Programme

Conference Outline

Saturday, May 09Sunday, May 10Monday, May 11Tuesday, May 12Wednesday, May 13

Location: Tokyo International Forum, Tokyo

09:00-10:00: Conference Check-in & Coffee | Hall B5 Foyer (5F)

10:00-10:35: Welcome Address & Recognition of IAFOR Scholarship Winners | Hall B5 (5F) & Online
Joseph Haldane, IAFOR, Japan

10:35-11:05: Keynote Presentation | Hall B5 (5F) & Online

11:30-12:30: Panel Presentation | Hall B5 (5F) & Online

12:30-12:40: Conference Photograph

12:40-14:00: Extended Break

14:00-15:00: Featured Interview | Hall B5 (5F) & Online

15:05-15:30: Keynote Presentation | Hall B5 (5F) & Online

15:45-16:45: Networking Reception & Conference Poster Session | Hall B5 Foyer (5F)

19:00-21:00: Conference Dinner | Shunju Tameikesanno
This is an optional ticketed event

Location: Tokyo International Forum, Tokyo

09:00-10:00: Conference Check-in & Coffee

10:00-10:45: IAFOR Information Session
Melina Neophytou, IAFOR, Japan
Matthew Chima, IAFOR, Japan

This session provides an overview of what to expect at the conference, including guidance on preparing your presentation, publishing opportunities, and ways to engage with IAFOR. You will receive practical tips on setting up your presentation, understanding your role at the conference, including how to attract a larger audience to your session. We will also outline the publishing opportunities available, including how to submit your work to be included in the Conference Proceedings or IAFOR Journals. This session also offers a chance to explore the opportunities for deeper engagement, whether through networking with fellow delegates or getting involved more with IAFOR. Join us, and get ready to present, publish, and participate.

10:45-11:10: Keynote Presentation | Main Conference Room (5F) & Online
11:10-11:25: Q&A

11:25-12:25: The Forum | Main Conference Room (5F) & Online
Melina Neophytou, IAFOR, Japan (Moderator)

12:25-14:00: Extended Break

14:00-15:00: Onsite Parallel Session 1 & Conference Poster Session 2

15:15-15:45: Extended Break & Cultural Event

15:45-17:00: Onsite Parallel Session 2

Location: Tokyo International Forum, Tokyo

08:30-09:15: Conference Check-in & Coffee

09:15-10:55: Onsite Parallel Session 1

10:55-11:10: Coffee Break

11:10-12:50: Onsite Parallel Session 2

12:50-13:05: Coffee Break

13:05-14:45: Onsite Parallel Session 3

14:45-15:00: Coffee Break

15:00-16:40: Onsite Parallel Session 4

16:40-16:55: Coffee Break

16:55-18:35: Onsite Parallel Session 5

Location: Tokyo International Forum, Tokyo

08:30-09:00 Conference Check-in & Coffee

09:00-10:40: Onsite Parallel Session 1

10:40-10:55: Coffee Break

10:55-12:35: Onsite Parallel Session 2

12:35-12:50: Coffee Break

12:50-14:30: Onsite Parallel Session 3

14:30-14:45: Coffee Break

14:45-16:25: Onsite Parallel Session 4

16:30-16:45: Onsite Closing Session | Room 608 (6F)

Conference Venue: Online via Zoom

08:55-09:00: Message from IAFOR

09:00-09:50: Online Forum

10:00-11:40: Online Parallel Session 1

11:40-11:50: Break

11:50-13:30: Online Parallel Session 2

13:30-13:40: Break

13:40-15:20: Online Parallel Session 3

15:20-15:25: Message from IAFOR

The above schedule may be subject to change.

Accepted Presentations

One of the greatest strengths of IAFOR’s international conferences is their international and intercultural diversity.
As of February 5, 2026, ACCS2026 has received over 360 submissions from over 50 countries and territories - including: Philippines, United States, India, Taiwan, Indonesia, Japan, Thailand, and Singapore.

View Accepted Presentations

Featured Presentations

To be announced

  • Extractive Capitalism, Ethics, and Narratives of Belonging
    Extractive Capitalism, Ethics, and Narratives of Belonging
    Panel Presentation: TBA
  • Senior Academic Leadership
    Senior Academic Leadership
    Featured Roundtable: Umberto Ansaldo, Yuko Takahashi, Joseph Haldane

Speakers

To be announced

  • Umberto Ansaldo
    Umberto Ansaldo
    VinUniversity, Vietnam
  • Katsuya Iijima
    Katsuya Iijima
    Keio University, Japan
  • Diana Khor
    Diana Khor
    Hosei University, Japan
  • Miles Pennington
    Miles Pennington
    The University of Tokyo, Japan
  • Yuko Takahashi
    Yuko Takahashi
    Tsuda University, Japan

Conference Programme

The draft version of the Conference Programme will be available online on April 06, 2026. All registered delegates will be notified of this publication by email.

*Please be aware that the above schedule may be subject to change.

Important Information Emails

All registered attendees will receive an Important Information email and updates in the run-up to the conference. Please check your email inbox for something from "iafor.org". If you can not find these emails in your normal inbox, it is worth checking in your spam or junk mail folders as many programs filter out emails this way. If these did end up in one of these folders, please add the address to your acceptable senders' folder by whatever method your email program can do this.

Previous Programming

View details of programming for past ACCS conferences via the links below.

ACCS2025 ACCS2024 ACCS2023
ACCS2022 ACCS2021 ACCS2020
ACCS2019 ACCS2018 ACCS2017
ACCS2016 ACCS2015 ACCS2014
ACCS2013 ACCS2012 ACCS2011
Extractive Capitalism, Ethics, and Narratives of Belonging
Panel Presentation: TBA

Deep-sea mining and the global race for critical minerals are not only material and strategic developments, but also narrative ones shaped by extractive capitalism and the stories that justify it. Discourses of security and ‘protection’ often obscure the violence embedded in regimes of extraction, while the absence of a muscular global moral compass leaves societies navigating the rough seas of ethno-nationalism, war, domination, and supremacy. These dynamics are further sustained by an incorrect valuing of nature and the environment, grounded in a largely Western-led split between humanity and nature that renders the ocean a resource frontier rather than a shared ecological space.

The power of storytelling is therefore becoming a key cultural concern in the face of the existential crises posed by climate change, nuclear war, and AI, and in responding to the narrowing of future possibilities produced by ethno-nationalist and hyper-capitalist forces. We need, now more than ever, new narratives of belonging, knowledge-making, creativity, and ethics that can open up conversations and cultivate the skills, values, and strengths of conviviality and diverse voices. This panel offers a deep dive discussion into extractive capitalism, the violence of ‘protection’, and the ethical imaginaries that might help pave the way for more open, plural, and ecologically attuned futures.

Read presenters' biographies
Senior Academic Leadership
Featured Roundtable: Umberto Ansaldo, Yuko Takahashi, Joseph Haldane

This roundtable and interactive session will explore the career paths of academic leaders and provide tips on the skills needed to succeed in leadership positions. Speaking from national and professional contexts, the session leaders will describe their individual paths to leadership roles and the trade-offs that often accompany a career in higher education leadership and administration. Following the brief presentations, audience members will be asked to provide their own thoughts and observations on successful and unsuccessful leadership styles, as well as engage in an active discussion of the potential for academic leaders to make positive changes within their institutions and professional organisations.

Read presenters' biographies
Umberto Ansaldo
VinUniversity, Vietnam

Biography

Professor Umberto Ansaldo is currently Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at VinUniversity, Vietnam. He previously served as Head of the School of Media, Creative Arts and Social Inquiry at Curtin University, Australia from 2021 through 2023, Head of the School of Literature, Art and Media at the University of Sydney, Australia from 2018 through 2020, and Head of the School of Humanities at HKU, where he taught from 2009 to 2018.

Professor Ansaldo’s disciplinary roots are in linguistics, specifically in the study of language contact, linguistic typology, and language documentation. He is the author of four books to date (with CUP, OUP, Routledge, and Stockholm University Press), has edited or co-edited 11 volumes and journal special collections, and has authored multiple journal articles and book chapters. His most recent publication is the co-editorship of The Routledge Handbook of Pidgin and Creole Languages (Routledge, 2021).

At HKU, Professor Ansaldo led the Humanities Area of Inquiry on the Common Core Curriculum Committee in HKU’s major revision of its curriculum (2010-2013), a time when, along with the University of Melbourne, Australia, HKU was leading in reimagining undergraduate curricula. As Chair of Linguistics, he was instrumental in establishing the Department within the top ten programmes in Linguistics (QS rankings), with the programme ranking at number one in Hong Kong.

At the University of Sydney, Professor Ansaldo sat on the University Executive Research Committee and led his School through a transformative period in terms of curriculum innovation and research engagement. He was in charge of overseeing the incorporation of the Sydney College of the Arts into the Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences.

Professor Ansaldo has secured competitive research grants and leveraged industry funding for the advancement of the humanities and social sciences throughout his career. One of his proudest achievements was his role in securing financial support to develop and host an exhibition on language and the brain, the ‘Talking Brains’ exhibition at the CosmoCaixa in Barcelona, Spain in 2017. This type of engagement and championing of the Humanities is what Umberto is most passionate about.

Professor Ansaldo has lived and worked in Sweden, The Netherlands, Singapore, Australia, and Hong Kong. and speaks seven languages, including Mandarin. He is well-acquainted with Asia and has conducted fieldwork in Muslim communities of the Indian Ocean, and has developed strong international networks in Southeast Asia, Japan, and Europe.

Previous Presentations

Panel Presentation (2025) | Peace Education in Times of Conflict
Keynote Presentation (2024) | Can Today’s Universities Contribute to a Better Future?
Panel Presentation (2022) | Indigenous Ways of Knowing, Precarity and Resilience
Katsuya Iijima
Keio University, Japan

Biography

TBA

Keynote Presentation (2026) | TBA
Diana Khor
Hosei University, Japan

Biography

Professor Diana Khor is the President of Hosei University in Tokyo, Japan, a position she has held since March 2025. She previously served in several senior leadership roles at the university, including Executive Trustee and Vice President, Director of the Global Education Center, and Dean of the Faculty of Global and Interdisciplinary Studies. She received her Bachelor of Social Science in 1983 and her Master of Philosophy degrees in 1985 from the University of Hong Kong. She also earned her MA in Sociology in 1987, and her PhD in Sociology in 1994 from Stanford University, United States.

Professor Khor joined Hosei University in 1999 as an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of General Education. In 2003, she was appointed Associate Professor in the Faculty of Law and was promoted to Professor in 2005. Since 2008, she has served as Professor in the Faculty of Global and Interdisciplinary Studies.

Professor Khor’s academic background is in Sociology, with a focus on gender and sexuality, particularly in East Asia. As Vice President and now President, she has been committed to advancing global education, strengthening international engagement in higher education, and promoting diversity, equity and inclusion across the university.

Roundtable Discussion (2026) | Senior Academic Leadership
Miles Pennington
The University of Tokyo, Japan

Biography

TBA

Keynote Presentation (2025) | TBA
Yuko Takahashi
Tsuda University, Japan

Biography

Professor Yuko Takahashi was named the eleventh president of Tsuda College (now Tsuda University) in 2016. She holds a BA from Tsuda College, an MA in International Affairs from the University of Tsukuba, Japan; and an MA in History and a PhD in Education from The University of Kansas. Her major research areas are American studies, American social history, and gender history.

Professor Takahashi has held numerous academic leadership roles, including president of the Japan University Accreditation Association (2023–present), president of the International Federation for Research in Women's History (2020–2025), and president of the Japanese Association for American Studies (2018–2020). She also served as a commission member of the Japan-U.S. Educational Commission (2018–2022), is a council member of the Science Council of Japan, and a trustee of the American Studies Foundation. A two-time Fulbright scholar, she conducted research at Stanford University in 2003 and Wellesley College in 2013. Her publications include Tsuda Umeko no Shakaishi (Umeko Tsuda: A Social History, 2002) and Tsuda umeko ̄ joshi kyōiku o hiraku (Umeko Tsuda: Pioneering Women’s Education, 2022).　

Featured Roundtable (2026) | TBA