ACAS 2016 - Asian Conference on Asian Studies 2016

In this conference participants are invited to explore and question the ways in which cultural struggle characterises our present times. Given that culture is the fabric of meaning making, understanding its relationship to politics and society is crucial. Cultural struggle, for instance, alerts us to the political dynamics of how meaning making is controlled, contested and communicated through the core institutions of society such as media, education, law, medicine, government, the family, religion, the market and so on ? all of which impact upon and influence everyday life.
Nowhere is the cultural struggle more evident than in questions of belonging, identity and mobility; refuge, exile and community. In the convergence of culture and narrative, the contemporary and historical story of the human condition is particularly marked by how power and the everyday are negotiated through the experience of displacement and dispossession or privilege and status. Culture, expressed, articulated and represented through sites and locales, practices, actions and values, identities and forms, histories and memories, myths and traditions, is a pivotal lens through which we are able to understand and interpret the way society works, and to see how power and the everyday intersect.
Streams:
Educating through borders of power
Transcending boundaries of ‘self’ and ‘other’
Challenging and transcending learning spaces
Education and the boundaries of communication
Borderlands of being and becoming
We hope and expect the 2016 conference themes to inspire a number of research avenues, and look forward to discussing ideas, findings and synergies, in this International Academic Forum.