The 1st GAS Joint Workshop “Exploring Asian Connectivities: Topics, Methods, and Implications”

Report

With the theme of “Exploring Asian Connectivities: Topics, Methods, and Implications”, the first GAS joint workshop with CLASS/CoHASS in NTU Singapore was held in-person at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. It was aimed at exchanging scholarly knowledge and research experience on global Asian studies as well as discussing the possibilities of research collaboration in both individual and institutional levels.

As the notion “Global Asian Studies” (GAS) was influenced by the objective of Global Asia Research Cluster at CoHASS(College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences) in NTU Singapore, this joint workshop was a meaningful first step for GAS program to start intellectual conversations and networking with our new initiative of global Asian studies.

After welcome remarks by associate professor Joyce Pang at CoHASS and opening remarks by professor Shigeto Sonoda from IASA, four thematic sessions followed: “Asian Perspectives on Global Mobility”, “Historical and Cultural Narratives in Intra-Regional Dialogue”, “Representations and Expressions of Chinese Philosophy”, and “Health, Well-being, and Medicine in Asia.” From these multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary talks across humanities and social sciences, the workshop opened a space to rediscover the locality as well as interlocality of global Asian studies and their diverse academic practices.

The participants from IASA could also have a full day of connectivity with a very warm hospitality by Centre for Liberal Arts and Social Sciences (CLASS) and CoHASS in NTU Singapore. A very intensive day-long workshop left a next task to continue collaborative works and the anticipation for the second joint workshop in the near future.

Date:24 March 2023, Friday

Venue:SHHK Conference Room, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Programme

09:00-09:30 Registration and Breakfast
09:30-09:45 Welcome and Introduction by Assoc Prof. Joyce Pang
Associate Dean (Research), College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (CoHASS), Director, Centre for Liberal Arts and Social Sciences (CLASS)
Opening remarks: Prof. Shigeto Sonoda
Chair of Global Asian Studies Program, Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia (IASA)
  Theme 1: Asian Perspectives on Global Mobility (Moderator: Shigeto Sonoda, UTokyo)
09:45-11:15 1a: Global mobility in the 1980s in South Korea (Jiyoon Kim, IASA, UTokyo)
1b: Dairy and Diaspora: Postponed Reform on the Guangming Overseas Chinese.
Farm of Shenzhen (Zhou Taomo, School of Humanities, NTU)
1c: Superdiversity, temporality and the (geo)politics of ‘integration’: Interrogating differential inclusion in non-Western citizenship regimes (Laavanya Kathiravelu,School of Social Sciences, NTU)
1d: Inter-Asian Digital Infrastructures (Jack Qiu, Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, NTU)
Panel Discussion and Q&A – 30mins
11:15-11:45 Coffee and Tea
  Theme 2: Historical and Cultural Narratives in Intra-Regional Dialogue (Moderator: Joyce Pang,NTU)
11:45-13:00 2a: Orientalism from Within?: Representation of Southeast Asia in History Textbooks of Japan, China, and Thailand (Pattajit Tangsinmunkong, IASA, UTokyo)
2b: Futures in Culture: (Could there be) A South-East/South-East Conversation? (Jennifer R. Cash, School of Humanities, NTU)
2c: Temple Crimes: East-West cinematic Space as Cultural Connectivity (Ian Dixon, Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, NTU)
Panel Discussion and Q&A – 30mins
13:00-14:30 Lunch
  Theme 3: Representations and Expressions of Chinese Philosophy (Moderator: Lim Khek Gee, Francis, NTU)
14:30-15:45 3a: Philosophy of Chinese music and science (Yuki Tanaka, IASA, UTokyo)
3b: Reshaping Confucianism: A Progressive Inquiry (Li Chenyang, School of Humanities, NTU)
3c: Chinese Landscape Painting & its Connection to Chinese Living Philosophy (Ng Woon Lam, School of Art, Design and Media, NTU)
Panel Discussion and Q&A – 30mins
15:45-16:15 Afternoon Tea
  Theme 4: Health, Well-being, and Medicine in Asia (Moderator: Joyce Pang, NTU)
16:15-17:30 4a: Challenges and Prospects for Cross-boundary Cancer Studies as Asian Studies (Norie Kawahara, IASA, UTokyo)
4b: Misleading information in health and its specific cultural connotations (Peter J. Schulz, Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, & Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, NTU)
4c: Polyglot Asian Medicine (Michael Stanley-Baker, School of Humanities, & Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, NTU)
Panel Discussion and Q&A – 30mins
End of workshop