LUMS Brings World’s Largest Asian Studies Conference to Pakistan for the First Time

LAHORE: Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) will host AAS-in-Asia 2026, the flagship annual conference of the Association for Asian Studies (AAS), from September 25–27, 2026. This marks the first time that an academic conference on humanities and social sciences of this scale and stature will be held in Pakistan.

Held under the theme “Centering Asia: Refiguring Connections, Recharting Futures,” the conference will bring together more than 1,000 scholars from over 37 countries. Participants will include academics from some of the world’s most prominent institutions, from Peking University, Tsinghua University, and the University of Tokyo to the National University of Singapore, Nanyang Technological University, Harvard, Cambridge, Oxford, and Yale.

AAS-in-Asia has previously been held in South Korea, Indonesia, and Nepal, Japan and India amongst other countries. Its arrival in Pakistan is momentous for LUMS and for Lahore because of the traction AAS conferences in Asia usually generate.

“This conference is a testament to what Pakistan has to offer the world,” said Dr. Ali Khan, Bilquis Dawood Chair and Dean of the Mushtaq Ahmad Gurmani School of Humanities and Social Sciences (MGSHSS) at LUMS. “We are proud to welcome scholars from across the globe to Lahore, and to show them firsthand that Pakistan is so much more than its headlines. This is our moment to put Lahore on the global academic map.”

The conference keynote will be delivered by Dr. Adil Najam, President WWF International, and a globally recognised scholar, whose work spans international relations, environment and development, and South Asian affairs.

“These are researchers asking urgent, consequential questions about the region and its relationships with the world: its politics, cultures, economies, and histories. Hosting this conversation in Pakistan, in Lahore, is an extraordinary opportunity to anchor it in the very landscape it seeks to understand,” Dr. Furrukh Khan, Associate Professor and the conference director, said.

Conference programming will span disciplines including history, political science, anthropology, literature, economics, and the arts, reflecting the breadth of Asian studies scholarship globally. For Pakistani scholars, the conference represents a rare and meaningful opportunity: the chance to present their research on the world stage, engage with leading academics across disciplines, and be part of a global conversation that is, this time, taking place at home. A Scholar Support Fund has been established to ensure that Pakistani researchers from across the country, not just the major cities, can take part. For many, this will be their first opportunity to present their work to an international audience.

The conference is the result of a sustained collaboration between LUMS and the Association for Asian Studies. Dr. Krisna Uk, Consultant Director AAS and Beyond Asia, has been instrumental in shaping the partnership and supporting LUMS through the planning and preparation process.

On the ground, the conference is being led by Tajwar Awan, Senior Project Manager and a LUMS alumna, who has coordinated operations across outreach, sponsorship, programming, and communications. “We want every scholar who comes to Lahore for this conference to leave with a sense of the city, its people, and its intellectual life,” said Tajwar. “We are proud of what we are building.”

Registration for AAS-in-Asia 2026 is open. For more information, visit https://aasinasia2026.lums.edu.pk/