24th AASSREC Biennial General Conference

Call for Papers

Navigating the future with and after Covid-19: The role of social sciences in Asia

19-21 October 2021

The 24th AASSREC Biennial General Conference will be held as a virtual event from 19-21 October. The AASSREC Executive Council and conference organisers encourage all members to seek from among your associations or networks, a suitable expert to present a paper addressing the conference theme “Navigating the future with and after Covid-19: The role of social sciences in Asia.”

Covid-19 has had a profound impact on all countries in Asia, as it has in the rest of the world. The sudden and dramatic changes in domestic and international mobility, trade, tourism, education and work let alone the public health challenges and response have fundamentally transformed society across the region. In doing so, they have transformed our universities, our research agencies and councils, and our social sciences disciplines as well.

From the outset of the pandemic, social science graduates, researchers and professionals have been at the forefront of the domestic and regional COVID-19 response. From new models of delivering rapid economic stimulus at scale, to modelling and prediction of infection spread, to new methods of digital educational delivery and academic collaboration, the role of social sciences in navigating the crisis has been visible and paramount like rarely before.

The focus of this AASSREC conference is to provide members with an opportunity to share information on their efforts and creative thinking in dealing with the pandemic. It will also provide an opportunity for AASSREC members to engage with policy makers and other stakeholders from the region to showcase the valuable insights and capabilities of our disciplines in dealing with complex social, economic and environmental challenges.

A formal call for conference papers which includes a number of sub-themes and possible topic areas will be sent to all members in the coming days. Depending on the papers submitted for the conference, we plan to schedule one or two presentation sessions each day from 19-21 October, with each session 1.5–2hrs in duration.

We kindly ask each member to provide the following to Michelle Bruce, AASSREC Secretary-General (michelle.bruce@socialsciences.org.au) by Wednesday 30 June 2021:

  • the name of your organisation’s paper presenter
  • a short biography of the paper presenter
  • the topic of the presentation
  • a draft abstract of the paper

This information will allow the conference organisers to begin sorting papers and developing some engaging themes for panel discussions, and which we hope will be lively and provide opportunities for audience participation.