The 2014 Inauguaral Asian Conference on the Arts, Humanities and Sustainability organized by ESD Focus and PRESDA will be held in Hiroshima, Japan, from 1st to 3rd December 2014.
The three-day, international, peer-reviewed conference will provide an interdisciplinary platform for academics, researchers, policy makers, activists, students and professionals. The conference will promote a critical understanding of the innovative and organic approaches from the Arts and Humanities toward sustainability.
Today’s sustainability challenges require a holistic perspective that embraces the critical relationship between ecological sciences and humanities. This is evidence as human communities as well as their diverse biological and cultural heritage are increasingly threatened by mounting environmental and societal problems from climate change and exploitation of finite resources to the inequities and human costs of unsustainable practices and technologies.
Progress on these issues is often further complicated by the contemporary hegemonic mind-set of the status quo, resulting in complacency, inactivity and the general perception of individual futility. This is particularly pronounced in many developing countries in Asia in which the focus on economic growth at the expense of the environment and the failure to recognize the inextricable link between these sustainable domains are commonplace. That is why humanists play a pivotal role in understanding, challenging and altering such destructive and unsustainable courses. By examining and interpreting humans’ beliefs about their relationship to nature and intertwining this knowledge and policies across the disciplines, humanists can broaden our understanding of sustainability and forge new sustainable paths.
Our shared biosphere and rapid globalization ensure no country is immune from another country’s problems and risks, which means a collective and multidisciplinary approach is essential for integrating environmental and cultural sustainability. As the fields of arts, humanities and sustainability cross over into multiple areas and disciplines, authors are welcome to submit from a range of topics, perspectives, and disciplines. The range of research submissions may include conceptual, empirical, experimental, and case studies.
Call for Proposals
Full papers are welcome, but not required. Registered participants with an accepted abstract and/or refereed full paper will be published in the Proceedings (ISSN 2188-6622). Oral, poster and virtual presenters shall be included in the Proceedings.
The conference’s Organizing Committee invites proposals of 250 words by September 8, 2014 submitted through the conference’s online system that consider the following themes:
Arts and Humanities Tracks: Archaeology, Art, Asian Studies, Cultural Studies, Dance, Design, Digital Humanities, English, Family, Film, Radio, Television, Folklore and Ethnomusicology, Gender and Sexuality, Geography, Globalization, History, Inequality and Justice, Language and Linguistics, Literature of the World, Literary Theory and Criticism, Music, Performing and Visual Arts, Philosophy, Poetry, Popular Culture, Religion, Rhetoric, Second Language Studies, Sociolinguistics, Speech, Urban Studies
Special Topics in Sustainability: Archaeology and Sustainability, Cultural Sustainability, Economic Sustainability, Linguistic Sustainability, Political Sustainability, Social Sustainability
