IAFOR > The Asian Conference on Arts & Humanities (ACAH) > ACAH2025 Overview

ACAH2025 Overview

ACAH is organised by IAFOR in association with the IAFOR Research Centre at the Osaka School of International Public Policy (OSIPP) in Osaka University, Japan.

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Join us in Tokyo for ACAH2025!

May 11-16, 2025 | Held in Tokyo, Japan and Online

Welcome to the 16th Asian Conference on Arts & Humanities (ACAH2025).

Held in partnership with the IAFOR Research Centre at the Osaka School of International Public Policy (OSIPP) at Osaka University, this international conference encourages academics and scholars to meet and exchange ideas and views in a forum stimulating respectful dialogue. This event will afford an exceptional opportunity for renewing old acquaintances, making new contacts, networking, and facilitating partnerships across national and disciplinary borders.

Since its founding in 2009, IAFOR has brought people and ideas together in a variety of events and platforms to promote and celebrate interdisciplinary study, and underline its importance. Over the past year we have engaged in many cross-sectoral projects, including those with universities (the University of Barcelona, Hofstra University, UCL, University of Belgrade and Moscow State University), a think tank (the East-West Center), as well as collaborative projects with the United Nations in New York, and here, with the Government of Japan through the Prime Minister’s office.

With the IAFOR Research Centre, we have engaged in a number of interdisciplinary initiatives we believe will have an important impact on domestic and international public policy conversations. It is through conferences like these that we expand our network and partners, and we have no doubt that ACAH2025 will offer a remarkable opportunity for the sharing of research and best practice, and for the meeting of people and ideas.

The 16th Asian Conference on Arts & Humanities (ACAH2025) will be held alongside The 15th Asian Conference on Cultural Studies and The 16th Asian Conference on the Social Sciences. Registration for either conference will allow delegates to attend sessions in the other.

– The ACAH2025 Programme Committee

Conference Programme Committee

Professor Grant Black, Chuo University, Japan
Dr Joseph Haldane, IAFOR and Osaka University, Japan, & University College London, United Kingdom
Professor Bradley J. Hamm, Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University, United States
Professor Donald E. Hall, Binghamton University, United States
Fan Li, Leping Social Entrepreneur Foundation & Stanford Social Innovation Review (SSIR), China
Dr James W. McNally, University of Michigan, United States & NACDA Program on Aging
Professor Sela V. Panapasa, University of Michigan, United States

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Key Information
  • Location & Venue: Held at the Toshi Center Hotel in Tokyo, Japan, and Online
  • Dates: Sunday, May 11, 2025 ​to Friday, May 16, 2025
  • Early Bird Abstract Submission Deadline: November 29, 2024*
  • Final Abstract Submission Deadline: February 14, 2025
  • Registration Deadline for Presenters: March 27, 2025

*Submit early to take advantage of the discounted registration rates. Learn more about our registration options.

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Programme

  • Swimming Together: World-Making with Everyday Practices
    Swimming Together: World-Making with Everyday Practices
    Keynote Presentation: Rebecca Olive
  • Turning the Faucet to Full: Expanding the Use of Bormann’s Symbolic Convergence Theory (SCT) in Asian Humanities, Social Science, and Cultural Studies Research
    Turning the Faucet to Full: Expanding the Use of Bormann’s Symbolic Convergence Theory (SCT) in Asian Humanities, Social Science, and Cultural Studies Research
    Keynote Presentation: Thomas G. Endres

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Speakers

  • Umberto Ansaldo
    Umberto Ansaldo
    VinUniversity, Vietnam
  • Jun Arima
    Jun Arima
    University of Tokyo, Japan
  • Thomas G. Endres
    Thomas G. Endres
    University of Northern Colorado, United States
  • Kiichi Fujiwara
    Kiichi Fujiwara
    Juntendo University, Japan
  • Emiko Miyashita
    Emiko Miyashita
    Haiku International Association, Japan
  • Rebecca Olive
    Rebecca Olive
    Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University, Australia
  • Kyoko Uchimura
    Kyoko Uchimura
    Haiku International Association, Japan

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Conference Committees

The International Academic Board (IAB)

Professor Anne Boddington, IAFOR & Middlesex University, United Kingdom
Dr Joseph Haldane, IAFOR & Osaka University, Japan, & University College London, United Kingdom
Professor Jun Arima, IAFOR & University of Tokyo, Japan
Professor Virgil Hawkins, IAFOR Research Centre & Osaka University, Japan
Mr Lowell Sheppard, IAFOR & Never Too Late Academy, Japan

Dr Susana Barreto, University of Porto, Portugal
Professor Grant Black, Chuo University, Japan
Dr Evangelia Chrysikou, Bartlett School of Sustainable Construction, University College London, United Kingdom
Professor Donald E. Hall, Binghamton University, United States
Professor Brendan Howe, Ewha Womans University & The Asian Political and International Studies Association (APISA), South Korea
Dr James W. McNally, University of Michigan, United States

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Conference Programme Committee

Dr Grant Black, Chuo University, Japan
Dr Thomas G. Endres, University of Northern Colorado, United States
Dr Joseph Haldane, The International Academic Forum (IAFOR), Japan
Professor Bradley J. Hamm, Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University, United States
Professor Donald E. Hall, Binghamton University, United States
Professor Fan Li, LePing Social Entrepreneur Foundation & Stanford Social Innovation Review (SSIR), China
Professor James W. McNally, University of Michigan, United States & NACDA Program on Aging
Professor Sela V. Panapasa, University of Michigan, United States

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ACAH2025 Review Committee

Professor Sara Abdoh, Benha University, Egypt
Dr SongÜl Aral, İnönü Üniversitesi MALATYA-TÜRKİYE, Turkey
Dr Venkata Ramani Challa, Presidency University, Bengaluru, India
Dr Timothy Chan, Singapore Institute of Management, Singapore
Dr Ling Sayuri Chen, International Research Center for Japanese Studies, Japan
Dr Mei-hsin Chen, University of Navarra, Spain
Dr Bianca Yin-ki Cheung, Lingnan University, Hong Kong
Dr Laurence Craven, American University of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
Dr Nondumiso Gumede, University of Zululand, South Africa
Dr Joselito Gutierrez, University of Santo Tomas, Philippines
Dr Kris Ho, United International College BNU-HKBU, China
Dr Ikekhwa Albert Ikhile, University of South Africa, South Africa
Dr Navdeep Kahol, Government College, Dera Bassi, India
Dr Andrej Kapcar, Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic
Dr Derry Law, Saint Francis University, Hong Kong
Dr Rebecca Lind, University of Illinois at Chicago, United States
Dr Josit Mariya, Indian Institute of Information Technology, Kottayam, India
Dr Patrizia Palumbo, Columbia University, United States
Dr Ana Clara Roberti, University of Porto - CITCEM / Universidade Portucalense - CIAUD UPT, Portugal
Dr Valentina Rossi, eCampus University of Novedrate, Italy
Dr Jualim Vela, University of the Philippines Los Baños, Philippines
Dr Priyanka Yadav, Poornima University Jaipur Rajasthan, India

IAFOR's peer review process, which involves both reciprocal review and the use of Review Committees, is overseen by the Conference Programme Committee under the guidance of the International Academic Board (IAB). Review Committee members are established academics who hold PhDs or other terminal degrees in their fields and who have previous peer review experience.

If you would like to apply to serve on the ACAH2025 Review Committee, please visit our application page.

Apply to Join the Review Committee

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Swimming Together: World-Making with Everyday Practices
Keynote Presentation: Rebecca Olive

As temperatures rise, biodiversity decreases, and conflicts escalate, the pressing need for us to find new ways to live with the world is well established. However, the challenge of the enduring ideology of human exceptionalism over nature continues to dominate so much of the thinking that guides policies, governance, and decision making at individual, local, national, and international levels. Challenging ideologies is easy when it is in theory, but changing them is more difficult in practice. Colonial and capitalist sorceries (Pignarre and Stengers, 2011) have established deep infrastructures of the heart (Slater, In Press), that alienate us from each other, making the mobilisation necessary for change a difficult task to achieve.

Drawing on ecofeminist, posthuman, and First Nations theories and scholarship, this presentation explores how everyday practices can be powerful in helping us feel human-ecological relationships in meaningful, consequential ways. With a focus on swimming, it explores how sports and physical activities offer an unexpected way to activate more ecological ethics of planetary care. Through swimming, we become one with the water and feel our interconnected vulnerability – we are part of the food chain, we absorb the pollution, we swim with multiple ancestors, we share the stories of what we see and feel. In this way, swimming, and other sports, can act as a form of reorientation to the possibilities of our shared world.

Read presenter's biography
Turning the Faucet to Full: Expanding the Use of Bormann’s Symbolic Convergence Theory (SCT) in Asian Humanities, Social Science, and Cultural Studies Research
Keynote Presentation: Thomas G. Endres

Humans are storytellers. Therefore, scholars – whether they be from the arts and humanities, the social sciences, or cultural studies – need the means to assess and interpret the symbolic narratives found within communities. Over the past two decades, a faucet has been turned on low, and a small stream of Asian scholars have started to use Ernest Bormann’s Symbolic Convergence Theory (SCT) as their theory and method of choice. The flow of research – examining heroes, villains, settings, and plotlines – has been slow but steady; now, in this address, SCT expert Thomas G. Endres plans to turn the faucet to full. In sharing both the body of work done throughout Asia and his own studies, which range from rhetorical analysis to quantitative research, both emerging and established scholars can assess SCT’s utility as an insightful tool. Hopefully the steady stream of this theoretical framework will expand, as SCT is further applied across a variety of Asian Pacific publications and presentations.

Read presenter's biography
Umberto Ansaldo
VinUniversity, Vietnam

Biography

Professor Umberto Ansaldo is currently Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at VinUniversity, Vietnam. He previously served as Head of the School of Media, Creative Arts and Social Inquiry at Curtin University, Australia from 2021 through 2023, Head of the School of Literature, Art and Media at the University of Sydney, Australia from 2018 through 2020, and Head of the School of Humanities at HKU, where he taught from 2009 to 2018.

Professor Ansaldo’s disciplinary roots are in linguistics, specifically in the study of language contact, linguistic typology, and language documentation. He is the author of four books to date (with CUP, OUP, Routledge, and Stockholm University Press), has edited or co-edited 11 volumes and journal special collections, and has authored multiple journal articles and book chapters. His most recent publication is the co-editorship of The Routledge Handbook of Pidgin and Creole Languages (Routledge, 2021).

At HKU, Professor Ansaldo led the Humanities Area of Inquiry on the Common Core Curriculum Committee in HKU’s major revision of its curriculum (2010-2013), a time when, along with the University of Melbourne, Australia, HKU was leading in reimagining undergraduate curricula. As Chair of Linguistics, he was instrumental in establishing the Department within the top ten programmes in Linguistics (QS rankings), with the programme ranking at number one in Hong Kong.

At the University of Sydney, Professor Ansaldo sat on the University Executive Research Committee and led his School through a transformative period in terms of curriculum innovation and research engagement. He was in charge of overseeing the incorporation of the Sydney College of the Arts into the Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences.

Professor Ansaldo has secured competitive research grants and leveraged industry funding for the advancement of the humanities and social sciences throughout his career. One of his proudest achievements was his role in securing financial support to develop and host an exhibition on language and the brain, the ‘Talking Brains’ exhibition at the CosmoCaixa in Barcelona, Spain in 2017. This type of engagement and championing of the Humanities is what Umberto is most passionate about.

Professor Ansaldo has lived and worked in Sweden, The Netherlands, Singapore, Australia, and Hong Kong. and speaks seven languages, including Mandarin. He is well-acquainted with Asia and has conducted fieldwork in Muslim communities of the Indian Ocean, and has developed strong international networks in Southeast Asia, Japan, and Europe.

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Jun Arima
University of Tokyo, Japan

Biography

Professor Jun Arima is the President of IAFOR, and the senior academic officer of the organisation. In this role, Professor Arima is the Honorary Chair of the International Academic Advisory Board, as well as both the Academic Governing Board and its Executive Committee. He also sits on the IAFOR Board of Directors.

Jun Arima was formerly Director General of the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO), UK from 2011 to 2015 and Special Advisor on Global Environmental Affairs for the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), Japan, from 2011 to 2015. He has previously held various international energy/environment-related positions, including: Head of Division, Country Studies, International Energy Agency (IEA); Director, International Affairs Division, Agency of Natural Resources and Energy, METI; and Deputy Director General for Environmental Affairs at METI’s Industrial Science and Technology Policy and Environment Bureau. In the COP (UN Convention on Climate Change) 14, 15 and 16, he was Japanese Chief Negotiator for AWG-KP.

Since 2015 Jun Arima has been a Professor at the University of Tokyo, Japan, where he teaches Energy Security, International Energy Governance, and Environmental Policies in the Graduate School of Public Policy. (GraSPP). He is also currently a Consulting Fellow at the Japanese Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI). He is also Executive Senior Fellow at the 21st Century Public Policy Institute, Principal Researcher at the International Environmental and Economic Institute (IEEI), Distinguished Senior Policy Fellow, at the Asia Pacific Institute of Research (APIR), Senior Policy Fellow on Energy and Environment, Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA), and was the Lead Author, the 6th Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change (IPCC).

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Thomas G. Endres
University of Northern Colorado, United States

Biography

Dr Thomas G. Endres is Professor of Communication Studies at the University of Northern Colorado, United States, where he coordinates the university’s Communication Studies Extended Campus online degree completion program and teaches for the university's honours and leadership programs. In a career marked primarily by administrative (chair or director) responsibilities, Dr Endres found time to conduct research in the areas of pedagogy, popular culture, and the use of story to create rhetorical communities. He has published several dozen refereed articles, book chapters, conference proceedings, and an encyclopaedia entry, applying Bormann’s Symbolic Convergence Theory to the study of such communities: examining diverse collectives such as single mothers, father-daughter dyads, laity in the Catholic church, and tattooed people. He is author and photographer of two books: ‘Sturgis Stories: Celebrating the People of the World’s Largest Motorcycle Rally’ and ‘My Costume, Myself: Celebrating Stories of Cosplay and Beyond,’ and co-author with Deanna D. Sellnow on Sage's 4th edition of ‘The Rhetorical Power of Popular Culture: Considering Mediated Texts.’ He has delivered more than 250 presentations, workshops, and keynote addresses across the United States and abroad, including presentations in Austria, China, the Czech Republic, Japan, Spain, Thailand, Turkey, and the United Kingdom. He lives in Greeley, Colorado, with his wife, Maki Notohara Endres.

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Kiichi Fujiwara
Juntendo University, Japan

Biography

Kiichi Fujiwara is a Professor in the Graduate School of International Liberal Arts at Juntendo University and Professor Emeritus of the University of Tokyo, Japan. He taught International Politics at the Graduate Schools of Law and Politics and the Graduate School of Public Policy until 2022. Professor Fujiwara founded the Institute for Future Initiatives at the University of Tokyo, a university think-tank that engages in multidisciplinary approaches to global challenges. His publications include Remembering the War (2001), A Democratic Empire (2002), Is There Really a Just War? (2003), Peace for Realists (winner of the Ishibashi Tanzan award, 2005), International Politics (2007), Conditions of War (2013), A Destabilizing World (2020), and Predatory Imperialism (forthcoming). Professor Fujiwara is a commentator on international affairs and writes a monthly column for Asahi Shinbun. He is also a film buff, and serves as a film reviewer for the NHK.

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Emiko Miyashita
Haiku International Association, Japan

Biography

Emiko Miyashita is a prominent and widely published haiku poet, as well as an award-winning translator who has given invited lectures and workshops around the world. She serves as a councillor for the Haiku International Association, as well as secretary of the Haiku Poets Association International Department in Tokyo. She is a dojin (leading member) of Ten’i (Providence) haiku group lead by Dr Akito Arima, and also a dojin of the Shin (Morning Sun), haiku group lead by Dr Akira Omine. From January 2008, until March 2010, she judged and wrote an English-language haiku column with Michael Dylan Welch every first Sunday in the Asahi weekly paper.

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Rebecca Olive
Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University, Australia

Biography

Dr Rebecca Olive is a Vice Chancellor's Senior Research Fellow in the Centre for Urban Research at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University, Australia. She leads the research theme of ‘Regenerative Environments and Climate Action’ at the Centre. Dr Olive also serves as the current President of the Cultural Studies Association of Australasia (CSAA). With a background in feminist cultural studies of sport and leisure, her current work explores how recreational sports shape our relationships to ecologies. In this work, she focuses on swimming and surfing to understand human relationships to coasts and the ocean, and has a growing focus on urban swimming including at beaches and in rivers and pools. She has a co-edited book, Women in Action Sport Cultures, and recently co-edited special issues in the Journal of Sport and Social Issues, Journal of Sport History, and Health and Place. Aside from academic publications, Dr Olive is active in community and public engagement, including community presentations and contributions to national and international media. You can learn more about this work at her website https://movingoceans.com.

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Kyoko Uchimura
Haiku International Association, Japan

Biography

Ms Kyoko Uchimura is a haiku poet born in Tokyo. She earned a BA in Art History from International Christian University, Japan, and studied at the University of Sussex, United Kingdom, from 1988 to 1989 as an exchange student. She worked for Christie’s art auction house from 1990 to 2014, contributing her expertise there for over twenty years.

Ms Uchimura began writing haiku in 2002, receiving the New Talent Award of the haiku group ‘Ten’I’, led by Dr Akito Arima, in 2008. She recently won first prize in the group’s essay contest in 2023. In 2013, she published her first haiku collection, titled ‘Venus’. She is currently a member of the Association of Haiku Poets in Japan.

Since 2014, Ms Uchimura has worked in an editorial role for Ten’I and the Haiku International Association since 2018, where she serves as a councilor and is responsible for editing the association’s quarterly haiku magazine, ‘HI’. She often writes short reviews for other haiku magazines. She has supported the administrative office of the Haiku UNESCO Promotion Council since 2018.

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