Asian Conference on Cultural Studies 2025

May 11-16, 2025 | Held in Tokyo, Japan and Online

Held in partnership with the IAFOR Research Centre at the Osaka School of International Public Policy (OSIPP) at Osaka University, this international conference encourages academics and scholars to meet and exchange ideas and views in a forum stimulating respectful dialogue. This event will afford an exceptional opportunity for renewing old acquaintances, making new contacts, networking, and facilitating partnerships across national and disciplinary borders.

Since its founding in 2009, IAFOR has brought people and ideas together in a variety of events and platforms to promote and celebrate interdisciplinary study, and underline its importance. Over the past year we have engaged in many cross-sectoral projects, including those with universities (the University of Barcelona, Hofstra University, UCL, University of Belgrade and Moscow State University), a think tank (the East-West Center), as well as collaborative projects with the United Nations in New York, and here, with the Government of Japan through the Prime Minister’s office.

With the IAFOR Research Centre, we have engaged in a number of interdisciplinary initiatives we believe will have an important impact on domestic and international public policy conversations. It is through conferences like these that we expand our network and partners, and we have no doubt that ACCS2025 will offer a remarkable opportunity for the sharing of research and best practice, and for the meeting of people and ideas.

The 15th Asian Conference on Cultural Studies (ACCS2025) will be held alongside The 16th Asian Conference on the Social Sciences and The 16th Asian Conference on Arts & Humanities. Registration for one of these conferences will allow delegates to attend sessions in all three.

ACCS is organised by IAFOR in association with the IAFOR Research Centre at the Osaka School of International Public Policy (OSIPP) in Osaka University, Japan.

We look forward to seeing you in Tokyo and online!

– The Conference Committee

IAFOR's Conference Themes for 2025-2029

IAFOR’s conference programme provides an essential comparative and contrastive space for people to engage in multidisciplinary research across borders of nation, culture, discipline, and professions. We encourage mixed approaches and methodologies, combining theory and practice between and across the disciplines, and we look to harness the collective intelligence of our International Academic Forum in addressing some of the most pressing issues of our time. Through the implementation of new formats in our conference programme over the last year, including Intelligence Briefings, Keynote Interviews, and The Forum, we gathered insights into what has been discussed at the theoretical and policy levels, identify the challenges, and the outlook for best practices in tackling global contemporary issues, which we have identified as the themes for 2025-2029.

Our selected themes for 2025-2029 bring together ideas and encourage research and synergies in the following areas.

• Technology and Artificial Intelligence
• Humanity and Human Intelligence
• Global Citizenship and Education for Peace
• Leadership

Our four themes can be seen as standalone themes, but they are also very much in conversation with each other. Themes may be seen as corollaries, complementary, or in opposition/juxtaposition with each other. The themes can be considered as widely as possible and are designed, in keeping with our mission, to encourage ideas across the disciplines.

Our Conferences in Numbers

• 50,000 attendees
• 129 countries
• 59% higher education faculty members
• 56% hold a PhD or other terminal degree
• 25% PhD or postgraduate students

Since our first conference in 2009, more than 50,000 academics and professionals have attended our interdisciplinary events. Our conferences attract attendees representing 129 countries – truly international events. This diversity serves as a wonderful comparative and contrastive resource.