Conference Grants

School of Built Environment
UNSW Sydney
February 22-23, 2021

‘Architectures for a Mutant City: 60 Years of Metabolism 1960-2020, and Beyond’ International Symposium
2020 marked the 60th anniversary of the publication of the Metabolist Manifesto, titled “Metabolism 1960: Proposals for a New Urbanism.” The Metabolist movement was initiated by a group of young Japanese architects, urban designers, graphic and industrial designers who promoted their manifesto in occasion of the Tokyo World Design Conference in May 1960. Their utopian urban and architectural projects together with their visionary approach to themes like the organic urban growth and the design of flexible architecture gained favour among Western critics and architectural elites in a phase of drastic transformation of the architecture vocabulary and urban paradigms, which contributed to promote the image of Japan as a land of technological innovation and futuristic cities.

This online symposium brings together renowned scholars from Australia, Japan, Europe, S. Korea and the US to explore how the lessons of Metabolism can inform current debates on city-making and future practice in architectural design and urban planning. The symposium is convened by Dr Raffaele Pernice (UNSW Sydney) and builds on research conducted during his Japan Foundation Fellowship in 2019-2020.

For further information, see the symposium webpage.

Australian Institute of International Affairs
September 2019 & January 2020

Indo-Pacific Research Forum
This project aims to clarify contemporary understandings of the Indo-Pacific concept. In exploring specific policy rubrics relevant to the concept, the project will focus heavily on the role of “middle powers”, particularly Australia and Japan, which have played a leading role in diffusion of the Indo-Pacific concept as well as in formulating policy directions based on that concept. The first phase of this project, supported by the Japan Foundation, will consist of two workshops, one each in Australia and Tokyo, culminating in two sets of working papers, branded and publicised as “policy briefs”. The first two set of working papers will provide an introduction and overview of the historical development and significance of the Indo-Pacific concept, and the second will examine the adequacy of current frameworks in management of cooperation in key regional policy areas.

For further information and outcomes, see https://www.indo-pacific-research.org/.

Griffith Asia Institute
Griffith University, Queensland
December 2017

The Politics Behind the Story:  Sixty Years on from the 1957 Australia-Japan Commerce Agreement
The 2017 Australia-Japan Dialogue will consist of a workshop bringing together experts from academia and government to examine the significance and legacy of the 1957 Commerce Agreement across four main session themes: ‘The Return of Japan and Australia’s Asia Awakening (1952-1975)’; ‘Legitimacy without Power without Legitimacy’; ‘Old Fears in a New Era? Australia-Japan Security Relations and the US (1991-2017)’; and ‘Present Trends and Future Directions: Trade, Investment, Culture, Security and Beyond’. The dialogue will provide a retrospective analysis of the bilateral relationship’s development since the 1957 Commerce Agreement. The aim of this retrospective, however, is not simply to revisit the well-known trade and economic benefits produced by the Agreement, nor only to trace the bilateral relationship’s largely untroubled evolution since 1957; this Dialogue instead seeks to assess the still largely neglected political and strategic drivers of the relationship and look for evidence of continuity and change to explain the relationship’s resilience over time.

OUTCOMES

Publications:

Heazle, M. 2018. ‘The Politics Behind the Story: Sixty Years on from the 1957 Australia-Japan Commerce Agreement’, Regional Outlook Paper No. 59, Griffith Asia Institute. https://www.griffith.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0025/273454/Regional-Outlook-Paper-59-Heazle-web.pdf

Digital Humanities Group, School of Humanities and Communication Arts
Western Sydney University
October-December, 2017

Australia, Japan and Southeast Asia: The Role of the Joint Declaration on Security Co-operation in the Asia Pacific
This is a one-year research project involving scholars from Australia, Japan, the United States and Southeast Asia to critically analyse the role and impact of the Australia-Japan Joint Declaration on Security Cooperation (signed in 2007 and celebrating its tenth anniversary in 2017). Particular attention will be placed on analysing how Australia and Japan identify common security interests and the extent of collaboration between Australian and Japanese defence personnel. Key objectives of the project are: a review of the first ten years and in particular, an assessment of the impact of the Australia-Japan Security Agreement; an identification of key areas of cooperation between Australia and Japan in the period 2007-2017; an analysis of the human framework of the Joint Declaration on Security Cooperation—human trafficking, climate change, piracy and natural disasters—and the relevance of the Joint Declaration for bilateral cooperation between the nations; the opportunity for scholars from Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines to offer regional (Southeast Asian) perspectives on the Australian-Japan contribution to Asia Pacific security architecture; and the opportunity for postgraduate and high-achieving undergraduate students at Western Sydney University and Meiji University to interact with workshop participants on topical security issues in the Asia Pacific.

Hawke Research Institute
University of South Australia
March 22-24, 2017

Mobile Cultures of Disaster
The aim of this event is to facilitate scholarly interchange between international scholars who share an interest in the cultural and mobile aspects of disasters. The conference features some of the field’s leading scholars, with a strong emphasis on Japanese researchers, such as Professors Shunya Yoshimi and Masahiro Ogino, who are internationally recognised for their contributions to social and cultural theory. The conference will put Japanese researchers in dialogue with their counterparts from Australia, United Kingdom, Singapore, and the United States, who are engaged in intersecting lines of inquiry.

Asia Institute 
University of Melbourne
February 2-3, 2017

Civil Society in Asia: International Conference in Melbourne
The proposed conference is part of an ongoing book project titled The Routledge Handbook of Civil Society in Asia, an interdisciplinary reference resource that focuses on civil society. Thirty-eight globally active scholars specialising Asian civil society are participating in this book project, and key chapter contributors will be invited to present and share their work at the proposed conference held at the University of Melbourne.

OUTCOMES

Publications:
Ogawa, A. (Ed.). 2017. Routledge Handbook of Civil Society in Asia. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315100852

School of Languages and Cultures 
University of Queensland
November 25-27, 2016

Japan in Australia
2016 is the 50th anniversary year of the Japanese Program at the University of Queensland. The whole year is dedicated to the theme of Japan in Australia celebrating the achievements of students, staff and the institution in the area of Japanese language and studies. The Japan in Australia conference will form an important component of these celebrations. It will attract academics, researchers, students and educators from around Australia, Japan and further afield to explore historically, socially, culturally and politically the theme of the conference. We will focus on the past, present and the future with a variety of speakers from different disciplines exploring Japan’s impact in this country, how that can be understood and some new directions for the way forward.

OUTCOMES

Publications:
Chapman, D. & Hayes, C. (Eds.). 2019. Japan in Australia: Culture, Context and Connection. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429196485

Griffith Asia Institute
Griffith University, Queensland 
December 10, 2015

Australia Japan Dialogue 2015
The 2015 Australia-Japan Dialogue seeks to locate Japan’s political and security reforms within this context by examining the level of convergence and divergence between Australian and Japanese policy responses to contemporary international pressures. The Dialogue is aimed at identifying the extent to which Japan’s emerging identity as a more active international actor is being driven by structural and material change in the global order and to what extent it is being shaped by domestic factors in Japanese politics. Australia and Japan’s similar political systems and values; strategic alignments; and foreign policy priorities, including the further development of trade and investment ties, provide a strong basis for gauging the level of external influence on domestic policy and debate in both countries.

OUTCOMES

Publications:
Heazle, M. & O’Neil, A. (Eds.). 2016. The 5th Annual Australia-Japan Dialogue – Policy Convergence and Divergence in Australia and Japan: Assessing Identity Shift within the Bilateral Relationship. Griffith Asia Institute. https://www.griffith.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0024/197070/Fifth-Australia-Japan-Dialogue-30-June-2016.pdf