The urgency of a global refugee crisis, ever increasing rates of migration,  transnational efforts towards development projects, and the flow of informational, intellectual, and financial capital all raise questions of power and governance as exercised within and across state boundaries. Within the scholarship on South Asia, this has generated an array of questions - from those about political belonging and self-determination, to critiques of urban development and “good” governance; from discussions about mobilities of people, commodities, and ideas, to literary, technological, and artistic productions that engage with territoriality. Using these themes as a starting point, our conference explores relationships between space and sovereignty.

We encourage participants to explore how sources of authority are contested, negotiated, and reimagined across different spaces. In doing so we welcome approaches that look at the role of the state not only as a rational bureaucratic mechanism, but also in terms of effects and everyday practices.

The sixth annual Princeton South Asia Conference will bring together early career scholars (advanced graduate students and junior faculty) across disciplines that engage with South Asia. In keeping with the theme of the conference, we invite papers that engage with South Asia in a broad sense, including Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Tibet, Nepal, the Maldives, Afghanistan, Bhutan, Myanmar or Burma, India, and transnational and diasporic spaces.

Papers might address these and other themes:

• migration and diaspora
• questions of “home” and “belonging”
• international governance and organizations
• the commons
• law, state, and space
• the “borderland” and the frontier
• practices of cartography
• the ocean as non-state space
• corporations, capital, and development

Questions can be directed to: princeton.sas2017[at]gmail.com

Princeton University will provide participants with accommodation for two nights and will contribute toward travel expenses. Participants are encouraged to seek funding from their home institutions as well.

Proposals should include a title, a 250-word abstract, institutional affiliation, and contact information. Please submit proposals1.