NYCAS 2022 – State and Society in Asia: Past and Present

The Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs is pleased to announce its hosting of the 2022 New York Conference on Asian Studies (NYCAS) on October 7-8 here at Syracuse University.

The theme of this year’s conference is “State and Society in Asia: Past and Present.”

Recent events, such as the successes and failures of states at mitigating the Covid-19 pandemic; the targeting of religious, racial, and ethnic minorities; widespread protests against military regimes; the possibility of a new cold war between China and the US; and the dramatic takeover of Afghanistan by Taliban forces have highlighted the ever-crucial role of the state in Asian societies, both in its presence and absence.

In bringing scholarly perspectives to these current events, questions that interest us include: What historical legacies of the state persist in contemporary Asia? What roles do technology and urban development play in extending state power to unprecedented degrees? How do regime changes unsettle and re-arrange key local and national cultural constituents and what impact do these changes have on environmental history, archaeology, and cultural heritage sites? 

135 scholars representing 71 institutions in 16 U.S. states and 15 countries will come to Syracuse for two days to present and discuss their research on these questions and other themes related to the study of Asia.

The two-day conference will be highlighted with a keynote address from Professor Jean Oi, William Haas Professor of Chinese Politics at Stanford University and Vice-President of the Association for Asian Studies (AAS), who will speak on the question “How COVID is Affecting China’s Local Government Debt.”

In addition, the conference will feature a display of Asian Art at the Syracuse Art Museum, a screening and discussion of the Chinese documentary Father led by its director Deng Wei, and a dance performance by Karen and Bhutanese-Nepali refugees.  

Use this link to register for the conference. Thanks to the generosity of sponsoring departments and programs throughout the university, registration is free for all Syracuse University graduate and undergraduate students. 

Please contact the conference organizer, Professor Gareth Fisher (gfisher@syr.edu) or Juanita Horan (jmhoran@syr.edu) with any questions.

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