Critical Agrarian Humanities: Farming for Change across East Asia and the Transpacific｜The 9th International Symposium on Literature and Environment in East Asia
Time：June 12-13, 2026
Venue：Institute of European and American Studies, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan
Call for Papers
In an age marked by ecological crisis, extractive capitalism, and accelerating climate change, farming has reemerged as a critical site of inquiry into the entangled futures of the human and nonhuman world. The 9th International Symposium on Literature and Environment in East Asia seeks to rethink agrarianism as both a material practice and a conceptual framework through which we examine questions of labor, technology, planetary survival, and care.
Focusing on East Asia and the Transpacific world, we invite papers that examine how agrarian literature and culture articulate alternative ways of living with the land, resisting colonial and capitalist extraction, and building socio-ecologically just relations across species and borders. We are particularly interested in how literary and cultural narratives envision farming as a world-making practice of transformative change. By foregrounding East Asia and the Transpacific as a locus of inquiry, this symposium not only looks at agrarian imaginaries and histories in East Asia, the Transpacific, and beyond but encourages innovative comparative or interdisciplinary frameworks that approach farming as a translocal practice of cultural, ecological, and economic exchange. How might the study of East Asian and Transpacific farming traditions, aesthetics, and movements contribute to a Critical Agrarian Humanities that situates agriculture at the heart of a sustainable environmental future?
The 9th International Symposium on Literature and Environment in East Asia welcomes proposals that engage agrarian literature, art, history, ethnography, and philosophy. We also encourage transnational or transdisciplinary approaches that connect theory with practice, including collaborations between scholars, farmers, and artists, creative-scholarly projects, or reflections on community-based agricultural initiatives. Themes may include, but are not limited, to:
farmers, land, and community
farming, history, and story-telling
farming, science, and technology
farming, spirituality, and the sacred
farming, stewardship, and multispecies care
farming and human and nonhuman health
farming and environmental disaster
farming, climate change, and the Anthropocene
farming, colonialism, capitalism, and extractivism
farming, exploitation, and extinction
farming, racism, and racial equity
farming, gender, and gender equality
Plenary Speeches and Speakers coming soon
Field Trip coming soon
Abstract Submission
Please submit an abstract of 250–300 words and a brief bio of 100 words before Feb. 10, 2026. Notification of Acceptance is Feb. 28, 2026. For submission and inquiries, please contact conference organizer and ASLE-Taiwan secretary Dr. Pei-Wen Kao via email at alsetaiwan2026@gmail.com.
Conference Website: Critical Agrarian Humanities
