[TimorLesteStudies] Euroseas Panel 2017 - call for expressions of interest

[Michael Leach]

From: Lia Kent [mailto:lia.kent at anu.edu.au]
Sent: Tuesday, 21 February 2017 9:30 AM
Subject: Euroseas Panel - call for expressions of interest

Dear colleagues,
Rui Feijo and I are seeking expressions of interest from scholars interested in presenting a paper as part of a Panel on 'The powerful dead: the politics of martyrs and other dead bodies in Southeast Asia' at the 2017 EuroSEAS conference. Further details on the Panel themes are below. If you are interested in being part of this panel, please contact Lia Kent (lia.kent at anu.edu.au<mailto:lia.kent at anu.edu.au>)  or Rui Feijo (ruifeijo at gmail.com<mailto:ruifeijo at gmail.com>) by 31st March with a title and an abstract.
Kind regards
Lia Kent and Rui Feijo

The powerful dead: The politics of martyrs and other dead bodies in Southeast Asia
Panel proposed to the 9th EuroSEAS Conference, Oxford, UK, August 16-18, 2017
In Southeast Asia as elsewhere, dead bodies act as potent political symbols. Their relationship to kinship, burial rites and the sacred gives them an affective power that can be mobilized by political elites during formative periods of nation-building, including in the aftermath of conflict or struggles for national independence (Verdery 1999: 32-33). Private rituals of grief, burial and mourning are appropriated at such times in order to transform the dead into public symbols of sacrifice, martyrdom and nationhood.
Yet, the efforts of political elites to 'consolidate and contain' (Tuitt 2008: 259) the meanings of the dead are seldom all encompassing. Friction can be evident as national elites and other societal actors negotiate questions such as how the dead should be represented and treated, and by whom, and which bodies are deserving of martyr status. Frictions may also occur between the nationalist meanings ascribed to dead bodies and their cultural, social, spiritual, and local meanings.
This panel invites contributions from scholars whose work touches on these and other issues relating to the politics of martyrs and other dead bodies in South East Asian societies. It also invites scholars to consider what this politics signifies about the tensions of social memory creation and/or nation-building in those societies.
Conveners:
Lia Kent
School of Regulation and Global Governance
Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
(lia.kent at anu.edu.au<mailto:lia.kent at anu.edu.au>)
Rui Graça Feijó
Centro de Estudos Sociais da Universidade de Coimbra / Instituto de História Contemporânea da Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal
(ruifeijo at gmail.com<mailto:ruifeijo at gmail.com>)


Dr Lia Kent
Fellow
School of Regulation and Global Governance (RegNet)
ANU College of Asia and the Pacific
Coombs Extension Building #8
The Australian National University
ACTON ACT 2601
T: +61 2 6125 1057
E: lia.kent at anu.edu.au<mailto:lia.kent at anu.edu.au>

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