IABA Asia-Pacific + ASAL 2025 conference:

The Story and The Self: Navigating Truth Genres in Literature

30th June–4th July 2025

Flinders University, Festival Plaza, Adelaide + Online

*please note: the conference commences the afternoon of the 30th June with a workshop ("Research Methods for Contemporary Publishing Studies: Insights from the Community Publishing in Regional Australia Project") and then continuing with the ASAL awards and Barry Andrews address.

The conference sessions commence the morning of the 1st July.

Keynote speakers:

Associate Professor Julieanne Lamond (ANU) (Dorothy Green Lecture)

Dr Eloise Faichney (U Melbourne) (ASAL Early Career Researcher Keynote)

Dr Chloe Green (ANU) (IABA Asia-Pacific, Whitlock Early Career Researcher Keynote)

Leah Jing McIntosh (U Melbourne) (Barry Andrews address)

Association for the Study of Australian Literature (ASAL) and the International Auto/Biography Association Conference, Asia-Pacific (IABA A-P) are pleased to collaborate on this conference event.

The Story and The Self: Navigating Truth Genres in Literature

Are we living through two seemingly contradictory cultural moments? We fear the rise of AI, deep fakes, and pervasive media bias. We are deeply suspicious about our investments in the truth, and the stories we accept into our lives. In the same cultural moment, those working in literary studies, creative arts, media, and performing arts, and especially auto/biography studies, are deeply curious about the increasingly blurred lines between fiction and non-fiction. The rapid rise of literary subgenres such as speculative biography, autofiction, biopics, and other generic hybrid forms have seduced practitioners and scholars alike. We enjoy the playfulness, innovation, and provocation of texts that bend genres.

This conference explores the tension/s arising from our contradictory relationship with truth genres in the public sphere. How do stories make claims to truth and reality? How do stories and media shape ideas of selfhood and identity? What changes—now and historically—have made an impact on shifting interests in truth, stories, and self?

The conference will be offered in a combination of face-to-face sessions hosted by Flinders University, Adelaide, South Australia, with some hybrid sessions and online-only sessions (hosted by Flinders, James Cook University, and Griffith University).

Papers for face-to-face presentations will be 20 minutes in length.

Papers for online presentations will be 10 minutes in length.

Conference convenors:

Kylie Cardell (Flinders University)

Kate Douglas (Flinders University)

Emma Maguire (James Cook University)

Shannon Sandford (Griffith University)