Material Asia: Objects, Technologies and Rethinking Success
August 1-5, 2011
Jeonju, Korea

A Joint Conference of the Society for East Asian Anthropology (SEAA/AAA) and the Korean Society for Cultural Anthropology

Abstracts for papers due: March 1, 2011
Registration opens: April 1, 2011

The conference assumes a broad awareness of the social effect of things in contemporary East Asian life and human responses to new technological and material possibilities: commodifications of all manner of life experiences from cultural performances and tourism to body parts, the transfer of technologies, the robotics industry and employment of robots in everyday life, expanded transnational markets in labor and brides, and the market-driven production of ideally productive, intelligent, and beautiful people. Consumption, including the literal consumption of food has assumed unprecedented forms. Local and regional responses and critiques of these possibilities are varied and often complex.

Participants are encouraged to submit proposals for sessions of 3 to 5 papers and priority will be given to those sessions that bring together presenters working in different parts of the region around a common topic.