Events

This workshop is organised by the Muhammad Alagil Distinguished Professorship in Arabia Asia Studies at the Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore.

Today, we have rich scholarship that has brought to the fore imaginaries such as the South China Sea, Malay World, Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea, to name a selection. These imaginaries have emerged from and broadened the remit of area studies in meaningful ways. Besides a few notable works, however, research that connects the different imaginaries and their bodies of scholarship is scarce, in part, because the knowledge and linguistic skills are demanding for the vast scopes involved. More collaborative transregional discussion and research are necessary.

This workshop aims to contribute to the scholarship on connecting imaginaries by focusing on efforts within Asia-Arabia-Africa and thus it takes the community of scholars at the National University of Singapore (NUS) as its point of departure. It brings NUS scholars into conversation with the wider scholarship – drawing, in large part, on the existing network of the Muhammad Alagil Distinguished Professorship in Arabia Asia Studies. The workshop envisions contributing to connecting imaginaries in conjunction with the consolidation of transregional studies at NUS by building on the University’s existing strengths in area studies and other disciplines.

To facilitate a broad and inclusive platform, the workshop includes submissions from both those actively working on transregional themes and those open to thinking about the same. The aim is to share and discuss a wide range of topics and ideas by drawing into conversation scholars across areas and disciplines. Presentations will thus be brief and based on abstracts rather than draft papers, and there is no expectation of publication. The purpose is to set a transregional studies agenda based on the outcome of the collective conversation.

The ambitious scope of Asia-Arabia-Africa offers an expansive canvas to foster conversations between scholars working on different imaginaries to bring to light historical and contemporary processes that are obscured or hidden by the bounded understandings of national and regional foci. The workshop’s framing allows for the consideration of both oceanic and landward orientations, and thereby embraces major and often divergent scholarly trajectories. It is thus open to the broadest range of topics, including contributions on historical and present-day mercantile, migratory, labour, trade, and transportation networks, the spread of faiths, ideas, and politics, as well as the environment. Although scholars have explored many of these topics, especially individually, there is a need to forge greater collaborative work to advance empirically driven research, thinking, and terminology that connects imaginaries.

PARTICIPATION

Please note that this is an in-person event and is open to NUS members only.
For further enquiries, please contact valerie.yeo@nus.edu.sg.

CONFERENCE CONVENORS

Assoc Prof Sumit Mandal | Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore