Interasian Connections V: Seoul
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INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON InterAsian Connections V: Seoul April 27-30, 2016 SEOUL NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON InterAsian Connections V: Seoul For more information, visit: http://www.ssrc.org/programs/interasia-program/ Follow InterAsia Program: www.facebook.com/InterAsiaProgram Welcome and Acknowledgements e are delighted to welcome you to the conference on InterAsian Connections V: Seoul. W This is the fifth conference in the series (Dubai 2008, Singapore 2010, Hong Kong 2012, Istanbul 2013), which have become an exciting venue enabling the intersection of research agendas and the networking of researchers to develop important and new paradigms on Asian pasts, presents, futures and global connections. The conference is the product of an active collaboration with a growing set of partners. The original partners from 2009 (NUS, HKIHSS and SSRC) have now been joined by Yale University, Goettingen University and, looking ahead, Duke University. In addition, the Arab Council for the Social Sciences has joined as contributing organizational partner. Of course Seoul National University Asia Center, our host institution, has been an integral collaborator on the substance and logistics of this conference and, we hope, of future activities as well. The InterAsia partnership is expanding the modalities and channels through which it works, thus the biennial conference is now augmented by an SSRC program offering junior scholar fellowships for transregional research focusing on “InterAsian Contexts and Connections” (with funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation), three post-doctoral positions have been made available at Yale University (funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York and The Whitney and Betty MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies) and a Transregional Virtual Research Initiative (TVRI) focusing on “Media, Activism and the New Political” (funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York) was launched in 2013 and is organizing a workshop at this conference. Following the conference, we look forward to planning the new phase of activities for linking research, collaboration, training and teaching on InterAsian themes as well as launching digital and print publishing platforms for the work undertaken through the partnership. Through the exciting themes presented at this fifth conference in Seoul, we continue exploring new dimensions of the varied connections and continuums that criss-cross the Asian expanse, connecting its many parts with one another and with the globe. We thank the Workshop Directors for their hard work in conceptualizing their themes and helping us attract a wide variety of excellent paper contributions and we thank the participants for their enthusiastic response to our call for papers. We are also delighted to welcome three important scholars of Asia who will help us frame our discussions through plenary presentations: Lisa Yoneyama (University of Toronto), Juliette Chung (National Tsing Hua University), and Myoung-Kyu Park (Seoul National University). A large number of institutions and individuals have made this conference possible. Myungkoo Kang and Bae-Gyoon Park would like to thank Seteney Shami and Holly Danzeisen of the SSRC and the entire steering committee of the InterAsia partnership for selecting Seoul Welcome and Acknowledgments 3 National University Asia Center for the InterAsian Connections V conference and for providing intellectual and organizational guidance throughout the planning process. They would also like to acknowledge Prasenjit Duara, who suggested to the steering committee that the InterAsian Connections V conference should take place at Seoul National University Asia Center. They are grateful to the InterAsian Connections V Local Organizing Committee members at Seoul National University Asia Center for their intellectual advice and institutional support, including Prof. Euiyoung Kim, Bonggeun Kim, Seok kyoeng Hong, and Dr. Sukki Kong. They are most grateful to Jong-Cheol Kim, who single-handedly coordinated the local organization and logistics of Inter- Asia Connections V: Seoul. They would also like to acknowledge the assistance given by Soyeon Kim, HyunMin Kim, and other staff, as well as the publicity support provided by the Public Relations Team at Seoul National University Asia Center. Korea Foundation provided additional funding for the conference, which is gratefully acknowledged. Angela Ki Che Leung would like to thank Helen Siu, the then Honorary Director of the Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences, for her invaluable support of and advice on this initiative. She also thanks the President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Hong Kong, Peter Mathieson, the Provost and Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Paul Tam, Vice President and Pro- Vice Chancellor for Research, Andy Hor, and the University’s senior management for their unstinting support to the Institute. She is most grateful to the Institute’s Executive Committee, Advisory Board, donors, colleagues and friends for appreciating our unconventional academic agenda and for providing institutional guidance. Special thanks to the Institute’s staff for their thoughtful planning and hard work. Prasenjit Duara would like to thank the Office of the Deputy President of Research at NUS for their continuing support of InterAsian Connections for five years, including this conference in Seoul. He would also like to extend his appreciation to Duke University’s Dean of Arts and Sciences and Vice Provost for Global Strategy and Programs for supporting Duke’s upcoming participation in the InterAsian Connections partnership. Srirupa Roy would like to thank her colleagues at the University of Goettingen's CETREN network for transregional research who have made this collaboration possible, especially Professors Axel Schneider, Dominic Sachsenmeier, Rupa Viswanath, Matthias Koenig, Sabine Hess, and Peter van der Veer for their intellectual and institutional generosity and encouragement of transregional research initiatives at Goettingen. The crucial organizational support provided by Dr. Karin Klenke, Dr. Tina Schilbach, and Ms. Katja Pessl is gratefully acknowledged as well. Helen Siu and Shivi Sivaramakrishnan would like to thank Ian Shapiro, Director of the MacMillan Center, for funds and support to the Inter-Asia Program at Yale since 2008. They offer a special word of thanks to the business office staff of the MacMillan Center. They are also grateful to Jing Tsu, chair of the Council on East Asian Studies, and Karuna Mantena, Chair of the South Asian Studies Council, for their generous funding on nodal activities at Yale. They appreciate the hard work of the councils’ staff, Melissa Jungeblut, Kasturi Gupta, and Yukiko Tonoike, and the support of the multi-year Carnegie Corporation grant for the Inter-Asia Program at Yale. Over the years, we have enjoyed the advice and participation of our faculty colleagues, Erik Harms and William Kelly. And we would like to thank our Inter-Asia Postdoc at Yale, James Pickett, and 4 Welcome and Acknowledgements the dedicated Inter-Asia Graduate Students Group who have put together a stimulating and creative set of speakers, workshops, conferences, and student-led discussions on campus over the past year at Yale. Seteney Shami would like to thank SSRC President Ira Katznelson for his support as well as Executive Director, Mary McDonnell for her advice and guidance throughout the life of the project. A special acknowledgement is due to Holly Danzeisen, Associate Director of the SSRC InterAsia program for organizational and substantive support as well as to Mona Saghri, Program Assistant for InterAsia. She also thanks Najwa Tohme, Finance and Administration Manager at the Arab Council for the Social Sciences for her support of the collaboration between the ACSS and the InterAsia partnership. So, welcome to Seoul, and to Seoul National University. We hope that you will enjoy and benefit from all the activities of the conference. Prasenjit Duara Srirupa Roy Duke University University of Goettingen Myungkoo Kang Helen Siu Seoul National University Asia Center Yale University Angela Leung K. Sivaramakrishnan Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities Yale University and Social Sciences (HKIHSS), The University of Hong Kong Seteney Shami Social Science Research Council Bae-Gyoon Park Seoul National University Asia Center Welcome and Acknowledgments 5 Organizing Partner Institutions HONG KONG INSTITUTE FOR THE HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES Website: http://www.hkihss.hku.hk The Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences was established in 2001 at the University of Hong Kong. It aims at promoting innovative, multi-disciplinary, and inter-institutional research and teaching in the humanities and social sciences related to China in the world, and inter- Asian connections. Its emerging core programs include humanities in medicine, technology and science, Asian urbanity, hubs and mobilities, comparative religious traditions, charities and civil society. It creates multi-layered platforms for a critical community of scholars to share experiences across the globe. Its outreach programs and commissioned projects connect with policy and business professionals. A key mission is to nurture young scholars in the humanities and social sciences by providing global exposure and mentoring. The Institute has developed a postgraduate program on China in the world, focusing on medicine, science and technology, Asian urbanity, and religions.