IAFOR’s programme in cultural and area studies is highly developed, with some of the world’s leading academic institutions coming together to celebrate the international, intercultural and interdisciplinary.
Working in partnership with universities such as Barcelona, Moscow State, Birkbeck, London, Lehigh, Northwestern, Indonesia, Waseda, and Tokyo, as well as such groups as the Cultural Studies Association of Australasia, IAFOR’s conferences in cultural and area studies are both academically rigorous and intellectually stimulating. We also ensure that there is a rich cultural programme that takes advantage of the location, whether in Hong Kong, New York, Tokyo, Kobe, Brighton or Barcelona, and we encourage the exploration of local arts, gastronomy, history and architecture.
The organisation actively supports culture and the arts, namely by organising internationally recognised awards for both documentary photography and photojournalism (IAFOR Documentary Photography Award) and documentary filmmaking (IAFOR Documentary Film Award), which are supported by leading institutions and organisations, including World Press Photo, Metro Imaging, MediaStorm, Think Tank Photo, University of the Arts London, RMIT and Medill School of Journalism, as well as its prestigious IAFOR Vladimir Devidé Haiku Award, which is supported by the Haiku International Association.
As well as being a great opportunity for meeting and interacting with some of the biggest names in the fields of cultural and area studies, our conferences create an intellectually challenging but friendly environment for the presentation and nurturing of new ideas, which is encouraging of the research synergies that drive new developments, and create new knowledge. We look forward to your very active participation.
Previous Speakers
The speakers below, among others, have presented their research at IAFOR's conferences on cultural and area studies.
Angela Wong Wai Ching, Professor of Gender Studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong; Yvonne Jewkes, leading criminologist from the University of Leicester; Gerard Goggin, Chair of the Media and Communications department at the University of Sydney and mobile technologies expert; A. Robert Lee, author, critic and broadcaster; Baden Offord, Handa Chair of Human Rights Education at Curtin University sits on a panel with Donald E. Hall, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Lehigh University; Koichi Iwabuchi, Professor of Media Studies and Cultural Studies at Monash, and Director of the Monash Asian Institute; Bill Ashcroft, renowned critic and theorist, founding exponent of post-colonial theory, and co-author of The Empire Writes Back; Svetlana Ter Minasova, Founding Dean and current President of the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Area Studies at Moscow State University; Hsiao-Chuan Hsia, Taiwanese gender rights activist and professor; Regenia Gagnier, eminent literary and cultural critic, and Professor at the University of Exeter; John Erni, Hong Kong activist, lawyer and academic.
Other IAFOR Cultural & Area Studies Conferences
- The IAFOR Conference on Urban Heritage & the Modern City (Heritage–NewYork)
- The Asian Conference on Arts & Humanities (ACAH)
- The European Conference on Arts & Humanities (ECAH)
- The Asian Conference on Cultural Studies (ACCS)
- The Asian Conference on Asian Studies (ACAS)
- The IAFOR International Conference on Global Studies (GLOBAL)
- The IAFOR International Conference on the City (CITY)
Ways to Get Involved
IAFOR depends on the assistance of a large number of international academics and practitioners who contribute in a variety of ways to our shared mission of promoting international exchange, facilitating intercultural awareness, encouraging interdisciplinary discussion and generating and sharing new knowledge. We are grateful for the time, effort and expertise donated by all our volunteer contributors.
Here are some of the ways you can get involved:
If you have any questions, or if you would like to suggest additional ways in which you could contribute to IAFOR’s interdisciplinary activities, please feel free to email heritage–[email protected].