Overview

InterAsian Connections V: Seoul, the fifth in this international conference series, was held April 27-30, 2016, in Korea, at the Seoul National University Asia Center.

This series continues to showcase innovative research from across the social sciences and related disciplines and explore themes that transform conventional understandings of Asia. Crossing traditional area studies boundaries and creating international and interdisciplinary networks of scholars working to theorize the intersection of the “global” and the “regional” in a variety of contexts, the conference aimed to reconceptualize Asia as a dynamic and interconnected historical, geographical, and cultural formation stretching from West Asia through Eurasia, South Asia and Southeast Asia to East Asia.

Copies of all five conference programs, including detailed workshop descriptions and individual paper abstracts, can be downloaded from each conference webpage.

Following a model used in previous conferences, the 2016 Seoul conference comprised ten concurrent, closed director-led workshops as well as plenary sessions open across workshops and to the general public, which enables intensive working group interactions on specific research themes as well as broader interactions on topics of shared interest and concern.

The first plenary, “National Histories and the Cold War: A Transpacific Critique,” was delivered by keynote speaker Lisa Yoneyama (University of Toronto) and featured panelists Juliette Chung (National Tsing Hua University) and Myoung-Kyu Park (Seoul National University). 

During the second plenary, former InterAsian Connections workshop directors were asked to reflect on the InterAsian theoretical framework — both as they interpreted this at the time of their workshop and beyond — and to discuss the ways that researchers can move this work forward beyond the workshop and conference setting, integrating these perspectives and insights into their own work as well as their departments, institutions, and other inter-institutional initiatives. 

Here, returning workshop director Engseng Ho (Duke University) reflected on his “Old Histories, New Geographies: Contrapuntal Mobilities of Trade and State across Asia” workshop from InterAsian Connections II: Singapore (2010).

For detailed descriptions of the individual workshops and participant lists, see links below.

Conference Workshops

Conviviality beyond the Urban Center: Theorizing the “Marginal Hub”
Workshop Directors: Magnus Marsden (Social Anthropology and Sussex Asia Centre, University of Sussex) and Madeleine Reeves (Social Anthropology, University of Manchester)

Forced Migration in/of Asia: Connections, Convergences, Comparisons
Workshop Directors: Elaine Lynn-Ee Ho (Geography, National University of Singapore) and Cabeiri Robinson (International Studies and Anthropology, University of Washington)

Frontier Assemblages: Political Economies of Margins and Resource Frontiers in Asia
Workshop Directors: Michael Eilenberg (Culture & Society, Aarhus University) and Jason Cons (LBJ School of Public Affairs, University of Texas at Austin)

Genealogies of Financialization: Reframing Sovereignty in Asia (1600–present)
Workshop Directors: Sankaran Krishna (Political Science, University of Hawaii at Manoa) and Saeyoung Park (Modern Korean Studies, Leiden University)

Geo-political Economies of (Post) Developmental Urbanization in East Asia
Workshop Directors: Bae-Gyoon Park (Geography Education, Seoul National University) and Jamie Doucette (School of Environment and Development, University of Manchester)  

Knowledge Mobilities and the Prospects for InterAsian Urbanisation
Workshop Directors: Francis Collins (Geography, School of Environment, University of Auckland) and Kong Chong Ho (Sociology, National University of Singapore)

Logistics of Asia-Led Globalization: Infrastructure, Software, Labor
Workshop Directors: Brett Neilson (Institute for Culture and Society, University of Western Sydney) and Ranabir Samaddar (Director, Calcutta Research Group)

Mecca InterAsia
Workshop Directors: Engseng Ho (History and Anthropology, Duke University, and Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore) and Cemil Aydin (History, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill)

Mediatized Populism across InterAsia
Workshop Directors: Paula Chakravartty (Gallatin School of Media, Culture and Communication, New York University), Zeynep Gambetti (Political Science and International Relations, Bogaziçi University), and Srirupa Roy (Centre for Modern Indian Studies and Political Science, University of Göttingen)

The Social Economy and Alternative Development Models in Asia
Workshop Directors: Euiyoung Kim (Political Science and International Relations, Seoul National University) and Hiroki Miura (Institute of Korean Political Studies, Seoul National University)

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