President’s Message

Welcome!

The Asian Association of Women’s Studies (AAWS) is an academic association which aims to provide a transnational and a transcultural forum for discussion and cooperation on new ideas for feminist research, education, and policies in Asia. The AAWS was founded by feminist scholars from different countries of Asia in 2007. AAWS seeks to connect research institutions, individual scholars, and practitioners, who share common interests in women’s issues and in commitment to promote gender equality, peace and democracy in Asia.

As a regular platform for international networking and professional practice, AAWS holds a Congress every three years to sustain the transmission and sharing of ideas and the production of knowledge based on individual and collaborative research undertakings in a complex discursive sphere of Asia.

Reflecting on the past Congresses held in Seoul, Korea in 2007; Penang, Malaysia in 2010; Manila, Philippines in 2013; Hanoi, Vietnam in 2016; and Seoul, Korea in 2019, every AAWS Congress is designed to engage participants in presentations and critical discussions on women’s issues in Asia. The presentations and discussions are through open forums, workshops, and panel discussions. This is to create a community of  individuals advocating for gender equality and democracy in Asia, as well as to empower women to engage in, and share knowledge production in different levels of educational institutions.

In this digital era, there are many challenges we face in our locality, nationally, regionally, and globally. Currently, they are coupled with the Covid-19 pandemic that we do not know when to end, which brings its own issues for women, our gender relations, as well as socio-political-economic-health challenges for programs and policy.

To face our new challenges, we are preparing the 6th Congress of AAWS in Bangkok, Thailand to be held in December 2022. The 6th Congress will engage and stimulate us to debate on different contested and socially relevant issues and themes, such as peace, war, and gender; cross-border conflict, trafficking, and labor; globalization, migration, and citizenship; social media, transnational advocacy, and feminist activism; women’s human rights and economic security; religion, culture, politics; the impact of Covid-19 pandemic and many more.

As an international platform, AAWS will continue to initiate discussions on ways to provide better education and exchange opportunities and will remain firm in standing alongside academic institutions, scholars, and graduate students to deepen scholarly pursuits, to strengthen alliances, to ensure equality and equity between men and women  and among nations in Asia.

Thank you.

Co-presidents (January 2020 – December 2022)