2026 SNUAC Conference on Asian Studies (Oct. 26–29, 2026)
Transcending Borders: Asia and Beyond in an Age of Multi-Crisis

The 2026 SNUAC Conference on Asian Studies invites scholars to critically examine how borders are produced, experienced, contested, and exceeded in an era of overlapping crises. Rather than assuming the erosion of boundaries, the conference foregrounds the tensions between mobility and immobility, circulation and exclusion, and the infrastructures that both enable and constrain movement.
Across Asia and beyond, migration is being reshaped by climate change, demographic transformation, and widening inequalities. At the same time, legal regimes, policy frameworks, and cultural narratives continue to produce uneven experiences of mobility, belonging, and displacement. This conference seeks to address these dynamics through interdisciplinary and comparative perspectives, while also reconsidering how historical records, literary narratives, and cultural memory expand our understanding of migration beyond state-centered frameworks.

The conference features four thematic sessions:
(1) Migration Infrastructures in and Beyond Asia
(2) Climate Change, Migration, and Environmental Refugees
(3) Demographic Change, Youth Migration, and Northeast Asia
(4) Reinterpreting Asian Migration through History and Literature

In addition, non-thematic sessions will engage broader regional and comparative themes.

The conference is free of charge. Selected participants may receive financial support. Abstracts are due July 6, 2026 (23:59 KST) via the conference website.