12th Asian Studies Reunion 2024

The UAB's Centre for Studies and Research of East Asia (CERAO) has worked jointly with Casa Àsia to organise the 12th Asian Studies Meeting, which will take place on 27 September from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at the Aula Magna of the UAB Casa Convalescència, in Barcelona. This annual academic meeting brings together representatives of Spanish universities and undergraduate and graduate programmes in Asian studies or languages, or ones that will be implemented in the future. The meeting will include the participation of UAB Rector Javier Lafuente, and Vice-Rector for International Relations and Language Policies Laura Santamaria.

In this edition, Tina Chen, director of Penn State's Global Asias Initiative at Pennsylvania State University, will deliver the inaugural lecture, entitled “Global Asias: Problems, Possibilities, Praxis”, which will be introduced and moderated by Blai Guarné, director of CERAO at the UAB. The lecturer will discuss the philosophy, principles and practices that guide research in the emerging field known as global Asias. The aim of the lecture is to consider its contribution to the way we approach objects, methods and practices in the study of Asia from different disciplines such as ethnic studies, migration and diaspora studies or interdisciplinary studies.

After the inaugural conference, the round table “The transfer of knowledge in Asian studies in Spain” will take place. Representatives of the Asian Studies Reflection Group, formed by academics from Spanish universities and coordinated by Casa Asia, will share their thoughts on the challenges, actions and social value of knowledge transfer in Asian studies and on the transfer of knowledge in the social sciences and humanities. They will also talk about the development of the guide to Asian Studies in Spain: Guía de los Estudios Asiáticos en España: análisis, evolución y perspectivas (Aranzadi 2023).