"Exploring Indonesia’s Cultural Heritage through its Ancient Manuscript Traditions" 

Speaker Bio: Dr Aditia Gunawan is a librarian at the National Library of Indonesia specialized in Sundanese, Old Sundanese and Old Javanese texts and manuscripts. His research focusses primarily on the evolution of Indonesian religions, especially Hindu asceticism and its influences in modern society. He has published extensively on Indonesian traditional texts and manuscripts, with an expertise in Javanese palm-leaf manuscripts of the 15th–16th centuries. He has completed a Master in Texts and Linguistics at the INALCO, Paris (2016), with a thesis entitled Bhīma Svarga: Study of a text in Old Javanese and its manuscript transmission and a Doctor of Philosophy at the EPHE (2023), with a thesis entitled Sundanese Religion in the 15th century. He is also engaged in the Indonesian manuscript digitization programme DREAMSEA (Digital Repository of Endangered and Affected Manuscripts in South-East Asia), serves as managing editor of the journal Manuskripta, is active as Secretary-General of Indonesian Association of Manuscripts (Manassa), and is President of the Kawi Society, an interdisciplinary group of researchers on classical Indonesian culture. He is passionate about advocating for his native language, Sundanese, as a bridge between ancient societies and Indonesia’s future.

" 'Korea', Korean Studies and Global Futures" 

Abstract:

In this keynote address I take inspiration from the conference theme of “Asia Futures”: for reasons to be explained in my talk, I will use the year 2039 as a starting point for an exploration of life on the Korean peninsula in a not-so-distant future. What will changes there mean for the practice of Korean Studies as a scholarly discipline? Certainly, enormous, unprecedented demographic shifts have been baked into the South Korean system, and we can already develop an unsettling portrait of their social and economic ramifications. Similarly, and all too literally, continued warming is baked into the earth’s climate, and we know that Korea's torrid summers will increase in duration and intensity, although the extent of severity remains a question mark. Greater uncertainty attends expectations about the peninsula’s status as a hotspot geopolitically: is it fair to assume that instability will grow in an increasingly multipolar world? And can all these potential trends lead, conversely, to a cooling of interest in South Korean popular culture? Will the Korean language continue to find its current favour among university students? I plan to encourage colleagues to put on their thinking caps—or perhaps better, baker's hats—with me and to envision as vividly as we can what Korea and Korean Studies might be a decade and a half from now. My hope in delivering this keynote is that even if we wind up with many cooks, we will not spoil the broth but rather have engaging, thought-provoking debate.

Speaker bio:

Associate Professor Stephen Epstein is a member of the Asian Languages and Cultures Programme at Victoria University of Wellington. His research focuses on contemporary Korean society and popular culture, and he has translated several works of Korean and Indonesian fiction. Recent books include the co-edited volumes The Korean Wave: A Sourcebook, (Academy of Korean Studies Press, 2016, with Yun Mi Hwang) and Popular Culture and the Transformation of Japan-Korea Relations (Routledge, 2021, with Rumi Sakamoto), and a translation of Intan Paramaditha’s novel The Wandering: A Red Shoes Adventure (Harvill Secker, 2020). He has also co-produced two documentaries on the Korean underground music scene (Our Nation: a Korean Punk Rock Community, 2001; Us and Them: Korean Indie Rock in a K-pop World, 2014) and served as the 2013-14 president of the New Zealand Asian Studies Society.

Over the course of his career, Stephen Epstein has had dual specializations in the ancient Mediterranean and in contemporary Korea. His primary intellectual activities, however, start from a fascination with language and a desire to explore the experience of daily life in other cultures. 

"Imagining a Future that Embraces Diversity: Competing Models of 'Developmental Disability' in Japan"

Speaker Bio:

Lynne Y. Nakano is Professor and Chair of the Department of Japanese Studies, The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), and Co-Director of the Gender Research Centre, The Hong Kong Institute of Asia Pacific Studies, CUHK.  Lynne has researched, written and presented extensively on people located at the margins of Japanese society including volunteers and elder care recipients, single women and young people with disabilities. She is the recipient of several multi-year grants that compare Japanese society with Hong Kong and China including one that studies women primary earners in Osaka and Hong Kong. Based on her findings that single women seek financial knowledge and management skills, Lynne is the founder of the Women’s Empowerment through Financial Literacy (WEFL) Programme that provides financial training to single women and other marginalized groups. Lynne is author of Making Our Own Destiny: Single Women, Family, and Opportunity in Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Tokyo published by University of Hawaii Press in 2022.

"Australia’s China Studies: disciplinary diversification, thematic shifts and a future of “studies of, outside and without China”/caught in geopolitics?"

Speaker Bio:

Dr. Mark Yaolin Wang is a distinguished human geographer, currently serving as a Professor in the School of Geography, Earth, and Atmospheric Sciences and Director of the Centre for Contemporary Chinese Studies at the University of Melbourne. Mark also serves as the President of the Chinese Studies Association of Australia.

Mark's extensive research and scholarship focus on various facets of China's development, environmental issues, and urbanization. His recent publications delve into critical topics, including poverty alleviation resettlement, land acquisition, South-to-North water diversion, and the global impact of China, significantly contributing to the understanding of the complex and ongoing transition in China.

In addition to his academic roles, Mark actively participates in the scholarly community as the Associate Editor of Chinese Geography Science. He also serves on the editorial boards of prestigious journals, including Geographical Research, International Development Planning Review, Geographical Research Forum, Chinese Geographical Science, Scientia Geographica Sinica, and Journal of Asian Energy Studies.

Mark earned his Ph.D. in Geography from the University of British Columbia, a M.Sc. in Human Geography from the Northeast Institute of Geography and Agro-ecology, Chinese Academy of Science, and a B.Sc. in Geography from Shanxi Normal University.

"Why the Judiciary Remains Loyal to Myanmar’s Military Regime"

Abstract:  

Across Asia, the military is a powerful actor – from Thailand and Pakistan to Indonesia and Myanmar. Since the coup of 2021 in Myanmar, there have been widespread defections from the civil service as a sign of protest against military rule. But what explains the absence of defections in the apex courts, the High Court and Supreme Court? In this talk I draw on over a decade of work with judges in Myanmar to explain how and why judges remain loyal to the military.

Professor Crystal Abidin is a world-leading expert in the field of influencer cultures and internet celebrity studies, including a portfolio developing the field of social media pop cultures in the Asia Pacific region. She has authored over 100 articles and chapters in the field, and her books include Internet Celebrity (2018, Emerald Publishing); Microcelebrity Around The Globe (with Brown, 2018, Emerald Publishing); Instagram (with Leaver & Highfield, 2020, Polity Press); Mediated Interfaces (with Warfield & Cambre, 2020, Bloomsbury Academic); tumblr (with Tiidenberg & Hendry, 2021, Polity Press). Her forthcoming books are TikTok and Youth Cultures (Emerald Publishing) and Provoking Online Drama (Bloomsbury).

Crystal's research has won international accolades, with notable awards including WA Young Tall Poppy Science Award (2022), The Australian Top 40 Early Career Researchers (2021), ABC TOP 5 Humanities Fellow (2020), Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia (2018), and Pacific Standard 30 Top Thinkers Under 30 (2016). Crystal is Director of the Influencer Ethnography Research Lab (IERLab), Founder of the TikTok Cultures Research Network (TCRN), and Professor of Internet Studies at Curtin University. She is also Editor-in-Chief of Media International Australia and serves on the Safety Advisory Council for TikTok AUNZ. Crystal can be reached at wishcrys.com and @wishcrys.