The NZASIA conference at Otago in 2027 brings together scholars across multiple disciplines and geographical locations to explore new methods for understanding Asia.

From the legacies of Asia’s framing within empire studies, through the evolution of Area Studies and its national and regional paradigms, to its ongoing extension into global, borderland, and oceanic perspectives, we invite reflection on the frameworks, comparisons, disciplinary traditions, and emerging modes of digital and creative media through which Asia is understood.

Against the backdrop of digital transformations, we aim to rethink established patterns and networks underpinning social relations, cultural and demographic formations, geopolitical and diplomatic ties, language and pedagogical practices, history and knowledge production. By doing so, we seek to expand the horizons of Asian Studies within Aotearoa New Zealand and beyond. Engaging different intellectual traditions, our keynote speakers collectively explore Asia through diverse frameworks and modes of inquiry.