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 Graduate Student Conference on the Middle East, South Asia, and Africa, ColumbiaUniversity, New York, February 28-March 1, 2013The annual Graduate Student Conference at Columbia University'sDepartment of Middle Eastern South Asian and African Studies (MESAAS)would like to evoke the concept of paradigm in its solicitation ofpapers that explore the moments, spaces and debates betweenconflicting paradigms and resulting from paradigmatic crises, orchallenge the dominant theoretical positions on what constitutes aparadigm. Papers can focus on any topic within the humanities andsocial sciences.The concept of paradigm opens broad possibilities of theoreticallysound analysis of social and intellectual phenomena across diversetraditions and time periods. Paradigm is commonly but not exclusivelyviewed as a system of knowledge with a particular power structure,within which a central set of beliefs or values plays a dominant anddefining role. This idea of paradigm makes their study a challengingyet rewarding endeavor for the purposes of historical and culturalanalysis. Studying paradigms in that sense may consist of analyzingmajor social transformations for the purpose of revealing theparadigmatic tensions and crises underlying their unfolding, or,conversely, at employing paradigms as tools for the clarification ofsocio-political events. In addition or in conjunction with that, thevery notion of paradigm can be contested and transformed.Paper submissions may relate to but do not need to be bound by any ofthe following themes:Paradigm as Comparative Tool: to what extent and in what ways does theidentification of central elements as paradigmatic within givenintellectual traditions allow for historical and cross-culturalcomparative work?Conflict In and Across Paradigms: How is conflictcontradictory ideasor beliefs, forms of hostility and opposition, modes of exclusion andresistancedealt with in a paradigm? Can paradigms themselves be inconflict, and how are those conflicts resolved?Paradigm Shifts: When and how do paradigms become outdated? Areparadigms always outdated, lagging behind the phenomena they purportto comprehend?Critical theory as Anti-paradigmatic: What role does theory, as adissenting science, have in challenging well-established intellectualparadigms and the transformations that constitute changes in paradigm?Paradigmatic technology: If technology can be understood as theinstrumentation of a paradigm, how does the adoption of giventechnology influence the adoption or development of new and differentparadigms? Can technology challenge or strengthen a paradigm?Students who are interested in presenting a 20-minute paper shouldsubmit a 300-word abstract and one-page CV tosubmit@mesaasgradconference.org by January 15th. Panel submissions areencouraged.Exceptional papers will be collected into a single digital volumeunder the conference title.For any other inquiry please contact us via:info@mesaasgradconference.orgWendell Hassan MarshColumbia University401 Knox Hall, MC9628606606 West 122nd StNew York, NY 10027E mail whm2123@columbia.eduVisit the website at http://www.mesaasgradconference.org/