The Association for Asian Studies (AAS) conference 2026 brought together scholars, artists and thinkers around the theme of Asia's future and its global connectivity. The organisers invited proposals for innovative formats, encouraging participants to move beyond the conventional academic panel keeping in mind the developing culture of academic discourse. What happens when five experts speak, one after another, on an intellectually demanding subject? We expect an audience to listen, absorb, connect and synthesise multiple arguments within a single session. In reality, this may require almost as much intellectual labour from the audience as from the scholars themselves. Could there be another way of engaging with complex ideas - one that is intellectually rigorous but also more immediate, participatory and memorable?

This became the starting point for "Mapping Asian Heritages: Globalization, Indigenous Storytelling and Gender in Historical Novels". Rather than asking scholars simply to speak........

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