Conferences and Seminars

JSAA 2025 Conference (October 2nd to 4th)

Venue: University of New England (Armidale, NSW)

Call for papers: Abstracts must be submitted to the following email address by 20th January 2025 : jsaa2025@une.edu.au  (see below)



Anaiwan: Dangana ndaga? Nyana ndaga wanan? 

お元気でいらっしゃいますか。なぜ、こちらにいらっしゃいましたか。 

For the first time ever in 2025, the Japanese Studies Association of Australia Biennial conference will be held in Anaiwan Country (also a meeting place for Dangaddi, Gunbainggari and Baanbai tribes), on the New England Tablelands in Armidale at the University of New England campus. All scholars involved in Japanese Studies in some way, or at its margins, are welcomed to the conference.    

The conference theme is 'Marginal Places, Flows, Identities', inspired by the Anaiwan region, and UNE's position in a marginal place, at around 1000 metres above sea level. Like Armidale's relationship to the major urban cities of Sydney and Brisbane, there are many marginal places on the edges of Japan, and beyond, where identity has been affected by historical prejudice and losses, and where the often-assumed 'homogeneity' of Japan is questioned.  

Key-note speakers at JSAA2025 will include:

Emerita Professor of ANU, Tessa Morris-Suzuki and

Dr Reiko Yoshida of the University of South Australia.

Scholars interested in proposing a paper or panel are invited to think broadly on the themes of marginal places, flows and identities.

Potential approaches could include the following:

  • Marginal places and peoples of Japan 

  • New approaches to the study of Japan 

  • New pedagogy in teaching in Japanese studies 

  • Construction of self and identity from the margins 

  • Language and identity and margins 

  • Representations of identities in the arts, including literature, film, or performing arts 

  • Linguistic change, and marginal languages 

  • Flows of people and languages 

  • Challenges to/from homogeneity and its discourses 

  • Post-colonialism and the Japanese archipelago

  • Japan and intersectionalities 

Papers that do not engage with the theme but are connected with Japanese Studies in its breadth are welcomed.

On the first day of the conference, a postgraduate/ECR workshop will be held, TBC.   

Session Types: 

1.      Individual Presentations (20 Minutes +10 minutes Questions)   

2.       Roundtable/Panel (90 minutes) 

3.       Alternative formats (suggested 60-90 minutes) eg. Book launch, creative presentations, workshops 



Call for Papers Details 

JSAA 2025 invites submissions for (1) individual papers, (2) panel proposals, and (3) alternative formats. Both onsite and online presentations are available, however panels should be either fully online or fully face-to-face. All presentations should be given in Japanese or English. We aim to make the conference most accessible for postgraduate and early career scholars, and we encourage their participation.  

  • Papers: Individual papers comprise in-room/online presentations of original research by one or more authors, involving 20 minutes presentation and 10 minutes Q&A 

  • Roundtable/Panels: Panels allow for extended discussion of a particular topic. These will normally comprise 3-4 presenter slots of maximum 20 minutes each, scheduled over 1.5 hours, inclusive of an optional discussion or discussant slot 

  • Alternative formats & book launch options are also available 

Submission Process

Abstracts must be submitted to the following email address by 20th January 2025: jsaa2025@une.edu.au  

The abstract should: 

  • Not exceed 250 words 

  • Indicate the presenting author(s) if co-authored, plus the institutional affiliation 

  • Include an overview of the intent and purpose of the presentation, as well as the significance of the research presented 

  • Include a title of up to 20 words 

  • Indicate preference for either of online, or in-person presentation

Please note that JSAA2025 is not a fully hybrid conference.
Online only presentations will be scheduled together with other online presentations and online registrations will not have access to all face-to-face sessions, with the exception of the keynote presentations, which will be streamed.

The limited access will be reflected in the price of registrations. 

Key dates are listed below.   

We very much look forward to meeting with you in Anaiwan Country in 2025!      

Co-Convenors: Gwyn McClelland and Laura Clark

Key dates
20 January Deadline for panel and individual proposal submissions
10 March Notification of acceptance/Registration opens
27 June Early bird registration deadline
12 September Deadline for registration
2 October Conference opens (Thursday)
4 October Conference ends (Saturday)

Previous Conference Hosts and Locations

1991 Canberra @ ANU

1993 Newcastle

1995 Queensland @ University of Queensland

1997 Melbourne/Monash @ Melbourne University

1999 Rockhampton campus of Central Queensland University

2001 Sydney/UNSW @ the University of New South Wales

2003 Queensland @ QUT

2005 Adelaide @ University of Adelaide

2007 Canberra @ ANU

2009 July, 13-16 Sydney The 15th Biennial Conference @ Sydney / UNSW


The 16th Biennial JSAA Conference was co-hosted in Sydney together with the ICJLE (International Conference on Japanese Language Education).

(Convenor: Chihiro Kinoshita-Thomson)

Theme: Bridging the gap between the Japanese language and Japanese studies

 

2011, July 4-7. The 17th Biennial Conference @ University of Melbourne

(Convenor: Carolyn Stevens)

Theme: Internationalising Japan: Sport, culture education.

  

2013, July 8-11. The 18th Biennial Conference @ Australian National University.

(Convenor: Carol Hayes)

Theme: Cities, Nature & Landscapes: From Nara to the Networked City

  

2015, June 30 – July 3. The 19th Biennial Conference @ La Trobe University

(Convenor: Kaori Okano)

Theme: Japanese Sudies and Japan in the Asia-Pacific: Rethinking ‘Eurocentrism’?.

  

2017, June 27-30. The 20th Biennial Conference @ University of Wollongong 

(Convenor: Vera Mackie)

Theme: Debating democracy in Japan


2019, July 1-4. The 21st Biennial Conference @ Monash University

(Convenor: Beatrice Trefalt)

Theme: Celebrating Diverse Perspectives


2021, September 28 - October 1. The 22nd Biennial Conference @ University of Queensland (online)

(Convenor: David Chapman)

Theme: Sustainability, Longevity and Mobility

2023, September 1 - September 3. The 23rd Biennial Conference and International Conference of the Network for Translingual Japanese (ICNTJ) @ UNSW Sydney, University of Technology Sydney, University of Sydney

(Convenor: Chihiro Kinoshita Thomson)

Theme: Living in a post-Covid Society: Mobility of People and Language across Borders for Social Integration