LEAM 2021
16TH LODZ EAST ASIA MEETING “”RETHINKING SOUTHEAST ASIA IN WORLD POLITICS”
On June 24-25, 2021, the Lodz East Asia Meeting conference entitled „Rethinking Southeast Asia in World Politics” was organized. The conference took place after a one-year hiatus caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
To ensure the maximum safety of the participants, the symposium was organized online via the ClickMeeting platform.
The leading topic of the conference was the rarely analyzed international relations in the South-East Asia region, in particular the issues of changes in the current policy of the countries in the region towards the world, as well as the reaction to these changes in international centers of power.
As part of the conference, several thematic sessions were held with scholars from around the world who presented the results of their research and two plenary lectures by invited experts. In total, 34 foreign speakers (from 18 countries) and 24 speakers from Poland participated in the conference. As part of his keynote speeches, Prof. Jacques Leider, an eminent historian of Burma, gave a lecture on the country’s Muslim community showing the complicated historical context of today’s persecution of the Rohingya people. In turn, prof. Quansheng Zhao presented an analysis of China-Japan relations in the Southeast Asia region, highlighting the interwoven elements of cooperation and competition.
Special sessions were also organized as part of the conference. These were, among others, the „Ambassadors panel” (attended by the Ambassadors of Indonesia and Singapore, and former advisor to President Bill Clinton), two roundtables on the current situation in Myanmar / Burma (with the participation of scientists and representatives of the third sector), discussions with the authors of important books published in 2020/2021 year, screening of a documentary by Prof. Monika Arnez and a debate on the meanders of the publishing process in international publishing houses, with the participation of Prof. Pietro Masina, editor-in-chief of the European Journal of East Asian Studies.
The conference will result in a publication entitled „Rethinking Southeast Asia in World Politics”, University of Lodz Publishing House, Contemporary Asian Studies Series, 2022.