Lahore Hosts Major Asian Studies Conference with 1,000+ Scholars
The AAS-in-Asia 2026 conference ended at LUMS in Lahore after three days. More than 1,000 scholars from 37 countries and 517 institutions attended, including Harvard, Oxford, and Peking University. Sessions covered Asia’s transformations, conflict, technology, climate, and cultural identity.
The 2026 AAS-in-Asia meeting was held at Lahore University of Management Sciences and closed after three days. It drew over a thousand participants from 37 nations and 517 institutions, among them Peking, Tsinghua, Tokyo, NUS, NTU, Harvard, Cambridge, Oxford and Yale. This was the conference's first Pakistan edition; earlier hosts included South Korea, Indonesia, Nepal, Japan, India and Thailand.
Its schedule combined academic panels, workshops, roundtables, displays and cultural programming. Topics ranged from conflict, democracy, AI, ecology, cities, gender and marginality to art, heritage and knowledge approaches. LUMS Vice Chancellor Ali Cheema and AAS President Elora Shehabuddin spoke at the opening; Adil Najam gave the climate keynote.
Hosting this conference may raise Lahore's and LUMS's visibility as academic hubs, potentially strengthening research ties and student exchanges. Pakistani scholars and students could gain access to international networks, while local cultural and hospitality sectors may see modest benefits. It may also encourage broader public discussion of Asia-focused issues such as climate, technology and inequality. However, lasting impact depends on follow-up collaborations and whether such exchanges translate into opportunities beyond the event.