The Centre for Asian Studies invites scholars of area studies, tourism, international economics and other subjects to submit papers to an international conference “Travel and Mutual Understanding: East Asia, Europe and Beyond“, to be held October 20-21 in Kaunas. The conference focuses on travel as an opportunity for inter-cultural learning and both material and immaterial exchanges.
It is expected that the conference papers will review the history of travelers’ contacts, tourism policy, tourist industry and other related topics spanning from early 20th century until today and having ties to East Asia. Historical, sociological, anthropological and other social science approaches are welcome.
Tourism figures show that the number of East Asians visiting Europe and the other way around is constantly growing. Group tours as well as solo travel between these regions are becoming popular. The trend is accompanied by increasing volume of publications on travel between these regions: press articles, TV shows, blogs, and guidebooks. Travel experience provides ample of opportunities for self-reflection and reconsideration of knowledge that is accepted as self-evident. For example, there is anecdotal evidence that East Asian tourists approach Eastern Europe in a curious and rather unprejudiced way – for them, the region is not defined by its Socialist past, but rather, a history of architecture and cultural contacts preceding that period. However, still very little is known about how the travel experience shapes inter-cultural understanding and what messages travelers bring home.
Please submit an abstract of your paper (up to 300 words) or panel (up to 500 words), together with your name, position and institutional affiliation to conference@asc.vdu.lt by July 10, 2016.
Presenters who submit their full papers at the conference will be offered to publish them in the open access peer-reviewed scientific journal “International Journal of Area Studies” (degruyter.com/view/j/ijas, reviewed in CEEOL, etc.), managed by the Centre for Asian Studies at Vytautas Magnus University.
Conference fee is 30 € (EUR). To encourage participation of early-career researchers, we will waive the conference fee for selected doctoral candidates and young researchers. The participants are responsible for travel to and accommodation in Kaunas.
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