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CALL FOR PAPERS The Organizations for the Advancement of Studies of Inner Eurasian Societies at Columbia University, New York University, and Yale University are pleased to announce the Fourth Annual OASIES Student Conference: “PLACES AND PERCEPTIONS: SPACE AND IDENTITY IN INNER EURASIA” Saturday, April 9, 2011 at Columbia University in New York City Our conference seeks to bring together scholars from a variety of disciplines who are interested in the perception of place in different epochs of Eurasian history and culture. We hope to examine the meanings that have been attached to spaces across the Eurasian steppe and neighboring regions from a wide range of methodological perspectives and to investigate the uses of spatial theory in the contemporary study of inner Eurasia. Possible topics may include, but are not limited to: • the role of space in the development of Eurasian states and empires; • the management of space among given communities, either settled or nomadic; • the textual representation of Eurasian spaces in and over time (in state-sponsored cultural products, the media, Western scholarship, travelers’ narratives, etc.) • the role of symbolic and/or physical locales within Eurasia; • Eurasian identities (e.g. pan-Turkism) that have stretched across space and borders; • Eurasian regionalisms; • Eurasian cyberspace, public space; • urban planning and architecture in Eurasia; • the roles of monuments and historic sites in national, local, imperial identities; • networks (e.g. railroads, trade) that have connected Eurasian spaces; • the effect of missionaries, industrialization, modernity, etc. on the development of spatial identity; • the role of natural landscapes (the steppe, the desert, the mountains, etc.) in various Eurasian cultures; • “place-making” and space as narrative of personal memories and collective histories; • ideas of home/displacement and belonging (or not) in a Eurasian space; • competition between states and powers for a given territory; • the interplay among different Eurasian linguistic groups across space; • the use of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) in Eurasia; • “inner Eurasia,” “Central Asia,” “Mongolia,” etc. as geographical concepts; • Orientalisms, colonialisms, “imaginary geographies” in Eurasia; • the role of social and spatial borders in Eurasia; • the role of geopolitics, globalization, transnational movement in inner Eurasia; • the methodological uses of spatial theories in the study of Eurasia. We particularly encourage submissions from graduate students who work in Central Asian, Mongolian, Russian, Middle Eastern, Chinese or South Asian fields, whatever their home departments (Anthropology, Archaeology, East Asian Languages and Cultures, Geography, History, Middle Eastern Studies, Political Science, Sociology, Slavic languages and Literatures, etc.). SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS Submission deadline: March 15, 2011 Please include the following information with all submissions: 1) Name of presenter 2) Academic position and institutional affiliation 3) Title of the paper 4) Abstract of no more than 300 words 5) Audio-visual equipment needs 6) Contact information (please include e-mail address and telephone number) Submissions sent by email to [log in to unmask] as an attachment (pdf or doc) by March 15, 2011, will receive a response within a week. Selected participants will be asked to submit their full papers to discussants by April 2nd. Presentations must be kept to 15-20 minutes in length. Unfortunately we will not be able to provide any financial aid to participants. For current information regarding the event visit www.oasies.org