“Speaking Up, Stepping In:
Asian Communities in Ireland”
Conference Agenda

Organisers: Asian & Irish Community Connect; Trinity Centre for Asian Studies
Conference Date: 09 May 2026
Conference Location: Trinity College Dublin
Venues: Neill Lecture Theatre (NLT), Idea Hub (IH), Arts Building Room 4074 (4074)
AICC Conference Media Centre
AICC Conference Full Programme

9:15-10:00

Registration – NLT
Refreshment – IH

10:00-10:25
Opening Remarks – NLT

  • Dr Meishan Zhang, (Co-founder and Director, Asian & Irish Community Connect)
  • Prof Nathan Hill, (Director, Trinity Centre for Asian Studies)
  • Pradeep Mahadeshwar (Freelance Art Director, Asian & Irish Community Connect)

10:25-10:40
Keynote Speech – NLT

Cllr. Hazel Chu (Deputy Leader Green Party, Former Lord Mayor of Dublin)

10:50-11:50
Featured Talks – NLT

Asian Language Education in Ireland: Plurilingualism and Global Citizenship (Dr Chang Zhang)
Breaking Barriers: Community Interpreting in a Challenging Landscape (Context)
They are here too: Survivors of Domestic Abuse among South Asians in Ireland (Dr Arpita Chakraborty)
Moderator: Gonchigkhand Byambaa (Co-founder and Director, Asian & Irish Community Connect) 

11:50-12:00 – Break

12:00-13:00
Breakout 1A: Moving Cultures – NLT

Performing Bruce Lee in Ireland: Martial Arts, Cultural Identity, and Asian Visibility (Joseph Clarke)
Hybridising Bharatanatyam in Ireland – A Brief Exploration (Subhashini Goda)
Mindful Tea Culture as Healing Arts (Jeni Ng)
Moderator: Jinny Ly (Creative Director, Asian & Irish Community Connect)

12:00-13:00
Breakout 1B: Next Gen Voices – 4074

Rasing Children with Disability Far Away from Home (Dr Ke Ren)
From Service to Connection: Building a Community with Heart (Yi Huang)
Participation, Belonging and Voice: Rethinking Asian Youth Engagement in Youth Work in Northern Ireland (Liang He)
Moderator: Sundas Khan (Board member, Asian & Irish Community Connect)

13:00-14:00
Lunch – IH
Beir Bua: Jai ho (Short Film Screening) – NLT

14:00-15:15
Breakout 2A: Shaping Futures in a Shifting World – NLT

Consumption and Activism (Max Yu)
The Unequal Anthropocene: Climate Justice, Environmental Change, and Global Governance in Asia (Usman Sharif)
Our Climate Stories (Raine Chaw; Ahmed Ali Shaikh)
Navigating Visibility: The Media Framing of Asian Communities in Ireland (Hadiqa Mir)
“I feel seen”: Asian Irish TikTokers and Asian Irish Identity (Prof. Rebecca Chiyoko King-O’Riain)
Moderator: Basira Paigham (Chair of Board, Asian & Irish Community Connect)

14:00-15:15
Breakout 2B: Finding Home Across Borders – 4074

The Indian Diaspora in Ireland: A Demographic Overview of Belonging and Under-Representation (Sweta Ghosh)
Re-migration among Asian Migrants: Factors and Concerns (Fawzi Qurban)
When No One Was There: An Immigrant Woman’s Journey to Strength (Rabia Sial)
Where? What? Where? Why? But…? (Radhika Iyer)
Rethinking the Meaning of Integration (Fahmeda Naheed)
Moderator: Maryam Umer Khayam (Legal advisor, Asian & Irish Community Connect)

15:30-16:45
Break – NCL
Breakout 3A: When Cultures Meet – NLT

Tracing Cultural Connections Through Museum and Personal Chinese Artefacts in Northern Ireland – The Bridges to China Project (Dr Liang Wang and Dr Briony Widdis)
An Exhibition of Home: Constructing Belonging in Conditions of Instability (Xiaojian Zheng)
Where the Heart Settles: How to Use AI Image and Music to Support the Cultural Storytelling of Chinese Queer Immigrants Living in Dublin (Wenhao Shen)
Insights into a Tailored Mandarin Home Visiting and Story Telling Group in Dublin’s Inner City (Weiyi Liu Fitzpatrick, Qi Wang, Jing Xia Miao)
Bridging Cultures Through Language: The Role of Chinese Schools in Ireland (Chuan Sun)
Moderator: Sadia Athar Butt (Co-founder and Secretary, Asian & Irish Community Connect)

15:30-16:45
Breakout 3B: Cross-Border Conversations on Care and Welfare
Articulating Belonging: Asian Communities, Social Policy, and Public Life in the Island of Ireland
4074

Conditional Belonging: Welfare Labour, Care, and Asian Presence Across Post-Colonial States (Srimoyee Biswas)
Only-Child Families and Domestic Violence and Abuse (DVA): A Transnational Lens from China’s One-Child Policy Generation to Chinese Communities in Ireland (Haocheng Shi)
Older Migrants in Ireland: Ageing, Care, and Well-being (Wenyu Li)
Speaking Up Through Care: Older Adults’ Experiences of Time Banking in China and Transferable Questions for Asian Communities in Ireland (Jianing Zhu)
Understanding and Supporting Future Care Planning Conversations within the Chinese Ethnic Communities in Northern Ireland (Lijun Xue)
Moderator: Akangshya Bordoloi (Borad member, Asian & Irish Community Connect)

16:45-17:00
Break

17:00-17:20
Panel: Future Directions in Business and Career Development – NLT

Jeanne McDonagh (CEO, Open Doors Initiative)
Athar Butt, (CEO, Expert Consultants)
Maria O’Brien, (Co-founder & organiser, East Asia Film Festival Ireland)
Marie-Pierre Richard (Programme curator & co-organiser, East Asia Film Festival Ireland)
Jaffer Khan, (Board member, Asian & Irish Community Connect)
Moderator: Sai Gujulla (Board member, Asian & Irish Community Connect)


17:20-17:30
Closing Remark – NLT

Muhammad Zobayer Hossain (Board member, Asian & Irish Community Connect)


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