Abstract

This paper examines the geo-social milieu of IACS 2025, held in Nakhon Si Thammarat in southern Thailand, and argues that the conference environment itself became an epistemic and affective condition. Rather than serving as a neutral backdrop for scholarly exchange, the event’s geographic, cultural, and atmospheric textures materially shaped how knowledge was produced, circulated, and experienced. The conference was a lived practice of geo-social connection—foregrounding intergenerational exchange, academic initiative, community-rooted knowledge, and the politics of hope for the future. Through keynote sessions, panels, exhibitions, city excursions, and informal encounters, the conference generated a liminal atmosphere in which hierarchies softened and communitas emerged. This atmosphere enabled forms of recognition, solidarity, and relational thinking that exceeded the boundaries of formal gathering, allowing participants to frame Asia as a dynamic field of shared (im)possibility.