From 19 - 22 August 2003 the third International Convention of Asia
Scholars' conference (http://www.fas.nus.edu.sg/icas3/) is being held in
Singapore (It is anticipated that over 1000 scholars of Asia will attend
the event). AsiaPacifiQueer (APQ), an Australia-based group of academics
and students researching queer peoples and cultures in the Asia-Pacific
region, would like to encourage scholars working on queer topics and
issues in the Asian region to participate in this event. In particular,
the APQ team is interested in helping organize a stream of queer-themed
panels within the ICAS 3 conference. APQ believes that a series of
tightly themed panels looking at queer issues (e.g. comparative Asian
transgenderisms, the use of new technologies by Asian sexual minorities,
legal issues affecting queer-identified Asian individuals, etc.) will
help to raise the profile of queer studies within the field of Asian
studies. We also think that a dedicated stream of queer-themed panel
presentations, rather than having queer papers dispersed throughout the
conference program according to their geographical focus, will
contribute most to raising our collective profile and building networks
of Asian queer studies scholars.
The APQ team would like to invite researchers who are thinking about
presenting on queer topics at ICAS to contact us in advance of
submitting their abstracts so that we may put people in contact with
each other with a view to developing a number of themed panels. Given
that this ICAS conference is the first to actually be staged in Asia, we
very much hope that queer-studies scholars working in the region will be
able to attend, present their work and network with other researchers
who share their interests. If you are interested in joining us at ICAS 3
please contact Mark McLelland at APQ, who will be coordinating the
proposals for queer-themed presentations, before September 15, 2002.
Mark McLelland
Centre for Critical and Cultural Studies
University of Queensland
Australia
phone: 07 3365 7175 fax: 07 3365 7184
Email: m.mclelland@uq.edu.au
Visit the Call for Papers website at http://wwwsshe.murdoch.edu.au/intersections/apq/apqhomepage.html