post-doctoral scholars and early career academics are
invited to submit an abstract of about 200-300 words, including a brief CV at
neispyoungscholarsconference@gmail.com

Participants from outside India are requested to seek funding from their institutions
for travel costs. Partial funding to cover travel costs may be available for selected
participants from within India based on availability of funds. Accommodation and
local conveyance will be provided for selected participants.

Important dates:

Last date for abstract submission: 21 July, 2018

Intimation of abstract acceptance: 17 August, 2018
Submission of working papers from selected participants: 7 January, 2019

Organizing Team:

G. Amarjit Sharma
Bhumika R
Robert Lunkhopao Haokip
Tanmoy Das
Thingminao Horam