From 19 - 22 August 2003 the third International Convention of Asia Scholars' conference (http://www.fas.nus.edu.sg/icas3/)is being held in Singapore (It is anticipated that over 1000 scholars of Asia will attend the event). AsiaPacifiQueer (APQ), an Australia-based group of academics and students researching queer peoples and cultures in the Asia-Pacific region, would like to encourage scholars working on queer topics and issues in the Asian region to participate in this event. In particular, the APQ team is interested in helping organize a stream of queer-themed panels within the ICAS 3 conference. APQ believes that a series of tightly themed panels looking at queer issues (e.g. comparative Asian transgenderisms, the use of new technologies by Asian sexual minorities, legal issues affecting queer-identified Asian individuals, etc.) will help to raise the profile of queer studies within the field of Asian studies. We also think that a dedicated stream of queer-themed panel presentations, rather than having queer papers dispersed throughout the conference program according to their geographical focus, will contribute most to raising our collective profile and building networks of Asian queer studies scholars.

The APQ team would like to invite researchers who are thinking about presenting on queer topics at ICAS to contact us in advance of submitting their abstracts so that we may put people in contact with each other with a view to developing a number of themed panels. Given that this ICAS conference is the first to actually be staged in Asia, we very much hope that queer-studies scholars working in the region will be able to attend, present their work and network with other researchers who share their interests. If you are interested in joining us at ICAS 3 please contact Mark McLelland at APQ, who will be coordinating the proposals for queer-themed presentations, before September 15, 2002.