Welcome to the East Asian Studies Graduate Student Conference 2010: “Desire”


"It is only once it is formulated, named in the presence of the other, that desire appears in the full sense of the term." - Jacques Lacan

     How might the understanding of “East Asia” be illuminated by “DESIRE”? Whether as a geographical, historical, and cultural locus, or as a space of fantasy and the imaginary, how is “DESIRE” produced, structured, regulated, and mobilized through various institutions and discursive formations? “DESIRE” is a concept that intersects with and imbricates a range of complex issues: operating on the level of the libidinal, as well as the material economy, it can be understood as lack, a productive force, or a form of affective labour. Nationalism and imperialism, genders and sexualities, aesthetics and consumer culture, the politics of alterity—these axre just a few of many areas particularly significant to the study of East Asia.
     Please join us on Saturday, March 13, 2010 as we explore multidisciplinary spaces of desire. Professor Thomas LaMarre has graciously agreed to join us as our keynote speaker.

 

CALL FOR PAPERS

How might the understanding of “East Asia” – be it in terms of a geographical, historical, and cultural locus or as a space of fantasy and the imaginary – be illuminated by accounting for the ways in which desires are produced, structured, regulated, and mobilized through various institutions and discursive formations? Whether understood as lack or a productive force or a form of affective labor, desire is a concept that intersects with and imbricates a range of complex issues operating on the level of the libidinal as well as the material economy. Nationalism and imperialism, genders and sexualities, aesthetics and consumer culture, and the politics of alterity are but a few, yet are all significant to the study of East Asia.

The East Asian Studies Graduate Student Conference at the University of Toronto invites paper submissions for its 10th annual conference titled DESIRE, to be held on March 13, 2010. We seek papers that can critically interrogate the operations of desire, articulating how they are embedded in different modes of social organization at historically specific moments and bringing them into relation with larger issues of how East Asia is situated in the world. Submissions from graduate students around the world in all disciplines within and beyond the field of East Asian Studies, including history, sociology, anthropology, economy, art, literature, cultural studies, philosophy, and others are welcome.

Possible topics for papers include (but are not limited to):
- theories of desire and their complications in the East Asian context;
- literary and cultural representations and mediations of desire;
- the mobilization of desires and affects through cinema and other visual spectacles;
- intersections of nationalism and the construction of national identities with the constitution, regulation, and circumscription of desire;
- the interplay of capitalism, commodity culture, and desiring production in East Asia;
- gender, sexuality, and the regimes through which desire is disciplined;
- the construction of East Asia as a space of fantasy, and its consequent structuring as object of desire.

We invite all those interested in presenting papers to submit an abstract (300 words maximum) along with brief biographical information by December 21, 2009. Submissions from both individuals and panels of three (panelists should send individual abstracts and a panel abstract) are encouraged. Submitted papers are also eligible for consideration for the East Asia Forum, a journal edited and published by graduate students in the Department of East Asian Studies at the University of Toronto. Please indicate whether you wish to have your completed paper considered for publication.

Selected participants will be asked to submit completed papers by February 15, 2010. Those who wish their papers to be considered for publication should submit a publication-ready copy (about 4000 words). During the conference, participants will be given 20 minutes to present their work; actual presentation papers should be about 1500-2500 words long.

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