International Forum on Spice Route 2024

The International Forum on Spice Routes (IFSR), initiated by the Negeri Rempah Foundation and the Research Center for Society and Culture and Indonesia’s BRIN, IFSR aims to reach a wider audience, strengthening multiculturalism and regional equality.in collaboration with various institutions, serves as a key platform for discussing the ongoing relevance of historical spice routes in contemporary society. Emphasizing the routes' enduring maritime connections, IFSR fosters cross-cultural dialogue to explore and sustain these pathways as a shared natural and cultural heritage. The forum brings together academics, practitioners, diplomats, and artists among others, to celebrate cultural similarities and differences, aiming to enhance regional and global connectivity. The 2024 IFSR focuses on remobilizing these routes, particularly highlighting Indonesia's strategic role in the global discourse on maritime routes, aiming to address contemporary challenges while promoting cultural and economic exchanges across Southeast Asia and beyond.

INTERNATIONAL FORUM ON SPICE ROUTE 2023

Negeri Rempah Foundation in collaboration with Research Center for Society and Culture, National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN)

20-23 September 2023

at the National Research and Innovation Agency

Jl. Gatot Subroto 10, South Jakarta, Indonesia

Reconnecting the Spice Routes:

The Contribution of Maritime Southeast Asia to Global Transformation

International Forum on Spice Route 2022

EXTENDED ABSTRACT DEADLINE

CALL FOR PAPER: “REVITALIZING THE SPICE ROUTES: ANSWERING GLOBAL CHALLENGES”

Negeri Rempah Foundation in collaboration with Research Center for Society and Culture, National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN)

INTERNATIONAL FORUM ON SPICE ROUTES (IFSR) 2022

Tuesday-Wednesday, 20-21 September 2022

Virtual (zoom webinar format)

Call for Paper:

“REVITALIZING THE SPICE ROUTES: ANSWERING GLOBAL CHALLENGES”

About the Forum

Reconstructing spice routes cannot be separated from the way current people and communities make use and live on this historical global connectivity. Many still think and argue that the routes are history, however, many researchers have proven that these routes maintain important maritime connections that have changed their forms and nature. International Forum on Spice Routes (IFSR) is a collaborative forum between several institutions, initiated by the Negeri Rempah Foundation to discuss and advocate the topic of spice routes in contemporary society.

IFSR is an international forum to open cross-boundaries and cross-cultural dialogue to revisit, research, relive and maintain the spice routes that have become a natural and cultural common heritage at the regional and global levels. The previous IFSR has proven that the routes still exist and are used as one important regional and global connection between different regions, continents and countries. The 2022 IFSR taking the theme: Revitalizing the Spice Routes: Responding to the Global Challenges is aimed to remobilise the routes and the importance of Indonesian, or the South-East Asian countries’ significant role on a global scale. In a more strategic term is to reposition Indonesia in the global discourse with its unique perspective in understanding the maritime routes (economic, trade, cultural, and other aspects of it) from time to time. In 2022, Negeri Rempah Foundation will collaborate with Research Center for Society and Culture, Indonesia’s National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) to embrace larger audiences.

IFSR serves as a platform to exchange cross-cultural knowledge and understanding by strengthening common heritage with the spirit of multiculturalism through constructing a socio-cultural-historical narrative of spice routes with neighbouring and connected countries both from the past and from the current relations. The Forum interacts with different voices of academic and epistemic communities, practitioners, diplomats, business people, other non-government organisations, communities,, artists, and historians with similar interests and intertwined cultures, therefore, the larger society may celebrate cultural similarities and differences through programs that allow greater public participation.

The 2022 IFSR aims to revisit and remobilise the living spice routes practice by the global communities, from different perspectives such as its relations to national, regional, or global identity, but it also helps balance local and regional equality by enhancing connectivity to the furthest areas through trading and cultural interactions; further, it also tackles issues of how the fisheries and maritime communities answer these global challenges and living upon the spice routes, in contemporary terms. Therefore, the 2022 IFSR will also try to intensify and mobilise the result of the previous IFSR to understand contemporary global issues and challenges that we are facing.

Objectives and Outcomes

Indonesia has an active role in the global community to open access, create dialogue, and build (new and old) relations of different communities at local, regional, and international through multi-disciplinary approaches to different aspects of the spice routes. Further, this collaboration also aims to answer arising and existing global challenges and contemporary issues in line with the Sustainable Development Goals.

Form of Activities

This International conference is part of the series of activities in the International Forum on Spice Routes to provide scientific and research-based knowledge and information regarding the spice routes in contemporary society.

For the Conference, Conveners accept selected abstracts and papers to be presented in the 2022 IFSR held on 20-21 September 2022 in hybrid form (in Jakarta, Palembang, and also through an online platform). Different panel themes are:

Panel Themes

The Conference will cover several specific themes as follows:

Panel 1: Identity, Equality and Globalisation

This panel covers issues such as spice routes as the entry point to revisit, rethink and research different possibilities of international cooperation to establish global fellowship and peace. This condition will create further mutual dialogue, respect, and recognition of cultural diversities and their heritage within the spirit of justice and equality. This panel aims to help construct a shared ground for national, regional, or global identities that uphold respect and protect humans of different races, languages, traditions, and other differences.

Panel 2: Sustainable Development and Natural Diversity Along the Spice Routes

This panel covers issues such as natural diversity and its protection for future sustainable development. It can also discuss natural and maritime resources being traded, ethnomedicine using herbs from different countries, maritime ecosystem restoration, land and coastal degradation, local wisdom, and folklore in managing natural and maritime resources.

Panel 3: Culture for Creativity, Innovation and Livelihood

The main theme of this panel is intercultural understanding as a key to creativity and innovation to sustainable economic development, creating jobs, responsible economic investment, and many international cooperation opportunities. This also enhances the role of culture in pushing forward revitalisation and protection of cultural heritage, previously overly traded, or on a brink of extinction. Issues covered will also include sustainable and responsible tourism.

Panel 4: Disaster Relief and Reconstruction

This panel covers issues, but not limited to, such as climate change and the Covid-19 pandemic that disrupt human life in every way possible. Health and global economic crises influenced countries along the spice routes. Human adaptation and resilience during and after the disaster will be the focus of this panel, which will include the development of coastal cities, coastal areas, or small islands that leads to or follow natural or man-made disasters and reconstructions. The panel will also seek to discuss new and alternative solutions to the matters.

Panel 5: Fishers and Fisheries

Fishers and fisheries are two inseparable issues and are getting more and more important in the global arena. On the one hand, the world’s increasing population needs sufficient and healthy food, and fish is one of the important commodities to fulfill this need. On the other hand, we are witnessing a growing crisis of the world’s fisheries all around the world, from the coldest arctic regions to the warmest tropical seas. Or in McGoodwin words, ‘… there are too many people chasing too few fish’ (McGoodwin 1990: 1). Fishers – particularly small scale – are caught in this circumstance. The contribution of small-scale fishers is very significant to the landed fish globally, yet they are often found to be living in poor conditions on land and in the sea. New strategies and approaches should be developed to understand more the nature of the problems and options to be taken to tackle these problems.

This panel is dedicated to share lessons learned and initiate connections of people from various countries connected via the spices routes in looking at the fishers and fisheries problem and innovative strategies/approaches to deal with the issues. We expect the discussion will also be in line with Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).

Panel 6: Seafaring and Trading Routes

This panel will seek to discuss the different aspects of seafaring and trading routes, according to history or in current practices that connect countries, regions, and continents. The discussion will also cover maritime commerce, maritime and trading policies, and the practice of local or traditional trade in particular socio-economic and political activities of different governments being connected by the routes. Further, it can also cover discoveries of archaeological remnants from these seafaring and trading activities, which will increase our knowledge of items being shipped or traded throughout history. Further, this panel also discusses knowledge or scientific transfers between countries, as trade and seafaring become one important means of exchanging knowledge, languages, and cultures.

Important Dates

07 August 2022                     : Deadline for abstract submission

08-15 August 2022                : Abstract review and selection

19 August 2022                     : Notification of accepted abstracts

15 September 2022               : Full paper submission

20-21 September 2022     : The Conference / International Forum on Spice Route 2022

Abstract Submissions

We invite contributors to submit an abstract of 300 words. Abstract should include proposed research questions, main argument, and methodology. Submissions should also include a title, name of the author(s), institutional affiliation(s), e-mail address, and personal biography of 150 words. They should be submitted to https://ocs.brin.go.id/ or https://linktr.ee/negerirempahfoundation

Those whose abstracts are accepted will be expected to submit a full paper of between 5000 – 7000 words. Selected papers will later be included in the Proceeding of International Forum on Spice Route published by the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN).

Conveners

Dr. Dedi Adhuri (National Research and Innovation Agency, BRIN) [+6281383940111/dediadhuri@hotmail.com]

Dr. Maulana Ibrahim (Negeri Rempah Foundation / Khairun University, Ternate) [+6281328386512/maulanarch@gmail.com]

Contacts

Widya Safitri +62 812 10294804

Gemala Putri +62 818 809768

Email: internationalforumonspiceroute@gmail.com

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