Organisers

Kyoto Seika University

Kyoto Seika University (SEIKA) was founded in 1968 as an innovative college focusing on two disciplines, Fine Arts and English with a holistic, practice-based view of education. The courses draw on the rich resources of its actively-engaged faculty members and on the city of Kyoto itself, the cultural and intellectual heart of Japan. SEIKA’s educational goals are academic freedom and autonomy, international education, and development of the whole person. The Faculties of Art and Humanities were inaugurated in 1979 and 1989, respectively. Overseas fieldwork and the creation of overseas exchange connections were essential components. Restructuring in 2006 created the three Faculties of Art, Design, and Manga (Comic Art and Animation). SEIKA was famously the first university in Japan to offer majors in Manga and now Masters' Programs and selected Ph.D. programs are also offered. In 2013, SEIKA opened a new Faculty of Popular Culture, providing courses in Music, and Fashion. In a joint venture partnership with Kyoto City, SEIKA in 2006 set up the Kyoto International Manga Museum, a groundbreaking new research center and focal point for cultural studies in central Kyoto, attracting dedicated researchers from around the world. In 2008, SEIKA hosted the first CUMULUS (International Association of Universities and Colleges of Art, Design and Media) International Design Conference to be held in Asia, drawing some 600 participants from 33 different countries. SEIKA has also demonstrated its outward-looking attitude by inviting well-known overseas figures to speak at events here, including His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, Noam Chomsky, Yoko Ono, Abbas Kiarostami, Orhan Pamuk, Peter Cook, Immanuel Wallerstein and Wole Soyinka. Newly elected in 2018, President Oussouby Sacko is committed to further globalizing SEIKA’s academic visions as the University of Liberal Arts, Expression and Global Education. In 2020, SEIKA’s Research Center for African and Asian Contemporary Cultures will open, it will be an innovative research platform inter disciplinarily focused on contemporary cultures such as arts and popular culture to create new values together with local communities by nurturing open collaborations. In 2021, a new Department of Global Culture and Department of Media Creation will be inaugurated.

International Institute for Asian Studies

The International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS) is a global research organisation and knowledge exchange platform, based in Leiden, The Netherlands. The Institute initiates and promotes interdisciplinary and trans-sectoral programmes that engage partners in - and with - Asia, in the world. The Institute seeks to promote a contextualized understanding of Asian realities and to pioneer new approaches to the studies of Asia and the ‘Asian factor’ in a changing global environment. It does so through an array of activities in the realms of research, education, publications, dissemination, network development, institutional support, and services to the community outside academia. It seeks to contribute to a culturally and socially-informed policy-relevant knowledge on/in/with Asia. For more information: http://iias.asia/

One of IIAS’s flagship initiatives is ICAS. IIAS hosts and supports the ICAS Secretariat.

International Convention of Asia Scholars

The International Convention of Asia Scholars (ICAS) is a global immersive platform enabling individuals and institutions from all over the world to come together to exchange views on a variety of issues pertaining to Asia. Its Secretariat is hosted by the IIAS.

ICAS is a global space in which Asia scholars and social and cultural actors from the whole world can directly interact. It is organised by local hosts (universities, organisations and cities) in cooperation with the ICAS Secretariat. ICAS offers the organising host a unique opportunity to profile itself in the global framework of Asian studies. ICAS also connects in a dynamic way to the host city and attracts participants from all continents to engage in interdisciplinary dialogues on Asia that transcend boundaries between academic disciplines and geographic regions. Since 1997, ICAS has brought more than 20,000 scholars, civil society representatives, practitioners and artists together at 11 conventions. Publishers, institutes and NGOs converge to display their products, services, and research outcomes in the ICAS exhibition hall.