IAFOR > The Asian Conference on Asian Studies (ACAS) > ACAS2020 > Programme

Programme

The Asian Conference on Asian Studies (ACAS) is an interdisciplinary conference held alongside The Asian Conference on Cultural Studies (ACCS). Keynote, Featured and Spotlight Speakers will provide a variety of perspectives from different academic and professional backgrounds. Registration for either conference will allow delegates to attend sessions in the other.

This page provides details of featured presentations, the conference schedule and other programming. For more information about presenters, please visit the Speakers page.

Conference Outline

Wednesday, March 27, 2020Thursday, May 28, 2020Friday, May 29, 2020Saturday, May 30, 2020

17:00-18:00: Conference Registration

18:00-19:00: Welcome Reception

09:00–12:00: Plenary Session & Conference Photograph

12:00–13:15: Lunch Break

13:15–14:45: Plenary Session

14:45–15:00: Break

15:00–16:30: Plenary Session

16:30–17:30: Conference Poster Session

19:00-21:30: Official Conference Dinner (optional extra)

09:00–10:30: Parallel Sessions

10:30–10:45: Break

10:45–12:15: Parallel Sessions

12:15–13:15: Lunch Break

13:15–14:45: Parallel Sessions

14:45–15:00: Break

15:00–16:30: Parallel Sessions

16:30–17:00: Break

17:00–18:00: Parallel Sessions

09:00–10:30: Parallel Sessions

10:30–10:45: Break

10:45–12:15: Parallel Sessions

12:15–13:15: Lunch Break

13:15–14:45: Parallel Sessions

14:45–15:00: Break

15:00–16:30: Parallel Sessions

16:30–17:00: Break

17:00–18:00: Closing Session

The draft version of the Conference Programme will be available online on April 28, 2020. All registered delegates will be notified of this publication by email.

The above schedule may be subject to change.

Featured Presentations

  • Dislocation/Invitation
    Dislocation/Invitation
    Keynote Presentation: Donald E. Hall

Final Programme

The Conference Programme contains access information, session information and a detailed day-to-day presentation schedule. All registered delegates who attend The Asian Conference on Asian Studies receive a printed copy of the Conference Programme at the Registration Desk on arrival. Only one copy of the Conference Programme is available per delegate, so please take good care of your copy.

The draft version of the Conference Programme will be available on April 28, 2020. The final Conference Programme will be available on May 14, 2020.

Previous Programming

View details of programming for past ACAS conferences via the links below.

ACAS2019ACAS2018ACAS2017
ACAS2016ACAS2015ACAS2014
ACAS2013ACAS2012ACAS2011
Dislocation/Invitation
Keynote Presentation: Donald E. Hall

IAFOR’s special theme in 2020 is “Embracing Difference”, which builds on two previous years’ themes: examinations of fear for what the future might hold (2018), followed a year later by explorations of our ability to shape alternate futures (2019). The continuing timeliness of both topics has been fuelled not only by global political trends, but also (and in ways that largely account for those trends) the fact that individuals today are being confronted incessantly with forms and intensities of “difference” as never before in human history. Unless we are wholly off the grid of media and extra-communal encounter (as we might find with self-isolating religious communities), we are confronted daily with lifestyles, belief systems, languages, and ways of being that are radically different from our own. Whether face-to-face or mediated, these continuing micro-shocks of encounters with epistemological difference can be terrifying, exhilarating, disorienting, or even erotically stimulating (if not several of those at once). Much hinges on how we decide to process such encounters, a choice for which, I argue, we bear responsibility. To the extent that we can actively choose to frame such “dislocations” as desirable “invitations”– to question the rightness of our own stances, the security of our own “truths,” and the limitations of our own knowledge – we can welcome encounters with difference as necessary for learning and growth. Too often, of course, they are processed much more narrowly as violent threats to insular selfhood, to national and cultural primacy, and to religious absolutes. We as teachers, scholars and public intellectuals have a role to play in reframing a public debate on the fundamental value of “difference”. Beyond our common and often tepid proclamation of respect for “diversity”, it is imperative that we promote and defend the inherently generative effect of the “unsettledness” that terrifies so many of our fellow citizens. Invitations to rethink our “selves”, our beliefs, and our values should be celebrated as inherently educational opportunities, rather than feared as apocalyptic threats to coherence or community.

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