ASPAC, the Association for Asian Studies, Pacific announces a call for papers for the 2012 Conference at Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington

Asia at the End of History: Beginnings, Ends, and Transformations

Gonzaga University is pleased to announce that it will be hosting the ASPAC (Association for Asian Studies, Pacific) conference in Spokane, Washington, between the 15th and 17th of June, 2012.

In recognition of the profusion of cultural, political, historical, and environmental heralds of change associated with the year 2012, the theme for the conference will be Asia at the End of History: Beginnings, Ends, and Transformations. Any and all proposals dealing with topics in Asian Studies are welcome for submission, but in keeping with the world-transformational implications of the “2012 moment,” the organizers are looking for papers and panels that deal with Asia’s role in the prospects and possibilities of deep transformation in the historical world. Aside from the obvious religious, psychological, sociological, literary, cinematic, artistic, mythic, and historical elements of the 2012 phenomenon, we are encouraging the submission of papers dealing with global finance, commerce, economics, and technology as well.

Conference Theme

Since the turn of the third western millennium, the world has experienced what appears to be a series of authentically transformational moments. We have witnessed the start of an open-ended global war on terrorism, cascading financial crises, and worldwide political instability expressed in such diverse movements as the “Arab Spring,” the “Tea Party Revolution,” and the “Occupation” of Wall Street.  We have endured ecological upheavals in the form of natural and man-made disasters, and have pushed nano-technology to the brink of a certifiably trans-human singularity. In the background of this dramatic unfolding of novelty, we see the hazy but sharpening contours of ancient prophecies and archaic revivals that seem to suggest that the world is due for some colossal re-organization. The apocalyptic imaginary, which has been as integral to the historical experience of Asia as it has been to the west, may represent a genuinely postmodern or even post-historical yearning for some kind of authentic reality beyond the increasingly self-discrediting process of modern material history. Indeed, the diverse impulses of Asian and Western millenarianism have in a real way worked to define and redefine each other throughout the twentieth century, leading to a cultural climate in which a vague yet wide-ranging anxiety has left the entire world wondering if future holds a greater degree of promise or peril.

Christian Asia

In keeping with the Catholic Jesuit tradition in which Gonzaga University was founded, the organizers are also presenting the sub-theme of Christian Asia, which seeks to highlight the transformational role that Christianity has played in Asia throughout the modern world.  In a series of panels, presentations, and workshops, we hope to gain greater insight into what may lie in store for the futures of both Christianity and Asia as the conversation between these diverse transnational civilizations grows deeper and more complex.

At ASPAC 2012,

We are expecting this to be an unusually diverse and interesting conference. Please join us in Spokane for a world-transforming event.

The deadline for submitting a proposal is 1 March 2012.
For further information, please contact Dr. Eric Cunningham at
cunningham@gonzaga.edu