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X-WR-CALDESC:Events for SEA Junction
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DTSTART:20260101T000000
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260624
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260625
DTSTAMP:20260418T235445
CREATED:20260306T131142Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260306T131142Z
UID:29327-1782259200-1782345599@seajunction.org
SUMMARY:Call for Paper: Youth Studies in Contemporary Southeast Asia: Cultures\, Politics\, and Public Life under Constraints — Symposium
DESCRIPTION:Deadline for abstract submissions – 6 April 2026. \nConference dates: 24 June 2026 (optional: excursion or participation in a post-conference associated event on 4 September 2026)\nVenue:  The University of Melbourne\, Melbourne\, Australia \nThis hybrid symposium invites scholars working on youth cultures\, politics\, and public life in Southeast Asia to engage in a one-day intensive discussion on how young people living in and from Southeast Asia navigate constrained political\, economic\, and cultural environments across the region.  \nConvening early- and mid-career researchers as well as graduate students from different disciplines\, the symposium fosters interdisciplinary and comparative conversations on young people as social actors living within rapidly shifting state-society relations. \nAcross the Southeast Asian region\, young people encounter a shared landscape marked by democratic regression\, economic precarity\, expanding informal and gig economies\, climate vulnerability\, geopolitical tension\, and intensifying political surveillance and suppression. At the same time\, youth continue to be mobilised discursively as symbols of nationalistic futures\, demographic dividends\, and catalysts for revolutionary political transformation. This tension between expectation and constraint constructs how young people articulate belonging\, aspiration\, dissent\, and everyday survival. \nDistinct political cultures\, historical trajectories\, and economic and social infrastructures shape how young people in Southeast Asian societies perceive and navigate their social\, cultural\, and political positioning. Despite many overlapping conditions\, youth experiences across the region are uneven. Youth mobilisations shape public debates in Indonesia\, Thailand\, Malaysia\, and the Philippines (Sastramidjaja\, 2025). In Myanmar\, young people sustain resistance amid acute violence (Prasse-Freeman\, 2023)\, whereas in Vietnam\, young people’s increasing political participation expands through digital media but remains shaped by political constraints (Le et al.\, 2024). In Cambodia\, Brunei\, Laos\, and Singapore\, youth participation is frequently expressed through state-led or institutionalised frameworks (Mohamad\, 2023; Sim & Chow\, 2020; Sisaath et al.\, 2025; Vong\, 2022). Timor-Leste presents another configuration where young people’s participation is intertwined with processes of social transition\, identity formation\, and cultural negotiation shaped by the post-conflict dynamic (Jesus\, 2024). \nAs one of the most digitally connected regions\, Southeast Asia’s digital spaces function as critical terrains of civic experimentation and intensified surveillance (Abidin & Pang\, 2025; Lim\, 2024). The digital landscapes and social media cultures are crucial sites through which Southeast Asian young people generate exciting cultural expressions and new political grammars and solidarities. Short-form videos\, memes\, fandom cultures\, and pop culture references circulate and are playfully remixed across borders\, enabling young people to articulate precarity\, critique authority\, and build transnational publics. Recent phenomena such as the Milk Tea Alliance or the circulation of One Piece anime symbols in youth-led protests illustrate how cultural forms can operate as political vocabularies legible across linguistic and national differences. \nThis symposium invites works that approach young people as active subjects embedded in cultural practices\, infrastructures\, and power relations\, not merely as a demographic category or policy target. We welcome contributions that examine how youth produce meaning\, negotiate authority\, and reimagine public life and political culture through everyday practices\, digital and social media cultures\, artistic and creative expressions\, diverse forms of activism\, or institutional engagement under multiple constraints. Papers can address local case studies or multinational comparisons and draw on methodologies from sociology\, geography\, anthropology\, political science\, education\, cultural studies\, urban studies\, media studies\, development studies\, and related fields. \nThe symposium is designed as an intensive and collaborative event. Participants are expected to submit near-finished drafts in advance and engage in structured discussions and collective reflections. They will also discuss editorial planning toward potential publication outputs\, including\, but not limited to\, a special issue in a journal (e.g.\, Critical Asian Studies\, Modern Asian Studies) and an online magazine special edition (e.g.\, New Naratif\, New Mandala). \nWe have secured strong participation from invited scholars working on Indonesia. To support broader regional representation\, we particularly welcome submissions that engage other Southeast Asian contexts. \nThe symposium will be organised at the University of Melbourne’s Parkville campus\, Australia\, with the possibility of online attendance for a limited number of participants. Unfortunately\, we cannot provide financial support for travel or lodging. Participants attending the symposium in person will need to arrange their own travel and lodging. \nFor more information on submission guidelines\, please visit the website through the link   \n
URL:https://seajunction.org/event/call-for-paper-youth-studies-in-contemporary-southeast-asia-cultures-politics-and-public-life-under-constraints-symposium/
CATEGORIES:Conferences
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