Conference Theme: Facing Asia

The theme for NYCAS 2005 is Facing Asia. We invite scholars to submit proposals for papers, panels, or roundtables on this theme, or on any topic having to do with East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Asian Studies, or Asian-American Studies.

Possible ways in which a topic might engage our theme are suggested by various interpretations of the term "facing:"

1. Facing in the sense of recognizing, encountering, or confronting, with the implicit idea of bringing to the fore something new or previously unrecognized. This interpretation could yield topics that:

Respond to new scholarship;
Offer revised understandings;
Question old definitions.

2. Facing as implying the physical orientation of the viewer, suggesting a reciprocal relationship between observer and observed. Thus our theme could yield topics that:

Interrogate East-West labels;
Explore the East and the Other;
Analyze West in terms of East, and vice versa.

3. Facing as conveying larger, more impersonal orientations, as in "the side of the moon facing a planet." This interpretation invites topics that:

Consider Asia within a changing global order;
Chart shifting Asian alignments in a new economy;
Investigate political or cultural alliances.

4. Facing in its meaning of providing something with a surface or veneer, suggesting distinctions between visage and substance, outer and inner. Based on this interpretation, topics could:

Examine political identities;
Relate art and status;
Pursue issues of face in East Asian culture.