- Hideki Nakata, GOE Researcher

    I have just returned after spending the past three years in Central America — as a visiting professor at University of San Carlos in Guatemala.  Members of my research group and others have asked me such questions as “The influence of the economic crisis in the U.S. must be very heavy. Is that severe?” To even use the word “influence” risks missing the point. The yen has risen in value against the dollar in recent years. In contrast, in an economy that is actually an appendage to the U.S. economy and completely controlled by the U.S., Guatemala’s currency, the quetzal, has sunk to a record low.

    Large numbers of people have either lost their jobs or have gone without pay for many months. An overwhelming majority of the population lives in dire poverty. Large numbers survive by the skin of their teeth.  Many face one of three options: (1) to engage in smuggling, working with mafia-type organizations smuggling drugs coming up from the south or smuggling weapons from the north to the south; (2) to illegally emigrate to the U.S. at the risk of their lives; or (3) to die.

    An unprecedented wave of restructuring of the public sphere is steadily sweeping across the countries to the south of the United States. For an incredible number of men and women the intimate sphere has been shattered by events in the public sphere.

    Ironically, the crisis meant that the cost of my staying there fell by one-third. My intention is to repay all the warm hospitality I received by doing what I can to sharpen our discussions here, to raise people’s awareness of the desperate situation faced by the people in that corner of the world.
 

- Tomohisa Hirata, GOE Researcher

  I’ve been walking from Internet cafe to Internet cafe, doing interview surveys in East Asia and Southeast Asia since August 2008. I do this because the Net cafes in each of the Asian countries are places providing inexpensive access to PCs and the Internet, and they give one a close look at the youth culture of each country. They also serve as a mirror reflecting the reality of the poverty of the region.

  Hong Kong’s Kowloon district is an example of what I’m talking about. Since the region was returned to China, it has continued to enjoy a high level of autonomy. This plus the fact that people from countries all over the world, people of all races, come here seeking work make Hong Kong a global city. Here in a corner of the city, a Hong Kong resident, who says his grandparents emigrated here from Pakistan, manages an Internet cafe that occupies a space in a dark building housing many types of businesses. Most of his customers are married women who have come here from their home country to work. These women use the PCs to communicate via Skype with the husbands and children back home. Some use Web cameras to exchange moving pictures with their family members to help verify how everyone is doing. This is an excellent means of maintaining contacts since it costs much less than an international phone call would.

  Unlike the case in Japan, Internet cafes in this part of the world do not offer private, individual booths, but the problem of privacy seems to vanish in the air in this Hong Kong shop. Each customer faces her monitor and the families gather on the screens like they are in the middle of a park. When I was there around the beginning of January, I looked out of the corner of my eye to see a woman teaching her child to sing “We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year” and to play it on the recorder. It makes one wonder what the infrastructure known as the Internet is really supposed to be.
 

Love in Our Time – A Question for Feminism GEXcel Conference of Workshops Örebro University, Sweden December 2–4, 2010

Supported by a grant from the Swedish Research Council Centre, Örebro University and Linköpings University launched a project to establish a European Center of Gender Excellence based in Sweden – Gendering Excellence (GEXcel): Towards a European Centre of Excellence in Transnational and Transdisciplinary Studies of Changing Gender Relations, Intersectionalities and Embodiment. During 2010, one of the research themes sponsored by GEXcel is “Love in Our Time – a Question for Feminism” directed by Anna G. Jónasdóttir, Professor of Gender Studies at Örebro University. (For a full description of the theme, see http://www.genderexcel.org/node/220).

We invite applications for this conference of workshops from junior and senior scholars whose research directly addresses one or more of the topics presented in the two main parts of the theme description:
I. Love Studies – mapping the field; or II. Love Studies – remaking the field. For the latter, we invite contributions, both critical and reconstructive, that specifically approach one of the following three
sub-themes:

(1) Gendered interests in sexual love, for instance how (if at all) care practices relate to erotic agency

(2) Temporal dimensions of loving and love activities, preferably as compared with temporalities of working, or labour activities; or with thinking and action time. Is there a philosophy and politics of time that should be distinguished and developed about love, to understand better the social conditions, cultural meanings and political struggles of love in our time?

(3) Love as a strong force in the intersection between politics and religion and also as a useful key concept for a new political theory of global revolution. What is to be said and done from feminist points of view about postmodern revitalising of pre-modern ideas of passionate love?

Conference Workshop Format
The conference will begin on Thursday morning (2 December 2010) with three keynote addresses from leading scholars in the field (to be announced), followed by workshop meetings in the afternoon. Friday (3 December 2010) will be organized similarly with both plenary sessions and parallel workshop meetings. A final plenary will be held on Saturday morning (4 December 2010), where summaries of major research and discussion themes will be presented.

Workshops are designed to be a forum for discussion of research in progress precisely related to the conference sub-themes and to facilitate collaboration among junior and senior scholars. Each workshop will go on for two days and involve ten participants from several institutions. Only those scholars currently working in the field addressed by the workshop will be accepted to participate.

The workshop format is intended to enhance participation in a collegial atmosphere. Each participant presents a paper or research document for discussion, and takes part in the discussion of the other sub-theme papers presented. In addition, each sub-theme participant will be assigned the role of formal discussant on one paper. Each sub-theme will be assigned a coordinator, whose tasks will include maintaining the group’s schedule of presentation, summarizing research and discussion themes and presenting these summaries at the closing plenary.

We expect these workshops to lead to publications, as well as to continued collaboration between members.

Application Requirements
Send an abstract of the proposed paper demonstrating how your research specifically connects to one of the sub-themes. Include a brief biographical note of no more than 250 words outlining your current research interests, most recent publications, academic affiliation and status.

Address for Applications
GEXcelTheme10@oru.se

Application Deadline
May 10, 2010

Notification
A committee will review applicants and notify candidates selected for participation by mid-June 2010.
 

We are pleased to announce that the 11th Annual Association of Pacific Rim Universities Doctoral Students Conference (APRU DSC) will take place from July 12 to 16, 2010 at the Central Library - Crystal of Knowledge, Universitas Indonesia (UI). Universitas Indonesia’s Organizing Committee for the Conference is now calling for papers to be presented at the 11th APRU DSC. Doctoral students from all disciplines are invited to attend and present papers related to their doctoral research and based on the conference theme: “Research for the Sustainability of Civilizations: Past, Present and Future.”  The theme will be further subdivided into 5 focal areas: Social, Economic and Cultural Policy; Climate Change and Sustainability Development; Spirituality and Identity; Technology; and Health.

Our goal is to highlight the importance of research on the sustainability of civilizations and to provide a platform whereby doctoral students from across the Pacific Rim can share their research efforts and specific experiences and network with a culturally diverse group of participants.

The conference will comprise of:
   1. Paper sessions
   2. Guest lectures
   3. Visits to selected institutions
   4. Special workshop
   5. Bali Island Tour (optional)

Papers Sessions
 

The paper presentations will be arranged according to focal areas to enable participants from different fields to engage in cross-disciplinary discussions.

Conference theme and focal areas:
 

“Research for the Sustainability of Civilizations: Past, Present and Future”

FINAL CALL FOR PAPERS
Deadline extended until - March 1st, 2010
 

44th Annual Conference of Asian Studies on the Pacific Coast (ASPAC)
THEME: Sustaining Asian Studies: Sustaining Asian Studies: Bridging Regions, Cultures, and Disciplines.
 

LOCATION: Portland State University, Portland, Oregon, USA
DATE: June 18 - 20, 2010

Conference website: http://asia.oia.pdx.edu/ASPAC_2010.php
 

The Program Committee for the 44th Annual Conference of Asian Studies on the Pacific Coast (ASPAC) invites proposals for individual papers, panels, and roundtables on all aspects of Asian Studies, and particularly encourages proposals that provide opportunities for discussion of methodological issues across regional and disciplinary boundaries.
 

The 2010 ASPAC conference theme is
Sustaining Asian Studies: Sustaining Asian Studies: Bridging Regions, Cultures, and Disciplines.
 

As the term "sustainability" has been applied to a wide array of phenomena ― from economies and political systems to social and cultural institutions and practices ― we employ the concept to provoke reflection on the contemporary state of Asian Studies and to consider future directions shaped by technological and methodological transformations experienced globally. For example, how do Asian and Asian-American Studies intersect? What does Asian Studies ― like other area studies ― offer the disciplines? What can the disciplines learn from Asian Studies?
 

In addition to proposals that address such questions, we welcome proposals on all aspects of Asian Studies from any regional or disciplinary focus. Organized panels are especially encouraged, although individual paper proposals are also welcome.
 

Details for abstract submission, including the Esterline Graduate Paper Award, and conference registration information can be found on the 2010 ASPAC Conference website http://asia.oia.pdx.edu/ASPAC_2010.php
 

Inquires:
Please contact the ASPAC 2010 Conference Committee at iasias@pdx.edu
 

-----------------------------------------------------------------

ASPAC 2010 Conference
Sponsored by the Institute for Asian Studies and Confucius Institute at Portland State University
Email: iasias@pdx.edu
WEB: http://asia.oia.pdx.edu/ASPAC_2010.php
www.pdx.edu
 

By Kanako Akaeda, Assistant Professor, COE

I spent about three months in Jyväskylä (“Yubaskula”), Finland after being sent there in late May under the auspices of the Erasmus program. Finland is known as a land of lakes and forests, and Jyväskylä is located in a region bordered with a large number of lakes. Looking down on the region from a high plateau, it appears that the city lies wedged between two large lakes. The campus with the Social Science Department building where I worked was situated on the edge of a lake, and during my stay, I took great pleasure in the gorgeous scenery when I walked along the lakeshore promenade to and from school every day. On days when the weather was fine, the promenade was filled with people enjoying themselves walking, jogging or roller skating. Among them, the women pushing baby carriages while jogging or skating left a lasting impression on me.

 It is said that gender equality is feature of Finnish society, but one can’t help feeling that a bit of mythology underlies this belief. While one sees men taking care of children frequently enough, parental care of very small children is still very much a woman’s job, just as it is in Japan. Unlike Japan, however, is the fact that, in Finland, the idea that women will have a lifelong career outside the home is fully accepted. In other words, Finnish society is one in which women do not work as housewives fulltime. We can think of the women pushing a baby carriage while they jog as a symbol of this type of society.

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS : MASTER'S PROGRAMME IN DEVELOPMENT AND INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION (FINLAND)

The University of Jyvaskyla is excited to announce the 2010 application round for its two-year Master's Programme in Development and International Cooperation. The programme is now open for applications for the 2010-11 academic year from applicants with a Bachelor's degree or equivalent higher education degree.

This programme is designed to prepare the next generation of leaders and practitioners in international development. It is a multi-disciplinary programme, conducted entirely in English, which combines the theoretical study of international development with practical training in the field. Key issues and programme content include development thinking and theory, intercultural competence, holistic and sectoral approaches to development, and project cycle management. There are currently no tuition fees for this programme.

The application deadline is January 18, 2010. For further information
about the programme and application process, please visit our website
(http://www.jyu.fi/intldev) or contact me at lisa.m.jokivirta@jyu.fi
or +358 (0)14 260 3105.

With warm regards,
Lisa

--
Lisa Marika Jokivirta
Junior Lecturer
Master's Programme in Development & International Cooperation
Department of Social Sciences and Philosophy
Room MaB209
P.O.Box 35
40014 University of Jyvaskyla
Finland

Tel +358 (0)14 260 3105
Fax +358 (0)14 260 3101