Konferencja Lodz East Asia Meeting (LEAM)

LEAM is an international scientific conference that annually attracts a wide group of outstanding specialists – scientists, researchers, theorists and practitioners of politics, economy and culture of Asian countries. Over the years, we have hosted over 440 scientists from nearly 40 countries, enabling them to participate in intense scientific discussions and to build a valuable epistemic community.

The 17th edition of the conference, entitled “Regional order in (post)-pandemic Asia” will be an opportunity to exchange knowledge and take part in discussion with multiple threads, which have always been a valuable point of the LEAM conference. Considering the very dynamically changing situation on the international arena and numerous challenges related to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, we want to talk about the political, economic and social situation of Asian countries at the beginning of the third decade of the 21st century. Considering the development of the regional order in Asia and the impact of the epidemic on the changes that are taking place will be the starting point of the conference. Moreover, we want to consider to what extent this "new normality" in which we live as nations and states influences international politics. The Russian invasion of Ukraine and its consequences for the international order, also for Asian states, will be another important topic in the discussion.

The lecture inaugurating the conference will be delivered by prof. Bart Dessein, who is full professor at the Department of Languages and Cultures of Ghent University. He is the President of the East Asian Culture in Perspective: Identity, Historical Consciousness, Modernity research group.  His research concerns, among others, modern and contemporary history of China, Chinese political philosophy, and New Confucianism.

The speech of the keynote speaker will be the starting point for discussions during plenary panels, special and thematic sessions. Political and economic changes in the Eastern Hemisphere will be the subject of a plenary debate on "Post-pandemic Sino-American reconfiguration in East Asia". Its participants will include such outstanding scientists as prof. Robert G. Sutter (Elliott School of International Relations), prof. Zhu Zhiquan (Bucknell University) and prof. Dominik Mierzejewski (University of Lodz). The panel will be moderated by Grzegorz Stec (MERICS).

Bearing in mind the fact that not only National States shape contemporary world politics, during the second plenary session entitled "Paradiplomacy in and with Asia" the importance of cities and regions as important, albeit sub-state, actors on the global stage will be discussed.  The debate will be attended by scientists from the University of Lodz, prof. Tomasz Kamiński and dr Joanna Ciesielska-Klikowska and dr Anna Rudakowska from Tamkang University in Taiwan.

Moreover, during the conference there will be sessions of meetings with authors of important scientific books that have been recently published. The guests of LEAM will include: prof. Glenn Diesen (University of South-Eastern Norway), prof. Beata Bochorodycz (Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań), prof. Andrei P. Tsygankov (San Francisco State University) and prof. Bogdan Góralczyk (University of Warsaw). 

Apart from plenary panels and special sessions, almost 50 scientists from around the world will present the results of their latest research as part of thematic panels, which concern, among others, implications of the Covid-19 pandemic for the politics, economy and societies of Asian countries; the war in Ukraine and its consequences for the international order in Asia; the Indo-Pacific region in the politics of regional and world powers; changes in foreign and domestic policy of India; as well as the importance of Japan in contemporary international relations. 

A detailed conference programme [ENG]

Source: Faculty of International and Political Studies, University of Lodz