Call For Papers

Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA) is calling for papers for New Asian Imaginations: (Re)searching the Arts in Southeast Asia. This symposium seeks to highlight new insights emerging between research and artistic practices. It is hoped that this will give fresh meaning to cross-disciplinary art-forms and their relationships, expanding practice-led research to build on the construction and representation of culture through the arts in Southeast Asia. NAFA was founded in 1938 and has since been widely recognised as Singapore’s pre-eminent tertiary institution for art studies. The institution is dedicated to playing a key role in arts creation, presentation, research, documentation and education in Southeast Asia. To date, NAFA’s initiatives include the establishment of the Tanoto Foundation Centre for Southeast Asian Arts and the Institute of Southeast Asian Arts.

Given the recent rise in the awareness and interest in the arts in Southeast Asia, it has become more important than ever to examine issues surrounding this phenomenon. Hence, New Asian Imaginations: (Re)searching the Arts in Southeast Asia follows New Asian Imaginations NAFA’s inaugural symposium held in conjunction with the academy’s 70th anniversary in 2008. The 2011 symposium provides a platform for investigation, dialogue, and exploration focusing on the arts in Southeast Asia.

Visual and performing artists, educationists, theorists and postgraduate students are invited to submit paper abstracts and/or workshop proposals addressing any of the following topics centering on Southeast Asia:

	The State of Arts Research
	The Artist as Researcher
	Arts in Education
	Arts in Society, Politics and Culture

Submission Procedures

Please send paper abstracts (250 words) and/or workshop proposals (500 words) and a brief biography (100 words) to the symposium secretariat Ms Low Yuen Leng Cecilia, email: symposiumsecretariat@nafa.edu.sg by Friday 7 January 2011. For those proposing papers, please indicate which of the above topics that you would like to participate in.

Selected abstracts and workshop proposals will be announced by Friday 28 January 2011. Full paper submissions are due by Friday 20 May 2011. The paper should be about 5000 words long and not more than 7000 words following the NAFA manuscript style. Selected papers will be published in New Asian Imaginations: (Re)searching the Arts in Southeast Asia. Each presenter will be given 20 minutes to present his/ her paper, followed by a question and answer session. Selected workshops may commence 7 days before the symposium and will culminate in an exhibition or performance scheduled sometime during the symposium.

Please refer to http://www.nafa.edu.sg for more information.