UOW hosts Southern Hemisphere's premier Asian Studies event

Jun 26, 2006

The political, cultural and technological importance of Asia to Australia will be under the spotlight for the next four days this week as the University of Wollongong hosts for the first time the premier Asian studies event in the Southern Hemisphere.

The 16th Biennial Conference of the Asian Studies Association of Australia (ASAA) was officially opened today (Monday 26 June) by the Governor of NSW, Her Excellency Professor Marie Bashir, AC, CVO who described UOW as one of the most "innovative and progressive universities in Australia".

Other members of the official party at the opening ceremony included UOW Vice-Chancellor, Professor Gerard Sutton; the Lord Mayor of Wollongong, Cr Alex Darling; ASAA President, Dr Robert Cribb; and Indigenous Elder, Mrs Rita Curtin, representing the Wodi Wodi Elders Corporation.

The opening also featured a Balinese gamelan performance and the world premiere of Candrakirana, a Balinese dance performance.

More than 350 overseas and Australian participants will take part in the conference.

Professor Bashir spoke about the comprehensive content of the conference and congratulated event organisers for their efforts.

"This is a timely and valuable opportunity to share and examine so many aspects of Australia and of our neighbours," she said. "I wish I could remain here for the entire conference as a student enthralled."

Conference convener, Professor Adrian Vickers, said the conference would cover a wealth of diverse issues that would include the participation of the region's security analysts, immigration and maritime experts, media specialists and the world's leading educationalists in the Asian Studies field.

Professor Vickers said it was noteworthy that at a time when other universities were scaling back their programs, the UOW executive, and the Faculty of Arts in particular, have continued with the running of the Australian Research Council Key Centre for Asia Pacific Social Transformation Studies (CAPSTRANS).

The work of CAPSTRANS and the University's other research centres that concentrate on the Asia Pacific -- the Global Centre of Excellence in Transnational Crime Prevention and the Centre for Maritime Studies -- is featured in the conference program.

Included among the scores of presentations the conference will focus on are:

• An assessment of the social impact resulting from the economic growth of China and India
  
• Terror, political violence and cultural trauma in Asia
  
• Co-operation in security matters and tsunami warning co-operation
  
• Maritime boundary disputes in East and Southeast Asia
  
• Powers and hazards of the media: Indonesian and East Timorese perspectives
  
• International joint ventures and regional development in Asian television
  

The conference will also have a special feature of an opening forum which will debate the future of Asian Studies and will include the involvement of Scott Guggenheim (World Bank, Jakarta); Louise Williams (The Sydney Morning Herald) and Cindy Pan (Asian media specialist).

Full conference program: To view the full program of conference topics and presenters go online to: ASAA Conference

Conference venues: Hope Theatre (Bldg 40), Communication Bldg 20, and McKinnon Bldg 67, University of Wollongong.

For further information contact the Conference Convener and Chair of Asian Studies in the Faculty of Arts at UOW, Professor Adrian Vickers, on (02) 4221 3626 or 0411 040563 (m).