PLEASE NOTE WE ARE NO LONGER RECEIVING ABSTRACTS, THE DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS HAS NOW PASSED
Call for Papers (download): 15th IALS Conference, Leh, Ladakh, 19th - 22nd August, 2011.
We are happy to announce that the 15th Conference of the International Association for Ladakh Studies will be held at Leh, from the 19th - 22nd August 2011. The central theme of the conference is defined as ‘Responding to Climate, Biodiversity and Resource Changes in Ladakh and the Western Himalaya’. We hope, as always, to make this a multidisciplinary event, where scholars from different fields may interact fruitfully.
Ladakh, together with the adjacent Western Himalayan regions of Baltistan, Lahaul, Spiti and Western Tibet, has for much of the last century existed on an unstable fault line between crucial cultural, religious and political blocs of South and Central Asia. Lying in the rain-shadow of the Greater Himalaya, these regions are now experiencing freak weather events more associated with the Indian monsoon. Centred on the Indus Valley, the region, which is also home to rare species of flora and fauna constituting a globally important biodiversity, has been substantially affected by recent economic development and population shifts occurring all along the Himalayan massif, and faces a challenging future. Changes in climate, rainfall and biodiversity have had a dramatic impact on human habitation, resource use and the prospects for cultural and economic development in the area and its environs.
This conference will bring together a multidisciplinary range of scholars, scientists and local specialists to examine not only the changes themselves, but the social, economic and political responses to them. Because of the complex and multi-faceted nature of the processes and challenges associated with this theme, the conference will be organized according to a series of sub-themes:
● Development and its relationship with biodiversity, natural resource use and conservation;
● Climatology and hydrology;
● Medicine, health, and ethno-botany;
● Migration and socio-economic change;
● Indigenous responses to change;
● Cultural change and heritage conservation;
● Cultural, religious, and political responses to these changes.
For a fuller exposition of the conference theme, please see the Conference statement.
While the conference organizers will give priority to papers addressing the various aspects of the conference theme, we also welcome papers on more general topics associated with the study of Ladakh. We invite a range of analyses from various disciplinary perspectives (historical, art-historical, anthropological, sociological, ecological, medical, political, geographical and geological) to shed light on the complex and shifting relationships between Ladakhis and their social, economic, and political environments. Proposals for panels relevant to these themes will be welcomed.
As well as full-length papers, we welcome proposals for poster displays, and short papers or reports on research-in-progress. We also welcome proposals for films or other audio-visual presentations.
Registration fees will be posted on this webpage as soon as they become available.
We hope to be able to arrange part- or full-funding for some participants whose papers have been accepted, but whose means would not permit them to attend the Conference without a subsidy. Preference will be given to those proposing full-length papers. Applicants for funding will be required to submit a full draft of their paper as well as an abstract.
Deadlines and Conference Participation
● 1 February 2011 CLOSED: last date for receipt of abstracts from applicants seeking funding. Please also see Early Bird note below.
● 15 March 2011 CLOSED: last date for receipt of draft papers from applicants seeking funding.
● 1 April 2011 CLOSED: last date for receipt of abstracts from all participants; last date for decision on papers by applicants seeking funding.
● 1 May 2011: last date for decision on presentations by all applicants.
● Early Bird submissions CLOSED: For the benefit of members who may want an early decision to enable them to make travel plans &c., the screening committee undertake to reach a decision by 1 March 2011 on complete submissions received by 1 February 2011. Members are reminded that applicants for funding are required to submit draft papers. We should also like to stress that a decision by 1 March may relate only to acceptance; we may not be able to make funding decisions by that date. For other submissions, the decision will be made on the basis of abstracts.
We should like to point out that it is in the interests of all participants to submit their abstracts and papers well before these deadlines so that the conference committee can reach its decisions early, in order to leave time for organizing passports, visas, &c., and to make travel bookings far enough in advance to take advantage of lower airfares.
Membership of the IALS is essential for participating in the Conference, and papers will be accepted only from paid-up members. You can join the IALS and pay all membership and conference fees using PayPal. There will also be provision for local guests to sign up as members and pay the registration fee at the conference.
Current IALS annual membership fees are INR 400 for citizens of India and South Asia countries; and UKP 14, Euro 20 or USD 30 for international members. Full-time students receive two years’ membership with a single year’s subscription.
Guidelines for Submission of Papers
Abstracts should include name and title/affiliation of the participant, and a summary of the paper’s main arguments. All abstracts/papers should be in English. Papers submitted must present an original argument and substantive analysis, rather than merely repeating or summarizing findings already published elsewhere. They should adhere to formal scholarly standards, citing all sources and secondary literature consulted in the research as appropriate. Final papers should include footnotes and a bibliography and be edited, spell-checked, and otherwise proofed before they are presented or submitted for funding review.
Any films are to be sent as DVDs by post or courier, with an email address and a short paper describing the merits of the film to the following two addresses:
1. Janet Rizvi, F-2601 Palam Vihar, Gurgaon, 122017, Haryana, India. Please mark the outer cover ‘IALS, Aberdeen 2011’.
And
2. Kim Gutschow, Hollander Hall, Williams College, 85 Mission Park Drive, Williamstown, MA 01267, USA.
DVDs will not be returned.
Presenters using power-point are reminded that slides are a useful adjunct for displaying headings, tables, or pictures that support the text; but that they do not substitute for the presenters’ own words.
All submissions will be screened before acceptance.
Papers should fit in one of two slots:
● Longer Papers (15–20 minutes or 3000–4000 words) with 10–15 minutes for discussion.
● Shorter Papers (10 minutes or up to 2000 words) with 5 minutes for discussion.
In order to allow as much time as possible for discussion, we invite the writers of papers to ‘present’ their paper (indicating the trend of its argument and highlighting the more important pieces of evidence) rather than ‘reading’ their paper (in its entirety). We plan to provide a space on the website, accessible only to conference participants, where papers may be posted for circulation before the Conference. Alternatively, presenters may bring a number of hard copies of their papers for distribution at the conference.
The organizers will make every effort to publish all or most of the proceedings of the Conference, but can make no commitment in respect of any particular presentation.
For those new to research Janet Rizvi's guide to Research Method and Presentation may also be of use. Please visit our Workshops page and download from the margin.
Guidelines for Applicants Seeking Funding Assistance
Decisions about funding will be based in the first place on the quality of the draft paper submitted. Eligible applicants will be required to furnish personal details such as age; educational qualification; occupation; and some indication of their financial circumstances to show why they may not be able to attend the conference without financial help. All information relating to an applicant's personal finances will of course be kept strictly confidential.
It will be some months before we have any idea (a) how much money is available for funding individuals; and (b) how many applicants for funding there are. In order to make the best and most equitable use of available funds, we may give preference to those who are prepared to meet a proportion of their expenses from their own resources. We hope that this will not preclude our giving full funding in cases of genuine need.
Notice of Elections
As usual, the General Meeting of the Association will be held during the Leh Conference, and the agenda will include elections to some of the posts on the Executive Committee, including those of President and Secretary as the present incumbents are both standing down at the end of the current conference term The post of Treasurer and Membership Secretary is currently held on an interim basis by Gareth Wall, who as a new member was not eligible for election in 2009, but is likely to be a candidate in 2011. There may also be an election for Webmaster, a post currently held by Seb Mankelow. Four positions on the Advisory Committee will also be up for election.
Nominations in due form are to be sent to the Secretary at least 30 days ahead of the Conference. Details relating to the conduct of the elections are documented in the IALS Constitution.
Janet Rizvi, Secretary
September 2010
Call for Papers Clarification
Responding to the Environment in Ladakh and the Western Himalayas
Feedback from members after the Call for Papers was circulated seems to indicate some misunderstanding of the nature of the Conference, particularly its emphasis on a particular theme. As we tried to make clear in the original Call for Papers (below), we hope that the theme will be interpreted broadly, and will attract papers from a wide range of disciplines. To reinforce the point, please read the following clarification.
Throughout its history, the ruling powers, cultures and populations of Ladakh and the Western Himalaya have had to contend with difficult terrains, variable natural resources, and changing patterns of climate, disease and biodiversity, of which recent natural disasters such as this year’s Leh-area floods are merely one example. Both at a local and regional level, human responses to these changing conditions have helped to shape the society, economy and religions that we know today. Trade routes have shifted in response to shifts in rivers, the availability of passes and the vagaries of local climate. Villages and towns have expanded, contracted and been extinguished in response to the availability (or over-abundance) of water and the possibilities of agriculture and nomadism. Royal families, governments and religious and medical institutions have responded to the needs of populations struck by diseases, floods and earthquakes as much as they have to the possibilities of new products and trading conditions. These responses have included everything from the performance of rituals for both wealth and adversity, the development of medical institutions and practices, the provision of tax breaks, the negotiation of treaties and the siting and architecture of towns, palaces, and monasteries. In more recent times, the protection of archaeological and art-historical treasures have also focused minds on the questions of the region’s distinctive climatic conditions.
As well as being a standard IALS meeting with its usual range of papers, the 2011 conference in Leh wishes to encourage participants to focus their regional expertise on the broad questions of (i) the actual nature and conditions of environment and landscape that influence life in the region, and (ii) how people respond and have responded to a changing and often extreme climate and landscape, at a social, economic, religious and political level. In this regard, the conference can include papers aimed at understanding this issue in three frames: firstly, the historical frame; secondly, the conditions and responses presently at work in the region; and thirdly, the possibilities for the future. It is envisaged that addressing this issue in its fullness will require expertise from all fields of academic study— anthropology, archaeology, art-history, epidemiology, history, hydrology, medicine, political science, religious studies, sociology —whilst also maintaining that distinctive interaction between international and local perspectives and scholarship that is, and always has been the hallmark of the International Association for Ladakh Studies.