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Call For Papers

Transformation of Australian Studies
in a Globalising Age
26-27 July 2014
At Sophia University, Tokyo
Japan

The First International Conference of
The Australian Studies
Association of Japan

The purpose of this conference is to exchange perspectives, observations and ideas about Australian studies among scholars from a broad range of academic disciplines such as history, literature, cultural and media studies, politics and law from Australia and Japan as well as other countries, and then to conduct a comparative and inter-disciplinary analysis of the issues surrounding Australian studies in the globalising world.

Proposal Submission
Abstracts of no more than 250 words should be submitted by September 30, 2013. Authors will be notified of the decision of the reviewers by mid-October. (Please use the proposal submission form attached to this.) If your proposal is accepted you will be invited to register for the conference.

We welcome papers that focus on (but not limited to):
Environmental and Sustainability Studies, Ecology, Economics, Gender Studies, Education, Geology, Whiteness Studies, Media and Film Studies, Ethnology, Indigenous Studies, Literature, Political Science, Sociology, Refugee Studies, Human Rights, etc.

Organizers: Prof. Teruhiko FUKUSHIMA, President of the ASAJ
National Defense Academy of Japan
Prof. Yuga SUZUKI, General Manager of the Conference
Sophia University

Contact: Prof. Yuga Suzuki:
CC/ Prof. Teruhiko FUKUSHIMA:
Prof. Yasue ARIMITSU
Prof. Akira Kawaguchi

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The theme of this symposium is “Transformation of Australian Studies in a Globalizing Age” and the key concepts are “globalisation,” “multiculturalism,” and “transformation” in the context of postmodernism and postcolonialism. Through multicultural policies and the everyday reality of multiculturalism in Australia, a radical transformation of Australian society has occurred corresponding to continuing globalisation. In this conference, we intend to look at these key concepts from diverse viewpoints, not just from the conventional dual perspectives between Japan and Australia, or China and Australia, Canada and Australia and so on. On this occasion, we would like to share research by Japanese, Australian and other international scholars and teams in the field of Australian Studies, especially from a Postcolonial and Cultural Studies perspective. We would also like to encourage topic-related contributions from outside these confining parameters so as to cater for academic plurality. We thus consider the issues of “globalisation” and “multiculturalism” and analyze and discuss them from multiple viewpoints and deepen our understanding of these concepts in order to have a more comprehensive view of the future.

The Australian Studies Association of Japan (ASAJ) was established in 1989 and will celebrate its 25th anniversary in 2014. The major purposes of establishing the association were to promote Australian studies in Japan, nurture Japanese scholars who were very enthusiastic about Australian studies, and provide them with opportunities to present their research results. During the 1980s and 1990s, the number of scholars who specialized in Australian Studies was quite limited and most of them were not always pure Australian studies specialists. The sessions held at the yearly conference, therefore, were not fully satisfactory in terms of the variety of disciplines as well as the number of research papers. However, in the last 10 years, the association has drastically changed along with the development of Australian multicultural society. Australia started to attract a great deal of attention from Japanese scholars as well as worldwide academics, a number of Japanese students started to obtain degrees from Australian universities, and more Australian studies research than before, covering the fields of economics, political science, sociology, anthropology, and literary/cultural studies, began to be published.

We believe that the 25th anniversary is a good opportunity to hold an international conference in order to share our achievements with Japanese as well as overseas academics. The ASAJ International Conference in 2014 will surely be a step to a new phase in Australian studies. We are planning to invite several prominent Australian scholars as plenary speakers to the ASAJ’s 2014 International Conference.

Call For Papers
Transformation of Australian Studies
in a Globalising Age
19-20 July 2014 at Sophia University,
Tokyo, Japan

Proposal Submission Form
Abstract (within 250 words):

Name: Title
Affiliation:
Email Address:
Mailing Address:
Notes: