The 2nd SEAMEO SPAFA International Conference on Southeast Asian Archaeology was successfully held in Bangkok from 30th May – 2nd June, 2016 with an additional post-conference workshop on 3rd June. The conference saw 235 participants from 24 countries, and more than half of which came from Southeast Asia nationalities. The program consisted three days of paper presentations, which included an opening address from the Minister for Education of Thailand and the Japan Foundation Bangkok, keynote lectures, and country reports. Total of 166 papers spread out in 24 panels were read at the conference. The fourth day consisted of visits to archaeological sites near Bangkok.
Capitalising on the large gathering of archaeologists and related professionals in one place, a post-conference workshop was also organized on the fifth day for a small number of participants to enhance English/language skills amongst non-native English speakers. Participation rate were doubled from the first conference held in 2013. The conference highlighted and reinforced SEAMEO SPAFA’s role as a major resource organization for the archaeology of Southeast Asia.
- Related Countries
- Japan, Singapore, Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Brunei, China, Taiwan, India, Australia, U.K., etc.
- Co-organizer(s), Cooperator(s)
- Thai Kadee Foundation
- Academia Sinca
From the Organizer
The major aim for this conference is to become a major forum for the dissemination of academic research in archaeology for the region. The participation for this conference (over 200 in attendance) is similar to the European Association of Southeast Asian Archaeologists meetings held every two years in Europe; but a key feature for this conference is to hold it inside of Southeast Asia so that more locals can participate. More than half of the participants were Southeast Asian nationals, and many more from peripheral regions such as India, China and Australia. The conference also saw twice as many participants and papers presented from the previous one held in 2013.
In order to capitalize on the number of people gathering in Bangkok, we also held a small post-conference workshop on academic writing for interested participants. A proceedings volume was published online (https://www.spafajournal.org/index.php/spafapub/issue/view/129) A third iteration of the conference was held in 2019.
