The Women’s Forum of the ASAA includes people interested in promoting scholarship on women in Asia or supporting women working within Asian Studies. The Women’s Forum:
- convenes the Women in Asia Conference
- has a bi-monthly newsletter. To receive the newsletter please email wiaconference2017@gmail.com
- coordinates a moderated email discussion listserv
- holds a biennial meeting held during the ASAA Conference
- supports the Women in Asia book series
Women’s Forum History
The ASAA Women’s Caucus was established in 1978 and changed its name to the Women’s Forum at the 2006 ASAA Conference. The forum has played a significant role in raising the profile of women doing research on Asia in Australia, as well as promoting research about women in Asia.
Newsletters
The Women’s Caucus produced a newsletter 2-3 times a year up to 1997 before being replaced by the Women’s Forum Listserv.
Past editors include:
- to 1994: Antonia Finnane
- 1994-1997: Louise Edwards and Anne Cullen
- 1997-1998: Andrea Whittaker
View scanned archived newsletters published between 1994 and 1997.
Conference
The 2019 Women in Asia Conference was held at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) Sydney on 21-23 June 2019.
The Women in Asia Forum is affiliated with the Asian Studies Association of Australia and hosts a biannual interdisciplinary conference.
The theme of the 2019 conference was “Women in an Era of Anti-Elitism: Responding to the Challenge of Rising Populism and its Threat to Gender Inclusivity”.
There were four subthemes to the conference
- Gendered processes of generation, accumulation and appropriation of political power
- Women in Law in Asia: Navigating the Legal Profession and the Judiciary in an Era of Anti-Elitism,
- The Role of Technology in Populism and Gender Inclusion
- Gendering populism in Asia
Previous conferences include:
- 2017 Women in Asia Conference, Women in the Asian Century: Challenges and Possibilities, University of Western Australia, 26-28 September. Organisers, Laura Dales, Lyn Parker.
- 2010: 10th Women in Asia Conference, Crisis, Agency and Change, Australian National University, 29 September – 1 October. Organiser, Tamara Jacka.
- 2008: 9th International Women in Asia Conference, Women in Asia: Transition and Interchange, University of Queensland, 29 September-1 October. Organisers, Helen Creese, Tomoko Aoyama, Rosemary Roberts.
- 2005: 8th Women in Asia Conference, University of Technology Sydney, 26-28 September. Organisers, Barbara Leigh, Devleena Ghosh. Program and Abstracts
- 2001: 6th Women in Asia Conference, ANU, 23-26 September. Organiser, Kathryn Robinson
- 1997: 5th Women in Asia Conference, UNSW, 2-5 October. Organiser, Jan Elliot
- 1993: 4th Women in Asia Conference, University of Melbourne, 1-3 October
- 1985: 3rd Women in Asia Conference, ANU, 11-13 July
- 1983: 2nd Women in Asia Conference, Monash University, 22-24 July
- 1981: 1st Women in Asia Conference, UNSW, 13-15 June.