Sinological Conferences
ICANAS

This acronym denotes the International Congress of Asian and North African Studies. The series began life under the briefer title International Congress of Orientalists. It has endured at least two breakaway movements, and two name changes, during its long existence. The temporary change to "Human Sciences" may have been prompted by respect for the Japanese term Jimbun Kagaku. The inclusion of North Africa from 1976 onwards chiefly legitimizes the addition of Egypt to other Islamic subjects.

Conference proceedings have not invariably been published. Names and venues have been as follows.

• International Congress of Orientalists
  • I (1873) Paris
  • II (1874) London
  • III (1876) St Petersburg
  • IV (1878) Florence
  • V (1881) Berlin
  • VI (1883) Leiden
  • VII (1886) Vienna
  • VIII (1889) Stockholm and Christiana
  • IX (1892) London
  • X (1894) Geneva
  • XI (1897) Paris
  • XII (1899) Rome
  • XIII (1902) Hamburg
  • XIV (1905) Algiers
  • XV (1908) Copenhagen
  • XVI (1912) Athens
    • A long interval follows, for WW1 and its aftermath
  • XVII (1928) Oxford
  • XVIII (1931) Leiden
  • XIX (1935) Rome
  • XX (1938) Brussels
    • Another interval, for WW2
  • XXI (1948) Paris
    • It was in this same year that the first of the breakaway Junior Sinologues meetings was held in Cambridge and London
  • XXII (1951) Istanbul
  • XXIII (1954) Cambridge
  • XXIV (1957) Munich
  • XXV (1960) Moscow
  • XXVI (1964) New Delhi
    • Several Indian scholars, distressed at the scant space given to Sanskrit at this Congress, petitioned the Indian Ministry of Education to establish an alternative venue. The result was the first International Sanskrit Conference in March 1972.
  • XXVII (1967) Ann Arbor
  • XXVIII (1971) Canberra
    • The first of the breakaway World Sanskrit Conferences meets in New Delhi in March 1972
  • XXIX Paris 1973
    • At this meeting, Sanskritists agreed to form the International Association for Sanskrit Studies, with the mandate to organize a series of World Sanskrit Conferences at different venues.
• International Congress of Human Sciences in Asia and North Africa
  • XXX (1976) Mexico City
  • XXXI (1983) Tokyo and Kyoto
• International Congress for Asian and North African Studies (ICANAS)
  • XXXII (1984) Hamburg
  • XXXIII (1990) Toronto
  • XXXIV (1993) Hong Kong
  • XXXV (1997) Budapest
  • XXXVI (2000) Montréal
  • XXXVII (2004) Moscow
  • XXXVIII (2007) Ankara

 

1 Jan 2007 / Contact The Project / Exit to Sinology Page