The theme of this year’s workshop is “Transcultural Dynamics of Asia and Europe: Mobility, Negotiation and Transformation.” The concept of “transculture” is still a newcomer to the social sciences and humanities but increasingly debated. In some discourses, the term “transculture” is used to describe processes of transformation that unfold through extended contacts and relationships between cultures, various agents, institutions and concepts. Transculturality may cover spatial mobility, circulation or flows of persons, goods, or information and seeks emancipation from the limited notion of culture defined as an ethnically closed, linguistically homogenous and territorially framed juxtaposition of power and agency. The concept of transculturality is similar or related and, at the same time, opposing to concepts such as assimilation, convergence, cosmopolitanism, entanglement, glocalisation, hybridity, power asymmetries, syncretism, or transfer. Transculturality yields new perspectives on the dynamic nature of power, and the circulation of ideas, people and commodities in a close manner to the approach of “entangled history.” Transculturality is also a methodological perspective. It asks to unpack established concepts, questions the nation-state as a container for knowledge and social life and is thus highly oriented towards empirical studies of cultural and institutional processes, dynamics, conflicts and the agents involved.
The organizer welcomes contributions from various disciplines of the social sciences and the humanities. Contributions in the following fields – but not limited to them – can be considered for an application to this workshop: “Cultural Encounters and Translation”, “Migration, Integration and Processes of Social Inclusion/Exclusion”, and “Flows, Counter-Flows and their Barriers: The Mobility of Objects and Practices”.
Master’s students, Ph.D. students, Ph.D. candidates, post-doctoral fellows, and those who are in early-career and non-permanent positions are welcomed to apply. The application deadline is June 18, 2016 (Japan Standard Time). The registration is for free. Students from certain universities may apply for a travel grant.
The Next-Generation Global Workshop (NGGW) has been held annually since 2008 to provide an opportunity for early-career scholars to present their research and to have feedback from an international audience. It also provides opportunities for all participants to learn from other participants and to deepen the understanding of various social phenomena and perspectives encompassing social issues in respective parts of the world, particularly in Asia. The workshop serves as a forum for scholars from various regions to build a common academic foundation by redefining Asia in the global context.
The 9th Next-Generation Global Workshop is co-organized by Kyoto University Asian Studies Unit (KUASU) and the Heidelberg Centre for Transcultural Studies (HCTS). The event will take place on September 26-27, at Faculty of Letters Main Building, Kyoto University. Prof. Monica Juneja, HCTS Professor for “Global Art History”, will give a keynote speech at the opening of the workshop.
Get more information on the workshop here.
Find the Application Form here.