INTER-ASIA CULTURAL STUDIES SUMMER SCHOOL 2022
Flashpoints for Inter-Asia Cultural Studies
9-18 August 2022
Online
Hosted by Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur
Theme
The severity of structural inequalities and the violence that sustains them have become especially stark in the last two years since the onset of the global Covid-19 pandemic. Yet, they have been long in the making. While the various political, economic, ecological, health, and social crises currently unfolding may manifest differently across Asia, they are nonetheless profoundly entangled with one another. Given the global scale and systemic nature of these upheavals, what are the theoretical concepts required to understand how these crises are interconnected while allowing us to consider site-specificity and difference? What temporal and historical frameworks can help us identify and examine the longer periods of germination and gestation that birthed today’s urgent problems, which have seemingly come out of nowhere? What critical, creative, and collaborative practices are necessary for making sense of how we arrived at this present and for organising a better future?
To engage with these questions, Summer School 2022 will focus on four keywords – authoritarianism, environment, translation, and movement – as entry points for our discussions. Each keyword will feature two sessions led by an invited scholar; one session will be open to the public (spaces limited; registration required) and the other only for participants accepted into the Summer School.
Hosted by Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, the 2022 Inter-Asia Cultural Studies Summer School will be held online. In addition to the synchronous sessions held on Zoom, which will be scheduled throughout the two weeks, Summer School participants will also have access to an online platform for asynchronous discussions. A full programme will be published by July.
Authoritarianism
Taking Asia as our starting point, how might we understand authoritarianism as a more complex and global phenomenon, and one that is centrally entangled with the histories of colonialism, decolonization, and postcolonial national development?
Environment
What multiple strategies do Indigenous communities employ to uphold their rights over their native territorial domains? How might a more ethical approach and understanding of Indigenous strategies contribute to better forms of conservation and research?
Translation
In what way does inter-referencing within Asia take place in translation? How might translation tackle the politics of inequality such as issues concerning language hegemony, gender, race, and colonialism in Asia? To what extent is the mediatory power of the English language confronted and challenged in Inter-Asia translation? How do scholar-translators intervene in the formation and dissemination of knowledge in and about Asia?
Movement
What inter-Asian and global events underpin people’s movements, whether voluntarily or through force, from one place to another, from one time to another, and from one ideology to another? How do people negotiate, navigate, resist, and interact with these movements? How can activist scholars not only read these events but also contribute to movement-building at a grassroots level?
