The Asian Conference on Cultural Studies 2017 (ACCS2017)

Join us in Kobe this summer for The Asian Conference on Cultural Studies 2017 (ACCS2017), June 1-4, 2017. ***ACCS2017 at a glance The Asian Conference on Cultural Studies 2017 (ACCS2017) will be held alongside The Asian Conference on Asian Studies (ACAS2017) and The IAFOR International Conference on Japan & Japan Studies (IICJ2017) in the beautiful and cosmopolitan city of Kobe, Japan. Submit your abstract now to participate in this international, interdisciplinary and intercultural event. **Location: Art Center Kobe, Kobe, Japan **Dates: Thursday, June 1 to Sunday, June 4, 2017 **Final Abstract Submission Deadline: March 12, 2017 **Early Bird Registration Deadline: February 13, 2017 **Enquiries: accs@iafor.org SUBMIT AN ABSTRACT: iafor.org/accs2017-call-for-papers Already had your abstract accepted? Register now: iafor.org/accs2017-registration To find out more about registration packages, presentation options, conference events and more, please visit the conference website: accs.iafor.org ------------- ***ACCS2017 Conference Theme: "Global Realities: Precarious Survival and Belonging" The theme for The Asian Conference on Cultural Studies 2014 in Osaka was "Borderlands of becoming, belonging and sharing". In his presentation, Conference Co-Chair Professor Baden Offord wrote "Gloria Anzaldua's idea of the borderland has become a critical conceptual rubric used by cultural researchers as a way of understanding, explaining and articulating the in-determined, vague, ambiguous nature of everyday life and the cultural politics of border-knowledge, border crossings, transgression, living in-between and multiple belongings. Borderlands is also about a social space where people of diverse backgrounds and identities meet and share a space in which the politics of co-presence and co-existence are experienced and enacted in mundane ways." Now we revisit that territory under the title "Global Realities: Precarious Survival and Belonging". While retaining the ideas expressed by Prof. Offord in 2014, this conference will turn its focus on to the precariousness of life across the world, life being understood in all its amplitude. Since 2014 we have witnessed the horror of the refugee crisis in Europe and how borders which should have been crossed have been blocked off by barbed wire fences. The whole context of borders, belonging and survival has shifted resulting in an increase in racism, radical nationalisms, terrorism, infringements of human rights, and rising poverty levels, to mention only a few of the globalised problems confronting our world. The result of such precarity, even of the planet itself, has led to a generalised sense of communal and individual vulnerability. Raimond Gaita recently noted, "It is striking how often people now speak of 'a common humanity' in ethically inflected registers, or ethically resonant tones that express a fellowship of all the peoples of the earth, or sometimes the hope for such a fellowship." Hopefully, this conference will discuss the ways and means by which a "common humanity" may be aspired to by future generations. We look forward to welcoming you to Kobe, Japan. The Organising Committee The Asian Conference on Cultural Studies 2017 ------------- ***Programme **Keynote Presentation: Precarious Futures, Precarious Pasts: Migritude and Planetarity Professor Gaurav Desai, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA In this talk I will focus on the figure of the migrant in recent Anglophone fiction from Africa and South Asia. I am interested in the continuities and discontinuities in the experience of migration from the nineteenth century to the present, particularly, though not exclusively, for vulnerable populations. I then attempt to connect that experience to challenges posed to us by environmental changes and vulnerabilities in the same time frame. The aim is to think through the figure of the migrant not just as someone who moves from one sociopolitical context – village, town, city, nation – to another, but to think through migrant experiences as they relate to larger planetary concerns. **Featured Presentation: Buddhist Terrorism? Dr Brian Victoria, Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies, UK Buddhism has long enjoyed a reputation in the West as a religion of peace. It is only in recent years that the long history of those calling themselves Buddhists who engaged in warfare has been introduced to Western readers (see, for example, Buddhist Warfare). In an era in which terrorist acts carried out by those who identify themselves as Muslims attract our attention, it is noteworthy that Buddhists, too, are not immune to this form of religious fanaticism. The historical truth is that in 1930s Japan at least three Buddhist-related acts of terrorism took place. While introducing these terrorist acts, this presentation focuses on the Buddhist doctrine and practice undergirding the so-called "Blood Oath Corps Incident" (J. Ketsumeidan Jiken) of early 1932. ------------- ***IAFOR's Grants and Scholarships For information about IAFOR's new grants and scholarships for PhD students and early career academics, please visit: www.iafor.org/accs2017-financial-support ------------- ***IAFOR Publishing Opportunities **Peer-reviewed journal: The IAFOR Journal of Cultural Studies The IAFOR Journal of Cultural Studies (jocs.iafor.org) is an editorially independent journal associated with ACCS2017. The editor of the journal will select the strongest papers from associated conference proceedings for consideration. This open access journal, which conforms to the highest academic standards, reflects the interdisciplinary and international nature of our conferences. **Conference Proceedings After having your abstract accepted and presenting your research at the conference, you are encouraged to submit a full paper for inclusion in the official conference proceedings. Our conference proceedings are open access research repositories, which act as permanent records of the research generated by IAFOR conferences. Further details are available here: iafor.org/accs2017-final-paper-submission **THINK THINK (think.iafor.org), The Academic Platform, is IAFOR's online magazine, publishing the latest in interdisciplinary research and ideas from some of the world's foremost academics, many of whom have presented at IAFOR conferences. Content is varied in both subject and form, with everything from full research papers, to shorter opinion pieces, interviews, podcasts, film and photography. ------------- ***Join IAFOR at ACCS2017 to: – Present to a global audience – Have your work published in the Conference Proceedings and considered for peer-reviewed, open-access journals – Benefit from IAFOR's interdisciplinary focus by hearing about the latest research in Cultural Studies, Asian Studies, Japan Studies, and more – Participate in a truly international, interdisciplinary and intercultural event – Take part in interactive audience sessions – Network with international colleagues **Register now to take advantage of Early Bird Registration prices. Early Bird Registration is open until the end of February 13, 2017. Lunch is included in all conference registrations. Please see the registration pages for details: www.iafor.org/accs2017-registration *If you have attended an IAFOR conference within the past year, or belong to an affiliated university or institution, we offer additional discounts in appreciation of your support. Please contact us at accs@iafor.org for details. ------------- ***About IAFOR To learn more about IAFOR, please visit www.iafor.org. For enquiries please contact accs@iafor.org.