The time of global pandemic presented many obstacles for communities engaged with Southeast Asia to stay connected and thrive. At the same time, the limitations upon meeting in person or conducting fieldwork inspired new ways to forge dialogs, shake old conventions, and embrace creative, often technological, change. As graduate

students, we witnessed a boom of new and revamped platforms that emerged to connect those separated geographically by COVID-19 and enable academic, social, and professional relations. On the other hand, physical limitations within our communities have produced severe economic and personal fractures that have not yet been remediated. These patterns of Links and Fractures have long existed before COVID-19 in Southeast Asia, arising out of historical processes of colonization and decolonization, religion, commodity and cultural exchanges, migration, language, information technology, economic expansion, social unrest, political upheaval, and more. Within these patterns are both opportunities and losses for a wide range of diverse Southeast Asian communities, creating “new normals” before the “new normal” instigated by COVID-19.

For the 23rd annual Southeast Asia Program Graduate Student Conference, we invite submissions that explore how these Links and Fractures have shaped communities in Southeast Asia. Specifically, we are seeking PhD and Master student-level research united by this common theme across all academic disciplines. During the conference, we also hope to foster new ways of circulating and engaging with your research within the conference community and Cornell SEAP faculty.

The Graduate Student Conference will be held March 19-21, 2021 online (pending Cornell Spring 2021 Academic Calendar) catering to the opportunity to bring together participants and attendees from all over the world, and powered by SEAP web-platforms. Over an immersive three-day period, the Graduate Student Conference will facilitate sharing your research with Cornell SEAP faculty, academics and fellow peers within the graduate community. Contributors will present their work as part of a panel with faculty discussants and have a dedicated page within our online platform to discuss their work with a broad participant audience.

We welcome submissions of abstracts by December 30th, 2020 at 11:59pm EST from graduate students who have completed original research related to Southeast Asia. The Cornell Southeast Asia Program’s Graduate Student Committee will review the abstracts, select presenters, and organize panels by theme. In order to aid the process of thematic organization, we ask that you please include a few keywords summarizing your presentation along with your abstract. Presenters should be prepared to submit full papers of 5000-8000 words by February 12th, 2020.

Please submit abstracts to the following email address: seapgatty@cornell.edu All abstracts should be limited to 250 words and sent in .doc or .docx format. Do not send a PDF. Please name your abstract using your first and last name together (for example, janedoe.doc for Jane Doe's abstract).The subject of the message should specify “SEAP Graduate Conference Submission” and the body of the email should include the following information: · Author name(s), institutional affiliation(s), and a primary email address · Title of paper · Paper keywords · The abstract (attached as a .doc or .docx file)

We thank you for your interest, and hope to create a Link with you in a time of increasing Fractures.

Anna Koshcheeva and Kara Guse,

Cornell SEAP Graduate Student Committee Co-Chairs (2020-2021)

seapgatty@cornell.edu