Source: SAID, Deadline: 15.07.2007.

A cross-community interdisciplinary international conference / Melbourne, Australia, December 11th-14th 2007.    From Columbus' landing in the so-called 'New World' to the post-Soviet expansion of the European Union and beyond, nations and nation-states have continuously preoccupied themselves with the problem of sovereignty. Which human groups should be recognised as possessed of sovereignty and who should be excluded? How do sovereign states accommodate the presence and competing claims of other sovereign states without compromising their own autonomy? Is there a higher power to which sovereigns can turn to have their disputes resolved or is sovereignty's only ultimate sanction violence? Are sovereigns subject to their own law or do they stand outside it? Should nation-states refuse to interfere in each other's affairs regardless of the treatment of minorities? Can different sovereignties overlap and coexist or is sovereignty monolithic and exclusive? Are settler democracy and Native sovereignty compatible? How is sovereignty (or are sovereignties) gendered?

    Our conference will address questions such as these with a view to bringing history to bear on the problems of the present. The conference's standpoint will be from below. We will be focusing on sovereignty's consequences for those whom the current order excludes or diminishes. The conference will bring together distinguished international scholars, policy-makers and community organizations in an exchange of information that will make the fruits of contemporary scholarship available to those responsible for delivering practical outcomes at the local level. At the same time, it will alert academics to the practical experiences and problems that should be informing our scholarship.

We are now calling for proposals for panel presentations on the following topics:

A. Thematic:

i) Indigenous concepts and practices of sovereignty.

ii) Historical genealogies of European concepts of sovereignty.

iii) Limits and contradictions of sovereignty.

iv) Sovereign subjecthoods – individuals, human rights and the nation-state.

v) Overlapping and coexistent sovereignties – Natives, minorities, and the nation-state.

vi) Sovereignty and the new global order.

B. Case Studies:

i) Aboriginal Australia/Torres Strait Islands (a): Local agreements, delegated sovereignties.

ii) Aboriginal Australia/Torres Strait Islands (b): Camp Sovereignty.

iii) Native North America.

iv) Palestine.

v) Timor Leste.

vi) Post-Soviet Europe.

vii) Refugees, asylum seekers and national borders.

THE DEADLINE FOR THE SUBMISSION OF PROPOSALS IS JULY 15TH

For more information and information on submitting proposals, please visit the conference website:

newworlds@newsovereignties.org


Convenors:
Julie Evans (University of Melbourne),
Patrick Wolfe (Victoria University).

Host organisations:
Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service,
Victoria University,
The University of Melbourne.