The ACS Institute 2023 will discuss the question of decolonization in the 21^st century. We face the drastic increase in international migration and stateless persons, the prolonged pandemic, extensive digital surveillance, the prevalence of extended platform economies, the precarity of temporary laborers on land and at sea, environmental crisis, and climate change. Along with these developing conditions, the intensified social inequality worldwide also escalates.

The ACS Institute 2023 will feature, but is not limited to, the following four interconnected dimensions:

(I) Global Capitalism and Technologies of Governance

(II) Marginalized Populations, Stateless Persons and Migrant Laborers

(III) Environmental Justice/Injustice

(IV) Social Engagement and Art Intervention

We welcome postgraduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and advanced scholars worldwide to share their ongoing projects with various disciplinary backgrounds: cultural studies, media and communication studies, critical legal studies, cultural sociology, literary studies, film studies, visual cultural studies, cultural anthropology, political philosophy, and related fields are all welcome. 

The Institute will offer lectures, seminars, roundtables, and workshops for participants to spend the week learning from one another. The following keynote speakers have been confirmed:

50. Ranabir Samaddar (Distinguished Chair, Migration and Forced Migration Studies, Calcutta Research Group, India)
50. Sandro Mezzadra (Professor of Political Theory, Department of Arts, University of Bologna, Italy)
50. Pun Ngai (Chair Professor, Department of Cultural Studies, Lingnan University, Hong Kong)
50. Ruba Salih (Professor, Department of the Arts, University of Bologna, Italy)

50. Tess Lea (Head, Department of Community, Culture and Global Studies, University of British Columbia, Okanagan, Canada)