International Association for Tibetan Studies(IATS)

The IATS was formally created in 1979 on the occasion of a conference of Tibetan Studies that was organised at the University of Oxford by the late Michael Aris. The purpose of the Association, as stated in the statutes that were drawn up at this meeting, is primarily to promote the study of Tibet from all disciplinary perspectives such as history, religion, linguistics and art, to cite just four prominent examples, by providing a forum at which both established and aspiring scholars can present original academic research. As an association, the IATS has no political interest or affiliation. Altogether twelve seminars of the IATS have been held in a total of nine different countries, the last of these being Canada, where the Twelfth Seminar was hosted by the University of British Columbia in 2010. The other countries are the UK, Germany, Japan, Austria, the USA, the Netherlands, Norway and Switzerland.

15th IATS Seminar Paris, France

7 to 13 July 2019

IATS-15-image_22019 will mark the Fortieth Anniversary of the foundation of the International Association for Tibetan Studies at St. John’s College, Oxford, under the leadership of the late Michael Aris. In celebration of the steady growth of the IATS that has ensued, we are honoured to host the 15th IATS Seminar in Paris, France, from Sunday 7 to Saturday 13 July 2019.

The seminar is organized collaboratively by the INALCO, the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), the École Pratique des Hautes Études (EPHE), and the French School of Asian Studies (EFEO). The members of the convening committee are Fabienne Jagou (EFEO), Matthew Kapstein (EPHE), Françoise Pommaret (CNRS), Françoise Robin (INALCO), and Nicolas Sihlé (CNRS).

The principal venue for the Seminar will be the National Institute of Asian Languages and Civilizations (INALCO) in Paris’s 13th District. Information concerning lodging for participants will be communicated in a subsequent announcement.

A dedicated website for the Paris IATS2019 is under construction and will be made available early in 2018, including detailed information regarding the submission of proposals, registration, and housing. It is anticipated that the registration fee for the Seminar will be 300 euros. IATS attendees will be responsible for their own transportation and housing costs, in addition to the registration fee, though a small number of fellowships will be available, with preference given to scholars from Tibetan areas. The registration fee includes lunches throughout the conference. Sightseeing programs will also be available, but at additional cost.

Those who wish to organize panels at IATS2019 are invited to submit brief proposals. Please be sure to include your name, title, affiliation, e-mail address, proposed panel title, and a short description (not more than 150 words) to: iats2019- panels@sciencesconf.org. Names of proposed participants are not required at this time. Panel proposals received before 21 December 2017 and accepted by the organizing committee will be included in the information diffused when the seminar website is announced.

Welcome to Paris!

Dear Colleagues,

Please read the following carefully. These instructions must be followed precisely in order to ensure that your application to participate in the IATS2019 will be properly received and processed.

Proposals to participate in the IATS2019 can be submitted by all IATS members and established scholars in the field of Tibetan Studies. Graduate students working on their doctorates who have not participated in a previous seminar of the IATS, should ask their academic advisor to send a letter of recommendation on their behalf to: iats2019-info@sciencesconf.org. Independent scholars who have not completed a doctorate in a relevant field, and who have not participated in a previous seminar of the IATS, should ask a current member of the IATS to send a recommendation to the same address.

The website for the IATS2019 is hosted by sciencesconf.org at the address

https://iats2019.sciencesconf.org/

This site will be used for submitting your proposals and, if your proposal is accepted, for registration at the IATS2019. Notification of the outcome of your application will be sent to you no later than September 15, 2018.

Creation of your account:

Before you can use the IATS2019 website, however, you must create a Sciencesconf account at this page: https://www.sciencesconf.org/user/createaccount?lang=en

The page is also available in French and in Spanish. Here is an image of the page you will need to complete, with translations in Tibetan added:

Please be sure to enter your last name and first name in the forms in which they are given in the passport you will be using for travel to Paris.

After your account has been created, you can use your login name and password to enter the IATS2019 website at https://iats2019.sciencesconf.org/ after the site opens to the public on 21 February 2018 and while it remains open for submissions until 1 June 2018.

Submission of your proposal:

Following the IATS2019 homepage, three additional pages are now available:

Prepare Your Proposal – this page repeats the instructions you find here.

Financial Aid Information – this page explains the requirements and procedures for requesting financial aid in order to attend the IATS2019.

Submit – this is the page you must use to submit your proposal. Before submitting the proposal, please review the five types of proposal described below and prepare in advance your title, abstract and other information that is required. The abstract should be no more than one page in length, in pdf format. If you wish to propose two types of participation (for instance, as panel organizer and panelist), please choose only the one that you consider to be primary. Only one submission will be accepted from each participant, but a second type of participation, whether in the same panel or not, may be mentioned in your proposal. However, one may not propose the same type of participation in two different panels (for example, as panelist or discussant in two separate panels).

Those who wish to participate in the IATS2019 in other capacities – for instance, as a publisher planning a book display, or a film-maker wishing to screen an appropriate film outside of a panel– cannot use the present submission forms to propose those activities but are invited to write directly to the convenors at: iats2019-info@sciencesconf.org.

You may submit one of five types of proposal to the IATS2019:

1. Paper Proposals
2. Panel Proposals
3. Panel Discussant
4. Roundtable Proposals
5. Roundtable Participant Proposals

Further details about each of these are given below.

The submissions form, in four parts, is to be completed according to these guidelines:

Metadata

(1) Enter the title of your proposal.

(2) Select the type of proposal from among the five listed (Panel Proposals,

etc.)

(3) Select the general topic of the proposal among those listed. Please choose

the one that best suits your subject, or, if you think that none does, you may select “other.”

Author

You will find your name displayed as you have registered it in your sciencesconf.org account. You will be asked also to specify your institutional affiliation. Independent researchers may enter “Independent researcher” instead of an institution name. Note carefully: although the site will permit you to enter multiple authors for a single proposal, we cannot accommodate this and must receive proposals naming just one author. If you believe an exception to be essential, please write to us at iats2019-info@sciencesconf.org.

File

Here you will be asked to upload the file of your abstract. Please remember to limit abstracts to one page only in pdf format (or, as explained below, two pages in the case of Panel Proposals) and, in all Paper Proposals, do not include your name. Please do not upload any supplemental material to this page.

Overview

This allows you to review your submission and to correct it if necessary. Please remember to click on “submit” once you are satisfied! Once you have done this, it will not be possible to revise your application.

Types of Proposal

1. Paper Proposals

Paper proposals may be either for individual papers or papers that will be part of an organized panel, in which case, please indicate within your proposal the panel concerned. All research presented at the IATS2019 must be original and not previously published. Any infringement of this will be grounds for rejection of the proposal. The abstract should clearly summarize the essentials of the contribution proposed. PLEASE DO NOT INCLUDE YOUR NAME IN THE PDF FILE OF THE ABSTRACT THAT YOU UPLOAD. At the IATS2019, each paper presentation will be allotted 30 minutes. The facilities at the INALCO include video projection, but please note at the end of your abstract if you have special audio-visual needs.

2. Panel Proposals

Panels proposals may be, but are not required to be, for panels listed among the preliminary panel descriptions that were circulated earlier:

http://www.iats.info/wp/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/IATS2019_Panel_proposals_15_1_18.pdf

A panel should have a minimum of four panelists. There is no maximum, as the panel may be divided into two or more sessions. Only one discussant per panel, however, will be accepted. The abstract should provide a general explanation of the topic of the panel and its justification. A second page, included in the same pdf file as the abstract, should list the panel participants, their institutions, e-mail addresses and the titles of their papers. It is essential that each panelist also submit separately their own paper proposal or discussant proposal, in which they must specify the name of the panel in which they will be participating and the name and e- mail of the organizer. The organizer of the panel is responsible for ensuring that all participants understand that individual submissions are required. If there are multiple organizers of a single panel, just one should take the responsibility for submitting the proposal, specifying within the proposal who the co-organizers are. Co-organizers, of course, should submit their own Paper Proposal as explained above.

3. Panel Discussant

A Panel Discussant is a person who does not give a paper but who facilitates discussion within a panel. Please select this type of presentation only if this will be your primary or sole role at the IATS2019. In that case, it will be sufficient to upload, in place of an abstract, a pdf page listing the panel in question and your role as discussant in it.

4. Roundtable Proposals

Roundtables are less formal than panels and do not involve designated time allotments for the participants. They are intended to provide an occasion for informal reports and a free exchange of ideas in regard to topics of current interest within the Tibetan Studies field. If you are organizing a roundtable, the abstract should clarify the topic and include a list of participants. You may not submit a Roundtable proposal in addition to a Panel proposal. Roundtable participants do not need to submit a separate Roundtable Participant Proposal, unless this will be their only participation in the IATS2019.

5. Roundtable Participant Proposals

Please select this type of presentation only if this will be your primary or sole role at the IATS2019. Your abstract, in that case, should briefly describe the subject-matter of your contribution.

Please note that the abstract may be submitted in any of the four official languages of the IATS: English, French, German, or Tibetan. We will not be able to process abstracts in other languages. Papers also can only be delivered in the same four languages.