TUESDAY 27 MAY 2025
*PLEASE NOTE TIMES ARE IN JAPAN STANDARD TIME (GMT+9)
10:00 – 11:00am
Keynote Session
“How the machine thinks:” cultural monologic and cross-cultural communication in the wake of large language models
Keynote Speaker: Jenna Burrell
Chair: Heather Horst (University of Sydney)
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Drawing on examples from West Africa and Japan, Jenna will explore several orienting questions: How deeply do we need to understand algorithmic systems in order to critique them? What tasks can be safely automated? Will a computational system ever understand cultural context?
Building from this, we hope to address how the rise of large language models (LLMs) could help overcome language barriers but might alternately undermine cultural and linguistic preservation.
11:00am – 12:00pm
Keynote Response – Plenary Panel
Keynote Speaker: Jenna Burrell
Chair: Haiqing Yu (RMIT University)
Panellists: Jason Karlin (University of Tokyo), Marc Steinberg (Concordia University), Florian Schneider (University of Leiden).
12:00 – 1:00pm
Lunch Break
1:00 – 2:00pm
Imagining connection: Play and intimacy with and through AI robotics
Chair: Megan Rose (UNSW Sydney and University of Tokyo)
Panellists: Joshua Paul Dale (Chuo University), Elena Knox (Waseda University).
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This panel explores how roboticists are imagining connection and intimacies with machines, their future possibilities and limitations. Drawing on cultural studies and contemporary art perspectives we consider our entanglements with the more-than-human. The panel includes a book reading of Irresistible: How Cute Conquered the World by Joshua Paul Dale, screenings of Elena Knox’s creative works and a live demonstration of animal robots.
2:00 – 3:20pm
Platform Economies, Platform Histories
Chair: Marc Steinberg (Concordia University)
Panellists: Yu-Kei Tse (International Christian University), Shinji Oyama (Ritsumeikan University), Asami Senoo (Otemon Gakuin University).
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This panel examines some of the platforms’ histories and economies in Japan and Asia. Bringing together experts who have worked on streaming platforms, job-hunting platforms, Japanese platform history, and Japanese internet history, this panel will address the longer platform history in Japan and the ways it unfolds nationally, regionally, and globally today.
3:20 – 3:30pm
Short Break
3:30 – 4:30pm
Gendered Platforms and Digital Feminism: Rethinking Social Media Spaces in Japan
Chair: Jason G. Karlin (University of Tokyo)
Panellists: Junxiao Leng (University of Tokyo), Misha Cade (University of Tokyo).
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This panel explores the intersection of gender, digital culture, and activism in contemporary Japan, focusing on how social media platforms shape feminist discourse and practices. Presenters examine GirlsChannel.net as an anonymous forum for women’s expression and critique, consider how feminist activism on social media challenges mainstream narratives, and analyze experiences of sexual violence in the context of dating apps like Tinder. Together, these case studies illuminate the complex politics of gendered participation, platform design, and resistance in Japanese digital life.
4:30 – 5:45pm
Blockchain in the Asia Pacific
Chair: Jiaxi Hou (RMIT University)
Panellists: Oguz Genc (The University of Tokyo), Saskia Witteborn (Chinese University of Hong Kong) online, Olivier Jutel (University of Otago) online, Violeta Camarasa (Chinese University of Hong Kong) online.
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This panel examines how blockchain, as a decentralized technology, is implemented across the Asia Pacific. We focus on its entanglement with real-world power dynamics and the ways it reshapes social discontent.
5:45pm
Closing Remarks