University of Cambridge, 19-20 June 2023
Keynote speakers: Lynette Russell (Monash University) and Michael T. Carson (University of Guam)
The field of global history has embraced a call for new histories that cross borders and emphasise migrations and connections across large scales. Yet, in doing so, the field has at times overemphasised the history of European empires. This conference will explore new decolonial approaches which emphasise the agency of Indigenous and other non-European actors within the bustling, cross-cultural worlds of Asia-Pacific. Taking inspiration from the field of Pacific history, we will explore entanglements across oceanic spaces, shifting the focus from the dominance of European traditions towards analyses of cross-cultural exchanges.
We seek to broaden the geographical focus to incorporate the worlds of both the Pacific and Maritime Southeast Asia and beyond, including Latin America. This wider scope will allow for an exciting, boundary-shifting dialogue between Pacific, Asian, and Latin American historians working within the fields of Indigenous history and non-European histories of globalisation and cross-cultural exchange. We call for abstracts concerned with any time period but especially encourage those focussed on the pre-modern era, which has been underrepresented in scholarship. We welcome contributions that cut across different methodologies and forms of historical evidence, including Indigenous studies, decolonisation, visual and material culture, ethnography, and archaeology.
We invite proposals for individual 20-minute papers that focus on:
* Non-European conceptualisations of the Pacific or Maritime Spaces in Asia-Pacific
* Indigenous connections across maritime space
* Decolonial approaches to empire in Asia-Pacific
* Indigenous knowledge systems and Indigenous historical methodologies
* Non-European global histories of exchange
We especially encourage contributions from PhD students and early career scholars. We also aim to publish a selection of papers from the conference as a Special Issue in a peer-reviewed journal.
Please submit an abstract (c.250 words) and a brief bio to Indigenous.AsiaPacific@gmail.c
With all best wishes,
Sebestian Kroupa and Stephanie Mawson
Conference organisers
Dr Sebestian Kroupa
Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellow
Department of History and Philosophy of Science | Wolfson College
University of Cambridge
