From 7 to 9 April 2016, the 2^nd Baltic Alliance for Asian Studies (BAAS) Conference took place at the University of Tartu (UT) followed by the BAAS Board meeting on the 9 April. The conference was organised by the UT Centre for Oriental Studies, which was the 2014–2016 chair of the BAAS, together with the Faculty of Arts and Humanities.

Three keynote speeches, 90 papers in 11 panels and 7 sections and 13 poster presentations were held during the three-day-conference. Beside three Baltic countries, Asian Studies’ scholars from 16 other countries (Austria, Azerbaijan, China, Croatia, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Iran, Israel, Italy, Poland, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, UK, USA) were among participants. The Centre of Asian Studies was represented by dr. Linas Didvalis and doctoral student Arvydas Kumpis.

BAAS was founded in 2013 by the representatives of the academic units of Asian Studies of the five Baltic universities: the University of Latvia (Riga), Tallinn University, University of Tartu, Vilnius University, and Vytautas Magnus University (Kaunas). Its aim is to promote cooperation of Baltic scholars of Asian studies and increase international visibility of the Asian studies in the three Baltic countries. The 1^st BAAS Conference took place in April 2014 and was hosted by the Centre of Oriental Studies of the Vilnius University. The conferences take place every two years at the different universities on a rotational basis.

On the BAAS Board meeting on 9 April 2016 in Tartu there was agreed that the Department of Asian Studies of the University of Latvia will be the organizer of the 3^rd BAAS Conference in 2018 and the chair of the BAAS for the next two-year-period of 2016–18. Furthermore, the 4^th conference in 2020 is expected to be organized by the Centre of Asian Studies and held at Vytautas Magnus University. The BAAS Board meeting also approved that the Centre for Asian Pacific Studies of the Tallinn University of Technology will become the sixth member institution of the BAAS.

Conference website: https://balticasianstudies.wordpress.com/

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