IU-AUCA Workshop

CASI is looking for contributions on "New Socialities in Central Asia." "Sociality" as a concept has been employed across a broad swathe of scholarly disciplines. It invokes processes and can be defined as "a dynamic relational matrix within which subjects are constantly interacting in ways that are co-productive, and continually plastic and malleable." (Long & Moore, eds., 2013, Sociality: New Directions, Oxford: Berghahn, p. 4) Sociality is the fundamental condition of human beings but the particular ways in which it evinces itself in personhood and other structuring ideas and practices – kinship, identity, economy, religion, or ritual, to name but a few -- are constantly changing.

We are particularly interested in "new" or "recent" forms -- or instantiations -- of sociality in contemporary situations of mobility, urbanity, and translocal connections. If you feel tempted by the topic, send a title and an abstract (250 words), even tentative ones to Dr. Svetlana Jacquesson at jacquessonsvetlana@gmail.com, by 30 November 2017.

We are planning to organize one or two panels on the topic at the second IU-AUCA workshop to take place at Indiana University (Bloomington) at the end of August 2018 as well as to publish a collective volume / special issue on the topic. All expenses of AUCA participants in the workshop will be covered by IU-AUCA joint fund.