International Committee of Historical Sciences

Call for Papers

The international conference on ‘Crossings and Connections: East Asia and the World, c1800-1945’ is an accompanying program of the General Assembly of the International Committee of Historical Sciences (ICHS) hosted by the Japanese National Committee of the ICHS and the Japanese Historical Council. The Conference ‘Crossings and Connections: East Asia and the World, c1800-1945’ will be held at Teikyo University, HACHIOJI Campus, Tokyo, on Saturday 26 October 2024.

This conference aims to explore various aspects of the historical processes of global or transregional crossings and connections in East Asia between the beginning of the 19th century and the mid-20th century, thereby discussing diversity and heterogeneity in its processes. Global migration, distribution of commodities, and political and cultural exchanges have expanded dramatically since the 19th century. East Asia was also one of the regions that became an important theatre of these crossings and connections. East Asian countries did not simply accept or respond to the influence of expanding European powers. In this region, multiple political forms existed side by side: China experienced a political transformation from an imperial system to a republic by revolution under the unequal treaty system; Japan became a colonial empire by acquiring Taiwan and Korea through the Sino-Japanese and Russo-Japanese Wars; and most parts of Southeast Asia, except Thailand, were colonised by Britain, France, the Netherlands, and finally the U.S. At the same time, various actors actively joined these global crossings and connections and promoted political, economic, and cultural transformations in this region. New ‘diversity’ in East Asia was moulded not due to unilateral convergence but as a multidirectional process, which included cultural translation and appropriation in local contexts.

These multidirectional crossings and connections over Eurasia, intra-Asia, and the Pacific Rim recreated diversity and heterogeneity, and while heavily affected by the Cold War system, various political, economic, and cultural influences remained in this region. At this conference, we would like to provide an occasion to discuss the diversity of historical pasts by focusing on specific cases of crossings and connections in Modern East Asia, using the accompanying program of the General Assembly of the ICHS in Tokyo. The papers could include one or more of the following topics:

1. Political crossings and connections: political ideas, concepts, institutions, etc.
2. Economic crossings and connections: port cities, shipping and transportation, railways and railway stations, merchants and trading companies, free and unfree migration, etc.
3. Cultural crossings and connections: travellers, missionaries, scientists, intellectuals, etc.; education or academic exchanges.
4. Military crossings and connections: movements and station of troops, concentration camps, forced transportation of population, etc.

Conference Requirements

Organized as an attached program to the General Assembly of the International Committee of Historical Sciences (ICHS), the conference will convene at Teikyo University, Hachioji Campus, Tokyo, Japan, on 26 October 2024. We cordially invite proposals from scholars at all career stages, including early career. All submitted proposals will be screened according to the aims of the conference. The submissions of individual paper proposals include the following:

・Name, affiliation, and contact information
・Paper title and abstract of 200-300 words
・A brief CV (2 pages maximum)

Send all submissions by email attachment in a single PDF document to:
shasada@komazawa-u.ac.jp
Send also inquiries to: shasada@komazawa-u.ac.jp

Deadline for submissions of proposals: 30 April 2024

Organisers 

Japanese National Committee of the International Committee of Historical Sciences
Japanese Historical Council
This conference will be held in collaboration with Teikyo University.

Directions

Please note that ICHS General Assembly will be held in the heart of Tokyo, at the KASUMIGASEKI Campus, while the Conference ‘Crossings and Connections: East Asia and the World, c1800-1945’ will be held on Saturday 26 October 2024 at Teikyo University, HACHIOJI Campus, just over an hour and a half from downtown Tokyo.

Contact Information

Prof. YOSHIZAWA Seiichiro
President of the Japanese National Committee
Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology, University of Tokyo
syoshi@l.u-tokyo.ac.jp

Prof. KOSEKI Takashi
General Secretary of the Japanese National Committee
Institute for Research in Humanities, Kyoto University
koseki.takashi.3a@kyoto-u.ac.jp

Prof. ASADA Shinji
Treasurer of the Japanese National Committee
Faculty of Economics, Komazawa University
shasada@komazawa-u.ac.jp

Prof. WATANABE Hirotaka
Member, Bureau of ICHS/CISH, 
Faculty of Law, Teikyo University
wtnbhi@main.teikyo-u.ac.jp