CfP ACLA 2026 - Translationscapes of Southeast Asia
To designate a space as “Southeast Asia” is already to engage a particular epistemology and toponym. Conveniently positioned as the marginal extension of both Indian and Chinese spheres, hence the colonial coinage of “Indochina,” the landscape of what we now call “Southeast Asia” (SEA) emerges from intersecting, if not competing, imperial imaginaries. A regional construct shaped by strategic demarcation and modern taxonomies, SEA (Đông Nam Á, Asia Tenggara, Asie du Sud-Est, Asia Selatan-Timur, Timog-Silangang Asya, Echia Tawan-ok Chiang Tai, Dōngnányà/Nányáng) has been translated into political discourse and variously reappropriated in local languages and scholarly traditions.
