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The 73rd Annual Midwest Conference on Asian Affairs (MCAA 2024)

Hosted by:
University of Notre Dame
Sept 13-15, 2024 


Official 73rd MCAA Website
 

 

Call for Proposals

Abstract Submission Deadline: May 1, 2024, at 11:59 p.m. ET 

The MCAA Program Committee welcomes proposals for panels, roundtables, and individual papers from all disciplines focusing on China and Inner Asia, Northeast Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Asian Diaspora as well as comparative, inter-Asian, and global Asia topics. We also welcome scholars and students from all regions. Faculty, graduate students, and undergraduate students (presenting on separate junior scholar panels), as well as independent scholars, are encouraged to share their work, receive feedback, and network at the conference.

Please submit the proposal using the 73rd MCAA Proposal Submission Form (word count limit: individual paper - 250 words; panel/roundtable – 1000 words). Proposals are due May 1, 2024, at 11:59 p.m. ET. Reviews of proposals will begin immediately after the deadline and you will be contacted about the results by May 31, 2024. 

For questions about the call for proposals, please contact the MCAA 2024 Program Committee at mcaa2024(at)nd.edu.

For more information, please visit the MCAA 2024 Official Webpage

About

MCAA History

Learn the history of the Midwest Conference on Asian Affairs.

Executive Committee

Meet MCAA's executive committee.

Bylaws

Review MCAA's constitution and bylaws.

Past Presidents

Review the past presidents of the MCAA.

Studies on Asia Journal

Studies on Asia - An Interdisciplinary Journal of Asian Studies

Studies on Asia is a peer-reviewed interdisciplinary journal sponsored by the Midwest Conference on Asian Affairs (MCAA), a regional conference under the Association for Asian Studies—the world's largest non-profit scholarly organization in the field with approximately 8,000 members worldwide.

Visit the website for the Studies on Asia Journal

Contact Information: 

Roy S. Hanashiro
Editor, Studies on Asia
Professor of History, University of Michigan-Flint
Email: okuma(at)umich.edu

Prizes and Awards

MCAA Annual Prizes and Awards

The Midwest Conference on Asian Affairs offers three prizes for papers written by students - the Percy Buchanan Graduate Prize for graduate students, and the Sidney DeVere Brown Prize and the Mikiso Hane Prize for undergraduate students. MCAA also offers the Jackson and Caroline Bailey Public Service Award for outstanding work in the advancement of Asian Studies. These prizes are awarded at the MCAA Annual Meeting held each fall.

The prize coordinator for 2024 is MCAA Vice President Nobuko Adachi. Please contact Professor Adachi with any questions about the undergraduate or graduate paper prizes; she can be reached at nadachi(at)ilstu.edu.

The deadline for submission is May 26 (Friday), 2024

The 2024 awardees will be recognized at the MCAA Banquet on Saturday, September 14, 2024.

Submission Requirements for All Papers

Graduate and undergraduate students may compete for these prizes if they attend a college or university in the following states: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Wisconsin. The decisions of the judges are final.

Percy Buchanan Graduate Prize

Four Percy Buchanan prizes of $100 each, plus travel expenses of up to $100, will be awarded for the best original graduate student research papers. Papers should be no longer than 35 pages double spaced including the bibliography. Students will have an opportunity to present winning papers at the conference. There is one prize for each of the four main AAS regions: China and Inner Asia, Northeast Asia, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. Graduate paper prize winners will receive a one-year complimentary membership in the Association for Asian Studies, and one of the winners will be nominated to present at the AAS annual conference (usually taking place in
late March of that academic year) on the Council of Conferences designated panel. To submit your paper, please visit the Percy Buchanan Graduate Prize Submission Portal.

Sidney DeVere Brown Prize and the Mikiso Hane Prize

The Sidney DeVere Brown Prize, and the Mikiso Hane Prize are awarded to the two best original papers composed by undergraduates. Prizes of $100, plus travel expenses of up to $100, are awarded to the authors of the winning papers. Paper submissions should be between 10 and 30 pages double-spaced and must be accompanied by a letter from the student’s professor or advisor confirming that the paper was written while the author was an undergraduate. Papers will be reviewed by scholars in the appropriate field. Undergraduate winners have the opportunity to publish their papers in The Wittenberg East Asian Studies Journal. To submit your paper, please visit the Sidney DeVere Brown Prize and the Mikiso Hane Prize Submission Portal.

Jackson and Caroline Bailey Public Service Award

This award commemorates the lifetime exemplary service to MCAA by Professors Jackson Bailey and Caroline Bailey. It recognizes and honors those members of MCAA who have assiduously contributed to outreach, extra-curricular instruction, and public service in their communities. Successful nominees should have made efforts beyond the normal and expected contributions of scholarship and teaching in order to bring Asian Studies to the community at large. Such activities might include: the creation of teaching materials to be used by K-12 teachers; production of Asian-centered audio-visual materials; work with sister city and/or citizen to citizen activities aimed at intercultural exchanges; working for student or faculty exchanges with Asian Universities; arranging Asian film series, community lectures, book clubs, children’s story hours, museum exhibitions, and public discussions. In short, this award for lifetime achievement honors those who have devoted time and treasure to public service outside the academy.

Submission requirements: Both nominees and nominators must be regular members of MCAA at the time of nomination. The nomination must be made in writing and should include a summary of the exemplary activities that make the nominee worthy of the award. To apply please visit our Jackson and Caroline Bailey Public Service Award Submission Portal.

Past Conferences

Conference 2023

The 72nd Midwest Conference on Asian Affairs (MCAA) Annual Meeting was hosted by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from September 29 - October 1, 2023. The MCAA seeks to promote Asian studies both at the university and the secondary and primary levels, and particularly to encourage scholarly interchange between Asianists located in the Midwest, though scholars from all regions are invited to participate.

The Keynote lecture was given by:

  • Dr. Jean Oi (William Haas Professor of Chinese Politics, Stanford University)

The Presidential panels were given by:

  • Dr. Taylor Easum (President, MCAA, Assistant Professor, History, Indiana State University)
  • Gardner Bovingdon (Associate Professor, Central Eurasian Studies and International Studies, Indiana University Bloomington)
  • Pär Cassel (Associate Professor, History, University of Michigan)
  • Tarry Chun (Assistant Professor, Film, Television & Theatre and East Asian Languages & Cultures, University of Notre Dame)
  • Roderick Ike Wilson (Associate Professor, History and East Asian Languages & Cultures, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign)

Conference 2022

The 71st MCAA was hosted by the University of Kansas on September 16-19, 2022. The MCAA seeks to promote Asian studies both at the university and the secondary and primary levels, and particularly to encourage scholarly interchange between Asianists located in the Midwest, though scholars from all regions are invited to participate.

The Keynote lecture was given by:

  • Prof. Kamran Asdar Ali (AAS President, University of Texas, Austin)

The Presidential Panel "Global Asia and Science, Technology, Medicine, and Environment"; was given by:

  • Ian G. Baird (University of Wisconsin, Madison)
  • Susan Burns (University of Chicago)
  • Megan Greene (University of Kansas)

The Progam Chair for the 2022 Conference:

  • Akiko Takeyama (University of Kansas)

Conference 2021

The 70th Midwest Conference on Asian Affairs (MCAA) annual meeting had to be canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, prioritizing the health and safety of participants and attendees.

Conference 2020

The 69th Midwest Conference on Asian Affairs (MCAA) Annual Meeting was hosted by a consortium of MCAA affiliated universities from October 16-18th, 2020. The MCAA seeks to promote Asian studies both at the university and the secondary and primary levels, and particularly to encourage scholarly interchange between Asianists located in the Midwest, though scholars from all regions are invited to participate.

The Keynote lectures were given by:

  • Prof. Siddharth Chandra (Director of the Asian Studies Center, Michigan State University)
  • Prof. Christine Yano (AAS President, University of Hawaii)

The Presidential Panel were given by:

  • Jamie Monson (Director of the African Studies, Michigan State University)
  • I Made Andi Arsana (Head of the Office of International Affairs, Gadjah Mada University, Indonesia)
  • Prof. Siddharth Chandra (Director of the Asian Studies Center, Michigan State University)
  • Blandina Lugendo (Department of Aquatic Sciences and Fisheries, University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania)
  • Mark Axelrod (Professor at James Madison College and the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Michigan State University)
  • Awet Weldemichael (Professor and Queen's National Scholar African and World History, Queen's University, Canada)

Planning Committee:

  • Program Chair: Dr. Taylor Easum, Indiana State University
  • Conference Submission Coordinator: Dr. Michael Brose, Indiana University

Conference 2019

The 68th Midwest Conference on Asian Affairs (MCAA) Annual Meeting was hosted by Michigan State from October 4-6, 2019. The MCAA seeks to promote Asian studies both at the university and the secondary and primary levels, and particularly to encourage scholarly interchange between Asianists located in the Midwest, though scholars from all regions are invited to participate.

The Keynote lectures were given by:

  • Prof. Wendy Larson (Professor of Modern Chinese Literature and Film, University of Oregon)
  • Prof. Anne Feldhaus (Past AAS President, Arizona State University)

The Presidential Panel were given by:

  • Prof. Laura Miller (Professor of Japanese Studies, University of Missouri)
  • Prof. Mary Gallagher (Director of the Asian Studies Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan)
  • Prof. Siddharth Chandra (Director of the Asian Studies Center, Michigan State University)
  • Prof. Ann Sherif (Professor of Japanese, Oberlin College) 

Conference 2018

The 67th Midwest Conference on Asian Affairs (MCAA) Annual Meeting was hosted by Metropolitan State University from October 19 - 20, 2018. The MCAA seeks to promote Asian studies both at the university and the secondary and primary levels, and particularly to encourage scholarly interchange between Asianists located in the Midwest, though scholars from all regions are invited to participate.

The Keynote lectures were given by:

  • Prof. Prasenjit Duara (Vice President for the Association for Asian Studies)
  • Dr. Irene Khin Khin Jensen (Professor Emeriti, Augsburg University)
  • Prof. Robert Hegel (Washington University in St. Louis; President, Midwest Conference on Asian Affairs)

For more information about the conference visit the 2018 Conference website.

Conference 2017

The Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies hosted the 66th Annual Meeting of the Midwest Conference on Asian Affairs at the University of Notre Dame, September 15–16, 2017. The MCAA seeks to promote Asian studies both at the university and the secondary and primary levels, and particularly to encourage scholarly interchange between Asianists located in the Midwest, though scholars from all regions are invited to participate.

The Keynote lectures were given by:

  • Prof. Katherine Bowie (Southeast Asian Studies & Anthropology, University of Wisconsin)
  • Prof. Rochona Majumdar (South Asian Studies & Cinema and Media Studies, University of Chicago)
  • Prof. Guobin Yang (East Asian Studies & Sociology and Communication, University of Pennsylvania)

Conference 2016

The Center of East Asian and Pacific Studies hosted the 65th Midwest Conference on Asian Affairs (MCAA) from October 14-16, 2016 at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. The conference featured 46 panels and involved 145 speakers and panel chairs. Faculty members, graduate, and undergraduate students presented new research and pedagogical tools across the disciplines of Asian studies.

We welcomed more than 214 registered participants to the conference from the Midwest and beyond, including attendees from China, Japan, Korea, and Europe. We were delighted to have Dr. Laura Kendall (AAS President and Chair, Division of Anthropology, Curator, Asian Ethnographic Collection, American Museum of Natural History) present the keynote speech What Global Asia Means to Anthropology. C. 1900 on October 15 at the conference banquet. We also held the Midwest Japan Seminar workshop during the first two sessions of October 15. In addition to panels and speeches, we featured a film series organized by AMES. We were particularly happy to host the premiere of David Plath’s documentary “So Long Asleep: Waking the Ghosts of a War,” at the Spurlock Museum’s Knight Auditorium October 14 at 7:30 PM. The Presidential Round Table on “Asian Studies, Area Studies and the Future” was held over lunch on October 15. Last but not least, we featured a Music of Asia event in the Music Building Auditorium on the evening of October 15.

We would like to thank all our student volunteers, fellow East Asian faculty, the MCAA officers, the College of Arts & Science, the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, and Illinois International Programs for their generous support of Asian scholarship in the Midwest.

Conference 2015

The Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures hosted the 64th Midwest Conference on Asian Affairs (MCAA) from October 16 - 18, 2015 at Washington University in St. Louis.


Many thanks to all who attended MCAA! Your presence and contribution helped make this 64th MCAA meeting a great success! With over 300 attending, this was the largest MCAA yet. We welcomed participants from the Midwest and beyond, including attendees from Canada, China, Japan, Korea, and Germany. We were delighted to have Dr. Timothy Brook (AAS President and Professor of History, University of British Columbia) present the keynote speech at the conference banquet. EALC would like to thank all our student volunteers and musicians, our fellow East Asian faculty, the MCAA officers, and Arts & Sciences for their support of Asian scholarship in the Midwest.

For more information visit the Washington University in St. Louis' East Asian language and Culture Website

Conference 2014

The Southwest Conference on Asian Studies (SWCAS) and the 63rd Midwest Conference on Asian Affairs (MCAA) hosted a special joint meeting on October 3 - 5, 2014 on the campus of the University of Kansas in Lawrence, KS.

2014 SWCAS & MCAA Conference website.

We invited scholars and graduate students from all disciplines to submit proposals for panels and individual papers on their research on any topic related to Asian studies.

Panel proposals included the following:
A panel summary (250 words max.) that includes a brief description of each paper and makes clear the connection between the papers
A list of participants, their paper titles, their affiliations and their contact information, including email addresses

Individual paper proposals included the following:
Paper title and summary (150 words max.)
Presenter's name, affiliation, and contact information, including email addresses

Proposals were sent to ceas(at)ku.edu

Deadline: June 1, 2014

Megan Greene, Program Chair
University of Kansas
mgreene(at)ku.edu

 

Conference 2013

The Asian Studies Center of Michigan State University was pleased to host the 62nd Midwest Conference on Asian Affairs (MCAA) from October 25 - 27, 2013 at MSU's Kellogg Hotel & Conference Center in East Lansing, Michigan.

With nearly 300 participants, this was the largest MCAA ever held. Participants came from across the United States as well as from Canada, England, China, Korea, and Japan. We enjoyed speakers from the Presidential Panel on Friday as well as during the Saturday evening banquet. As a highlight of the conference, AAS President Thongchai Winichakul offered the keynote address and the recipients of the Sidney DeVere Brown and Mikiso Hane prizes for undergraduate papers and the Percy Buchanan prizes for graduate students were recognized. The MCAA thus continued its long tradition of contributing to the professional development of the next generation of scholars and teachers. We received numerous pieces of positive feedback from the professionalism of conference staff to the innovative panels. We would like to thank our sponsors, the program committee, the conference chair, the MCAA officers, the conference staff, our volunteers and most certainly the all of the presenters for their work in planning and carrying out a tremendous endeavor.

2013 MCAA Official Program


Call for Papers (Now Closed)

 

Michigan State University is proud to host the 2013 Midwest Conference on Asian Affairs. Proposals for panels, roundtables, and individual papers from all academic disciplines, on any topic involving Asia, are now being accepted. Panels and individual papers that cross boundaries (national, regional, temporal, linguistic, disciplinary, etc.) are also particularly welcome, as are proposals that suggest new and innovative formats. Graduate students, independent scholars, and K-12 educators and administrators are strongly encouraged to apply. Key points to note are as follows:

  • Proposal Deadline: the Call for Papers closed on June 25, 2013. We thank the many scholars and students who have submitted paper, panel, roundtable, and diamond proposals. All submitted proposals will be reviewed by a committee during July of 2013. Final decisions will be made by August 1, 2013, and presenters will be notified immediately following this date.
  • Please note that MCAA does not provide funds for travel. Visit the Grants and Fellowships page on the AAS website for assistance options.

External Sponsors

Association of Asian Affairs (AAS)
Midwest Conference on Asian Affairs (MCAA)
MCAA Presidential Panel
with
funding support from the National Resource Center and
grant support from the International Foreign Language (IFLE) Office of the U.S. Department of Education.

MSU Sponsors

Asian Studies Center
Center for Gender in Global Context
College of Arts and Letters
College of Social Science
Department of Art, Art History, and Design
Department of History
Department of Linguistics & Germanic, Slavic, Asian and African Languages
International Studies and Programs

Contacts

For more information about MCAA, contact the MCAA 2024 Program Committee at

Email: mcaa2024(at)nd.edu
Phone: 574-631-3222

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