CFP: CONFERENCE AFRICA-ASIA AND THE WORLD; WHAT RELATIONS FOR GLOBAL PEACE, JUSTICE, PROSPERITY AND SUSTAINABILITY?


Africa-Asia And The World:

What Relations For Global Peace, Justice, Prosperity And Sustainability?, 

International and Inter-Trans-Disciplinary Offline and Online Conference


International and Inter-Trans-Disciplinary Offline and Online Conference of: Inauguration of African-Asian and International Studies Institute AFRASI; Commemoration of the 65th Anniversary of the 1958 Accra All-African People’s Conference Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, December 13-15, 2023 


INTRODUCTION

At the beginning of the new millennium, Africa remains a place where economic, geopolitical, and cultural interests from all over the world converge. Diverse summits with Africa have been organized regularly to shape the exchanges of the continent with global players (China-Africa/FOCAC, Japan-Africa/TICAD, India-Africa, Korea-Africa, Turkiye-Africa, Iran-Africa, Indonesia-Africa, Regular Commemorative Conferences of the Asian-African Conference, USA-Africa, EU-Africa, etc.). Another proof of the continent's importance on the world stage is the increasing presence of Asian countries such as China, India and Japan, or the return of historically relevant players such as Russia, not to mention the attempts of former colonizing powers to maintain their influence. Thus, the suspicious views of relations between Africa and Asia (especially China) and Eurasia (especially Russia) presented in the Western mainstream media do not do justice to the historical ties between Africa and Asia/Eurasia since at least the Bandung Conference (April 1955) characterized by their common struggles against colonialism and for independence.

Several points of convergence make it fair to focus on the Africa-Asia tandem. From a historical point of view, these are the continents that, despite European colonial ambitions, have retained their demographic and cultural bases, unlike other areas such as America and Australia, where colonial conquest and occupation were accompanied by the genocide of indigenous peoples, the suppression of their cultures and the installation of European culture, and where the descendants of colonial rulers and European immigrants continue to rule the areas to the present day. Moreover Africa and Asia shared common painful experiences of being colonized by European imperial power and common struggles for their independence at the same historical period (19th-20th centuries). In a world marked by global and diverse crises, Africa, and Asia, being distinctive in term of civilization from Western-dominated ones, have the potential to offer alternatives for rethinking their relationship with the world, based on imaginations, cultures, and development models different from the Western-led globalization. Considering demographic growth, projections predict that 80% of the world's population will be in Africa and Asia by the end of this century; this could be seen as a problem but also as an opportunity to take advantage of a tremendous human capital for the development of Asia and Africa, and concomitantly of the world. In economic terms, Asia has become Africa's leading trading partner. The search for new economic and political partners, particularly in Africa, signals that both continents will strengthen existing ties and find new avenues for cooperation. Convergence between Asia and Africa is also clear since they are confronted with common challenges, which includes poverty eradication and creation of social justice, security issues, the management of ethnic and religious diversity, and exploitation of natural resources for sustainable development and prosperity of people.

The international and inter-trans-disciplinary conference "Africa-Asia and the World: What Relations for Global Peace, Justice, Prosperity and Sustainability?" aims to reflect on these relations between Africa and Asia, as well as those between the African-Asian tandem and the rest of the world. Based on the diversity of approaches and disciplines of the speakers, this conference will be an opportunity to better understand and recommend policies of political, economic, and cultural relations to be developed between Africa and Asia, and with the rest of the world, to build a common future, based on more peace, justice, prosperity and sustainability.


ISSUES

The followings are non-exhaustive issues expected to be raised in the conference:
  • Before and beyond hegemony of the West: what were and will be Africa-Asia relations?
  • Africa-Asia and Africa-Eurasia: what convergence and what divergence?
  • Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America: do they continue to be the peripheries of the West?
  • Africa-Asia Business Development: what challenges and what perspectives?
  • MSME (Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises) in Africa and Asia: what role in national economy and what mutual exchanges are possible?
  • BRICS summit in Africa: what impacts on Africa?
  • NAM, BRICS, Africa, Asia and Latin America: what synergy for a global restructuring?
  • The West and Asia in Africa: what interests and what risks for Africa?
  • The summits of China-Africa, India-Africa, Japan-Africa, Korea-Africa, Turkiye-Africa, Iran-Africa, Indonesia-Africa, EU-Africa, USA-Africa: what perspectives for Africa?
  • FESPACO and BIFF (Busan International Film Festival): what relations are mutually and globally beneficial?
  • African, Asian and American Tropical Forests: what challenges and perspectives for economy and ecology?
  • Black-lives-matter: racism against African and Asian in the West, does it continue?
  • Tradition, Culture and Religion: what role in patriarchy and gender issues?
  • Indigenous and Imported Religions: what challenges and what perspectives for a peaceful co-existence or fusion?
  • Languages and Nations: what place for former colonial languages in national independence and sovereignty?
  • The Afrodescendant in America, Asia, Australia, Europe, Pacific and Oceania: who are they and what do they become?
  • Demography, Migration, Urbanisation, Ruralisation: what planning and what mitigation?
  • The G20 and the 20 poorest countries in the world: what relations?
  • The G20 Summits: what impacts on Africa?
Other relevant issues will be welcome.


OFFLINE AND ONLINE PARTICIPANTS

The conference encourages the participation of scholars from a wide range of scientific disciplines (area studies, cultural studies, ecology, economics, geography, history, humanities, languages, management, political and social sciences...) and practitioners from diverse professional fields (business, civil society, education, enterprise, government, management, parliament, public policy, social and solidarity movements...) as well as artists, writers, journalists and activists of social and solidarity movements, based in diverse geographical areas (North, South, East, West, Central AFRICA; North, Central, South AMERICA; the CARIBBEAN; AUSTRALIA; North, East, West, Central, South and Southeast ASIA; Central, Eastern, Southern, Northern, Western EUROPE; RUSSIA, PACIFIC, OCEANIA...).


GUIDELINES FOR PRESENTER CANDIDATES

The selection of presenters is based on the abstract and the basic personal data of the presenter candidates in respect to the following dates:
  1. Deadline of abstract (200-300 words) submission: June 30, 2023
  2. Deadline of full paper (2000-3000 words / 5-6 pages) submission: August 31, 2023
  3. Notification for the selected presenters: progressively from June 2023. The earlier an abstract is submitted, the earlier its author will get notified, which is important for a travel planning.
The abstract is to be submitted online here.


FINANCING

The organising committee does not provide travel grant to any participant. The presenters as well as simple participants of the conference are supposed to find the necessary fund for their own participation (visa, international and national transport, accommodation).


Contact Info:

Darwis Khudori, Faculty of International Affairs, University Le Havre Normandy, France

Contact Email:

secretariat-afrasi@e-group.bandungspirit.org

TRANSNATIONAL MEMORIES IN EAST ASIA: ACTS OF REMEMBERING THROUGH MEDIA AND VISUAL CULTURE


Memorial Sites. Acts of remembering through media and visual culture:

Transnational Memories in East Asia


TRANSNATIONAL MEMORY OF THE SINO-JAPANESE WAR

Discussant: Michael Tsang (Birkbeck, University of London)

  • "Reading the Transformations of Chinese War of Resistance Museums in the Xi Jinping Era through the Visual Analysis"

Markéta Bajgerová Verly is a PhD student in the ERC project Globalized Memorial Museums at the Institute of Culture Studies and Theatre History, Austrian Academy of Science, and at the University of Vienna. Her research focuses on War of Resistance against Japan museums in contemporary China. In 2020, she obtained an MA degree in China Studies at the Yenching Academy of Peking University. In China, she led a Dean’s Grant project mapping 30 museums across China devoted to the memory of the War of Resistance and studied its memory politics. This project informed her MA thesis analysing the impact of the discourse on the museum’s domestic audience as well as her current PhD research. She holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Glasgow in Politics and History. During her early studies, she focused on politics of sacrifice and the affective turn in politics and was a research associate at the Institute of International Relations in Prague.

  • "Investigating Photography Albums of Japanese Soldiers in North-East China. Methodological and Epistemological Challenges"

Jasmin Ruckert is a PhD student at the Institute for Modern Japanese Studies at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf. She has studied in Vienna and Paris (Paris VII) and completed two master’s degrees in Gender Studies and Japanese Studies at the University of Vienna in 2017 and 2018. In her master theses, she investigated visual representations of gender and of queerness in Japanese terebi dorama. During her employment in a research-project on Japanese propaganda funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) her academic focus shifted towards historical media and the employment of fascist aesthetics and structuring of media politics in fascist empires. She is currently involved in publishing a volume entitled ‘Gendering Fascism’ (Brill 2024) together with Prof. Andrea Germer (Heinrich Heine University) on transnational entanglements and gendered dynamics in fascist movements and regimes of the early to mid 20th century. In her role as a lecturer at Heinrich Heine University, she has given courses on ‘Photography in Japan’, ‘Methodology in Transcultural Studies’ and on the history of Japanese-Chinese relations. Together with undergraduate students from her cultural studies course on ‘Representations of War’, she recently organised an exhibition on wartime photography.


MEMORIAL SITES IN KOREA


  • "The Korean War through Women’s Eyes: Sinchon Museum of American War Atrocities"

Suzy Kim is a historian and author of the award-winning Everyday Life in the North Korean Revolution, 1945-1950 (Cornell 2013). Her work has appeared in positions: asia critique, Asia-Pacific Journal, Cross-Currents, Comparative Studies in Society and History, and Gender & History. She holds a PhD from the University of Chicago, and teaches at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey in New Brunswick, USA. Her newest book is Among Women across Worlds: North Korea in the Global Cold War (Cornell 2023).

  • "Jeju 4.3 – Postmemory Aesthetics of Museal Images"

Hyunseon Lee, Ph.D. habil., is a London based film, media and literary scholar. She is a Privat-Dozent in Media Studies and Modern German Literature at the Department of German, University of Siegen, and a Research Associate at Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, and Centre for Creative Industries, Media and Screen Studies, SOAS, University of London. She has lectured and published widely in the fields of German and comparative literature, film, and media studies, and held various scholarships and fellowships at Yonsei University and Seoul National University, Columbia University in New York City, and Chuo University in Tokyo, and at the Institute of Germanic & Romance Studies/ School of Advanced Study, University of London. She is author of the books Metamorphosen der Madame Butterfly. Interkulturelle Liebschaften zwischen Literatur, Oper und Film [Metamorphosis of Madame Butterfly. Intercultural Love affairs between Literature, Opera and Film] (Heidelberg: University Press Winter, 2020), Geständniszwang und ‘Wahrheit des Charakters’ in der Literatur der DDR. Diskursanalytische Fallstudien [Compulsion to Confess and 'Truth of Character’ in the Literature of the GDR. Discourse Analytical Case Studies] (Stuttgart: J.B. Metzler, 2000), Günter de Bruyn – Christoph Hein – Heiner Müller. 3 Interviews (Siegen, MuK 95/96) as well as numerous articles on the topics of German literature, East Asian and Korean peninsula cinema, gender, exoticism, popular culture and media aesthetics. She is co-editor of Murderesses (2013), Akira Kurosawa and His Time (2005), and Opera, Exoticism and Visual Culture (2015), and solo editor of two books Korean Film and Festivals: Global Transcultural flows (Oxfordshire: Routledge, 2022) and Korean Film and History (Oxfordshire: Routledge, 2023/forthcoming). She is currently researching war, gender, and memory in European and East Asian cultures, with a focus on K-culture as well as North and South Korean cinema.

Seminar director: Dr. Marcos Centeno (University of Valencia. Birkbeck, University of London)


MORE INFORMATION
  • Date: Thursday 30th March, 3-5pm UK time (4-6pm CET, European Central Time)
  • Seminar online. Registration required.

CURSO ONLINE CINEASIA: EL FENÓMENO DE LAS SERIES COREANAS




Curso online CineAsia

El fenómeno de las series coreanas


Sí, ya está aquí, el curso que todas/todos nos habíais pedido tiene estructura y fecha de inicio. El estreno está previsto para el 17 de abril de 2023. El nuevo curso online de CineAsia que lleva por título ‘El fenómeno de las series coreanas’ analiza los k-dramas y el porqué del impacto mediático de las mismas a nivel internacional. Un recorrido histórico, que analizará desde las series de mayor éxito, los géneros, las agencias de talentos, la metodología de trabajo, la importancia de las guionistas…

De Winter Sonata a Itaewon Class, embárcate en el nuevo viaje que te propone CineAsia con el curso online ‘El fenómeno de las series coreanas’ un viaje de 20 horas (diez sesiones) por el mundo de la televisión y las series en Corea del Sur.



Ficha técnica:
  • Duración: del lunes 17 de abril al lunes 26 de junio
  • Horas: 20 horas (repartidas en diez sesiones)
  • Sesiones: (1 sesión a la semana) 2 horas de duración los lunes de las 19h a las 21h
  • Modalidad: online (a través de la plataforma Zoom)
  • Precio: 120 € / Alumnos que ya han realizado la preinscripción: 100 €
  • Descuento con carnet de estudiante: Todos los estudiantes tendrán un descuento de 20€ en la inscripción al curso.
  • Certificado del curso: Todos los alumnos que superen el 60% de las clases y que lo soliciten recibirán un certificado final del curso expedido por CineAsia.



Sesiones:
  • CLASE 1 – 17 DE ABRIL
“Presentación del curso y su metodología. ¿Por qué un curso sobre las series coreanas?”

Presentaremos el curso, su funcionamiento y también una introducción al “fenómeno de los K-dramas”: ¿por qué un curso sobre series de Corea del Sur? Hablaremos de su impacto mediático y cultural a nivel internacional.

  • CLASE 2 – 24 DE ABRIL
“El soft power coreano: la ola HALLYU”

Analizaremos qué es el llamado ‘poder blando’; la evolución de la ola hallyu coreana (cuándo y cómo empezó todo, su transversalidad, la evolución de las audiencias…). Trataremos también de reconocer los rasgos tanto positivos como negativos de la ola coreana.

  • CLASE 3 – 8 MAYO
“La industria de la TV coreana y sus políticas”

Un poco de historia sobre las cadenas de TV en Corea del Sur: canales públicos y privados, plataformas… También sus políticas publicitarias y de censura, así como cuándo y dónde se emiten los K-dramas y qué tipo de ellos se programan en cada cadena.

  • CLASE 4 – 15 MAYO
“La producción de las series coreanas”

¿Cómo se hace/se produce una serie en Corea? Metodología de trabajo, interacción con el fandom y la realidad del país; evolución de los géneros; cómo trabajan los directores, guionistas, actores… Un paseo por la “industria” de los K-dramas.

  • CLASE 5 – 22 DE MAYO
“Guionistas y directores más reconocidos de la industria de los K-dramas”

Es curioso cómo en la industria de los K-dramas, las figuras más reconocidas son los guionistas y, sobre todo, guionistas mujeres. Esto está cambiando en los últimos años y analizaremos por qué. Hablaremos las/los guionistas y directores más famosos, y de sus más famosas.

  • CLASE 6 – 29 DE MAYO
“Breve historia y evolución de los k-dramas en la TV coreana”

¿Cuándo empiezan a hacerse series en la TV de Corea? ¿Cómo empezó todo? Haremos un poco de historia sobre las más reconocidas series desde los años ’60-‘70s hasta llegar al “boom” que se produjo al principio del Nuevo Milenio y las series que lo iniciaron todo (Winter Sonata, Escalera hacia el cielo, Boys Over Flower, La joya de palacio, etc).

  • CLASE 7- 5 JUNIO
“Los ‘saeguk” y la historia de Corea”

Al hablar de la famosa serie “La joya de palacio”, nos da pie a realizar un recorrido por la historia pre-siglo XX de Corea: sus reinos, reinados, reyes a través de las series coreanas… Los llamados “saeguk”.

  • CLASE 8 – 12 JUNIO
“La historia de Corea: el Siglo XX en K-dramas”

Seguiremos hablando de la evolución de los K-dramas y de cómo estos han reflejado muchas veces la historia del país (colonialismo japonés, Guerra de Corea, dictadura, consecución de la democracia, crack económico 1997, hechos concretos sociales, etc).

  • CLASE 9 – 19 JUNIO
“K-dramas en clave de género”

Hablaremos de cómo los K-dramas reflejan a la mujer y al hombre: estándares de belleza femenina desde el Confucionisto a las “Gangnam Beauty”, las nuevas “masculinidades”, etc. Veremos cómo ha evolucionado en los K-dramas el tratamiento de las temáticas de género.

  • CLASE 10 – 26 JUNIO
“La globalización de los K-dramas”

Veremos cómo las plataformas (Netflix, Disney, etc.) han cambiado el panorama audiovisual y cómo se han beneficiado de ellas la industria de las series coreanas ampliando audiencias, globalizándose y cambiando también “su estilo y sus temáticas”. Para finalizar intentaremos sacar algunas conclusiones (tanto positivas como negativas) del fenómeno.

PERSPECTIVES ON CONTEMPORARY KOREA SUMMER INSTITUTE


Perspectives on Contemporary Korea

Summer Institute

Theme: The Global Korean War
Dates: June 25-July 1, 2023
Location: Ann Arbor Campus

Program Overview

The Nam Center for Korean Studies at the University of Michigan is announcing the inaugural Perspectives on Contemporary Korea Summer Institute, to be held in Ann Arbor from June 25-July 1, 2023. Graduate students at any level whose research concerns Korea are encouraged to apply. Preference will be given to students pursuing a doctoral degree. In this one-week, residential intensive program, students will participate in collaborative learning, collective thinking, and interdisciplinary agenda-setting around a key critical issue central to Korean Studies. Two leading scholars will be joining students in residence and directing in-person seminars for participants.

In the summer of 2023, the theme of the institute will be the Global Korean War. A formative event of the twentieth century, the Korean War was not a single war but a combination of several kinds of related conflicts: a civil war between mutually negating postcolonial political forces, a global conflict waged between major power blocs with competing visions of modernity, and, increasingly after 1950, a war fought between the American “superpower” and a fledgling revolutionary state of the People’s Republic of China. The Summer Institute will be devoted to exploring key issues in established and emerging scholarship on the Korean War. Particular attention will be paid to contextualizing classical perspectives in relation to successive waves of revisions enabled by the opening of previously unavailable archives on the one hand, and by the recognition of subjectivities and experiences hitherto unseen, unacknowledged, or marginalized, on the other.

This summer, the two scholars who will be joining the Summer Institute as faculty instructors are:

Heonik Kwon is a Senior Research Fellow in Social Science and Distinguished Research Professor of Social Anthropology at Trinity College, University of Cambridge. He is a Fellow of the British Academy, uniquely on the Academy’s three separate subject fields of Anthropology, Asian Studies and Modern History. Author of prizewinning books on the Vietnam War social history and on Asia's postcolonial Cold War experience (The Other Cold War, 2010), Kwon's other publications include North Korea: Beyond Charismatic Politics (2012), After the Korean War: An Intimate History (Cambridge, 2020), and Spirit Power: Politics and Religion in Korea's American Century (2022).

Steven Lee is Associate Professor of History and former chair of the international relations program at the University of British Columbia. His publications include Outposts of Empire: Korea, Vietnam and the Origins of the Cold War, 1949-1954 (1996), The Korean War (2001), and Transformations in Twentieth Century Korea, co-edited with Yunshik Chang (2006). He has coedited a volume of The Journal of American-East Asian Relations on the theme of the two Koreas in the 1950s (2017), and has written articles on the history of Korean refugees, Canada-Korean Relations, and the role of the UN in Korea. He is currently writing a global history of the twentieth century for Blackwell-Wiley.


Applications

All applications should be submitted using this form.

Interested students should prepare and submit the following documents, in addition to one confidential letter of recommendation from a faculty member from the institution where the student is currently enrolled, preferably the applicant’s advisor:
  1. A Letter of Intent of no more than two pages describing current scholarly interests and how participation in the Summer Institute would contribute to the applicant’s academic plans. The statement should include information about courses taken in relevant fields if any.
  2. A current curriculum vitae
  3. A sample of recent writing

Letters of recommendation should be submitted by the advisor in pdf format to ncks.applications@umich.edu with “SUMMER INSTITUTE - Letter of Recommendation” in the subject line.

The final deadline for all submissions is April 9, 2023 at 11:59 pm.

Admissions decisions will be announced within the month of April.


Tuition & Financial Aid

Tuition is waived for all participants in the institute. Lodging will be provided to participants, as well as a modest stipend for meals and incidental expenses, with the generous support of the Academy of Korean Studies.

Students are encouraged to seek funding from their home institutions for transportation to Ann Arbor.

The Summer Institute is supported by the Strategic Research Institute Program for Korean Studies of the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea and the Korean Studies Promotion Service at the Academy of Korean Studies (AKS-2021-SRI- 2200001).

CFP: ENGAGED BUDDHISM FOR AN ENGULFED WORLD; NEW PERSPECTIVES ON HUMANISTIC BUDDHISM


International Conference Engaged Buddhism for an Engulfed World:

New Perspectives on Humanistic Buddhism


The organizing committee for the international conference on “Engaged Buddhism for an Engulfed World: New Perspectives on Humanistic Buddhism” cordially invites the submission of related papers. This conference is sponsored by the Glorisun Charity Foundation in Hong Kong, administered by the Glorisun Global Network for Buddhist Studies and FROGBEAR at the University of British Columbia, and hosted by the University of Hong Kong. It will take place from August 9 to August 12, 2023 in Hong Kong.

Starting from the late 19th century, anti-religious movements such as ‘school-building on monastic properties’ 廟產興學 and the introduction of Western religions had posed an unprecedented crisis for Chinese Buddhism. This crisis weakened the economical foundation of the monasteries and even stripped some monasteries of their properties and possessions, making their normal functioning hard to persist. The traditional status of monastics was also severely challenged, forcing many monastics to return to lay life. Meanwhile, local religious activities centering around the monasteries also came to be seriously limited, while the overall development of Buddhism halted and even retrograded.

However, crisis also spurred reforms in Buddhist education, leading to the creation of many modern Buddhist colleges. In response to the crisis, some traditional Buddhist schools, such as Tiantai and Pure Land, also experienced renaissance. But perhaps the most notable outcome emerging from this crisis is the movement of Engaged or Humanistic Buddhism (Renjian Fojiao 人間佛教) led by Master Taixu 太虛 (1890-1947) which underpinned the renaissance of Chinese Buddhism in the 20th century.

Engaged Buddhism advocates the application of Buddhist philosophy in everyday life and the use of Buddhist practices for the sake of the betterment of oneself and the society. It promotes the sense of engagement and responsibility for the world and has led more and more Chinese Buddhists to regard the welfare of the society, and to contribute to charity, education, environment protection, and public health, among other social causes.

Engaged Buddhism also represents a modernized religious movement. It embraces modern values such as gender equality, diversity, individual freedom, and scientific and technological outlook; and is thus uniquely suitable for facilitating the dialogue between the Eastern and Western religions.

Buddhism itself promotes multiculturalism. Since its origin in India, it had taken up abode in many cultural and geographical areas in Central, East and Southeast Asia; and today, its influences continue reaching all around the world. Its successful transplantation in so many diverse cultures is indebted to its spirit of inclusivity. Buddhism is not hostile to other forms of thinking and in fact encourages its followers to respect the cultural and ideological diversity. This inclusive spirit revealed to be an advantage in the propagation of Buddhism on foreign soils. Secondly, Buddhism is highly adaptable, constantly letting itself be modified by host cultures. Moreover, Buddhist missionaries are often highly cultured individuals who possess the precious ability to communicate cross-culturally which is a quality strengthening the international appeal of Buddhism.

If we say Engaged Buddhism was birthed passively by the socio-historical circumstance at the time, then we must ask whether it could play a more active role in today’s world that is threatened by a reverse trend of globalization and the increasing hostility between some major cultures and states. It is thus worthwhile for scholars to study whether and how Engaged Buddhism could wield its cross-cultural capacity to contribute to the world peace and cooperation. For these reasons, we propose, though not exclusively, the following themes for discussion:
  • Engaged Buddhism and history;
  • Engaged Buddhism and regional studies (mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macao, Southeast Asia);
  • Engaged Buddhism: notable cases;
  • Engaged Buddhism: notable figures;
  • Engaged Buddhism and modernization;
  • Engaged Buddhism and globalization;
  • Engaged Buddhism and cross-cultural transmission;
  • Engaged Buddhism: its prospect.
The organizing committee welcomes all paper proposals related to this conference theme. All conference-related costs, including local transportation, meals and accommodation during the conference period, will be covered by the conference organizers, who—depending on availability of funding—may also provide a travel subsidy to selected panellists who are in need of funding. Please email proposals and CVs to frogbear.project@ubc.ca by April 15, 2023.

A conference volume will collect all the papers in English, plus English translations of several papers written in languages other than English; a volume in Chinese will include Chinese versions for all papers not written in Chinese in addition to those papers contributed by our colleagues based in China. Only scholars who are confident in finishing their draft papers by mid-July and publishable papers by mid-November of 2023 are encouraged to apply.

This conference is planned as part of our annual International and Intensive Program on Buddhism (details TBA).

CFP: INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE SINIFICATION, GLOBALIZATION OR GLOCALIZATION?

International Conference Sinification, Globalization or Glocalization?:

Paradigm Shifts in the Study of Transmission and Transformation of Buddhism in Asia and Beyond


The organizing committee for the international conference on “Sinification, Globalization or Glocalization?: Paradigm Shifts in the Study of Transmission and Transformation of Buddhism in Asia and Beyond” cordially invites the submission of related papers. This conference is sponsored by the Glorisun Charity Foundation, administered by the Glorisun Global Network for Buddhist Studies and FROGBEAR at the University of British Columbia, and hosted by the University of Hong Kong. It will take place from August 9 to August 12, 2023 in Hong Kong.

Contacts between the East and West had started as early as the antiquity. Alexander the Great, for instance, brought the Greek culture to India where Greek aesthetics would heavily influence Buddhist — especially Gandhāran Buddhist — art. Similarly, Roman coins circulated to the Chinese capital Xi’an as early as the Han Dynasty (202 BC–220 AD), while Christianity had already spread China in the Tang Dynasty (618-907). Within Asia, intense cultural exchanges also took place constantly, notably including the spread of Buddhism to China in the first century CE. Accompanying cultural exchanges are also conflicts. Encounters between Eastern and Western civilizations were especially combustible due to their vast political, economical, linguistic, and cultural differences. Scholars like Samuel P. Huntington even suggest that the primary cause of conflicts in today’s world will not primarily happen between countries, but between cultures or civilizations. According to Hungtinton, cultural differences are so deeply entrenched that they will be the indelible source of conflicts; and that these conflicts will manifest most intensely between the dominant modern Western civilization and other civilizations that share distinct ideologies and cultures. This opinion, however, is somewhat prejudiced in that it portrays civilizational clash as inevitable; and it even runs the risk of becoming a ‘self-fulfilling prophecy’ worsening the global situation. In reality, conflict is far from the normal mode of between inter-civilizational interaction. To the contrary, the advancement of human civilization is deeply indebted to the exchange and merging of cultures.

At this critical juncture of our own time when globalization faces an unprecedented crisis, history can serve as a mirror for us to understand the nature of inter-civilizational conflict and cooperation. In particular, the history of the transmission of Buddhism from India to China, its subsequent appropriation by Chinese culture, and the transmission of the Sinicized form of Buddhism to the rest of East Asia is especially revealing of the mechanism of cross-cultural interactions.

From the perspective of the global history, when the teachings of Buddhism first arrived in the heartland of China around the first century CE, East Asia had just started what would become an ongoing exchange with Central and South Asia. Influence from the Han Empire already had spread to Central Asia, and as a result, at least two civilizations communicated with one another through various channels to allow for diverse cultural interactions and fusion. Buddhism, in this context, was one among many players to participate in this rich cultural dynamic.

Buddhism, as a product of a foreign culture from the Chinese perspective, underwent an extended period of adaption and intermingling with indigenous cultures before many teachings were altered by the seventh century, which gave rise to a distinct Chinese Buddhist tradition that embodied the spirit of a new and vibrant host culture. Meanwhile, Chinese Buddhism spread across East and Southeast Asia, generating a novel Chinese Buddhist sphere of influence with the classical Chinese language as its lingua franca. Against this backdrop of world history and globalization, the spread of Buddhism transcends a singular cultural phenomenon in one defined region, and instead represents a grand religious and cultural transformation with profound and far-reaching implications.

The Sinification of Buddhism, or more specifically the Chinese metamorphosis of core Indic cultural elements, transpired within several domains, including philosophy, religious practice, and the construction of Buddhist institutions. During the migration from its homeland in South Asia to China, Buddhism retained many core doctrines, such as the doctrines of independent origination and of the Middle Way, the Four Noble Truths, and the threefold training in discipline, concentration and wisdom. But when it comes to the exegetical traditions that interpreted the many Indian classics, the process of Sinification is evident. In the early period, Chinese Buddhists digested Indian concepts by clumsily relating them to indigenous Chinese terms. Even later on, as Chinese Buddhists developed sophisticated insights about the nature of reality as ultimately unconditioned, they could not restrain a powerful urge to integrate Indian elements into systems of Chinese thought, especially by infusing Buddhism with Confucian and Daoist teachings. Furthermore, Buddhist teachers were often learned masters of both Chinese and foreign traditions of learning and exegesis. These teachers symbolize cultural fusion at a time when the Buddhist teachings were understood with uniquely Chinese characteristics. In addition, for a thousand years after the fall of the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220 CE), Chinese Buddhists not only translated and interpreted texts imported from India, but also many composed apocrypha and treatises that in turn generated many original doctrines, institutional codes, and historical narratives. In contrast to the Tibetan Kangyur and Tengyur that mostly comprise translated texts, the Chinese Buddhist canons incorporate many texts written originally in the Chinese language. The formation of the Chinese Buddhist Canon, therefore, is another key part of the process of Sinification.

Chinese Buddhists were also deeply affected by indigenous popular religious beliefs. Many secular followers were understandably more concerned with worshipping deities than with obscure doctrinal formulations. On this non-elite level, we find intriguing connections between Indian Buddhist and indigenous Chinese practices such as those techniques preached in the Huang-Lao school, and particularly the goal of spiritual immortality and the worship of ghosts and gods. Meanwhile, the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, and especially the Buddhas of the Three Ages and the four Bodhisattvas, emerged as central objects of worship in Buddhist rituals. After the Tang Dynasty, Bodhisattva cults acquired their own theoretical and institutional bases, and even absorbed the practices of mountain worship to produce a uniquely Chinese sacred geography that attracted not only Chinese pilgrims, but also pilgrims from across East and Southeast Asia and as far as the cradle of Buddhism itself in India. Within the context of this transformation, it seems that the axis-mundi of Buddhism gradually shifted from India to China.

The process of Sinification can be equally applied to the study of Buddhist institutions.

Indigenous Chinese religions did not conceive of any system of monastics, which only came into being during the Liu Song Dynasty (420-479) when Vinaya texts were translated and, with them, the Indian Buddhist institutional rules and regulations were transplanted to Chinese soil. But this relocated system experienced countless problems, of varying severity, within a new cultural milieu, especially when we consider conflicts with the dominant Chinese state. For instance, should monks dine while crouching or should they sit down? Should monastics eat with their hands or with chopsticks? Should they kneel before the ruler? Even trivial habits, such as washing one’s hands, brushing one’s teeth, and relieving oneself generated considerable debates. These examples attest to the drastic differences between the Indic and Chinese cultural environments. But Chinese Buddhists eventually dictated their own terms for monastic life. In Chan Buddhism, for instance, agrarian-influences upon Buddhism can be seen in teachings such as “one day without labouring, one day without eating” (一日不作, 一日不食), which is at odds with Indian monastic codes that explicitly preclude any agricultural work. Though not without controversies and occasional reversals of fortune, the Sinification of Buddhism proved to be inexorable over time.

The reason that Buddhism was able to establish such deep roots in China–when China was the source of the teachings of the religion after the seventh century in neighbouring kingdoms–has to do with a mutual attraction that bound the teachings of Indian Buddhism and Chinese culture together. The latter shaped the former in accordance with its philosophy, culture, and institutions, creating a form of Buddhism instilled with myriad Chinese features.

With this conference we are not only inclined to address our contemporary inquisitiveness by returning to the well-trodden path concerning the topic of the Sinification of Buddhism; we will address the process of Sinification against the backdrop of global history. We will also, therefore, reassess the potential uses of the term ‘Sinification’ to serve as a historical precedent that may be able to teach us new lessons relevant to our own time. Today, we are witnessing the trend of globalization being forestalled. Given this challenge, the study of the localization or indigenization and globalization (the so-called ‘Glocalization’) of Buddhism carries an implication beyond academic research, for it could impart historical lessons for our own time that is increasingly threatened by a reversal of globalization and by the hostility between cultures and states. For these reasons, we propose, though not exclusively, the following themes for discussion:
  • Conflicts and Conciliations: Patterns of intercultural/intercivilisational Interactions as Seen from Buddhism’s Crossborder and Transcultural Transformation
  • Indigenization and Globalization of Buddhism as Part of World History;
  • Sinification and Globalization of Buddhism and Reconstruction of Sacred Spaces in Asia;
  • Case Studies Showing Glocalization as a More Dynamic Approach for the Study of Transcultural Transmission of Buddhism;
  • Buddhism’s Transborder Transmission and the Formation and Transformation of Pan-Asian Textual Communities;
  • Buddhism’s Transborder Transmission and Commercial Networks in Asia;
  • Buddhism’s Transborder Transmission and Geopolitical Reshaping in Asia
The organizing committee welcomes all paper proposals related to this conference theme. All conference-related costs, including local transportation, meals and accommodation during the conference period, will be covered by the conference organizers, who—depending on availability of funding—may also provide a travel subsidy to selected panelists who are in need of funding. Please email proposals and CVs to frogbear.project@ubc.ca by April 15, 2023.

A conference volume will collect all the papers in English, plus English translations of several papers written in languages other than English; a volume in Chinese will include Chinese versions for all papers not written in Chinese in addition to those papers contributed by our colleagues based in China. Only scholars who are confident in finishing their draft papers by mid-July and publishable papers by mid-November of 2023 are encouraged to apply.

This conference is planned as part of our annual International and Intensive Program on Buddhism (details TBA).

CFP: THE KOREAN PENINSULA, A MULTIDISCIPLINARY PERSPECTIVE, INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM


The Korean Peninsula, A Multidisciplinary Perspective. International Symposium

June 21-22, 2023 The Bar-Ilan University (hybrid)


Last year (2022) the Korean Studies conference commemorated 60 years of diplomatic relations between the Republic of Korea and some Middle Eastern countries, including Israel. This year, the conference’s focus will be on the Korean Peninsula from a multidisciplinary perspective.

The security threat from the North that South Korea is dealing with, considered to be a major topic in the field of Korean Studies in Israel for many years. To broaden the discussion, the 2023 Korean conference will include other challenges and themes that both Koreas face, including (but not limited):
  1. The demographical challenges, solutions, and obstacles South Korea faces in the last few years. Is it an obstacle at all?
  2. The economic policy. How should the government, financial and industrial sectors adapt to the new global changes? What is the role of China in these economic changes?
  3. Cultural aspects. President Yoon Suk-yeol declared that he will invest three billion dollars in South Korean culture. How should Korea balance its investments in culture? Should we change our soft power perspective in the coming years?
  4. Historical preservation. What efforts and aspects of preservation are taking place in contemporary Korea? How should Korea's historical assets be presented to the public?
  5. The security challenges. The new North Korean drone incident and the debate on how South Korea should develop its own nuclear capabilities, raise questions about South Korea's defense policy.
  6. The influence of populism in the Korean political arena. Political discourse, and the use of social media.
  7. Historical narratives between Korea and its neighbors.
Asian Studies at Bar-Ilan University invite scholars from the humanities and the social sciences to discuss these issues. To offer new perspectives on these issues, and or other relevant themes that concern Korea (North and South). We will also invite comparison discussion between Korea and other global cases.

Individual presenters may submit an abstract of 300 words and a one-paragraph short CV. For panel proposals, please submit a one-page proposal and a short CV of the speakers. Email the information or if you have any questions to Dr. Alon Levkowitz (alon.levkowitz@biu.ac.il) by April 1, 2023.

Successful applicants will be notified by April 15, 2023.

On the evening of June 21st, we will host an opening dinner for all participants. Conformation of attendance is required. The conference panels will take place on June 22 at the Bar-Ilan University campus.

Participants are required to secure their own travel and accommodation arrangements. Limited hotel rooms will be offered for overseas participants. If you wish to be granted accommodation, please mention it in your proposal. Conference Organizers: Dr. Alon Levkowitz and Dr. Michal Zelcer-Lavid, Asian Studies, Bar-Ilan University

For questions regarding the conference, please contact Dr. Alon Levkowitz alon.levkowitz@biu.ac.il.

This conference is supported by the 2022 Korean Studies Seed Program of the Academy of Korean Studies (AKS-2022-INC-2230013) and the Dangoor Centre.

WEBINAR CASA ASIA: COREA EN EL NUEVO SISTEMA DE RELACIONES INTERNACIONALES


Corea en el nuevo sistema de relaciones internacionales,

Webinar Casa Asia


Con el objetivo de mostrar la proyección internacional de Corea se analizará la participación coreana en la nueva configuración de las relaciones intergubernamentales, determinada por el ascenso de China y por la política exterior estadounidense. Se recurrirá a tres espacios geográficos clave: en la península de Corea, mostrando la divergencia creciente de los objetivos de los gobiernos del Norte y del Sur; en Asia del Este, analizando el acercamiento necesario con Japón y, en la región del Pacífico, la tensión ejercida por tener a China como primer socio comercial y a Estados Unidos como garante de la seguridad.

Palabras de bienvenida:
Presenta:
Modera:
Conferencia a cargo de:

Biodata del conferenciante:

Juan José Ramírez Bonilla es doctor en desarrollo económico y social por la Universidad de Paris-I, Panthéon-Sorbonne; desde 1993, es profesor-investigador adscrito al Centro de Estudios de Asia y África de El Colegio de México; sus líneas de investigación son “Desarrollo económico y social en Asia del Pacifico” y “Procesos de integración económica en la región del Pacífico”. Entre sus publicaciones recientes destacan: La República de Corea ante la influencia de la administración Trump (El Colegio de México, 2020) y 60º Aniversario de la relación Corea-México. Evaluación y objetivos futuros (Embajada de la República de Corea en México, 2021).



Más información:
  • Fecha: Jueves 23 de marzo de 18.00 h a 19.30 h CET
  • Lugar: Online. 24 horas antes del acto las personas inscritas recibirán la información necesaria para acceder. Comprueba tu bandeja de correo no deseado en caso de no haberla recibirlo.
  • Precio: Actividad gratuita.

CONFERENCIA CASA ASIA: LA GEOPOLÍTICA EN EL INDOPACÍFICO Y LA POSICIÓN DE COREA


La geopolítica en el Indopacífico y la posición de Corea,

Conferencia Casa Asia


La política exterior coreana ha dado un giro importante con el presidente Yon Seuk-yeol. Este giro se ha traducido en una mejora de las relaciones con Japón, una mayor aproximación a EEUU, sobre todo en el terreno de la seguridad, y una relación más matizada con China. En esta conferencia se tratarán los aspectos clave de la estrategia de este país asiático para el Indopacífico, con especial atención a la preocupación por la amenaza norcoreana y el protagonismo de las cuestiones de seguridad.

Presenta y modera:
Conferencia a cargo de:
  • María Castillo, embajadora de la Unión Europea para la República de Corea.

Más información:
  • Fecha: Jueves 16 de marzo de 18.00 h a 19.00 h CET
  • Precio: Actividad gratuita previa inscripción.

CICLO DE CONFERENCIAS VIRTUALES: DIÁLOGOS IBEROAMÉRICA-COREA


Diálogos Iberoamérica-Corea,

Ciclo de conferencias virtuales


Se trata de un ciclo de seis conferencias virtuales, a través de la plataforma Zoom, una por mes, desde marzo hasta noviembre de 2023.

Existe una tradición de colaboración entre instituciones educativas de América Latina y España en torno a los estudios asiáticos. Se han desarrollado diferentes acciones a lo largo de los años que han posibilitado el intercambio de experiencias y la movilidad de estudiantes y docentes. Sin embargo, estas iniciativas han estado sujetas también a cambios de rumbo de las políticas nacionales y regionales que han determinado la secuencia de ciclos recurrentes de acercamiento y distanciamiento. La estrategia de triangulación España-Latinoamérica-Asia ha transitado desde finales del siglo XX entre las dimensiones del mito y la realidad, reflejando diferentes momentos de reactivación que no han llegado a consolidar un escenario iberoamericano sólido para las posibilidades de relación multifacética con Asia oriental, y, en especial, con países como Corea del Sur, que protagonizan fórmulas dinámicas de convertir la globalización en oportunidad para el desarrollo económico, cultural, político, geoestratégico, etc.

La conformación de una masa crítica creciente facilita y exige, también, la concreción de un proyecto transatlántico que aúne los esfuerzos académicos y empíricos desde diferentes unidades universitarias interesadas en definir una aproximación específicamente iberoamericana en los estudios coreanos contemporáneos.

Coordinador académico: 
Horario:
  • 17:00 – 19:00 (en Madrid)
  • 10:00 – 12:00 (en Ciudad de México)
* ACTIVIDAD GRATUITA

Objetivos:
  • Generar un espacio iberoamericano para el estudio de las relaciones de Corea del Sur con España y Latinoamérica para conocer, compartir y comprender lo que hacemos, estudiamos y enseñamos sobre Corea.
  • Definir un modo iberoamericano específico de aproximación a los estudios coreanos, que recoja las influencias y elementos singulares de la región y las maneras de pensar las relaciones derivadas.
  • Facilitar una comprensión académica precisa de las particularidades iberoamericanas para las interacciones económicas, tecnológicas, socioculturales, comerciales, etc., con la República de Corea.
  • Así mismo, difundir las investigaciones y publicaciones que se han generado y generan desde ambos lados del Atlántico, con el apoyo, debate e intervención de expertos de otras latitudes.

PROGRAMA

Certificados:

La participación de alumnado UMA, en el 80% del cómputo total de duración de todas las sesiones, da derecho a la obtención de un certificado de participación y aprovechamiento expedido por la Universidad de Málaga, firmado por el Rector, con reconocimiento de los estudios a efectos de cómputo para la obtención de títulos universitarios oficiales en la Universidad de Málaga.

En el caso de alumnado externo a la UMA, la constancia de participación se realizará por parte de la FGUMA, con la exigencia del mismo porcentaje de asistencia del 80% del cómputo total de duración de todas las sesiones.



Contacto

Correo electrónico: proyectos@fguma.es / ceit@fguma.es

Teléfono: 951 952 734

CFP: THE (SCOPUS/ISI) SOAS GLOCAL CONFERENCE ON ASIAN LINGUISTIC ANTHROPOLOGY 2023 (CALA)




The (SCOPUS/ISI) SOAS GLOCAL Conference on Asian Linguistic Anthropology 2023 (calA)



GENERAL INFORMATION

The SOAS GLOCAL CALA 2023 (SCOPUS / ISI indexed) is the annual GLOCAL conference and set of workshops and lectures on the Linguistic Anthropology, The Sociolinguistics, and the Language and Society, of Asia.


UNIVESITY COLLABORATORS


Elsevier, Taylor and Francis, Sage, Wiley, John Benjamins, Cambridge University, Oxford University.


LOCATION

University of The Philippines Diliman, Diliman, The Philippines.


DATES

May 16-19 2023.


SESSIONS
  • General Papers.
  • Colloquia (including 10 national Philippine Universities presenting individual Colloquia).
  • Posters.
  • Workshops / lectures on research and publishing methodology, and on ethnography, by globally prominent academics (including ELAR SOAS) and publishing companies.
  • Special Panels.
  • Keynotes Speakers: 

DISPLAYS
  • Publishing companies (Taylor and Francis, Elsevier, Sage, John Benjamins, Wiley).
  • Universities (20 displays).
  • The Endangered Alphabets Atlas.
  • Local and International Ethnographical Associations.

PERFORMANCES

Anthropological and Cultural Performances from Philippines performance companies.


ANHROPOLOGICAL EXCURSIONS

Anthropological one day options to sites significant in Philippine language and society.


ABSTRACT SUBMISSIONS

The SOAS GLOCAL CALA 2023 abstract submission /Second call for abstracts opens on October 20, 2022 and closes on March 13, 2023. The Notification of Acceptance will be no later than March 16, 2023. Submit at the following link, with all information.



THEME

Symbol and Society: The SOAS GLOCAL CALA 2023 invites work on the linguistic symbols of Asian and global Asian society, in a new era. Submissions should acknowledge and describe the transfer of language and communication in this new era. Papers should discuss the ways in which communication takes on both evolutionary and revolutionary form, following recent significant changes in Asian society, and in Asia’s new and revised interrelatedness across global scopes.


SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE

For full Scientific Committee, see link.


PUBLICATIONS
  • Conference proceedings (ISI / AHCI indexed)
  • Several special Top Tier (Scopus/ISI /ACHI /SSCI) journal issues and monographs are planned with well ranked publications and publishers only, from papers submitted to The (SCOPUS / ISI) SOAS GLOCAL CALA 2023 that meet review requirements. Ample assistance is provided to revise papers.

CONTACT
  • Head of Communications: Ms. Nhan Huynh.
  • Email: cala2021.upd@up.edu.ph

LINKS
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