The CALA 2020 - The (Annual) Conference on Asian Linguistic Anthropology 2020
Bintulu, Sarawak, Malaysia, February 5 - 8, 2020
http://cala2020.upm.edu.my

General
Following the CALA 2019, The Conference on Asian Linguistic Anthropology 2019, in Cambodia, we announce The CALA 2020.
The CALA seeks to redefine scholarship on Asian Language and Society.

Location
University Putra Malaysia
Bintulu, Sarawak, Malaysia

Purpose and Structure
The CALA 2020 invites Linguists, Anthropologists, Linguistic and Cultural Anthropologists, Culturologists and Sociologists, Political Scientists, Ethnologists, in fields pertinent to Asia, to engage in scholarship, thus forming global networks.

Partners
· Taylor and Francis Global Publishers (Official Publishing Partner)
· 100 major academic institutions globally
· Scientific Committee of over 100 academics

Publications
Journal Special Issues, and Monographs, from papers submitted that meet publication requirements. Papers selected will be published with Top-Tier journals. Here, ample assistance will be provided to revise manuscripts.

Dates
Abstract and poster proposal submission - November 17, 2018 - May 9, 2019
Notification of acceptance - No later than June 10 2018 (for those submitted prior to this)

Registration
Early bird - March 10, 2019 - June 14, 2019
Normal bird - June 15, 2019 - September 25, 2019
Presenters must register by September 25, 2019, to guarantee a place in the program. Registration will remain open after this, but conference organizers cannot guarantee placement in the conference.
Late bird - September 26, 2019 - February 8, 2020 (Conference end)

Conference dates
Wednesday February 5, 2020 - Saturday February 8, 2020
Final day comprises optional Anthropological excursion

Abstract submissions
The Call for Abstracts is now open, at http://cala2020.upm.edu.my, which contains all information

Anthropological Excursion
Bintulu, Sarawak, Malaysia

Theme

Asian Text, Global Context

The CALA 2020, February 5-8, 2020, Bintulu, Sarawak, Malaysia, will follow on from the success of the CALA 2019, in Siem Reap, Cambodia, expanding on work on Asian Linguistic Anthropology, and Asian Language and Society. Here, global Linguistic Anthropologists will gather.

With an increased focus on Asian Language and society, the Annual CALA Conference has emerged at an appropriate time, opportuning academics from the West to tap into, and work with, Academia in the East. Scholars in institutions throughout Asia and Western context increasingly affiliate with the CALA network, to explore the vast possibilities of Asian Linguistic Anthropology, academically, and socioculturally. The CALA network has now significantly boosted research, publications, and academic networks, globally.

Themed Asian Text, Global Context, The CALA 2020 will represent over 400 years of East-West global interaction, communication, and transnationalism. Symbolisms of Asian 'texts' have been significantly emphasized, (re)interpreted, contested, and distorted, while employed for cultural and political purpose. Asian texts have become highly representational, authenticating and legitimizing sociopolitical and cultural devices, where their potency should not be undervalued. Never have these texts shown more significance than in the present, as their intensified use, and their qualities in Asian identities long contested, seek this Linguistic Anthropological exploration.

As a semiotic, the Asian text has thus regenerated itself, in that, as a verbal, non-verbal, and visual artifact, it encompasses the whole semiotic spectrum of that which is performatively Asian, and that which is distinct from the Non-Asian, yet a text which can interlink the East and the West, through a multitude of textual modes. The continuous repositionings and recontextualizations of Asian texts, both locally and globally, have hence become vital to representations of Asia.

The CALA 2020 thus calls for renewed interpretations of Asian texts, and asks that we seek new perspectives of these complex texts, in global contexts. These interpretations increase in significance as; return migration to Asia is now a salient factor in transnational flows; online texts and their textual modes now compete ever more enthusiastically to effect disjunctures in previously Western dominated technologies; ontological conceptions of life and social interaction now increasingly draw from Asian philosophies, sociocultural models, lifeworlds, and Asian urban anthropologies, thus producing interstices for new or revised textual and textualized semiotics; the entangled complexities and intersubjectivities of political, sociocultural, and religious practices and their constraints, motivate engagements in interfaith dialogue, shifting ethnic demarcations, and sociopolitical interventions.

Ultimately, the massive sets of Eastern demographics, and their expanding social dynamics, models, and praxes, continue to uniquely inform and (re)complexify Asian texts, in both local and in global contexts.

Strands

Abstract and poster proposals should address the key strands related to Asian countries and regions:

– Anthropological Linguistics
– Applied Sociolinguistics
– Buddhist studies and discourses
– Cognitive Anthropology and Language
– Critical Linguistic Anthropology
– Ethnographical Language Work
– Ethnography of Communication
– General Sociolinguistics
– Islamic Studies and discourses
– Language, Community, Ethnicity
– Language Contact and Change
– Language, Dialect, Sociolect, Genre
– Language Documentation
– Language, Gender, Sexuality
– Language Ideologies
– Language Minorities and Majorities
– Language Revitalization
– Language in Real and Virtual Spaces
– Language Socialization
– Language and Spatiotemporal Frames
– Multifunctionality
– Narrative and Metanarrative
– Nonverbal Semiotics
– Poetics and Parallelism
– Post-Structuralism and Language
– Semiotics and Semiology
– Social Psychology of Language
– Textualization, Contextualization, Entextualization

Presentation lengths
- Colloquia – 1.5 hours with 3-5 contributors (Parts A and B are possible, thus 6-10 contributors)
- General paper sessions – Approx. 20-25 minutes each, including 5 mins for questions/responses
- Posters – to be displayed at designated times throughout the CALA 2020

Submission Guidelines (via the online submission website, or by email (see below))

General session papers
- 18-word maximum presentation title
- 400-word maximum abstract, including references

Colloquia
· Submission of only the main abstract for colloquium required
· Abstract must contain the colloquium main description/theme, and a summary of each individual paper within the colloquium

Evaluation of proposals
All abstracts for general sessions will be double blind reviewed.
Main parent abstracts for colloquia will be double blind reviewed. All abstracts for individual presentations within each colloquia will not be peer reviewed, but are expected to be at a standard commensurate to the colloquium parent abstract.

Review criteria are as follows:
- Appropriateness and significance to CALA themes
- Originality/significance/