News from NIAS

We are happy to welcome two new workplace student to NIAS.

Sidsel Marie Nygaard
Sidsel is writing her master thesis in political science from Aarhus University with the work title "Tiger Cub Economies Struggling to Grow Up - case study of Malaysia", which investigates the political economy of the new Asian Tiger economies.
 

Jonathan Lehmann
Jonathan is an anthropology student at the University of Copenhagen. he is currently working on his master thesis entitled "(Yet another) Paradise Lost?", which investigates the changing livelihood strategies of local seaweed farmers in the small island of Nusa Lembongan, located in the Balinese Sea. Through a long-term ethnographic fieldwork, he has seen how the lives and economic strategies of three different families have changed drastically in order to follow the flows and consequences of the emerging tourist industry.
 

Conference call - call for Abstracts!

6th Sino-Nordic Women and Gender Studies Conference

AGE, AGENCY, AMBIGUITY
- gender and generation in times of change

This conference focuses on gender and generations in times of social and economic change, in particular economic crises, migration and environmental challenges. In China and the Nordic countries processes of industrialization, urbanization, deregulation, migration and globalization have had profound effects on gender and generational relations that display both differences and similarities. They relate to gender and generational aspects of family life, family-work relations, ageing societies, the situation of the younger generations, popularization of higher education, the expanding middle class and emerging precariat, the environment and sustainable development, and the increasing inequalities between different groups and classes. All this has far-reaching impacts on the conditions for gender equality work and academic research practices.

Venue: University of Oslo, Norway
Time: August 27-30th 2017

Registration: please use the registration form at
https://nettskjema.uio.no/answer/sino-nordic2017.html
Deadline: 15th December 2016

Keynote speakers

• Michael Kimmel, Professor of Masculinity Studies and Sociology at Stony Brook, New York, USA
• Yan Yunxiang, Professor of Anthropology and Chinese Studies at UCLA, Los Angeles, USA
• Pun Ngai, Professor of Social Sciences at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, China
• Pei Yuxin, Assoc. Professor of Social Work at Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China
• Lene Myong, Professor of Gender Studies at the University of Stavanger, Norway
• Helene Aarseth, Assoc. Professor of Gender Studies and Sociology at the University of Oslo, Norway

Read the full call for abstracts here

Nordic Asian Studies in the 21^st Century – Stocktaking for the Future
Conference Asia House, Copenhagen 7-9 November 2016
PhD Course NIAS, Copenhagen, 10-11 November 2016

At the beginning of the 21^st Century, relations with Asia have become crucial not only for the private, but also for the public sector. Economic, political and cultural relations between the West and the East are growing, and the need in our part of the West – the Nordic region – for solid knowledge about Asia, is also growing.

The present situation presents new opportunities for Asian studies within the Humanities and Social Sciences and, not least, a need for closer cooperation between the two. Unfortunately however, while our knowledge has become more useful and relevant to the wider society, many of us experience general budget cuts and difficulties in maintaining, not to speak of developing, our academic activities.

Keynote Speakers:

• Pingtjin Thum, Visiting Fellow at Green Templeton College, University of Oxford; Research Associate at the Centre for Global History, University of Oxford; and coordinator of Project Southeast Asia
• Tansen Sen, Professor of History, City University New York (CUNY) and NYU Shanghai Campus.
• James Wertsch, Professor, Washington University in St. Louis
• Henning Kristoffersen, Public Affairs Director Asia, DNV·GL, Shanghai
• Jong-kun Choi, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science and International Studies, Yonsei University, Seoul
• Kerstin Sahlin, Professor University of Uppsala, Secretary General of Humanities and Social Sciences Swedish Research Council, Stockholm
• Ummu Salma Bava, Professor of European Studies, Centre for European Studies, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
• Arnar Steinn Þorsteinsson, Asia Team Supervisor - Sales and Marketing, Iceland Travel
• Sebastian Bersick, Professor, Head of Department, International Political Economy of East Asia, Ruhr-Universität Bochum

The aim of the conference is twofold:

1. To gather colleagues from the Asian studies environments in all five Nordic countries to identify current tendencies and future prospect for Asian studies within the Humanities and the Social Sciences, as well as to identify Asia-relevant tendencies in academia outside these fields for future cooperation.

2. To invite people from the public and private sectors who engage with Asian partners. Through their presentations and in a dialogue with them, locate areas of common interest.

Conference website: http://noasc2016.sciencesconf.org

Extended Deadline for submitting abstract (maximum 300 words): 3 Oct 2016

A NIAS research project on relations between workers in China and consumers in Denmark has inspired creation of the theatre performance Buyer’s Paradise, which will be shown at the Passage Festival in Denmark 4-6 August.  

Buyer’s Paradise is an artistic exploration of relations between global phenomena and individual and collective lives played put through the example of the production and consumption of smartphones. The performance is concerned with the paradox between, on the one hand, acknowledging how the current global system of production and consumption creates inequality and threatens the possibility of a sustainable future on the planet and, on the other hand the perpetuation of this system. The performance invites the Danish consumer audience to explore this paradox through their encounter with mobile phones produced by factory workers in China.

The play is co-produced by the Culture Association of the New Dane Jimbut (Denmark) and STEREO Akt (Hungary). It is sponsored by the S.C.Van Foundation and the Danish National Art Foundation.