Editorial

Transit Asia Dossiers in the Current Conjuncture

A serial publication of the Transit Asia Research Network (TARN) and the International Center of Cultural Studies (ICCS), NYCU

ISSN: to be assigned  ·  Frequency: Published Irregularly  ·  Format: Print and Open-Access Online

Transit Asia Dossiers in the Current Conjuncture is a platform for critical interventions, experimental knowledge production, and transnational dialogue. Through the dossier format, it seeks to respond to the urgencies of the contemporary conjuncture by fostering timely, collaborative, and multimodal forms of intellectual engagement across Asia and beyond.

1. About the publication

Transit Asia Dossiers in the Current Conjuncture is a biannual serial publication serving scholars, researchers, and practitioners in the social sciences and humanities working across and in relation to the Asia region. It is anchored at the International Centre of Cultural Studies (ICCS) at National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University (NYCU), Taiwan, and the Transit Asia Research Network (TARN), and brings together associated centres and research groups including the Society, Culture and Development Research Group (SCD) at Ton Duc Thang University (TDTU), Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and the Centre for Research in Policy, Communication and Society (CRPCS), Kolkata, West Bengal, India.

2. Aims and scope

The serial is designed to be more responsive and flexible than a conventional peer-reviewed, indexed journal while maintaining scholarly rigor and critical engagement. We hope to move beyond the rigid formalism of conventional academic publishing to create a space for timely intellectual intervention. Positioned between academic journals, working papers, and public-facing critical forums, the dossier format enables the rapid circulation of ideas while fostering diverse, collaborative, and multimodal forms of knowledge production.

More experimental in scope and format than a formal journal special issue, the serial welcomes essays, dialogues, interviews, field reports, visual materials, podcasts, documentary work, and other forms of critical and creative intervention that respond to the urgencies of the current conjuncture. It serves as a platform for critical interventions, experimental knowledge production, and transnational dialogue on contemporary social, political, cultural, technological, and environmental transformations.

Each issue takes the form of a focused collection—a dossier organised around a theme, event, or research question of concern to the network and its wider constituencies. Issues may be initiated by ICCS, TARN, SCD, CRPCS, by affiliated institutes and faculties, or by researchers working through the network. The editorial advisory committee will actively seek out opportunities, and institutes or faculties may commission or adopt an issue, gathering materials around their own programmes of work.

By way of example, a conference on India–Australia–Southeast Asian links, organised by the Bankura University Centre for Australian Studies, could form the basis of an issue, while a collaborative research project involving multiple network centres could provide the foundation for another. The criterion is scholarly and critical relevance to the network’s concerns — not formal affiliation. Contributions are primarily in English although the editorial team welcomes discussions of multilingual or translated materials on a case-by-case basis.

6. Submission guidelines

Contributions are welcome from members of the TARN network, SCD, CRPCS, and associated institutes, as well as from researchers and practitioners whose work speaks to the serial’s thematic concerns. Proposals for full issues, as well as individual contributions to forthcoming themed dossiers, may be submitted to the Editorial Office.

Authors submitting work that has been previously presented at a conference or published in another form — including conference proceedings — should notify the editorial team at the time of submission. Such work is welcome, provided authors have retained the necessary rights and the contribution has been revised or contextualised for the purposes of the dossier.

Authors retain copyright of their work published in Transit Asia Dossiers. They are free to revise and republish their contributions in edited volumes, monographs, or journals, provided that prior publication in Transit Asia Dossiers in the Contemporary Conjuncture is acknowledged in a note or bibliography entry.

No submission or publication fees are charged to authors.

Advisory Board

Confirmed members:

• Abhijit Roy, Professor, Centre for Research in Policy, Communication and Society; Film Studies, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India; TARN
• Alex Taek-Gwang Lee, Professor, South Korea
• Amites Mukhopadhyay, Professor, Sociology, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India
• Brett Neilson, Professor, Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University; TARN
• John Hutnyk, Associate Professor, Sociology, Ton Duc Thang University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; TARN
• Kamalika Jayathilika, Gampaha Wickramarachchi University of Indigenous Medicine, Sri Lanka
• Lisa Leung, Hong Kong; TARN
• Michael Roland F. Hernandez, Associate Professor, Philosophy, Ateneo de Naga University, Philippines
• Ned Rossiter, Professor, Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University; TARN
• Dean Pham Thi Ha Thuong, Dean, Social Work, Ton Duc Thang University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
• Scott McQuire, Professor, Professor, Communications, University of Melbourne, Australia
• Tabassum Zaman, BRAC University, Bangladesh