Special Events

Check out our ICAS 12 Programme website for more information on the Special Events. See https://www.eventscribe.net/2021/ICAS12

Engaging With Vietnam 12

We are pleased to announce that the Engaging With Vietnam 12 (EWV 12) conference will be held in conjunction with ICAS 12 and will be integrated in the ICAS 12 programme.
Engaging With Vietnam is an initiative that seeks to promote the production of cutting-edge scholarship about, or in dialogue with, “Vietnam” in all of its forms, from Vietnam as place to Vietnam as an idea.
At their conferences, EWV has brought together scholars who examine, from multidisciplinary perspectives, the tremendous changes taking place in Vietnam as it develops and integrates into the world. At the same time that the EWV conferences have focused on Vietnam, they have also always welcomed contributions from scholars who focus on other countries and societies so as to benefit from comparative insights.
The 12th Engaging With Vietnam conference will focus on the theme of:
Engaging With Vietnam and ASEAN: Mobilities and Identities in an Age of Global Transformation

The ICAS 12 Film Festival

Asia is one of the world’s richest areas for diversity and has undergone intense and rapid transformation over in the first two decades of the 21st century. How these changes are captured by filmmakers help stimulate dialogues on issues that people hold close to them in everyday life. For ICAS 12 the Visual Documentary Project has teamed up for a second time to offer a selection of works from across Asia and other parts of the world. We offer a selection of contemporary documentaries and films that touch upon issues of justice, love, popular culture, memory across Asia and further afield. This year’s event also has a Japanese theme. We bring together works by Japanese filmmakers working in Japan and across Asia to highlight the different approaches to issues in the region.

Festival Curator

The ICAS 12 Film Festival is curated by Mario Lopez, Associate Professor at the Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University. He is the secretariat head of the visual documentary project (VDP) and works on migration and sustainability matters within Southeast Asia. He previously curated the ICAS 10 Film Festival.

Center for Southeast Asian Studies (CSEAS), Kyoto University

The Center for Southeast Asian Studies (CSEAS) conducts research in Southeast Asia to formulate and pursue original research agendas. Through integrated area studies it seeks to develop research frameworks that develop from extensive fieldwork on the region’s diversity. Currently, CSEAS is promoting trans-disciplinary collaborative research to form collaborative academic communities that work toward life-oriented research approaches attuned to regional diversity; create socially innovative approaches to the needs of the environment; and share and use global information resources with the regional and global academic world. Since 2012, CSEAS has supported the Visual Documentary Project (VDP) which provides a platform for Southeast Asian and Japanese filmmakers to share documentaries to a broader public. This project aims to use visual forms of expression to complement the growing literature that exists on Southeast Asian societies and build bridges between academia and filmmaking in the region.

Academic Freedom Space

The ICAS 12 Academic Freedom Space (AFS) is a platform that seeks to create spaces in which to formulate theory and action in response to infringements on intellectual and academic expression. Just as with ICAS 11 this year’s ICAS 12 Academic Freedom Space will be again open to all who are interested. The daily sessions will feature invited speakers from or on different regions who will share their views and experiences to spark open audience discussions across transregional contexts. After an introduction explaining the history and intent of the AFS, we will anchor each panel discussion to one of the following broad themes, although debate need not be limited to these:

1): Financial and work precarity;
2): Explicit and implicit forms of intellectual infringement by the state;
3): Implications of neoliberal-inspired policies for knowledge creation and education;
4): Multifaceted impact of the COVID-19 pandemic

We also aim to foster broader debates about: what is an intellectual space/university; ways that academic freedom is already constricted in existing institutions; and how we can create spaces for free academic and intellectual exchanges. The concluding session will seek practical and transferable ways for defending and extending academic freedom.

Please share your thoughts and experiences of the challenges you or your colleagues are facing in the free pursuit of academic work, or share videos and other materials, by contacting us at: afs[D]asia[A]gmail[D]com( Please change [A] to @ and [D] to . ).

More online ICAS 12 special events including cultural and networking activities are announced on our ICAS 12 programme website. Indeed, even if ICAS 12 moved online, you will still be able to discover the city of Kyoto through virtual tours. In addition, various shows, workshops, videos, concerts, and exhibitions will also let you learn about not only the main attractions of the old capital of Japan but also its lesser-known aspects such as contemporary and underground arts and culture that are crafting the future of Japan and the world.