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SNU Anthropology department will be co-hosting a conference with the Society for East Asian Anthropology on July 14-16, 2025.

SHAPING FUTURES: EAST ASIA AS PRACTICE, July 2025 Conference, Seoul, South Korea

Organizers: Society for East Asian Anthropology (American Anthropological Association) and Seoul National University Department of Anthropology

Key Information:

Date of Conference: July 14–16, 2025

Venue: Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea

Submission deadline: January 15, 2025

Decisions by: March 1, 2025

Registration fee: USD100 regular, reduced student rate TBA

Contact us at: snuseaa2025@gmail.com

**All sessions will take place in person**

The Society for East Asian Anthropology (American Anthropological Association) and Seoul National University Department of Anthropology are pleased to announce a joint conference, “Shaping Futures: East Asia as Practice,” to be held in-person at Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea, on July 14-16, 2025.

This inter-regional collaboration takes the task of shaping futures as a crucial responsibility for anthropologists. In placing that responsibility under the rubric of “East Asia as Practice,” we assume the ongoing intergenerational dynamism that actively creates futures. We place mentoring–both vertical and lateral–as central to the processes and structure of this future-focused conference. We not only have a pre-conference specifically designed by and for graduate students, but also structure the whole conference in a way that encourages intergenerational, interregional conversations. In short, we take “shaping futures” as an assertion, a responsibility, a platform for community, and a call to action. Those futures include overlapping issues of:

• Mentoring relationships
• Transnational ties that bind
• Diasporas and their possibilities
• Interlingual responsibilities
• Political activism and scholarship
• Race and racism in 21stcentury East Asian lives
• East Asian colonialisms, Indigeneities, and (co)ethnic politics
• Migration and the geopolitical dynamics of border-crossing
• Culinary futures: localism, regionalism, globalism
• Pasts and their consumption: cultural heritage, urban renewal, tourism
• Religious transformations and spiritual practices
• Affects, trauma, and healing
• Sexualities, violence, interventions
• Queer futures
• Declining birth rates, societal aging, and shifting care regimes
• Digital worlds (social media, virtual reality, metaverses, etc.)
• Automation, robots, and AI
• Inter-species futures, human-animal relations, and their ethics
• Environmental sustainability and climate action
• Well-being amidst an era of anxieties

Our list is long as we commit to creating interactive, dialogic spaces of inclusion and collaboration that not only reflect upon scholarship, but place it within critical modes of engagement. Please join us in conversation and community that together constitute “Shaping Futures.”

Submission formats and instructions

Submission types:

• Individual papers (15-minute presentations)
• Panels (4 papers plus discussant and chair, double panels allowed)
• Roundtables (4–6 presenters plus chair)
• Posters

Word limits:

• Panel abstracts: 250 words, not including titles (plus 4 paper abstracts, 250 words each)
• Paper, roundtable, and poster abstracts: 250 words, not including titles

Note on multiple roles: You may assume multiple roles (e.g., chair + presenter, discussant on one panel + presenter on another) but only one paper presentation is allowed per person.



Note on language: You may propose to present in languages other than English, but please submit your abstract(s) in English. Panel/roundtable organizers: To facilitate broad engagement, please ensure that one or more of your papers/presentations is in English and that non-English presentations are accompanied by an English-language summary or outline for distribution during the session.