3RD ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL (ONLINE) CONFERENCE ON JAPANESE STUDIES IN AFRICA: CALL FOR PAPERS
AFRICAN ASSOCIATION FOR JAPANESE STUDIES (AAJS):
3RD ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL (ONLINE) CONFERENCE ON JAPANESE STUDIES IN AFRICA
Theme: Environment, Technology and COVID-19
Date: October 6th & 7th, 2020
Submission deadline: August 28, 2020
The African Association for Japanese Studies (AAJS) is an international organization dedicated to promoting scholarship in the comparative fields of African-Japanese interests. The association, in partnership with the Embassy of Japan, academic institutions, and other organizations, has maintained scholarly agenda intended to stimulate critical understanding of the convergence between African and Japanese literary cultures, histories, developments, economy, and politics. The objectives are achieved through conferences, seminars, workshops, colloquiums, and publications. To further advance academic dissections of the connections, the association organizes an annual conference on Japanese studies in Africa.
The theme for AICJSA 2020 is Environment, Technology and COVID-19
It is deliberately not delimited to encourage critical perspectives, adopting disciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches. As a theory, the environment manifests dimensions of nature, human relations, and other force dynamics. Current socio-political, economic and the new normal arising from the COVID-19 pandemic are realities that make discourse on environment vital as the current generation faces the task of, redeeming human existence, saving the planet, earth, and the future. Beyond ecology, the theme appeals to the contexts, backgrounds, platforms, origins, principles, and policies that shape life and the forces they produce. Does it not become urgently necessary for scholarly endeavors to pay attention to the evolutionary processes leading to their impacts on humanity? We may consent to environmental determinists that human activities are informed and inhibited by environmental conditions.
This year’s conference promises to be one of the leading African-Japanese international conferences geared towards generating innovative, ground-breaking as well as cutting edge advances in the emerging global environmental studies.
Therefore, we encourage scholars, critics and policymakers to approach the themes from different perspectives, theoretical frameworks, analytical procedures, and social contexts relevant to their fields. Academics, professionals, and policy-makers are invited to submit proposals for conference panels and papers. Proposals should not be more than 200 words.
Call for Panels and Papers: The call for papers and panels is now open. The deadline for submission is 28th August 2020.
Submissions are invited on the following sub-themes. Proposals may also focus on related issues.
- Eco-criticisms in Contemporary Environmental Studies
- Environment: Past, Present and Future
- Evolution of Man’s Relationship with Nature
- Environment: From Invincibility to Vulnerability
- Shift in Perception of Nature and the Role of Humanity
- Apocalyptic Warnings Amid Natural Crisis
- The Shaping Power of Environment in Developmental Studies
- Environment as the Melting Pot: Re-thinking People, Culture, Literature as a Product
- Micro and Macro-Contextual Analysis in Afro-Japanese Studies
- Future Casting: Using Environment as a Predictive Formula
- Objective Correlative in Literary Plot Development and Messaging
- Gendered Environment: Politics, Subjectivity and Exclusion in Climate Change Politics
- Ecocriticism in Contemporary Cultural Forms
- Nature, the Environment and New Media
- Anime, films and Cartoons as Contemporary Redefining Ecocritical Media
- 21st Century Social Environment
- Japan and Africa: Past, Present and Future Outlook
- Government Policy and Environment in Japan and Africa
- Foreign Policy Atmosphere for Effective Engagement
- Implications of Culture and Tradition
- Evolutionary Practices in Japan and African
- Digital Metamorphosis and the Challenge of Change
- Global Competition and the Challenge of Environmental Policies
- Global Climate Change: Responsibilities, Risks and Rewards
- Climate Outlook in Africa and Japan
- Cultural Norms in Response to Covid-19 Pandemic
- Beyond Covid-19: the New Normal and the New World
- The Digital Environment in the Age of Pandemic
- Innovations and Interventions Across Disciplines in the Pandemic Environment
- Decoupling Global Economy: Prospects for Asian-African Relations
- Globalization versus Nationalism Now
- Protectionism and Populism
- Technology, COVID-19 and the New Normal
- Evolving Narratives and the Vision of the Artist
- Propaganda versus Truth in the Age of Covid-19
- Literature and the Pandemic World
Proposals should include a title, an abstract not more than 200 words, name of presenter (and that of co-presenter, if any), institution or organization, and email address. Submit abstract for the 2020 online conference here: https://forms.gle/LZX72XLDr7beyZf7A before 28th August 2020. The submission shall be acknowledged and assessed by the Abstract Committee. Notification of acceptance will be communicated from 31st August to 11th September 2020.
Conferences Outcomes
Papers from the conference shall be published in the subsequent edition of Studies in Transnational Africa and Japan (STAJ).
