Ibn Khaldun International Conference of 2012

(Sorry for this late blog, but you still have two days left to register for this conference.)

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE IBN KHALDUN: THEORETICAL AND EMPIRICAL RELEVANCE ON THE 17&18TH OF OCTOBER 2012. REGISTER TO JOIN OUR SCHOLARLY EVENT, PLACES ARE LIMITED, FINAL DAY FOR REGISTRATION: OCTOBER 3RD 2012.

It is our utmost pleasure to extend our invitation to all researchers, and in particular postgraduate students, who have an interest in attending the Ibn Khaldun International Conference of 2012 being held at University Malaya. This is a highly specialized conference where few scholars will present papers; others will deliver workshops revolving around research on Ibn Khaldun. If you are interested in attending the conference to learn from prominent speakers and further receive a certificate of participation, kindly register at the Department of Islamic History and Civilization prior to the 3rd of October in order that we may reserve your place; as seats are very limited.

Contact our registration committee: Tel. No: 603 7967 6008(Main Office)

The fee structure is as follows: 50 RM for University Malaya Students; 100 RM for other participants and students from outside University Malaya

Certificates will be mailed to the participants a few days following the conference. Participants will be required to sign attendance for the two days of the conference to be eligible for a certificate.
Food and refreshments will be provided throughout the two days of the conference.

This conference is jointly organised by

    The Department of Islamic History and Civilization, University of Malaya;
    The International Institute of Advanced Islamic Studies (IAIS);
    The Department of Malay Studies, National University of Singapore; and
    The International Ibn Khaldun Society.

We look forward to seeing you there.

UM English department one-day colloquim

The Department of English, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, will be hosting a one-day colloquium. Details are as follows:

URBAN SPACES IN THE TWENTY FIRST CENTURY

A colloquium organized by the Department of English, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur

This one-day colloquium aims to stimulate interdisciplinary debate and discussion on cities and their increasing rise, evolution and influence in today’s world. The Financial Times of New York estimates that by 2030, city dwellers on the planet will number more than five billion, and that this urban explosion will create tremendous challenges on all fronts: social, environmental, cultural, political and economic. Apart from the material pressures that this demographic trend exerts on matters such as infrastructure, healthcare, employment, food, water, energy and the land as a whole, the demand for human development and community building in fields such as the arts, culture and education is also paramount. Abstracts of around two hundred words for a twenty-minute presentation are invited on any of the following:

Cities, concrete and imaginary
Cities as geological spaces/cities as built and natural environments
The city state and its citizens
Sex(ualities) and the city
Religion and the city
Theorizing the city/ the place of cities
Postmodern cities
Virtual cities
The ecosystem of cities
The city and cultural production
The city and popular culture
Postcolonial cities
Social and environmental justice issues (urban poor, toxic cities, etc.) in the city
Re-conceptualising urban spaces
Urban ecocriticism (the wilderness and the urban, the city and the bioregion, urban animals, etc.)
Urban fiction, poetry, drama, memoir, essays, nature writing, film, journalism, etc.
Migration into and out of cities
Ethical cities
Cities past, present and future
The language of and about the city
Cosmopolitanism and the city
Multicultural and global cities

Date      :            December 4, 2012
Time     :             8.30 a.m.-5 p.m.
Venue  :              Rumah Universiti, University of Malaya
Fee        :            RM 50 (academic staff and non-academic visitors) RM 25 (postgraduate students)
Lunch and tea will be provided.

Please email your abstract to saosman@um.edu.my or agnesyw@um.edu.my by Wednesday, October 31, 2012.

New Silverfish Facebook page

NEWS: Silverfish Books -- new facebook page

Silverfish Books has a new Facebook page dedicated to news about books, writing and publishing. Friends of Silverfish Books (including suppliers) may post items about their own book projects or news about their industry. The posts, however, will be moderated for, while we encourage you to share everything pertaining to books, we will not be so interested in what anyone had for breakfast, or how a date went, or other such things. Hope you'd understand. The other thing is that we will be biased towards books from Malaysia and Singapore, whether they are self-published, small runs, POD, or e-book; that is we'd love to hear from you about books from or about these two countries, preferably by writers from these two countries, but we are more flexible about that. We prefer book events too (reading, book launches and any other such event) from these two countries, but for news, it could be anything interesting (pertaining to this subject) from around the world.

The Ikan Perak page will continue as it is for the time being, for stories of the more personal nature. I set up Ikan Perak in 2009, and though I am hardly a ludite (I can write code in PHP and know enough to design, launch and maintain the Silverfish website, online store and marketplace), I froze when confronted with the Facebook page, or maybe I was simply too darn lazy to work on it, or even invite friends. Fortunately, Jamilah has no such problems, and has designed the entire new page for us. In fact, she has agreed to continue managing the Silverfish Books Facebook page when she returns to college.

Asia publishing and Childrens' writing prizes

1. There is now a new website dedicated to publishing news from the publishing industry in Asia: www.asianpublishing.net. So here's a chance to get your news out. The Asian Publishing Network aims to build a network of people in the publishing industry, those related to it, and readers.  Send your news to editor@asianpublishing.net. You may also submit articles and book reviews. Published submissions will not be paid (at least not now) but all submissions will be duly attributed and linked to relevant sites.

2. Children's book writers and illustrators, please note the following three ongoing competitions.The Calistro Prize is organised by the Society of Children's Book Writer & Illustrator (Malaysia) with the sponsorship of Calistro Consultants, a UK-based Consultancy firm. The winner will get RM10,000.00 and publication. Two runner-ups will be guided towards publication. For further information, visit www.thecalistroprize.com.

3.  The Eye Level Children's Literature Award is a global award organised by Daekyo, World Youth & Culture Foudation, South Korea. Now in its thirtieth year, the award is being held in Malaysia for the first time. The two categories in the award are 1) children's story and 2)illustrated story book. The prize money is USD2,000 for the first prize winner, and USD1,000 for the second prize winner for each category, at the national level. Winning entries will be submitted for the international round and will compete with entries from USA, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines. The winning prize at the international level is USD10,000 for each category, together with free tickets for two to Korea.  The deadline for submission is 30th September.

An obituary: Gore Vidal (1925-2012)

I was writing my op-ed piece on The Literary Fiction Debate when I heard on BBC 3 that Gore Vidal has died. He was my boyhood hero. I loved reading Gore Vidal when I was a teenager. Compared to him, Norman Mailer was a bore. (They didn't like one another either. He rubbed many people the wrong way, and he loved it.)

The story in the New York Times says, "Gore Vidal, the elegant, acerbic all-around man of letters who presided with a certain relish over what he declared to be the end of American civilization, died on Tuesday at his home in the Hollywood Hills section of Los Angeles, where he moved in 2003, after years of living in Ravello, Italy. He was 86."

His works were primarily non-fiction, but the book I remember him most by is the one called Kalki, a work of fiction, albeit not one of his most popular. But I loved his storytelling. When Kalki comes riding his white horse, says the Hindu mythology, the world will come to an end. In Gore Vidal's book, Kalki comes in the form of a Vietnam War veteran, who comes riding a white horse (in a Hollywood-style extravaganza) to end the world,which he intends to re-populate by himself, ala Adam and Eve. It is hugely tongue in cheek, but when he did end the world, I was left gob-smacked. I like this writer, I decided. He was audacious as hell. And, the twist at the end was hilarious.

“Gore is a man without an unconscious,” his friend the Italian writer Italo Calvino once said. Mr. Vidal said of himself: “I’m exactly as I appear. There is no warm, lovable person inside. Beneath my cold exterior, once you break the ice, you find cold water.”

My first Gore Vidal book was Messiah (1954) about a reluctant religious 'teacher' who is forced to commit suicide by his followers to fulfil his destiny, and to become their messiah. Julian (1964), about the Roman philosopher emperor, Julian (also known as Julian the Apostate)(331-363AD), the last non-Christian ruler of the Roman empire, was my first non-fiction book by the author. Creation (1981) was a journey through the ancient lands of Persia, China and India that was part philosophy, part history and part fantasy (of the author). Lincoln was history like I had never read before until then. That warm fuzzy President of the United States who, we had been told in school, originated from the log cabins was no more; replaced by a ruthless political animal, a quasi tyrant with a mad wife to boot. In other words, a real person.

History never remained the same for me.

Gore Vidal was an important influence in my teenage and early years. While his are not exactly books I'm likely to revisit frequently, he did point out important directions; some of which I ended up taking.

Sleep well, you crochety old man.