New Mandala readers will want to know about an upcoming conference which will be held in Melbourne on 11-12 August 2011. The conference partners are RMIT University (Business College and ASIA@RMIT), the Royal Thai Embassy in Canberra, and the Asia Institute at the University of Melbourne.

All of the details on the conference, including an extensive call for papers, are available here. The call for papers notes that:

This conference will offer the fruits of academic researches to help alleviate the suffering caused by the impact of poor understanding of contemporary Thai state and society. It will also serve as a forum of discussion among scholars and members of Thai community in Australia.

This conference will also serve as an academic platform to discuss various issues that reflect upon the value of Thainess, and what it means for modern Thailand and scholars in Thai studies in Australia.