Call for Papers
25th Kinema Club Conference in Bangkok – Japanese Cinema, Asia and the Global South
Conference venue: Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand
Conference dates: 17-19 February 2027
Conference organisers: Katarzyna Ancuta (Chulalongkorn University) and Christophe Thouny (Ritsumeikan University)
Call for papers closes on 20 October 2026.
We welcome proposals for the 25th Kinema Club conference on Japanese film and moving-image media, to be held at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand.
The first Kinema Club conference in Bangkok provides an occasion to reconsider the place of Japanese film and moving-image media in the Global South, and in Asia in particular. The conference aims to explore Japanese cinema from Asian and Global South perspectives, opening up new and alternative ways of understanding and theorising Japanese visual media. Rather than approaching Japanese cinema primarily through established national frameworks, the conference seeks to foreground the regional and transnational networks through which Japanese moving-image media are produced, circulated, and consumed across Asia and the Global South.
More specifically, we are interested in situating this discussion within a moment marked by an ongoing planetary crisis affecting all spheres of existence – the social, environmental, political, and existential – and by the growing dominance of televisual modes of moving-image consumption through online streaming platforms. These developments challenge established conceptualisations of cinema while redefining the relationships between the local, the global, and the planetary.
With this in mind, we welcome presentations that question the nature of place in Japanese film and moving-image media. This might include papers on transnational collaboration and co-production, as well as on the circulation and consumption of Japanese moving images across screens and venues in the Global South, and the increasing presence of these modes of engagement within the Global North. Given the location of the conference, we are particularly interested in abstracts that provide opportunities to re-examine the legacy of Thai and Southeast Asian cinematic practices in relation to Japan and Japanese visual media. We also welcome applications from PhD students and early-career scholars.
Suggested topics may include, but are not limited to:
- Japanese film and moving-image media in Asia and the Global South
- Japanese cinema as world cinema
- Japanese film and global streaming platforms
- Co-production, outsourcing, and transnational film work
- Thailand and Japan: cinematic connections, collaboration, and co-production
- Japanese cinema, Asian folklore, and animism
- The legacy of J-horror in Asian horror media
- Urban infrastructure, Japanese film, and Asia
- Colonial and postcolonial cinema and Japan
- Japanese BL moving-image media and Asia
- Japanese cinema, planetary crisis, and planetary lives
Conference Format:
Kinema Club will take place over three days, 17-19 February 2027, at Chulalongkorn University. We welcome applications for individual presentations or panels. As a rule, only in-person attendance will be allowed, and there will be no attendance fee. This format is intended to encourage more discussion between presenters and the audience. For this reason, we ask that presentations be no longer than ten minutes, introducing a few key ideas about a particular visual text to open up discussion, rather than taking the form of a conventional 20-minute formal talk.
Please send abstracts of up to 200 words and a brief bio to kinemabkk@gmail.com
Deadline for paper proposals: 20 October 2027.