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Call for Workshop Papers for a Session on Anatomies of Knowledge :  Medicine, Science, and Health in Asia at the Conference on Inter-Asian  Connections III  Hong Kong(June 6-8, 2012)DEADLINE: Friday, June 24, 2011Co-organized and co-sponsored by The Hong Kong Institute for Humanities  and the Social Sciences (HKIHSS) at the University of Hong Kong, the  National University of Singapore (NUS), and the Social Science Research  Council (SSRC).The Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences (HKIHSS)  at the University of Hong Kong, the National University of Singapore  (NUS), and the Social Science Research Council (SSRC) (the Organizers)  are pleased to announce an open call for individual research paper  submissions from researchers in any world region, to participate in a  3-day thematic workshop at an international conference, "Inter-Asian  Connections III: Hong Kong."To be held in Hong Kong, June 6-8, 2012, the conference will host six  concurrent workshops, led by two or three directors and showcasing  innovative research from across the social sciences and related  disciplines. Workshops will focus on themes of particular relevance to  Asia, reconceptualized as a dynamic and interconnected historical,  geographical, and cultural formation stretching from the Middle East  through Eurasia and South Asia, to East Asia. Four workshops were chosen  competitively from among 41 applications while two were organized by the  host institution. We are now accepting applications for all six workshops.The conference structure and schedule have been designed to enable  intensive 'working group' interactions on a specific research theme, as  well as broader interactions on topics of mutual interest and concern.  Accordingly, there will be a public keynote and plenary sessions in  addition to closed workshop sessions. The concluding day of the  conference will bring all the conference participants together for the  public presentation and exchange of research agendas that have emerged  over the course of the conference deliberations.Individual paper submissions are invited from junior and senior  scholars, whether graduate students or faculty, or researchers in NGOs  or other research organizations, for the following six workshops.WORKSHOP DIRECTORS:Angela Ki Che Leung Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences, The  University of Hong Kong kcleung7@hku.hkIzumi Nakayama The University of Hong Kong nakayama@hku.hk"Asia" is still used as shorthand to refer to a large, nebulous region,  traditionally defined in opposition to "Western/modern". Can "Asia" be a  new constructive category of analysis, then, if the idea is taken out of  oppositional and dichotomous relationships with the "West," and used as  a fluid, plural, maybe unique, and continuous process in the building of  the contemporary global? This workshop aims to explore these ideas by  focusing on the issues of medicine, science, and health. Does knowledge  generated by new technologies and disease studies reinscribe  "traditional" beliefs about race, ethnicity and nation, or does it  contribute to a new and larger collective, broadly imagined as "Asia"?Recent research uses the ideas of medicine, science, and health to  engage the larger "Asian" identities. Leung and Furth (2010), for  instance, identify the porous and interconnected relationships of the  local and the global to reconceptualize East Asia. Ong and Chen (2010)  use the term "Asian Biotech" to address a growing regional focus on the  pursuit of biotechnology as national interest, with Asian players  positioning themselves as key global actors to surpass the "West." This  workshop will examine such and other ongoing processes of redefining and  reconfiguring "Asia" by focusing on three broad themes, and encourages  applications from a wide range of disciplines and backgrounds.Changing ideas/ideals, Changing Asia(s) - Since the mid nineteenth  century, "modern" science and medicine, via the "West" and sometimes via  Japan, had been interacting with the historically-specific local,  socio-cultural perspectives and practices on the "Asian" body. How have  these knowledges interfaced in the colonial/postcolonial periods,  transforming and impacting the present discourse? How do the "global  genealogies of scientific practices in highly local situations" (Leung  and Furth, 2010) translate from the past? How are the legacies and  genealogies, preserved in policies and institutions, adjusting to the  shifting narratives of the rapidly transforming biotechnologies and  ethics of medicine, science, and health? How are old and new ethical  reasoning informed by, and forming, new modes of capitalism,  nationalism, sovereignty, and the notion of "Asia"?Biosecurity: Crises, Risks, Reactions - The insecurities and risks  associated with the modern pandemics results from the continual global  movements of peoples, goods, and diseases, with political, economic, and  social impact. Are new diseases such as SARS, Bird Flu, H1N1 etc.  considered and managed as "Asian" diseases the way cholera, plague, and  leprosy were in the 19th century, or differently? How does post-colonial  manipulation of international quarantine impact the notions of borders,  sovereignty, citizenship, civil rights and identities in "Asia" and in  individual Asian states? How does global or "Asian" economics inform  quarantine politics and quarantine impact trade? How is the "Asian"  element in such institutional setup integrated and interpreted?Trials and tribulations? New and "experimental" sciences and  technologies - In an age where new technologies outpace legal adaptation  and ethical discourse, how do governments, corporations, academics, or  other agents provide ethical, legal, political, economic oversight and  protection and what are the consequences? How do indigenous medicines  fit in? What kinds of historical legacies, cultural capital, religious  traditions, and other value systems inform, shape and formulate shifting  narratives to test and incorporate new technologies, which may transform  previously-held ideas of nutrition, well-being, and reproduction of  individuals, families, and communities? Genomic and stem cell research,  organ farming, new reproductive technologies and birth controls,  genetically-modified foods-how do these new technologies impact "Asian"  identities and policies?The three themes are not mutually exclusive, as common issues are  intertwined through the broad topics of medicine, science, and health.  They also point to the "Asian" historicity of knowledge, and the  constantly shifting factors shaping them.