The Sikh Turban: Exploring An Icon Of A Migratory Peoples’ Identity
Research Consultation: Anthropological Collection on Sikh Turbans
The Horniman Museum, London
Kind assistance is requested with researching a collection displaying the dastar as part of Sikhs’ global migration. The collection has three aspirations; to firstly display the pagh’s physical variation as geographically dichotomous and freighting a regionally intrinsic identity trope for instance Makhan Singh as a kalasingha wearing a Kenyan kilemba. Secondly to consider the pagh and its contentious role in Sikh identity within the milieu of other head-coverings e.g. Mitres in Europe during The Middle Ages. Thirdly to reflect on the pagh in Sikh-Britain relationships e.g. Winterhalter’s 1854 portrait of Duleep Singh or turbaned Sikhs as stock British Armed Forces’ media images. Thoughts on the collection mode and process are especially welcomed. The Horniman Museum Collections can be explored at www.horniman.ac.uk, whilst the researchers can be reached on gorby.jandu@gmail.com and JZetterstrom-Sharp@horniman.ac.uk. The collection is due to gain exhibition in 2014 with displays finalised by end 2013.
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: Violence, Memory, and the Dynamics of Transnational Youth Formations
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: Violence, Memory, and the Dynamics of Transnational Youth Formations
Eds Kamal Arora, Duygu Gül & Michael Nijhawan
We invite submissions for a special issue of Sikh Formations that tackles the relationship between violence, memory and transnational youth formations. In recent years, we are witnessing a massive mobilization of youth not only in the streets of the Middle East, but globally, from Spain to Quebec, and London to Athens. Youth are engaged in forms of identity making in contexts of neoliberal capitalism, authoritarian states, and diasporic spaces. This special issue seeks to shed light on youth subjectivities and contemporary forms of social and political engagements through a transnational lens. We invite contributions that assess the burgeoning forms of transnational contours of youth formations, and reflect on new languages emerging in encounters with states, political regimes and other actors. As this issue is interdisciplinary and the focus is transnational, scholarly papers as well as creative works that focus on a wide variety of geographical localities, including a transnational and/or diasporic component are welcome.
Broadly, we welcome papers that:
- theorize youth formations in relation to violence and memory, which might include social and political activism, social media, multiculturalism and the state, diaspora and transnationalism, gendered identities, security and migration, religion and secularism;
- reflect on the specificity, flexibility and adaptability of the category of “youth” in each analyzed context by paying specific attention to the politics of categorization;
- examine diasporic contexts and formation of other youth constellations, be they nationally or internationally defined.
We invite authors to submit papers that reflect multiple interdisciplinary perspectives, including scholarly papers as well as creative works such as non-fiction narrative, poetry, memoir and photographic essays. The deadline for abstracts is: December 10th, 2012. Detailed abstracts of 300-500 words should be e-mailed to youthfor@yorku.ca by December 10th, 2012. Once abstracts have been selected by the editorial team, authors are requested to submit their manuscripts by May 1st, 2013. Manuscripts for scholarly papers should follow the format provided on ‘Instructions for Authors’ page of the Sikh Formations website and be between 8000 to 10000 words, including all notes and references. Narrative pieces or creative essays should not exceed 2000 words. If you wish to have more information about this special issue, please contact us at youthfor@yorku.ca .
Guest editors Kamal Arora, Duygu Gül & Michael Nijhawan.
PRG Meeting June 2011 – Royal Holloway
The meeting was kindly hosted by Ali Usman Qasmi, Royal Holloway.
F. M. Bhatti, Independent Researcher
‘Sikh Pilgrims to the Punjab Pakistan: cultural change, revival and change’
Hassan Javid, PhD Candidate, Department of Sociology,
London School of Economics and Political Science
‘Land and Power: The Politics of Space in the Punjab Canal Colonies, 1886-1926’
Margaret Walton-Roberts Director, International Migration Research Centre Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario
‘Transnational arbitragers: immigration brokers and new processes and patterns of India-Canada diasporic reproduction’
Virinder Kalra, Department of Sociology, University of Manchester
‘Gugga Pir as the Hybrid Norm’
Elisabetta Iob, Ph.D. Candidate, Department of History, Royal Holloway
‘“The sword of Heaven is not in haste to smite/Nor yet doth linger”: the rise of the Muslim League in Malik Barkat Ali and Muhammad Ali Jinnah private correspondence’
Transnational Punjab Literature and Culture: Challenges and Opportunities
28 Feb and 1 March 2010
Senate Hall, Punjabi University Patiala.
See attached for full details:card wpc patiala
Call for Papers: 1th EASA Biennial Conference: Maynooth, Ireland
1th EASA Biennial Conference: Maynooth, Ireland – 24-27th August 2010
Panel: Material Culture, Migration and the Transnational Imaginary
Short Abstract
Material objects are used to objectify memory; as things with their own trajectories, migrating objects are also used to create new links and new relations, positively or negatively affecting imaginations of community and belonging, making migration a crisis of local/global identification.
Migration is not just about citizens crossing borders from homeland to host-countries; it incorporates global movements of things, ideas and people: transnational movements affecting those who move as well as those who don’t. Migration as the crisis of passage moves the traditional paradigm of migration into the realm of the imaginary, in which distant and previously unknown peoples can become connected through materials circulating in this global domain. The same types of objects cited previously can similarly be used to express outward belonging and membership to “imagined communities” not able to be experienced personally, changing persons and altering their concepts of local and global belonging.
We welcome papers addressing this crisis and how ordinary people respond to their extraordinary situations through the multiple meanings objects provide.
To submit a paper to this panel, see: http://www.nomadit.co.uk/easa/easa2010/paperproposal.php5?PanelID=595
For general information on the conference, see: http://www.easaonline.org/conferences/easa2010/index.htm
“Settling Into Motion“ – The Bucerius Ph.D. Scholarships in Migration Studies
“Settling Into Motion“ – The Bucerius Ph.D. Scholarships in Migration Studies- Call for applications
The ZEIT-Stiftung Ebelin und Gerd Bucerius requests applications for 6-8 Ph.D. Scholarships in migration studies.
The Bucerius Ph.D. scholarship program in migration studies “Settling Into Motion” offers up to eight scholarships for Ph.D. theses addressing migration in changing societies. For 2010, research applications on “Migration, Diversity and the Future of Modern Societies” are especially welcome. Qualified Ph.D. students of – in a broad sense – social sciences can apply until 25 February 2010.
Please find further information as well as the online application on the program’s website: www.settling-into-motion.de
Sikhs in Europe: Migration, Identity and Transnational Practices
16-18 June 2010
Venue: Centre for Theology and Religious Studies, Lund University, Allhelgona Kyrkogata 8, Lund, Sweden.
The Centre for Theology and Religious Studies at Lund University is organizing a conference on the Sikhs in Europe. The aim is to gather leading scholars in the multi-disciplinary field of Sikh studies and discuss current research projects focusing on patterns of migration, identity formations, self-representations, transmission of traditions and transnational practices among the Sikhs in different parts of Europe. While two conference days are dedicated to presentation and peer-review of papers by the members of the academic network Sikhs-in-Europe, the third conference day is a workshop for Ph.D. students from different European universities.
For more information, please contact the conference convener at: Kristina.Myrvold@teol.lu.se or visit: http://www.sikhs-in-europe.org/
15 PhD Scholarships at the Faculty of Humanities, University of Copenhagen
The Graduate School of the Faculty of Humanities, University of Copenhagen is inviting applications for 15 PhD scholarships all starting 1 September 2010 for a period of up to three years. Applications must relate to one of the nine research topics mentioned below.
- Pedagogical and/or Technical Audiology (Subject area 1: Scandinavian Studies, Linguistics)
- Media, Citizenship and Rhetoric (Subject area 2: Education, Philosophy, Rhetoric, Film and Media Studies)
- Power, Knowledge and Politics in Europe and the European Cultural Area (Subject area 3: History, Archaeology, Ethnology, Greek and Latin)
- Cultural Memory and the Construction of Individual Identities in the Modern World (Subject area 4: Middle Eastern Studies, Asian Studies, Arctic Studies, Study of Religions, Native American Languages and Cultures, Eastern European Studies, Minority Studies, Comparative Cultural Studies)
- Transnational and Migration Studies (Subject area 5: English, German and Romance Studies)
- Cultural Memory: Aesthetics and Functions (Subject area 6: Art History, Theatre Studies, Dance Studies, Comparative Literature, Musicology)
- Primary Sources for the Study of the Scandinavian Languages (Subject area 7: Old Norse-Icelandic, Dialect Studies, Name Studies, Runology)
- Language Technology (Subject area 8: Language Technology)
- The Human Factor in Climate Change (Subject area defined by topic)
Closing date for applications: 4 February 2010 at 12 noon (Central European time).
Further information: http://www.humanities.ku.dk/research/PhD/Announcements/
CfP: Multiple belongings: DIASPORA AND TRANSNATIONAL HOMES
HISTORIES OF HOME SUBJECT SPECIALIST NETWORK (SSN) SECOND ANNUAL CONFERENCE
Friday 21 May 2010, British Library, London
CALL FOR PAPERS
The Histories of Home Subject Specialist Network (SSN) invites papers for its second annual conference, to be held in London at the British Library on Friday 21 May 2010. The conference will examine migrants’ homes across the globe from early civilisations to the present. We are particularly interested in the material aspects of setting up home in another country, such as room layouts, furnishings and other possessions and how these are adapted, integrated or negotiated between host nation and place of origin. We are also keen to explore the meanings associated with the material culture of transnational homes. What is home? Where is home? Where and when do we “feel at home”? What is the relationship between home(s) and identity formation? We encourage an interdisciplinary perspective and invite proposals for 25-minute papers which consider the complex and changing meanings and experiences of “home” and home-making practices across multiple localities.
Themes for papers might include:
– home, homeland and displacement
– transplanted or adapted home interiors
– colonial and postcolonial homes
– transnational family and friendship networks
– eating practices, culinary journeys, fusion food
– the meaning of “home” for different generations living in diaspora
– temporary, permanent and unintentionally permanent settlement
– transnational migrants living and working across several countries and the role of web-based technologies in maintaining family relationships
– migrants and domestic work
– collective memories of “home”
– imaginary and invented homes: writing diaspora and cinematic representations
– documenting, collecting and exhibiting the transnational home
Timeline
Deadline for submission of proposals: 8 January 2010
Notification of acceptance: 1 February 2010
Submission of titles for papers: 12 April 2010
Proposals
Proposals, including title, abstract (of 200-300 words) and a brief biographical statement (c.100 words) are to be submitted by 8 January 2010 to: Krisztina Lackoi, SSN Co-ordinator, klackoi@geffrye-museum.org.uk
CFP: Migrations, Mobility and Multiple Affiliations: Punjabis in a Transnational World
Centre for Development Studies (CDS) Trivandrum, Kerala in collaboration with Centre for Research in Rural and Industrial Development International Conference on Migrations, Mobility and Multiple Affiliations: Punjabis in a Transnational World 25-26 February 2010 at Centre for Research in Rural and Industrial Development (CRRID), Chandigarh
We invite senior and young scholars working on Punjabi migration to the conference and welcome scholars across a range of disciplines. Interested scholars may please send abstracts of their papers (to a maximum of 800 words) before 30th October 2009 to the coordinators of the conference. Selected scholars will have to submit the full paper by 15 January 2010. CDS will bear the expenses for travel and local hospitality of the selected participants.
Full details: Punjab-seminar
Coordinators:
Prof. S. Irudaya Rajan (rajan@cds.ac.in)
Prof. Aswini Kumar Nanda (akn_aswini@yahoo.co.in)
Dr. V.J. Varghese (vjvarghese@cds.ac.in, vjebee@gmail.com)
Sikh Diaspora – Call for Contributors
I was recently approached by one of the editors of Brill’s History of Religions Series about the possibility of producing an edited volume on Sikh diaspora. As many of your know, the Brill series is a well-established and prestigious one. Nevertheless, a volume on Sikhism is notably absent from its long series list. A book on Sikh diaspora would begin to fill this gap.
I am issuing a call for contributors for such a volume. I am seeking papers with not only substantive content, but those that offer some theoretical or methodological reflections (broadly construed). I welcome contributions from a wide range of methodological and theoretical perspectives – from history to urban planning, from gender studies to performance studies, from comparative religion to the psychology religion, or from ethnomusicology to ethnographic studies. Papers of a theoretical nature dealing with the conceptual categories such as “diaspora” or “trans-nationalism” as they relate to Sikh diaspora are also welcome.
If you have a paper you are looking to publish, or have a conference paper you plan to develop for publication, please consider contributing to this project.
If this is something to which you would like to contribute, please let me know the general subject matter of the proposed paper. I would like to get a sense of the level of interest and participation in this project before proceeding further.
Dr. Michael Hawley, Associate Professor and Coordinator, Religious Studies, Mount Royal University, Email: mhawley@mtroyal.ca
Call for Papers – International Conference on Migration, Citizenship and Intercultural Relations
We invite proposals for papers that address the following questions:
• With increasing diversity in a globalised world, what kinds of multicultural societies can we envisage for our increasingly diverse communities?
• What kind of cultural and national identities will be formed within these societies and what role will they play in the public sphere?
• Do transnational connections translate into weaker notions of local belonging or can they be used as a resource to strengthen local communities?
• Do migrant and minority ethnic groups experience a sense of inclusion?
• How is this sense of inclusion recognised or manifested in a multicultural society?
• Does government policy contribute to building a sense of belonging and inclusion among recent migrants and other ethno-cultural groups?
• What types of intercultural relations exist in a culturally diverse society?
• What is the role of these intercultural relations in fostering inclusive and ethical visions of citizenship?
Suggested topics include, but are not limited to:
• Multiculturalism, Identity and Citizenship
• Race, Ethnicity and Intercultural Relations
• Transnational Work and Temporary Migration
• Muslim Diaspora in the West
• Moving Beyond Xenophobia: Race Relations and Social Inclusion
• Transnationalism and Global Ethics
Please send 250 word proposals/ abstract by 15 August 2009 to:
Further details: http://www.deakin.edu.au/arts-ed/icg/events/conf-2009.php
Ms Chippy Sunil, Coordinator
International Conference on Migration, Citizenship and Intercultural Relations
Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation.
Email: chippy.sunil@deakin.edu.au
Punjab Research Group 
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