The Department of Asian Studies at Palacký University Olomouc is currently accepting proposals for its 18th Annual Conference on Asian Studies (ACAS), which will be held on November 22–23, 2024 in Olomouc, Czech Republic. This conference is an in-person event, but all sessions will be streamed.
The general theme of this year’s conference is time. We welcome contributions that concern any issue and topic that relates to this theme with a focus on the cultures, societies, languages, and histories of Asia as well as their diasporic manifestations. Such issues may include, but are not limited to:
- periodization, generational shifts, and epochal divisions;
- approaches to tense and related phenomena in language;
- politics of time and temporalities of power;
- contemporariness and contemporaneity in art and literature;
- progress and regress, linear time versus cyclical time;
- narrative time;
- ephemerality versus timelessness;
- time travel;
- timekeeping, astronomy, and calendrical science;
- astrology and horoscopy;
- coevalness and futurologies;
- etc. etc.
We seek contributions from a variety of theoretical, methodological, and (inter)disciplinary approaches. We welcome proposals grounded in original research in fields such as anthropology, international relations, history, linguistics, literature, philosophy, political science, sociology, visual art, and any other fields in the humanities and social sciences.
We invite proposals in the following formats: (1) individual papers; (2) organized panels consisting of three or four research papers; (3) research posters, and (4) alternative formats, such as roundtable discussions, book presentations, film screenings, art projects, etc. The conference will also include a session dedicated to (5) individual papers by graduate students.
The working language of the conference is English. The proposals should be submitted in the form of abstracts (see below for details) via EasyChair. You need to have/create an account on the platform to be able to make a submission. Please make sure that your abstract (both the text in the online form and the PDF) is fully anonymized.
The deadline for the submission of abstracts is June 30, 2024. Each person can submit only one proposal for a research paper (format no. ① below). In addition to a research paper proposal, you may also submit a proposal for a research poster (format no. ③ below) or an alternative activity (format no. ④ below). You can also be the co-author of another research paper submitted by another author.
Below, you can find more information regarding each participation format.
① Individual papers: Abstracts of individual research papers must be anonymized and up to 300 words in length, excluding references. At the conference, each presenter will have 20 minutes to present their paper, followed by 10 minutes for discussion and Q&A.
② Organized panels: Organized panels may consist of three or four research papers. A panel consisting of three papers will be allocated a 90-minute time slot, while a panel consisting of 4 papers will be allocated a 120-minute time slot. It is up to the convenor of a panel to decide how to dispose of the time available to their panel. Submissions for panels must include: (1) the title of the panel, (2) a short introduction to the entire panel, and (3) titles and abstracts of the papers included in the panel. Altogether the text must be up to 1,000 words long. The names and contact details of all presenters must be provided in the submission form, but not in the text or the text file containing the panel proposal. If you wish to organize a panel of more than four papers, you need to divide it into two sub-panels, both consisting of three or four papers, and submit a separate proposal for both sub-panel. Choose “organized double panel” in the submission form and make sure that both sub-panels bear the same title, followed by a specifier, such as “(Part 1/2)” and “(Part 2/2)”.
③ Research poster: Abstracts of research posters must be anonymized and contain up to 300 words, excluding references. Authors of research posters are responsible for printing their own poster. They will be provided with instructions regarding the size of the poster and other requirements after acceptance. Posters will be displayed for the duration of the conference. There will also be a session of the conference dedicated specifically to poster presentations.
④ Alternative formats: You can submit a proposal for an alternative format, such as a roundtable discussion, a book presentation, a film screening, or an art project. Proposals must include a description of the activity and its content, how much time it would require, and how it would contribute to the theme of the conference. Proposal should be up to 500 words in length, excluding references.
⑤ Student papers: This format is reserved for research papers by graduate students. Abstracts of student papers must be anonymized and up to 300 words in length, excluding references. The conference will include a dedicated session for the presentation of these papers, where each paper will be allocated 20 minutes followed by 10 minutes for discussion and Q&A. In this format, submissions on topics that are unrelated to the main theme of the conference are also welcome. The sole author or the first author of these papers must be currently enrolled in a Master’s degree program.
Decisions on the abstracts will be sent to the authors of each submission by September 15, 2024. The authors of accepted proposals will have to register and pay the conference fee by September 30, 2024. Details regarding the registration are available here.
We do not require full papers to be submitted before the conference. After the conference, participants will have the opportunity to submit their papers for inclusion in an open access and print-on-demand edited book. The submitted papers will undergo a rigorous double-blind peer review process by at least two reviewers. The volume will be published by Palacký University Press as Volume 5 in the Olomouc Asian Studies (OLAS) series.
Any questions can be addressed to acas(at)upol.cz.
We look forward to your proposals!
The Organizing Team of ACAS 2024