Emphasizing an inclusive approach, the conference, modelled after ICAS international conventions, will be organized around a series of broad thematic multi-disciplinary and multi-sectorial groupings that highlight multiple flows and mobilities linking the two continents such as: transcontinental connections & interactions, economics & development, intellectual; encounters, arts & culture, migration & diasporas and Asian studies in Africa & African studies in Asia. Specifically, the central unifying theme for the conference is a call to understand the histories and futures of Africa-Asia as simultaneously unfolding, in order to rethink the methodologies and knowledge practices through which we understand Africa in Asia and Asia in Africa, and beyond, Africa, Asia and other world regions as ‘fields of studies’.

Organized by: University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM, Tanzania), Association for Asian Studies in Africa (A-Asia, Accra, Ghana) and the International Convention of Asia Scholars (ICAS, Leiden, the Netherlands)

In partnership with: Muziris Institute for the Indian Ocean Studies, University of Calicut (Calicut, Kerala, India), International Institute for Asian Studies (Leiden, the Netherlands), Leiden University (Leiden, the Netherlands), University of Michigan (UM, Ann Arbor, U.S.), O.S.O.I. - Observatoire des sociétés de l'océan Indien, Université de La Réunion (France), National University of Singapore (NUS, Singapore), Social Science Research Council (SSRC, New York, U.S.), Center for Asian Studies (CAS), University of Ghana, (Accra, Ghana).