CONCEPT NOTE
The impulse to study the global and the international has brought forth a diversity in approaches, methods, and perspectives. In recent years, there has also been a sustained engagement with Western-oriented assumptions and premises. Grounded on interrogating Western models and theorizing in an attempt to pluralize discourses, scholars have launched critiques and proposed alternatives in nuancing the “global” and “globalization”; modernity and postmodernity; colonial and postcolonial conditions. One such endeavor is seen in a decolonial approach highlighting the need to unpack aspects of Western modernity in postcolonial states through a critical engagement with colonial-era texts, collective memory and the use of both colonial and local languages. This international conference aims to contribute and further the discussions in these expanding fields by charting trends and mapping trajectories in decolonizing global studies. With 2021 marking the 500th year commemoration of the first circumnavigation of the world comes additional impetus in the need to revisit the beginnings and impacts of the cultural encounters that contributed to the contemporary configurations of international affairs on the level of the political, economic, social, cultural, and ideological.
This conference, therefore, also seeks to engage the widest possible range of application of decoloniality to various fields of knowledge not only in the social sciences and humanities. It is maintained that the Western-oriented assumptions and models of apprehending knowledge permeate across contexts and disciplines which are also translated to policies that directly engage the public. Thus, the conference is also open to scholars from the natural sciences and engineering, as well as practitioners in the fields of governance, development work, business and other enterprises.
We invite papers that are theoretical and/or methodological, case studies, or comparative pieces, that touch, but not limited to, the following subthemes:
- Global, international, and area studies
- Knowledge production and discourses on the global/international
- Decolonial methods and theory in the social sciences and humanities
- Studies on the Global South
- Local and indigenous knowledge in relation to the global/international
- Non-Western international relations perspectives
- Colonial history and postcolonial conditions
- The Philippines in the Global South
- Decolonial approaches to knowledge production in the social sciences. arts and humanities, as well as natural science and other fields
- Relevance of decoloniality to public policy, legislation, and governance
TYPES OF PRESENTATIONS
In the interest of diversifying modes of discussions, the conference is open to four types of presentations:
- Individual Paper Presentations – individual papers submitted and clustered into panels of similar themes by the conference committee, presented by each author.
- Organized Panel Presentations – submission of a set of papers as a group covering a theme; a discussant is optional, but preferred.
- Roundtable Discussions – submission of a topic for discussion with a set of discussants with a moderator.
- Open Discussion Sessions – submission of a critical question/topic for discussion to be opened to participants who may wish to join the conversation. It may take the form, for example, of a theoretical or methodological inquiry, research agenda-setting, discussion of a book, sharing of pedagogical techniques, etc.
Submit your abstracts through the online submission form. Pertinent instructions are indicated. In line with the international conference, an academic workshop will also be held on 7-10 September 2020. If you wish to be considered for the workshop, indicate this on the online form. Note that a full paper of 4,500-6,500 words is required to be submitted for the review of the organizers to determine the final list of participants to the workshop.