It is fitting that Vancouver, Canada will be the venue for the 5th WCILCOS conference as this beautiful city has been a hub of transnational flows of Chinese migrants since the 18th century. As the host institution, the UBC Asian Library is prestigiously placed and equipped to orchestrate the upcoming conference. The return of the WCILCOS Conference to North America also serves to recognize the rapid expansion of Chinese overseas studies and its related fields in the region. As with previous WCILCOS conferences, the organizers hope to utilize this event to promote the nexus between research and documentation on Chinese overseas studies and to facilitate greater interaction between scholars and librarians around the world.

The conference now seeks roundtable, panel and paper proposals as well as poster presentations revolving around, but not limited to, the following topics:

Proposals are welcome from academics, librarians, graduate students and undergraduate students. Continuing with the WCILCOS tradition, the conference will accept papers in both English and Chinese. For individual papers/ posters please submit a 300-500 word abstract, a 150 word personal bio and a CV of no more than 2 pages. Abstracts should include a phone number and email address. For panel presentations, please submit a panel abstract of 450 words or less, along with the names and paper titles of each presenter, contact information [phone and email] for the primary contact person, and a CV of no more than 2 pages for each presenter. Panels should include 3-4 presenters. We will provide moderators for each panel session.

 

Please email the abstract and proposal to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . All abstracts, bio and CV should be sent in one single attachment in either Microsoft Word document (.doc or .docx) or Rich Text File (.rtf) format. Name the attachment with your last name and the words "paper proposal" (for individual paper) or the panel organizer's last name and the words "panel proposal" (for panel presentation). The text should be prepared on letter/A4 size paper (8.5"x11"), single-spaced, and in 12-point font.

 

Planning activities will be guided by an organizing committee of library and academic leaders from educational, research and cultural institutes as well as university and public libraries. A UBC workgroup including Eleanor Yuen, Denise Fong, Lilly Li and Phoebe Chow will oversee the organization and launch of the event.

Organizing Committee Members:
     FONG, Denise, Project Manager, Chinese Canadian Stories - A UBC-SFU Project
     HU-DEHART, Evelyn, Professor of History and Ethnic Studies, Brown University
     KO, Angela, Assistant Fung Ping Shan Librarian, University of Hong Kong Libraries
     LEE, Hwa-Wei, Former Chief, Asian Division, Library of Congress
     LEONG, Jack Hang-Tat, Director, Richard Charles Lee Canada-Hong Kong Library, University of
         Toronto Libraries
     SEAMAN, Scott, Dean, Ohio University Libraries
     XU Yun, Director, Associate Professor Librarian, Department of Overseas Chinese Documents Studies,
         Jinan University Library
     YU, Henry, Associate Professor, Department of History and Principal Pro tem, St. John's College,
         University of British Columbia / Project Lead, Chinese Canadian Stories - A UBC-SFU Project
     ZHANG, Xiuming, Senior Editor, Chinese Institute for Overseas Chinese History Studies and Chief
         Editor of Overseas Chinese History Studies
     ZHENG, Liren, Curator, Charles W. Wason Collection on East Asia, Cornell University Library
     ZHUANG Guotu, Dean, Faculty of International Relations & Research School of SE Asian Studies,
         Xiamen University