Transit
Asia
Research
Network
Vision & Objectives
Events
Research
News & Article
TRANSIT ASIA RESEARCH NETWORK
Our Vision
TARN is a research network dedicated to examining the profound changes and critical challenges in the complex geopolitical landscape of Asia and the wider world, including conflict, inequity, and the enduring impacts of colonial power relations. Our focus is on understanding these dynamics in the global context and investigating their contemporary significance.
TARN Development Timeline
Milestones
From an international humanities initiative to a growing trans-Asian research network and publishing platform.
Predecessor
Migration, Logistics and Unequal Citizens in Contemporary Global Context
- CHCI–Mellon Global Humanities Institute involving six partner institutes
Launch
- TARN launched at the ACS Institute , with ten founding institutes
- CHCI Membership Activity Fund awarded for 2023–2026
Networking
- 2024 TARN Meeting in Bangkok
- Network expanded to fourteen participating institutions
Deepening
- Critical Concepts Workshop in Singapore
- Chip Era Workshop at ICCS–NYCU in Hsinchu, Taiwan
- Network expanded to nineteen participating institutions
- Decolonization in the 21st Century published
Consolidation
- Critical Concepts volume published
- Transit Asia Dossiers in the Current Conjuncture launched as an online journal
- 2026 TARN Meeting at Kyung Hee University, South Korea
Developing
- Two-volume Chip Era publication
- Completion of the Smart Cities & Submarine Communication Cables online curation
- TARN Meeting with ICS–WSU in Surabaya, Indonesia
Global Capitalism and Technologies of Governance
Migratory Labor, Unequal Citizens, and Critical Legal Studies
Environmental Crises and Multi-species Equality
Social Engagement and Art Intervention
News and Article
🌏 Interview | Brett Neilson and Sandro Mezzadra on Multipolarity, War Regimes, and Global Struggle
TARN is pleased to draw attention to The Rest and the West: Capital and Power in a Multipolar World, published by Verso Books, co-authored by TARN members Brett Neilson and Sandro Mezzadra. Deliberately inverting Stuart Hall's formulation of "the West and the Rest,"...
🔜Forthcoming Publication: Critical Concepts & Smart City (Human Craft in the Age of Digital Technologies)
📣 The member collaborative project "Critical Reorientation in the Age of Digital Technology: Intersections between Human Craft, Geopolitics, and Artistic Intervention," along with its inaugural event, the Critical Concepts Writing Workshop, has been awarded USD...
📢 CFP: Cultures of Waste: Bodies and Biodiversity (Oxford Intersections)
CALL FOR PAPERS Bodies and Biodiversity (Oxford Intersections) Oxford Intersections are large, peer-reviewed, digital-only works centered around a broad, multi-faceted, and interdisciplinary topic – Cultures of Waste in this case. Intersections will showcase original,...
📢 CFP ISSH2026 Conference: The Social in the Digital (11-12 June, 2026 HCMC, Vietnam)
The Social in the Digital Date: 11-12 June, 2026.Conference Venue: Ton Duc Thang UniversityAddress: 19 Nguyen Huu Tho Street, Tan Phong Ward, District 7, Ho Chi Minh City, VietnamEmail: issh2024@tdtu.edu.vn The 4th International Conference on Innovations in the Social...
📣 PUBLICATION: Decolonization in the 21st Century
Rethinking Coloniality, Resistance & Solidarity Publisher: Routledge Series: InterventionsEdited by Joyce C.H. Liu and Brett Neilson, Decolonization in the 21st Century critically interrogates the persistence and mutation of colonial logics amidst rising global...
✨ TARN 2025 HIGHLIGHT
Having established its foundational framework between the 2023 launch and the 2024 meeting on industrial geopolitics, the Transit Asia Research Network (TARN) has intensified its critical interventions throughout 2025. This year, the network rigorously examined...
OUR EVENTS
2026 TARN Meeting (Kyung Hee University, Korea)
2026 TARN Meeting Chip Era: Governance, Infrastructure, Labour, Mobility Global Campus, Kyung Hee University, Korea Dates: 4–6 September 2026 The 2026 TARN Meeting will be held from 4th to 6th […]
ISSH2026 Conference: The Social in the Digital
The Social in the Digital 11-12 June, 2026 Ton Duc Thang University 19 Nguyen Huu Tho Street, Tan Phong Ward, District 7, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam The 4th International […]
Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam
Synopsis: Digital Deception Surveillance Technologies and Information Manipulation
Digital Deception Surveillance Technologies and Information Manipulation 11-12 June, 2026 The Chip Era and Digital Governance Forum 11 📌Date and Time: January 30, 2026, from 14:00 to 16:30, Taipei Time […]
The Chip Era and Digital Governance Joint-Project Workshop
The Chip Era and Digital Governance Joint-Project Workshop 13–15 November 2025 National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, Taiwan On 13–15 November 2025, the International Center for Culture Studies (ICCS) […]
Hsinchu, Taiwan
Critical Concepts Writing Workshop
Critical Concepts Writing Workshop 24–26 April 2025Nanyang Technological University Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore (NTU CCA Singapore) The Critical Concepts Writing Workshop is a key event within the project Critical Reorientation in the […]
Singapore, 108934 Singapore
The Production and Reproduction of Social Inequalities
The Production and Reproduction of Social Inequalities Date：September 20-21, 2024 (GMT+8, Taipei Time) Venue：HC201, HA Building 3, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University (NYCU) & Hybrid event. Language： English Organizer： […]
Book Discussion at TARN Workshop 2024
The Center on Gender and Forced Displacement is excited to invite you to an insightful book discussion in collaboration with the Transit Asia Research Network (TARN), the International Center for […]
TARN 2024 MEETING Industry-led Operations of Capital in the 21st Century
The “Chip War” (Chris Miller, 2023), a battle for the world’s most critical technology and the new Nomos of the earth, has emerged as the contemporary form of the Cold War. Chips, […]
Bangkok, Thailand
The 3rd International Conference on Innovations in the Social Sciences and Humanities (ISSH 2024)
Date: July 26th – 27th, 2024Conference Venue: Ton Duc Thang UniversityAddress: 19 Nguyen Huu Tho Street, Tan Phong Ward, District 7, Ho Chi Minh City, VietnamEmail: issh2024@tdtu.edu.vn The 3rd International Conference on Innovations in […]
Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam
Critical Curatorial Practices in the 21st Century: Public Space, New Media and Geopolitics
Speakers：Wen-Shu Lai | Professor/Director, Institute of Applied Arts, NYCU, TaiwanKarin G. Oen-Lee | Senior Lecturer, Head of Art History, School of Humanities, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore Shwetal Ashvin Patel | […]
LATEST EVENTS
GALLERIES
Explore workshops, meetings, and field activities across the years.
No galleries have been published for this year yet.
CEDG Workshop 2025
Critical Concepts Writing Workshop 2025
2024 Past events
2024 TARN Meeting
