CFP: VERGE ISSUE 12.1 STUDIES IN GLOBAL ASIA

Verge Issue 12.1: Studies in Global Asia

“Trade in Humans”

A PDF of this call is available here. Please direct all questions to verge@psu.edu.

Trade in humans is a vast and age-old engine of migration between regions in the Asia-Pacific and, since the sixteenth century, from Asia to the Americas, Africa, and Europe. This special issue of Verge seeks to illuminate both the ubiquity of the trade in Asian people and its particularities across time and space. Indispensable to both Asian polities and Western empires, to nation-building in the Americas and to the development of global capitalism, Asians as agents and objects of trade in humans also formed the core of Asian diasporas and hybridized cultures worldwide. Such circulation of Asian persons and labor profoundly influenced the formation of our modern world.

In documenting the widespread trade in Asian people, scholars have been divided on whether to call it a slave trade, with some identifying cases that clearly fit the term, while others eschew it in favor of a range of alternatives. Asian languages offer many relevant terms – such as人身売買 [Japanese for “buying and selling human bodies”] or sŏnsang nobi 選上奴婢 [Korean for “slaves selected and sent up to the capital”] – for practices that may not map neatly onto Western legal and cultural categories.

We use the term “trade in humans” in hope that this issue will engage with a broad scope of historical and contemporary forms of commodification, sale, alienation, and forced migration of Asian people. Rather than presume the forms and limits of exploitation, we seek to open up a conversation across fields and terminological silos. Topics explored may potentially range from slave trading to adoption, child marriage, resettlement, trafficking, indentured labor, “coolietude,” and military conscription.

This special issue will attend to problems of translation and the texture of human experience undergirding linguistic, legal, political, and cultural attempts to represent or obfuscate the transregional trade in humans. We seek contributions from a wide variety of fields: Asian studies and Asian American studies, history, legal studies, sociology, anthropology, and diaspora studies, among others. We welcome contributions that explore the influence of these diverse trades across all Asian regions, the Americas, and beyond, as well as local or international legacies.

Convergence Feature Proposals

One of Verge: Studies in Global Asias’ distinctive features is an opening section called Convergence, where we curate a rotating series of rubrics that emphasize collaborative intellectual engagement and exchange. Each issue features several of the following rubrics: A&Q, a responsive dialogue, either in interview or roundtable format, inspired by a set of questions; Codex, a collaborative discussion and assessment of books, films, or exhibits; Translation, for texts, primary or secondary, not yet available in English; Field Trip, reports from various subfields of the disciplines; Portfolio, commentaries on visual images; and Interface, texts exploring the resources of the print-digital world. We welcome those interested in these features to submit a Convergence proposal for the issue.

Proposals should be 1–2 pages in length and indicate what kind of feature is being proposed; demonstrate an awareness of the formats utilized by the journal; include an abstract and, if collaborative, a list of proposed contributors; and include a short (2 pg) cv.

The Convergence proposals deadline is March 15, 2024; however, we encourage those interested in submitting a proposal to contact the editors about their ideas in advance of this date. Please direct all inquiries and submissions to verge@psu.edu.

Essay Submissions

Essays (between 6,000-10,000 words) and abstracts (125 words) should be submitted electronically through this submission form by August 30, 2024 and prepared according to the author-date + bibliography format of the Chicago Manual of Style. See section 2.38 of the University of Minnesota Press style guide or chapter 15 of the Chicago Manual of Style Online for additional formatting information.

Authors’ names should not appear on manuscripts; instead, please include a separate document with the author’s name, address, institutional affiliations, and the title of the article with your electronic submission. Authors should not refer to themselves in the first person in the submitted text or notes if such references would identify them; any necessary references to the author’s previous work, for example, should be in the third person.

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CFP: K-POP AND THE WEST; MEDIA, FANDOM AND TRANSNATIONAL POLITICS

K-pop and the West: Media, Fandom, and Transnational Politics

 

The Asia Research Institute, University at Buffalo (UB), the State University of New York

October 27-28, 2023

The University at Buffalo’s Asia Research Institute will host its second annual Korean studies symposium, “K-pop and the West: Media, Fandom, and Transnational Politics,” on October 27-28, 2023. The symposium aims at creating an opportunity to think about research, pedagogy, and methodologies in our critical study of K-pop in the West. There has been some debate about whether K-pop’s popularity in the U.S. market represents its status as a mainstream—as compared to an ethnic—pop genre. Some would argue that the current success of K-pop be viewed as a collective achievement of K-pop fans. In this view, American fans have, in particular, “fought against” the U.S. media industry’s commercial devaluation of K-pop and their racially discriminatory practices that adversely affect K-pop artists.

The UB Asia Research Institute calls for proposals that critically engage in interdisciplinary dialogues among fields of humanities and social sciences. Drawing from the expertise of our keynote scholars Dr. Dafna Zur, Stanford University, and Dr. Thomas Baudinette, Macquarie University, the symposium seeks proposals from various disciplines and theoretical approaches addressing, but not limited to, the following questions: How do Western media, fandom, and academia contribute to the formation of K-pop and its global circulation? What are the potentials and limits that we encounter as K-pop scholars in Western academia? How do actors in the K-pop world engage in translocal politics and public discourses in the West?

Possible topics may include but are not limited to:

Globalization: music and media circulation; transnational development and localization of Korean popular music; making of the K-pop production system; Western hegemony in K-pop nation branding: postcolonial or Orientalist formation of Koreanness; marketing strategies in the Western market; imagining Korea through K-pop

Fandom: participatory culture in Anglophone K-pop fandom; fan activism; fans as promoters; K-fans and K-media; Koreaboos; K-pop tourism; Korean language and translation

Gender and sexuality: K-pop bodies and Asian stereotypes; understanding K-pop as androgynous, queer, and/or patriarchal; critiques of soft masculinity; Western representation of K-pop “fangirls”

K-pop pedagogy: how to apply participatory culture and ethnography; how to avoid cultural misunderstanding and mistranslation; creative ways to teach K-pop

Race and racial politics: K-pop fans’ engagement in American/Western racial politics; racism in Western music/media industries; circulation and formation of race in K-pop; non-Korean K-pop idols

Western media and Orientalism: critiques of “the dark side of K-pop”; K-pop artists’ social mobility and glass ceiling in Western pop scenes; media ethics; (mis)translation of Korean language and culture

For this symposium, the Asia Research Institute seeks submissions from researchers of all stages in interdisciplinary fields of humanities and social sciences. Presenters must be present at the symposium in person, although the presentations will be livestreamed. To apply, please send your CV with a 250-word abstract in a single PDF file to kpop2023@buffalo.edu. We are accepting proposals until July 15, 2023, and notifications will be sent by mid-August, 2023. The Asia Research Institute will provide local hotel accommodations and meals during the symposium to all participants whose papers are accepted. In addition, there will be a limited number of modest travel grants available by application to those who are in need of further support.

The University at Buffalo Asia Research Institute is a multidisciplinary hub and collaborative space for research and education about Asia and its diasporic communities. The institute leverages and amplifies existing UB faculty expertise on many regions of Asia; provides enriching research and experiential learning opportunities for students; and engages with local Asian and Asian heritage communities through educational and cultural programming to promote a diverse and inclusive environment.

This symposium is possible because of funding from the Academy of Korean Studies, Korea.

Inquiry:

Stephanie Choi, Postdoctoral Associate: schoi43@buffalo.edu

Bruce Acker, Assistant Director: backer@buffalo.edu

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