ICTAM XI
Eleventh International Congress of Traditional Asian Medicine
Call for Papers
Efficacy, Evidence and Safety in the Practice of Asian Medicine
12–16 July 2027
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
ICTAM XI meets at a moment of shifting ground: the WHO’s acknowledgement that four billion people use traditional medicine, and its advocacy for evidence-based implementation, place these practices at the center of the modern public health agenda. This raises urgent questions about what counts as evidence, how efficacy is measured, whose knowledge is legible within which frameworks, and where Asian medicines stand — as objects of study, as living practice, as interlocutors. What is lost, and what is gained, in this translation? What new tools for research are available—whether concepts like metamodernism, digital tools like AI, or frameworks for addressing ethical crises such as indigenous knowledge sovereignty and ecological impact? This conference will take stock of what has changed, and what new directions are emerging, in the study and practice of Asian medicine.
The International Association for the Study of Traditional Asian Medicine (IASTAM) invites submissions for ICTAM XI, to be held 12–16 July 2027. IASTAM is the leading community of scholars and practitioners studying the history and contemporary practice of Asian medicines, bringing together academics and clinicians, pharmacologists and epidemiologists, across disciplinary and geographical boundaries to provide an independent space for open scholarly debate.
The conference will be held at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, situated at the center of historical routes of trans-Asian trade and exchange, where Chinese, South Asian, and Southeast Asian medicines are all practiced as living heritage. Singapore is also one of the leading centers for biotech, AI, and digital humanities research.
Session Formats
Sessions are designed to be dialogic rather than siloed. Each panel runs 90 minutes with 4–5 speakers, chaired, with discussion held to the end. Talks are limited to 10–15 minutes to leave room for conversation, and proposers may choose the format that best suits their work:
- Paper Panel [4 people per panel] — 15-minute papers on work in progress.
- Source Panel [5 people per panel] — 10-minute introductions to a single primary source (e.g., image, formula, case study, ethnographic community), covering why it matters and what it does or doesn’t reveal.
- Roundtable [5 people per panel] — interdisciplinary, question-driven conversation (e.g., “what do we not know?”) related to the conference themes, with comments capped at a few minutes each.
- Video Shorts Festival — Submit an abstract describing a short video no more than 5 minutes, to play in a round of Asian Medical Videos.
- Fishbowl Dialogues — No pre-prepared submission, a structured, free-form exploratory conversation, where anyone can part and bring the conversation into new directions. These do not require application, just show up and join the conversation. Topics to include: Where is Asian medicine now? What areas are under or not researched? etc.
Panel chairs at ICTAM XI should take on an active facilitating role, more akin to a fireside-chat host than the passive, introductory function chairs often play — engaging panelists and audience alike with questions and reflection throughout to keep sessions genuinely conversational.
Themes
Proposals are welcome on any of the following, or on topics bridging several:
- Policy and Practice — regulatory frameworks, bioethics, standardization vs. preservation, IP concerns
- Clinical Practice — methods, strategies, therapies, techniques, and the patient-practitioner relationship, including historical and anthropological approaches
- Observational Studies — clinical case studies, clinical trials, as well as science research
- Global Commodity Chains — political economy of medicinal markets, supply chains, quality and adulteration
- Digital Transformation — AI and diagnostics, digitizing traditional knowledge, telemedicine
- Cross-Cultural Transmission — historical and diasporic pathways, translation, religion and exchange
- Environmental Justice and Resources — climate change, sustainable harvesting, conservation vs. traditional rights
- Prevention Paradigms — traditional approaches to disease prevention and public health integration
- Historical Ontology & Methods — textual hermeneutics, archaeological perspectives on healing, practitioner case studies, sensory and embodied knowledge transfer, plant identification, medicine within the cultural manifold and philosophical frameworks, and material culture
- Nationalism, Indigeneity, and Standardization — heritage politics, professionalization, geopolitics of recognition
- Religion, Spirituality and Clinical Medicine — formal religious institutionalized care as well as local religions in communities, religion in secular healthcare, medicine/religion boundaries
- Ageing Populations — geriatric care, hospice care, dementia, death, and dying
Submission Guidelines
Proposals for 10–15-minute papers should include a title, an abstract of up to 250 words (methods, key questions, preferred session format), and the author’s name, institutional affiliation, and contact details.
Please submit proposals via the online portal by 30 September 2026. Applicants will be notified by December 2026.
Link to submission portal will be here. Forthcoming soon.
Expanded Panels Bridging Scholarship and Practice
1. Policy and Practice of Asian Medicine: Asian Medicines Bioethics and Regulatory Frameworks
- Examine how traditional knowledge systems navigate diverse regulatory frameworks
- Discuss ethical considerations in adapting Asian medical practices to diverse global healthcare contexts
- Explore tensions between standardization requirements and preservation of traditional preparation methods
- Address intellectual property concerns within a policy-making hub environment
- Analyze how government health policies impact the practice and teaching of Asian medicines
2. Clinical Practice
- Sharing of methods, strategies, therapies, techniques
- Managing patient-practitioner relationship
- Using historical and anthropological approaches
- Impact of Dry-needling
- Integration of multiple modalities
- Difficult cases, courageous decisions
- What do you feel when treating?
- How to check own bias?
3. Observational Studies
- clinical case studies
- Extended clinical trials
- Science research – lab experiments, alchemical practices
- Critical trial design – what constitutes evidence? How does trial design reflect or obscure traditional knowledge styles?
4. Global Commodity Chains: The Political Economy of Asian Medical Markets
- Examine the transformation of traditional medicines into global commodities through industrial production
- Investigate the international supply chains for medicinal materials and their environmental and social impacts
- Analyze how economic forces shape which traditions or remedies gain global prominence
- Explore tensions between pharmaceutical mass production and artisanal preparation methods
- Address issues of quality control, adulteration, and substitution in global trade networks
These panels can bring together:
- Economists specializing in international trade of medicinal products
- Environmental scientists tracking resource extraction impacts
- Practitioners negotiating between traditional sourcing and commercial suppliers
- Policy experts on international trade agreements affecting medicinal materials
- Industry representatives involved in manufacturing and distribution
5. Digital Transformation and Traditional Knowledge
- Explore digital tools for preserving scholarly and folklore traditions
- Discuss how AI and machine learning can enhance or challenge traditional diagnostic approaches
- Address database development standards that respect cultural heritage while enabling broad access
- Examine how digitalization affects practitioner-patient relationships
- Consider the impact of telemedicine on traditional practice models that emphasize in-person assessment
6. Cross-Cultural Medical Transmissions: Past and Present
- Trace historical pathways of medical knowledge transmission across Asian regions
- Examine how traditional medical systems adapt when practiced in diaspora communities
- Discuss how translation affects understanding of key medical concepts
- Analyze the role of religion and spirituality in cross-cultural medical exchanges
- Consider how contemporary global migration patterns create new hybrid practices
7. Environmental Justice and Resources
- Examine how climate change affects availability of traditional medicinal plants and animals
- Discuss sustainable harvesting practices in the face of increased commercial demand
- Address the impact of migration patterns on traditional ecological knowledge
- Explore tensions between conservation efforts and traditional harvesting rights
- Develop multi-disciplinary approaches to sustainable medicine production
8. Prevention Paradigms: Pre-modern and Modern Health Challenges
- Explore traditional approaches to disease prevention that address contemporary health challenges
- Discuss the role of lifestyle, diet, and behavioral modifications in preventing non-communicable diseases
- Examine historical responses to epidemics in Asian medical traditions and their contemporary relevance
- Consider how preventative approaches in Asian medicines can be integrated into public health frameworks
- Address how traditional preventative practices can address health disparities in urban environments
- What methods of sexual health are promoted or suppressed under which conditions?
9. Treatment Paradigms: Toxin Proliferation and Consequent Health Conditions
- Explore traditional approaches to diagnosing health conditions arising from toxin proliferation in the environment and our bodies (e.g., microplastics, PFAs as “forever chemicals”, endocrine disrupters, heavy metals, organic and aerosolized pollutants, etc.)
- Investigate traditional approaches to treating health conditions arising from toxin proliferation
- Discuss historical understandings of and modern health challenges related to toxins
- Reflect on the practices of transforming toxins into medicines in Asian medicine compounding and pharmacology practices
- Examine the role of lifestyle, diet, and behavioral modifications in protecting from toxin proliferation in the environment and preventing toxin accumulation in bodies
- Consider how insights from Asian medicines can be integrated into public health frameworks related to environmental toxins and their related health presentations
10. Historical Ontology & Methods
- Explore how sensory experiences (taste, touch, smell) have shaped diagnostic and therapeutic traditions across time
- Examine the historical development of plant identification systems and how they inform contemporary practice
- Investigate how embodied knowledge transmission occurs between generations of practitioners
- Analyze how social and political contexts have shaped the ontological frameworks of various healing traditions
- Consider how the material culture of medical practice (tools, texts, pharmacopeia) reflects changing ontological understandings
11. Nationalism, Indigeneity, and the Politics of Standardization
- Examine how nation-states mobilize traditional medical systems as symbols of cultural heritage and national identity
- Investigate tensions between state-sponsored standardization efforts and local/indigenous healing traditions
- Analyze how professionalization processes either preserve or marginalize indigenous knowledge systems
- Explore the geopolitics of global recognition for different Asian medical traditions
- Address how indigenous communities resist or adapt to national and international regulatory frameworks
These panels would bring together:
- Medical anthropologists studying the impact of standardization on local practices
- Policy experts examining national healthcare strategies that incorporate traditional medicines
- Indigenous practitioners whose traditions exist at the margins of official recognition
- Historians tracing the development of “national” medical systems
- Legal scholars addressing intellectual property rights in traditional knowledge systems
12. Religion, Spirituality and Clinical Medicine
- Examine the intersection of spirituality and clinical efficacy in Asian medical traditions
- formal religious institutionalized care as well as local religions in communities
- Discuss how religious elements are negotiated in secular healthcare settings
- Explore the separation or integration of “medicine” and “religion” in contemporary practice
- Consider how cultural heritage shapes patient expectations and experiences
- Address methodological approaches to studying spiritual aspects of healing practices
13. Ageing Populations: Traditional Care in Modern Contexts
- Explore traditional approaches to geriatric care that complement conventional medicine
- Discuss how Asian medical traditions address cognitive decline and dementia
- Examine the role of family systems in elder care across cultures
- Consider how traditional preventative practices can support healthy aging
- Address the challenges of caregiver shortages from traditional medical perspectives
Practical Workshops
Practical workshops can be 90 minutes or 3 hours long. Those falling with Singapore CEU guidelines can be accumulated as Continuing Education Credits for participants who register as TCM CEU participants.
Workshops not accredited for Singapore CEU credits can also be given.
Applications to propose workshops will be submitted under a separate format, TBA.