CALL FOR PAPERS

Displaced Dialogues: Performance and Identity in Dalit and Tribal South Asian Diaspora

Introduction

This edited volume investigates the intersections of caste, indigeneity, and migration, utilizing performance studies to dismantle the upper-caste hegemony of South Asian diasporic scholarship. As Bhabha (1994) suggests, the “liminal” space of the diaspora is where identity is contested; yet, for Dalit and Adivasi subjects, this liminality is fractured by enduring caste structures. By centering the “margins of the margin,” Displaced Dialogues illuminates how these communities navigate what Hartman (2007) terms the “afterlife” of displacement. We explore folk performances and ritual as bodily archives—living repositories that resist the “epistemic violence” of erasure. This resonates with Spivak’s (1988) inquiry into subaltern agency, where she asserts that the subaltern “cannot be heard” (p. 104) within dominant frameworks, necessitating a performance of the self that asserts presence. Embracing Taylor’s (2003) distinction between the “archive” and the “repertoire,” this collection views embodied practice as central to community memory. By treating performance as a site of theory, we invite a reconsideration of how marginalized subjects claim space through what Lepecki (2013) calls “choreopolitics.”

Rationale

The global South Asian experience is frequently presented as a monolith, often obscuring the reality that the Kala Pani did not dissolve caste hierarchy. As Ambedkar (1936/2014) noted, “Caste is a notion; it is a state of the mind” (p. 233). This volume seeks to dismantle the “model minority” narrative by exposing how displacement acts as both trauma and a catalyst for radical cultural preservation. For marginalized groups, performance is a vital counter-archive, documenting histories of kinship absent from colonial records. This aligns with Foucault’s (1980) “subjugated knowledges”—historical contents buried by functionalist systems. Tracing indentured labor routes and contemporary migration, we bridge environmental humanities with migration studies to examine how “unhoming” shapes memory. These folk forms evolve into global acts of political assertion, reflecting a “Dalit Atlantic” or “Adivasi Indian Ocean” of cultural exchange (Gilroy, 1993). Following Freire’s (1970) Pedagogy of the Oppressed, we assert that the act of performance is a transformative “speaking of a true word” (p. 87), reclaiming agency in a postcolonial world.

About the Volume

Displaced Dialogues distinguishes itself by moving beyond traditional immigration studies to address the silenced intersection of caste and indigeneity in a globalized world. It elevates folk songs, tattoos, and oral testimonies to the status of primary academic texts, providing a granular map of a diaspora often ignored by high-culture archives. The volume uniquely integrates Environmental Humanities, Performance Studies, and Digital Humanities—linking nineteenth-century indentured histories with twenty-first-century migration patterns, bridging social justice advocacy with academic rigor, and appealing to scholars across sociology, literature, cultural anthropology, and political science. The readership for this volume occupies the intersection of rigorous academia and social advocacy. Primary audiences include scholars in South Asian and Performance Studies seeking decolonial frameworks, curators looking to diversify subaltern heritage collections, second- and third-generation youth in the diaspora seeking to reclaim their Dalit-Bahujan or Adivasi heritage, and human rights professionals, anti-caste activists, and cultural practitioners—including directors and ethnomusicologists—who view intercultural performance as a tool for systemic change.

Thematic Focus & Subthemes

We invite abstracts engaging with, but not limited to, the following subthemes:

The Body as Archive: Dalit and Adivasi bodies, gestures, tattoos, and oral traditions as primary sites of cultural memory and resistance in the diaspora.

Folk Performance in Transit: The transformation of folk forms such as Launda Naach, tribal percussion, and ritual theatre as they travel from ancestral homelands into diasporic urban spaces.

Digital Activism & the Virtual Stage: Social media, podcasts, and online platforms as new arenas for anticaste activism and Adivasi identity assertion across national borders.

Indentured Histories & Collective Memory: Tracing the cultural survival strategies of Dalit and Adivasi communities along historical indentured labor routes to the Caribbean, Fiji, Mauritius, and beyond.

Environmental Humanities & Displacement: The loss of ancestral forests, lands, and ecosystems and its impact on tribal identity, memory-making, and performance in migration contexts.

Decolonial Pedagogies: Methodological approaches that center living IKS frameworks, oral histories, and embodied knowledge in research and classroom settings.

Intersectionality & the Diaspora: The complex articulations of caste, gender, religion, and indigeneity as they shape diasporic subjectivities and expressive cultures.

Counter-Archives & Subaltern Knowledge: Community-generated archives, testimonies, and cultural practices that challenge colonial and upper-caste epistemologies.

Important Dates

Abstract Submission Deadline: 05 June 2026

Notification of Acceptance: 10 June 2026

Full Paper Submission Deadline: 30 September 2026

Submission Guidelines We welcome original, unpublished contributions from scholars, researchers, independent academics, and advanced doctoral students. Abstracts should be between 300 and 500 words and must include the following components:

Title of the proposed chapter

A clear statement of the argument, methodology, and theoretical framework

Relevance to the volume's themes

A brief biographical note (100 words) including institutional affiliation and contact information

All submissions must be in English and sent in MS Word format (.docx). Interdisciplinary contributions are strongly encouraged. Selected contributors will be notified of acceptance by 10 June 2026, and full papers (6,000–8,000 words, including references) will be due by 30 September 2026. The papers will undergo a rigorous double-blind peer-review process before final acceptance.

Send abstracts to: oralityandfolklore@gmail.com.

Editors: Dr Ashish Kumar, Assistant Professor, Dr. Shakuntala Misra National Rehabilitation University, Lucknow

Dr Mansi Bose, Assistant Professor, Chandigarh University, Uttar Pradesh

This edited volume has been accepted for publication with Peter Lang