Organizers aim to promote engagement between academics and cultural production professionals by providing a forum for research on emerging cultural markets in Asian countries. Speakers will investigate the transnational issues of Asian cultural products, focusing on comics, animation and digital games in relation to the global world.

The conference will feature a keynote address by Professor John A. Lent, Mass Media and Communication Program, Temple University, USA.

Researchers from York University will speak on a number of topics, including:

• David Carey --'Yaoi Girls': A Unique Case Study in Japanese Pop Culture Fandom

• Professor Jay Goulding -- Crossroads of Experience: Miyazaki Hayao's Global/Local Nexus

• Sailaja Krishnamurti -- Imaging 'India' through comics: Nationalism and Identity among Disaporic Readers of Amar Chira Katha comics

• Jason Lee -- Representing Diasporic Asians in North American Animated Cartoons: A Reading of American Dragon: Jake Long, The Life and Times of Juniper Lee, Jackie Chan Adventures, and Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi

• Anthea Murphy -- The Enabler -- The Threshold Between Active and Passive, the Individual and the Group: Analysis of a Stock Anime Protagonist and Associated Plot Patterns

• Professor Wendy Siuyi Wong, Conference Chair -- Hong Kong Comics and Animation: From Paper to Silver Screen and Beyond

The conference will be held on York’s Keele Campus in the Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) Building, 88 Pond Road.

For the full conference schedule, visit: www.yorku.ca/ycar and click on the conference link under “Upcoming Events.”

Media contact: Melissa Hughes, Media Relations, York University, 416 736 2100 x 22097 or mehughes@yorku.ca