The intersection between local and global has emerged as a key site of inquiry in the field of humanities in Asia Pacific, especially in relation to changing cultures/societies and its impact on identities in the late twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Referring to localised identities, places, ideologies, politics, narratives, cultures, societies, and governments, the local has been engaged in conversation and negotiation with global discourses and ideologies of migration, communication, science and technology, trade and finance, geopolitics, and many more. Historically, the intersection between local and global is demonstrated through human movements and developments that include colonisation, migration, adaptation, translation, and hybridisation, among others; however, the relationship between local and global is also in a constant flux, subjected to the contextual and contingent tensions, shifts, changes, or transformations occuring in the local (e.g. nation-state) and/or global (international) spaces. Studies in the humanities can thus help shed light on the evolving and complex relationship between local and global in the here and now.

This theme comes especially at an urgent time of deglobalisation and the emergence of a multipolar world, which would impact the ways in which the intersection between local and global are being (re)conceptualised, (re)interpreted, (re)framed or (re)shaped by new or emerging narratives and discourses in societies and cultures in Asia Pacific.

It is hoped that the inaugural International Conference on Humanities in Asia Pacific (ICHAP) 2025 can help contribute to these important discussions and debates through the theme of The Intersection Between Local and Global in the Humanities in Asia Pacific, with focus on Asia Pacific, which encompasses Asia (West, South, Southeast and East), Australasia, and the Pacific Rim regions of the Americas (North, Central and South).

Presentations that feature multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, and innovative theoretical or conceptual approaches and original perspectives that can advance the conference theme in the aforementioned geographic areas are welcomed. It is also hoped that ICHAP will help form new scholarly alliances and networks as well as foster new or significant research ideas and knowledges that can fruitfully contribute to the study of the humanities in Asia Pacific.