Call for Papers 徵稿啓事

The 14th Annual CUHK Anthropology Postgraduate Forum
第十四屆 香港中文大學 人類學系 研究生論壇

Date: Friday 3 Feb & Saturday 4 Feb 2023
日期：2023年2月3日至4日（週五及週六）

Venue: Online via Zoom
場地：線上（使用Zoom應用程式）

Renewal: Anthropological Imagining

in the Midst of Change

Waves of change pervade history. Responding to the uncertainty and opportunity embodied within changes, renewal, whether as action or desire, shapes human experiences in significant ways, despite it sometimes being an illusion. Today, hope for renewal seems to be intensifying around the world, creating an urge for new anthropological investigation, theorization, and imagination.

回望歷史，變動貫穿其中，在不斷增添變數的同時，也開啟諸多機遇。種種不確定性當前，“復新”——不論作為行動或是願景——構成了形塑人類經驗的重要力量，哪怕有時，它只是一個幻影。當今世代下，人們對於“復新”的希冀似乎愈加強烈，也正是在此時，更需要新的人類學研究、理論與想象作為回應。

What does renewal mean in practice? How are visions of renewal and its variants—restoration, reconstruction, and regeneration—interpreted, circulated, and enacted within various sociocultural traditions, political projects and individual life experiences? In what ways do history, memory, and nostalgia underlie projects of renewal? How do positionalities shaped by different social categories and identities, such as gender, race, ethnicity, class, and caste, impact attitudes toward, and experiences of, renewal? What emotional and bodily experiences does renewal open up? How do relationships among the Self, the Other, the environment, and the material world reconfigure in the process of renewal? How are visions of the future contested through reinterpretations of the past? What do different formulations and experiences of renewal tell us about what it means to be human? And in what ways is disciplinary renewal emerging in anthropology today?

“復新”究竟在實踐中意味著什麼？“復新”及其多種表現形式——恢復、重建、再生等——如何在不同文化傳統、政治運動乃至個體生命經驗中，被闡釋、傳播與踐行？“復新”背後，又埋藏著何種有關歷史、記憶與往昔的多重敘事？性別、種族、民族、階級、種姓等社會分層或身份認同，將如何塑造我們對於“復新”的態度與經驗？哪些情感和身體體驗將因此開啟？“復新”之中，自我、他者、環境與物質世界之間的關係，又將如何展開？身處新舊之間，對過去的闡釋，會怎樣挑戰關於未來的想象？有關“復新”的不同構思與實踐，會如何啟示我們人之為人的意義？今天的人類學，又能以何種方式進行學科內的“復新”？

Convened by the Department of Anthropology at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, this year’s Postgraduate Forum aims to examine the diverse meanings and practices  of renewal. We encourage conference papers that potentially speak to renewal, as well as associated concepts like restoration and reconstruction, from all anthropological subfields and related disciplines. For example, papers might address how renewal is envisioned and experienced in the aftermath of pivotal events, including but not limited to pandemic, displacement, ecological crisis, social movement, and natural disaster; papers might also engage with traditions or institutions of all kinds, whether biomedical, religious, political, economic, cultural, ethical, or ontological, to problematize mainstream knowledge and values regarding renewal and its alternative expressions; papers might investigate disruption and reconstruction in the past as well; applicants can also take anthropology’s research practice and disciplinary history as points of investigation, and provide critiques of anthropological theory and methodology. Above are just a few examples, among many others, of how reflecting through the lens of renewal can shed light on our understanding of human experiences. We invite you to join us in developing the rich theoretical potential of the concept.

本屆香港中文大學人類學系研究生論壇，旨在探索“復新”的多重內涵及其實踐。我們歡迎來自人類學各個子領域和相關學科的，、對“復新”及其相關概念有所回應的論文來稿，例如：在經歷疫情，被迫遷徙，生態危機，社會運動，自然災害等重大事件後，“復新”如何被想像與體驗；根植於不同傳統與制度體系（包括但不限於生物醫學、宗教、政治、經濟、文化、倫理或是本體論意義上的）之中，有關“復新”的本土知識，如何將主流價值問題化；對遺跡的分析與重讀，將如何揭示歷史進程中的紛擾，中斷，與重建；申請者同樣可將人類學學科本身的實踐與歷史作為研究對象，對人類學理論與研究方法做出批判。以上僅做舉例，拋磚引玉，我們邀請參與者們透過“復新”這一視角，展開對人類經驗認識的反思與探詢，並共同挖掘“復新”這一概念豐富的理論內涵。

Forum Committee:
Ao, Chon Hei (Alvin)
Kiran, Huzeyfe
Li, Xing
Ma, Jinghan
O’Reilly, Neil
Zheng, Xinche
Zuo, Mengge  

Sponsors:
Faculty of Arts, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Department of Anthropology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong