Coordinators:

Prof. Dr. Marcelo Alves de Paula Lima (Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora, Brazil)

Prof. Dr. Xiaoxi Zhang (Asian University for Women, Bangladesh)

Prof. Dr. Gabriel Mathias Soares (Habib University, Pakistan)

In the early 21st century, Brazil’s car and smartphone markets received the first Chinese brands. While European clubs’ jerseys made in Thailand and in the Philippines display Persian Gulf airlines sponsorships, streaming services invite us to watch and listen to the newest South Korean series and bands. Chinese electric cars are part of the main Brazilian cities’ landscapes, whereas events in the Hormuz Straits and the Gaza Strip may affect the polls of the next Brazilian elections. We have never been so surrounded by Asia while knowing so little about it! To know Asia in all its nuances and complexities is no longer an imperative just for internationalists, since historians also need to keep up with the new global power dynamics. Given the importance of thinking the Asian continent historically, Locus, the journal of the Federal University of Juiz de Fora’s History Department, invites scholars from different fields of knowledge to submit their original manuscripts to our special issue: “To think Asia historically – Politics, society, economy, and international relations”. Submissions must dialogue with state-of-the-art literature on the subject, and they may encompass different temporalities, thematic and geographic frameworks. We welcome manuscripts that deal with conceptual debates on Orientalisms and their different aspects, Asia as part of the Global South, Asian pre-colonial societies, the different impacts the many forms of colonial domination had over the continent, the anticolonial struggles and the formation of national states, the Asian continent under the light of key historical events of the 20^th century, religions and religiosities, Brazil’s foreign policy in the Asian world, Asia in the Brazilian imaginary and the different Asian cultural manifestations in Brazil, Asia in the world capitalist system, diplomacy and international relations in the Asian continent. Manuscripts are expected to enrich the knowledge repertoire around a region of the world whose importance in the economic and geopolitical horizons has been growing steadily, as well as to help readers develop analytical tools to understand Asia in all its complexity (rather than as a monolith) and in all its exchanges with other parts of the world (rather than as an isolated island).

Deadline for submissions: November 28, 2026