The Department of Asian Studies at Palacký University Olomouc is currently accepting proposals for its 17th Annual Conference on Asian Studies (ACAS) to be held on November 24–25, 2023 in Olomouc, Czech Republic and online.
The general theme of the conference this year is “Interpretation and Misinterpretation”. We welcome contributions that concern any issue that relates to the theme and focus on any aspect of cultures or societies in Asia as well as their diasporic manifestations.
We seek both synchronic and diachronic perspectives from anthropology, the arts, cultural geography, history, international relations, linguistics, literary studies, philosophy, political science, religion studies, sociology, and other fields in the humanities and social sciences. We also welcome interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary investigations.
We invite proposals in the following formats: ① individual papers, ② organized panels consisting of 3–4 papers, and ③ alternative formats (e.g., roundtable discussion, book presentation, film screening). The working language of the conference is English.
The proposals should be submitted in the form of abstracts. The deadline for abstract submission is June 30, 2023. Please submit your abstract via our EasyChair Submission Page. You will need to have/create an account on the EasyChair website to be able to make a submission. In the submission form, please state whether you intend to participate in the conference on-site or online.
Below, you can find more information regarding each participation format.
① Individual papers: Abstracts should be up to 300 words long (excluding references from the word count). At the conference, you will get 20 minutes to present your paper, followed by 10 minutes for discussion and Q&A.
② Organized panels: Organized panels must consist of 3–4 papers. A panel consisting of 3 papers will get a 90-minute-long time slot, while a panel consisting of 4 papers will get a 120-minute-long time slot. It is up to the panel convenor how the panel will be organized. Abstracts should provide (1) the title of the panel, (2) a short description of the whole panel, (3) titles of the individual papers that are included in the panel together with abstracts for each one of them. The names and contact details of presenters should be provided in the submission form but not within the text of the panel proposal. Altogether your abstract submission must be up to 1,000 words long. In case you wished to organize a larger panel, you need to divide it into parts consisting of 3–4 papers and submit a separate proposal for each part. Each part should bear the same title, which should further include a specifier, such as “(Part 1/2)” and “(Part 2/2)”.
③ Alternative formats: In case you would like to participate in the conference (also) in a different capacity than that of a paper presenter, you may submit a proposal for an alternative format, such as a roundtable discussion, a book presentation, or a film screening. Please specify in your proposal what exactly you would like to offer, how much time you would need, and explain how it would benefit other participants in the conference. Your proposal should be up to 300 words long (excluding references from the word count).
Each person can submit only one paper proposal. You may, however, further propose an activity under the heading of an alternative format.
Decisions on the abstracts will be sent by September 17, 2023. The accepted participants will subsequently have to register and pay the conference fee by October 1, 2023. Details regarding the registration are available here.
We do not require full papers to be submitted to us at any time prior to the conference. After the conference, participants will have an option to submit their paper for consideration to be included in our open access (and print on demand) edited volume. The submitted papers undergo a rigorous double-blind peer review process. The volume is published by Palacký University Press as part of our Olomouc Asian Studies series.
Any questions can be addressed to acas(at)upol.cz.
We look forward to your proposals!
The Organizing Team of ACAS 2022