CALL FOR PANELSFOURTH EAST ASIAN CONFERENCE ON
SLAVIC EURASIAN STUDIES

Image of the region in Eurasian Studies
4-5 September 2012
Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian StudiesKolkata
Based on the discussions between the Executive Council members of International Council forCentral and East European Studies (ICCEES) and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of AsianStudies (MAKAIAS) in Delhi on June 13, 2011 and members of Japanese Council for Russian andEast European Studies (JCREES), the Korean Association of Slavic Studies (KASS), the Chinese
Association for East European, Russian and Central Asian Studies (CAEERCA) and Maulana Abul
Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies in Beijing on August 27, 2011, it was decided that the Fourth
East Asian Conference on Slavic Eurasian Studies will be organized by MAKAIAS on 4-5 September
2012 in Kolkata. The theme of the conference is Image of the region in Eurasian Studies.
General guidelines•

All proposals/panels need to be scholarly in nature. Panels approved by the three Slavic
Eurasian Studies associations of East Asia (Japan, Korea and China) and Maulana Abul
Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies (MAKAIAS), Kolkata will be included in the Conference
programme.

•It is desirable that each panel should comprise of a maximum of four presentations, achairperson and one discussant. Panels should include participants from more than onecountry.

•Panels/papers should be categorized into four-history and historiography, political scienceand international relations, economics, culture. The category of a panel should be indicatedalong with the panel proposals.

•The official languages of the Conference are English and Russian. All abstracts, proposals
and correspondence will necessarily be in English.

•Participants requiring letters of invitation for visa purposes may please write with full passportdetails to MAKAIAS by May 15, 2012. The Institute will have to obtain necessary clearance
for the conference from Government of India by submitting all documents (with passportdetails and contact details of participants) at least 3 months before the conference.

•Participants are requested to make their own arrangements for accommodation.
Information about two hotels in Salt Lake area close to MAKAIAS is as follows: (The Sojourn,Plot No. KB 23; Sector III , Salt Lake City, Kolkata - 700098, West Bengal, India; Ph : +91(033)-2335-1462 (6 lines) / 2208 / 2209; Fax: +91-(033)-2335-1590; Email :info@hotelthesojourn.com) and Hyatt Regency, JA 1, Sector 3, Salt Lake City, Kolkata
700098, Ph: 91-33-23351234; e-mail: india.reservations@hyatt.com. Rates for HYATTREGENCY and THE SOJOURN are $US 110 and $US 90 (approximately).

Proposals for panels•Arrangements for parallel panels in two conference halls are preferred. Besides the inauguralpanel and valedictory session, three panels in each conference hall on an individual day maybe held. This makes it a total of 12 working panels, plus one inaugural panel and a valedictory
session. Additionally, a round table of one-hour duration may be held on the second day tofacilitate interaction with young researchers and students.

•

Each working panel will be of maximum of 120 minutes duration (15-20 minutes for eachpresentation and 20 minutes for the observations from the chair and the discussant and 20
minutes for Q&A).

•

Each panel should include 250-word abstracts of the papers concerned and brief bio-notes (ofabout 100 words) of the contributors.

•Proposals will include the title of the panel, the titles of the presentations, the names of thepaper presenters along with academic affiliations and contact details (including fax numbers,phone numbers and e-mail addresses). Passport details need to be indicated and relevant
scanned pages of the passport need to be submitted.

Guidelines for individual proposals
studies•

All proposals need to be scholarly in nature and relevant to the field of Eurasian• Proposals will have to be submitted electronically to rc4@makaias.gov.in,suchandanachatterjee@makaias.gov.in and anitasengupta@makaias.gov.in• Each proposal should include an abstract of 250 words that should be submitted byth15 June 2012. However, the titles of the panels and individual presentations along with a 100word bio-note are expected by May 15, 2012. The subject heading in mails may be mentioned
as Fourth East Asian Conference on Slavic Eurasian Studies.
•Passport details of participants with full contact details and scanned pages of thepassport need to be submitted along with the proposals.

•Participants requiring letters of invitation for visa purposes may please write with fullpassport details to MAKAIAS by May 15, 2012. The Institute will have to obtain necessary
clearance for the conference from respective ministries of Government of India bysubmitting all documents (with passport details and contact details of participants) at least
3 months before the conference.

•Individual proposals should indicate power point presentations or slide presentations.

•The programme, panels and abstracts of the papers will be uploaded in the MAKAIAS
website.

Concept note
Image of the region in Eurasian Studies
The revived interest in ‘the region’ as a category of research indicates the growing importance of not
only spatial characteristics but also human settings that qualify this spatial characteristic. This comes
into play not just in the geographical determination of ‘regions’ but also in its designation as aseparate entity. It finds its most interesting manifestation in changed designations, emanating from aselective use of geographical knowledge, that follow political transformations. What is interesting isthat while there is obviously a geography of space, distance, time, terrain and weather, there is also ageography of imagination. As one of the most imagined spaces on the global map Eurasia has beenvariously perceived and constructed in different epochs. An examination of these is interesting in terms ofunderstanding how definitions of the region are evolving and its reflections in studies of the region. The
focus of the present seminar is on the ways in which Eurasian studies have evolved in various Asian
centres of research.

While there is interest in Eurasia as a geopolitical entity, the features of Eurasia’s cultural environment
are not lost sight of. Parallel discourses about cultural interconnections and tangled histories in an
Asiatic space have surfaced. In the entire gamut of post-Soviet studies about ‘regionology’, theemphasis is not merely on binary relationships and divergent patterns and challenges encountered by
the post-Soviet states of Eurasia but also about diverse community patterns, institutionalarrangements that have played a prominent role in imparting dynamism to the region. The discussion
has also shifted to a mosaic of trans-national phenomena in the entire Eurasian neighbourhood. A
multitude of images about a Eurasian ecumene has produced a great deal of interest in comparable
situations in regions such as South Asia.
The idea that gained ground within the format of regionology is how regions reinvented themselves
through an envisioning of spatial entities like Slavic Eurasia, Central Eurasia, Central Asia or InnerAsia. Today, each of these spatial connotations are critical components of debates that have emerged
within the realm of history, historiography, historical geography, international relations, socialanthropology etc. In the regional discourse, the emphasis is on future possibilities rather than missedopportunities. Krais and okrugs show more involvement and there is a tendency for new regionalpartnerships.
The present seminar will try to deal with some of these variables, taking into consideration themultiple settings of Eurasia—the Slavic, the Mongol, the Turkic, the Chinese, the nomadic, thesedentary and also the cosmopolitan.
The Fourth East Asian Regional Conference on Eurasian Studies is being organized by Maulana Abul
Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies, Kolkata which is an autonomous institute under the Ministry ofCulture, Government of India.
Please respond with a title, brief bio-note of 100 words and passport details within May 15,
2012
toSuchandana
ChatterjeeandAnitaSengupta
atrc4@makaias.gov.in,suchandana_chatterjee@makaias.gov.in and anitasengupta@makaias.gov.in.