This year, SWCAS celebrates a return to in-person meetings with a focus on Reconnecting in a (Post) Pandemic World. The conference is open to individual and panel proposals on all topics related to Asian Studies, but we especially welcome those that connect different disciplines, eras, and contexts in ways that respond to Asia’s global significance in the past and present. The conference will primarily take place in-person but will include a special presentation block for all-virtual panels. Note: Space for virtual presentations is limited; priority will be given to scholars based outside of the U.S.

PANEL PROPOSALS

• 300-word abstract
• List of 3 – 4 participants, paper titles, affiliations, and contact info
• Presentation mode [virtual vs in-person]

INDIVIDUAL PROPOSALS

• 150-word abstract
• Presenter’s name, affiliation, and contact info
• Presentation mode [virtual vs. in-person]

GRADUATE STUDENTS

A limited number of $100 travel stipends will be available for graduate students presenting papers at the conference. SWCAS awards a $200 prize for best graduate student paper

Please submit individual or panel abstracts by submitting the appropriate form at the link below.
SUBMISSION DEADLINE: May 31, 2022

Event website

State and Society in Asia: Past and Present

We invite submissions from scholars across all disciplines on all topics related to Asia and Asian Studies. We are particularly interested in topics related to our main theme: “State and Society in Asia: Past and Present.” Recent events such as the successes and failures of states at mitigating the Covid-19 pandemic; the targeting of religious, racial, and ethnic minorities; widespread protests against military regimes; the possibility of a new cold war between China and the US; and the dramatic takeover of Afghanistan by Taliban forces have highlighted the ever-crucial role of the state in Asian societies, both in its presence and absence. In bringing scholarly perspectives to these current events, questions that interest us include: What historical legacies of the state persist in contemporary Asia? What roles do technology and urban development play in extending state power to unprecedented degrees? Conversely, how does a vacuum in state infrastructure in countries like Afghanistan create conditions for regime change? Can countries like Myanmar continue to isolate themselves and not suffer social and economic hardships?

Contemporary artists, filmmakers, and environmental activists frequently challenge and critique these developments. How do regime changes unsettle and re-arrange key local and national cultural constituents and what impact do these changes have on environmental history, archaeology, and cultural heritage sites?

We also invite explorations of issues such as how local populations have historically contested the hegemony of the state in both its “weak” and “strong” formations and how inter-Asian networks operate across, within, or against state geographies. Additionally, we are interested in the ways that migrations, climate change, the Belt and Road Initiative, and the renewed importance of the Indian Ocean littoral have challenged and transformed the nation-state geographies of Asia and Asian studies.

Paper Proposal submission deadline: June 15, 2022

Event website

Since the Korean War has been over 70 years, Pusan National University, South Korea is hosting an international conference on the subject (United Nations and Korean War (1950-53): Politics, War and Peace). The interdisciplinary conference will be on 21-24 October 2022.

The aim of this (on-site) conference is to explore the involvement of the United Nations for ‘the Forgotten War’ through the various case studies of individuals, groups, or nations. The theme can be analysed in a multidisciplinary approach of history, politics, anthropology, sociology, war strategy, human movement, medicine, refugee, POWs, Busan studies, unification policy, education, and human rights.

If you are interested or your current research is relevant to the Korean War, we invite your abstract before 15 June 2022.

Please send your abstract or panel proposals to David W. Kim (davidwj_kim@yahoo.co.uk) including the following information:

Paper title
Nominated stream
Name and affiliation
Contact details (email)
Abstract of 150-200 words
Biography of 80 words highlighting teaching and research interests and publications (3-4 title and year only).

Proposals for panels of 3 or 4 papers must include the above information for all papers and a brief description of the panel itself of 100 words.

There will be limited bursary for some accepted doctoral candidates and early career researchers ($100-$300 each) as well as award for two best papers ($500 each). The bursary and award will be given away after conference.

Post-conference Publication
The selected papers (in a book volume) will be published by the Cambridge Scholars Publishing or Routledge in UK.

Conference Committee
(Chair) David William Kim (Australian National University and Kookmin University, Seoul)
(Co-Chair) Kiseob Kim (Director, Institute for Korean Unification, Pusan National University)
Jihyun Kim (Institute for Korean Unification, Pusan National University)

Please see the conference website for more details: https://iku.pusan.ac.kr/iku/54496/subview.do

Event website

We face the drastic increase in international migration and stateless persons, the prolonged pandemic, extensive digital surveillance, the prevalence of extended platform economies, the precarity of temporary laborers on land and at sea, environmental crisis, and climate change. Along with these developing conditions, the intensified social inequality worldwide also escalates.

The project of decolonization in the 21st century is to identify and analyze the uneven power relation in contemporary societies that engineers and reproduces the unequal social relations and environmental injustice. We invite interdisciplinary critical analysis and innovative artistic projects to engage with the task of decolonization in the 21st century:

(I) Global Capitalism and Technologies of Governance

(II) Marginalized Populations, Stateless Persons and Migrant Laborers

(III) Environmental Justice/Injustice

(IV) Social Engagement and Art Intervention

We welcome postgraduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and advanced scholars worldwide to share their ongoing projects with various disciplinary backgrounds: cultural studies, media and communication studies, critical legal studies, cultural sociology, literary studies, film studies, visual cultural studies, cultural anthropology, political philosophy, and related fields are all welcome.

The Institute will offer lectures, seminars, roundtables, and workshops for participants to spend the week learning from one another. The following keynote speakers have been confirmed:

• Ranabir Samaddar (Distinguished Chair, Migration and Forced Migration Studies, Calcutta Research Group, India)
• Pun Ngai (Chair Professor, Department of Cultural Studies, Lingnan University, Hong Kong)
• Ruba Salih (Professor, Department of Anthropology and Sociology, SOAS University of London, UK)
• Tess Lea (Head, Department of Community, Culture and Global Studies, University of British Columbia, Okanagan, Canada)
• Ken Kawashima (Associate Professor, East Asian Studies, University of Toronto, Canada)

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ACSInstitute2023

Apply to Participate: https://acsi2023.web.nycu.edu.tw/registration/

Organized by International Center for Cultural Studies, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taiwan & Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University, Australia

In collaboration with Calcutta Research Group, India & Department of Cultural Studies, Lingnan University, Hong Kong

Event website

Energy has been commonly viewed as a source of power for performing work. Through its many forms, such as chemical, thermal, electrical, and nuclear, energy has been a crucial component for various types of production. In this capacity, energy has been an integral, material-based resource for economic purposes and security. Beyond its value as a resource for material production, energy, from the premodern to the modern era, has assumed other meanings and been valued in different ways. In religious and spiritual traditions, for example, energy has been defined as a source of creation, living, and healing. As an abstract force, energy has been seen as a spiritual element that influences, determines, and powers location, place, space, relationships, the workings of the human body, and the make-up of nature. In terms of language, energy has been used as a metaphor or a colorful term to describe human actions, emotions, and behavior. In these different forms, energy has been long framed and defined through a variety of angles.

In whatever form it has existed, been employed or conceived of, energy cannot be understood without its connection to social context, especially different forms of authority. Political, social, cultural, economic, philosophical, and religious systems have played a role in the formation and influence of energy as a material and discursive element and force. The ways in which energy has been employed and defined have not only influenced geo-politics and international relations, but also gender relations, patterns and directions in design, paths for healthcare and well-being, and relationships between humans and non-humans. In order to understand energy’s role and place in human and non-human life, it is necessary to interrogate the relationship between energy and context.

This conference specifically examines the different meanings, values and uses of energy in Asia from the premodern to the modern era and the intersection between energy and context. It welcomes papers on energy from different periods of time, disciplines, including the sciences, and fields of study. Please send an abstract of 500 words (maximum) of a potential paper and a one-page CV to Albert L. Park (Claremont McKenna College, The Claremont Colleges), albert.park@cmc.edu and Namhee Lee (UCLA), namheeleeucla@gmail.com by October 12. Selections will be announced by October 22. Travel and accommodations will be covered by the conference (including international travel).

Event website