Transcending Boundaries at the ICAS in Chiang Mai

Every other year, the ICAS brings together more than 1,200 Asia experts and representatives from civil society from more than 60 countries. With its 300 to 350 panels, the conference aims to help transcend boundaries between scholarly disciplines and geographical areas. At the tenth instance of the conference, which took place in July of this year in Chiang Mai, Thailand, the GIGA was able to present its latest research findings and scholarly publications.

In addition to their contributions to the conference – for instance, on the topics of populism in Southeast Asia and China’s relationship with its neighbouring states – the editors of the Journal of Current Chinese Affairs and the Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs held a special reception, during which around 60 guests from all over the world engaged in animated discussions with GIGA researchers.

The GIGA was also represented by a publications booth, which not only attracted internationally renowned scholars but also served as a jumping-off point for networking between postdocs, librarians, and academics.

The ICAS Book Prize honours outstanding research that is deserving of wider international attention. This year’s German-language edition of the ICAS Book Prize was awarded jointly by the GIGA and the Swiss Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences (SAGW). GIGA Senior Research Fellow Andreas Ufen bestowed the prize upon Prof. Dr. Hans van Ess for his work Politik und Geschichtsschreibung im alten China: Pan-ma i-t’ing".

The next ICAS is due to take place in 2019 in Leiden, The Netherlands.