Dear Colleagues,
It is with profound regret that we must inform you that the 2020 Mechademia Asia Conference: Ecologies at the Manga Museum and Kyoto Seika University will be cancelled and postponed until May 2021.
As with many countries around the world, Japan is experiencing a significant increase in confirmed cases of the COVID-19 virus. Following the Japanese government’s recommended procedures, Kyoto Seika University has cancelled a number of academic gatherings including the Mechademia conference. We support their decision to cancel or postpone all large events in the interest of public health.
The current plan is to postpone this conference until the end of May 2021. At the moment, it is likely that it will be held on May 29th-31st 2021. We are currently in the process of confirming those dates and will report back to you all when that is finalized.
All of the accepted presentations and panel proposals promised to provide a very engaging conference, and since we have already made substantial preparations for the conference, we have decided not to release a renewed call for papers. Instead, we will use the currently prepared program of the accepted papers and panels for next year’s conference.
For those that have already registered, we will keep your submission on record and you will not need to register again next year. If you do need a refund and will consider it next year, please contact us.
It is extremely regrettable that we must prepare an email like this, and we ask for your cooperation in handling rescheduling procedures. We realize that this is not just a hassle but a possible financial burden and sincerely apologize for this inconvenience, hoping that you can understand our lack of options due to the gravity of the current situation.
The health of our colleagues is our highest priority and we hope to see you next year for the Mechademia Asia Conference: Ecologies in 2021.
Sincerely,
Mechademia Asia Conference Steering Committee
Frenchy Lunning
Stevie Suan
Sookyung Yoo
Edmund Hoff
