Just had to blog about the AAI 4 conference programme, which is now ONLINE (.pdf)!

You can also now see the conference poster featuring artwork by Owen Leong. Owen’s stuff is fabulous, and we’ve been long-time fans of his work. Back in 2007, Owen was an invited keynote at the AAI 2 conference, and his work also features on the INDAAR website (launched 2009).

The programme lists all the speakers and their paper titles, times, venues, and other special events associated with the conference. It’s going to be a full-on few days, preceded on Wed 9 November by the ECR workshop that will be facilitated by Jacqueline Lo (ANU), Dean Chan (U of Wollongong), Christine Kim (Simon Fraser U, Canada) and Chris Lee (U of British Columbia, Canada). I’ll be taking the lead in the afternoon session about ‘the market’ (funding, jobs, CVs, etc). Seeing as this is what my day-job entails (advising researchers about their funding opportunities + research career planning), this should be kinda fun. The number of ECRs signed up for the workshop is fantastic! I can’t wait to meet everyone and hear about their work; being able to have all that energetic curiousity in one place is a rare treat, one I will probably not be experiencing after these events.

AFTER the ECR workshop, we’ll all be going out for a casual dinner with the workshop participants, stray AAI 4 delegates who are already in town and assorted AAers from around Melbourne. If you’re interested in coming along to that informal (pay-your-own-way) dinner, please drop me a line (or comment on this post if you don’t have my email addy). The venue is still being decided, but it’ll be CBD-ish and reasonably priced.

As for AAI 4 itself:

As well as the papers and keynotes we’ll all be enjoying, the evening programme for the 2 nights of AAI 4 is excellent. Thanks to Mikala Tai, the performance night (Thurs 10 Nov) features:

The second evening – Fri 11 Nov – is the conference dinner at Garage Cafe, just down the road from UniMelb itself. I’ve been there a few times now, as that’s where we have our conference committee meetings. It’s a great place to have a group feed, and rendang is always a lovely way to end an evening.

The buzz that one can get from a focused, niche conference is incredible. If you haven’t already registered, you should do so now.

Straight after AAI 4 is AAFF 2011, and the programme and list of speakers for that is also amazing. Heaps of people I’ve been fangirling for ages, and they’re all going to be in town at the same event. Cool x 10.

Even though I’m panicking about my conference paper and having background anxiety 24/7 about various aspects of the events, I’m also ridiculously excited about the FIVE DAYS of Asian Australian culture, thinking, and talking. It’s the kind of stuff I only get in dribs + drabs in ‘normal’ life. If my euphoria after each of the AASRN events we’ve had in the recent past is any indication, the intense immersion will be ace.