ACSS2019

Speakers

Keynote and Featured Speakers at The Asian Conference on the Social Sciences 2019 will provide perspectives from a variety of academic and professional backgrounds.

IAFOR on Wed, January 25, 2017

ACSS2019

IAFOR Membership

Become a stakeholder in the IAFOR mission of facilitating international exchange, encouraging intercultural awareness, and promoting interdisciplinary discussion.

IAFOR on Wed, January 25, 2017

ACSS2019

IAFOR Research Centre

The Asian Conference on the Social Sciences (ACSS) is organised by IAFOR in partnership with the IAFOR Research Centre at Osaka University, Japan.

IAFOR on Fri, January 20, 2017

IAFOR > The Asian Conference on the Social Sciences (ACSS)

The 10th Asian Conference on the Social Sciences (ACSS2019)

The Final Call for Papers deadline has passed.

If you are listed as the author or co-author on a paper that has been accepted for presentation, please visit the Presenter Registration page. To register as an Audience member, please visit the Audience Registration page. Thank you.

"Independence & Interdependence"

The technological and logistical advances of globalisation have enabled us to become independent and empowered as never before, but at the same time made us more dependent on the very things allowing autonomy. While technologies allow us to communicate with those on the other side of the world, they can also make us detached from those immediately around us, and in some cases alienated, or lonely. And yet this increased interconnectedness offers great opportunities to work together to solve some of the world’s most pressing issues, and reminds us of our responsibilities towards each other. Our independence is contextualised in the relations we enjoy with others; in our families and communities, shared institutions, in our wider societies, geographical and political entities, and finally as a part of the one world we all share.

The conference theme for ACSS2019 is Independence & Interdependence, and we hope and expect this important thematic lens to encourage wide reflections on the importance and interrelation of such concepts as autonomy and identity, rights and responsibilities, and power and control; and within a variety of contexts from politics and geopolitics to energy, sustainability and the environment; and from education, technology and logistics, to culture and language; from psychology and security, to considerations of equity and justice.

The 10th Asian Conference on the Social Sciences (ACSS2019) will be held alongside The 9th Asian Conference on Sustainability, Energy & the Environment (ACSEE2019) and The 5th Asian Conference on Aging & Gerontology (AGen2019). There will be joint plenary sessions and registration for one conference will allow delegates to attend sessions in the others.

In conjunction with our Global Partners, we look forward to extending you a warm welcome in 2019.

– The ACSS2019 Organising Committee

Haruko Satoh, Osaka University, Japan
James W. McNally, University of Michigan & NACDA Program on Aging, USA
Hiroshi Ishida, University of Tokyo, Japan
Joseph Haldane, The International Academic Forum (IAFOR), Japan
Sela V. Panapasa, University of Michigan, USA

Key Information
  • Location & Venue: Toshi Center Hotel, Tokyo, Japan
  • Dates: Monday, May 20, 2019 ​to Wednesday, May 22, 2019
  • Conference Theme: "Independence & Interdependence"
  • Early Bird Abstract Submission Deadline: January 08, 2019*
  • Final Abstract Submission Deadline: March 08, 2019
  • Registration Deadline for Presenters: April 05, 2019

*Submit early to take advantage of the discounted registration rates. Learn more about our registration options.

Submit an Abstract
Visit ACSS2018 Conference Archive

Speakers

  • Osamu Arakaki
    Osamu Arakaki
    International Christian University, Japan
  • Eddie Bruce-Jones
    Eddie Bruce-Jones
    Birkbeck College School of Law, University of London, UK
  • Toshi Nakamura
    Toshi Nakamura
    Co-Founder & CEO, Kopernik
  • Kotaro Katsuki
    Kotaro Katsuki
    Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan
  • Lowell Sheppard
    Lowell Sheppard
    HOPE International Development Agency, Japan

ACSS2019 Conference Flyer

Download (PDF, 2.76MB)

Download PDF Conference Flyer

IAFOR Research Centre (IRC) – “Innovation and Value Initiative”

The IAFOR Research Centre (IRC) is housed within Osaka University’s School of International Public Policy (OSIPP), and in June 2018 the IRC began an ambitious new “Innovation and Value Initiative”. Officially launched at the United Nations in a special UN-IAFOR Collaborative Session, the initiative seeks to bring together the best in interdisciplinary research around the concept of value, on how value can be recognised, and measured, and how this can help us address issues and solve problems, from the local to the global.

Learn more about the Innovation and Value Initiative

Why Join an IAFOR Conference?

The International Academic Forum (IAFOR) welcomes academics from all over the world to our interdisciplinary conferences held in Asia, Europe, North America and the Middle East. Our events provide a unique international, intercultural and interdisciplinary environment in which to hear the latest world-class research and network with leading academics, professionals and practitioners.

Our conferences are meticulously planned under the direction of prominent academics to ensure that they offer programmes of the highest level, and are supported by some of the world’s leading academic institutions, including the University of London (UK), Virginia Tech (USA), University of Barcelona (Spain), Waseda University (Japan), University of Sussex (UK), Medill School of Journalism (USA), Moscow State University (Russia) and The University of Tokyo (Japan).

By facilitating dialogue between the world’s academics and thought leaders, IAFOR has become a pioneer in providing the research avenues and visionary development solutions that are necessary in our rapidly emerging globalised world. We welcome you to engage in this expanding global academic community of individuals and network of institutions, and look forward to seeing you at one of our future events.

Osamu Arakaki
International Christian University, Japan

Biography

Osamu Arakaki is a professor at International Christian University (ICU), Japan, and an expert of international law and international relations. He received a PhD in Law from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, an MA in Political Science from the University of Toronto, Canada, and an MA in Law from Meiji Gakuin University, Japan. Before he began serving at ICU, he was a visiting fellow at Harvard Law School, USA, visiting associate professor at the University of Tokyo, Japan, and professor at Hiroshima City University, Japan. His main works include Refugee Law and Practice in Japan (Ashgate, 2008), “Non-state actors and UNHCR’s supervisory role in international relations,” in James C Simeon (ed.), The UNHCR and the Supervision of International Refugee Law (Cambridge University Press, 2013) and Statelessness Conventions and Japanese Laws: Convergence and Divergence (UNHCR Representation in Japan, 2015).

Keynote Presentation (2019) | What Role Should Japanese Universities Play in the Refugee Crisis?
Eddie Bruce-Jones
Birkbeck College School of Law, University of London, UK

Biography

Eddie Bruce-Jones (DPhil, Berlin; LLM, KCL; JD, Columbia; MA, Berlin; AB, Harvard) is Deputy Dean and Reader (Associate Professor) in Law & Anthropology at Birkbeck College School of Law, University of London, where he teaches and researches in the areas of human rights, European law, legal theory, equality law and legal anthropology. He is author of Race in the Shadow of Law: State Violence in Contemporary Europe (Routledge, 2016), and co-author of the forthcoming Anti-Discrimination Law: Texts, Cases and Materials, 3rd Edition (with Aileen McColgan, Hart, 2019). His scholarly writing can be found in the Columbia Human Rights Law Review, Race & Class and the UCLA Journal of International Law and Foreign Affairs. He is currently writing his second book tentatively titled Kaala Paani: Law, Imagination and Colonial Indenture, for which he was a research fellow at the Max Planck Institute for European Legal History in Frankfurt, Germany. He is a member of the New York Bar and an Associate Academic Fellow of the Honourable Society of the Inner Temple. He serves on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Asylum, Immigration and Nationality Law, the Board of Trustees of the UK Lesbian and Gay Immigration Group and the Board of Directors of the Institute of Race Relations (London) and the advisory board of the Centre for Intersectional Justice (Berlin).

Keynote Presentation (2019) | South Asian Indenture to Jamaica: Between Law, Literature and Social Science
Toshi Nakamura
Co-Founder & CEO, Kopernik

Biography

Toshi, together with his wife Ewa Wojkowska, co-founded Kopernik in 2010 with a vision to make international development more effective. Before starting Kopernik, Toshi dealt with governance reform, peace building processes, monitoring and evaluation, and post-disaster reconstruction at the United Nations (UN) in Timor-Leste, Indonesia, Sierra Leone, the United States and Switzerland.

Prior to joining the UN, Toshi was a management consultant for McKinsey and Company in Tokyo. He holds an LLB from Kyoto University and MSc Comparative Politics from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and is a Guest Professor at Osaka University's Center for the Study of Co*Design, Osaka University. Toshi was selected as a World Economic Forum (WEF) Young Global Leader in 2012, and was a member of the WEF Global Agenda Council on Sustainable Development 2014-2016.

Keynote Presentation (2019) | Independence and Interdependence – Perspectives from a Development Practitioner Based in Indonesia
Kotaro Katsuki
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan

Biography

Kotaro Katsuki is the Director of the Global Issues Cooperation Division of the International Cooperation Bureau at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, where he is responsible for implementing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Presentation information will be added here shortly.
Lowell Sheppard
HOPE International Development Agency, Japan

Biography

Lowell Sheppard is an author, speaker, social entrepreneur, former minister, fellow of the Royal Geographic Society, husband, father, long-distance cyclist, and aspiring sailor. Lowell has spent his entire adult life working with established non-government organisations (also known as non-profit societies) and in several NGO start-ups. As Founder of HOPE International Development Agency Japan and Asia Pacific twenty years ago, Lowell has seen the growth of HOPE to be in the top 2% of charitable organisations in Japan with the coveted “nintei” certified tax-deductible status.

Lowell has served for the last twenty years as an informal advisor to companies and boards in the area of ethical decision making and thought leadership with a focus on community legacy. He has dedicated much of his life to social and environmental improvement projects.

While continuing as Asia Pacific Director for HOPE International Development Agency, in 2020 Lowell is launching an Education Initiative called Navigate22, with a focus on Thought Leadership in the area of Ethics, and Sustainable Goal Setting. Pacific Solo is a 5-year initiative within Navgate22.

Over the coming years, Lowell will prepare himself for the biggest challenge of his life: a solo journey across the North Pacific by the time he’s reached 70 years of age. Sailing from Tokyo to Vancouver, Lowell will navigate through the Pacific garbage patch to mourn the human impact on our planet and contemplate the beauty and resiliency of our world.

The project accompanies Navigate22, an ethics consulting company founded by Lowell in 2019. Pacific Solo will serve as a motif for exploration, sustainability, goal setting, and achievement.

Featured Presentation (2019) | Independence and Interdependence – A Personal Perspective