A study of popular culture will exhibit the panoply of beliefs, practices and wisdom of ordinary people, and show how it is closely associated with the belief systems and socio-political institutions and practices. It is timely that a comparative study should be carried out to determine the ways in which issues of gender and sexuality inform popular culture in Southeast Asia. Gender and sexuality have long been regarded as taboo subjects in the context of this region. Although the issues of gender and sexuality are discussed in academia, little research has been conducted specifically on their relationship with popular culture. The unique context of Southeast Asia with its varied languages, myths, religions and traditions does not easily lend itself to contemporary Western theories on gender and sexuality. Uninformed use of these theories risks over-generalisations and consigns specific popular cultural traditions into third world productions. The different religions, customs and histories of respective countries in Southeast Asia have given birth to distinctive and specific creative productions. However, the increasingly borderless world and rapid technological innovations and e-economy have exacted similar effects on its people. This negotiation between maintaining distinct national identities and keeping abreast with globalisation provides avenues for the unique voices of Southeast Asia. This workshop is therefore timely because it is concerned with understanding, examining, interrogating and creating critical pathways in issues that are germaine to the study of gender and sexuality in popular culture in Southeast Asia.

Deadline for submission of paper proposal: 15 July 2007