5th Asian Conference on Cultural Studies

Human rights praxis and ideas of justice are now core fields of investigation for cultural studies, media studies and Asian studies scholars. One example of this is how cultural research into the convergence of new media with everyday life, has brought into relief the growing significance of how struggles for freedom and justice are enabled by flows of social media. Various communities and peoples are now enabled to make claims for social recognition within human rights frameworks and language like never before. Cultural studies as a discipline is specifically attuned to studying questions of human rights and justice. As a field it is connected to human rights discourse and praxis through its ethical foundations and ‘activating knowledge’ as Stuart Hall once put it. One of the essential motivations of cultural studies scholars is to focus on the struggles evident in structures and institutions of power, representation, identity and subjectivity. This is undertaken with specific attention to power and its manifestation and negotiation in the cultural arena of everyday life. As a consequence, cultural studies researchers investigate ideas of justice and agency in compelling and innovative ways. They see agency, for example, as being implicated in the formation of moral, legal, political and ethical frameworks that are experienced in everyday lives, and which can be seen explicitly in the media. As cultural studies/human rights scholar John Erni notes, ‘cultural studies has long been attentive to the complex interpenetrations of power, agency, and the social imaginary.’ A central aim of this conference is to examine ideas of ‘justice’ and ‘human rights1 in relation to media and cultural production. The hope is to enable useful exchange, connection and dialogue around the praxis of human rights and to clarify the implications of how cultural transformation and the media are closely connected to social and political change in the everyday life of individuals, communities and nations.