Recent Projects
The 18th New Zealand Asian Studies Society International Conference 2009
On 6-8 July, the Asian Studies Institute hosted the 18th New Zealand Asian Studies Society International Conference 2009 at Victoria. The New Zealand Asian Studies Society (NZASIA), established in 1974, seeks to encourage the spread of knowledge about Asia, its history, its culture and its role in international affairs. The Society's biennial conferences help achieve this aim through the dissemination of original research in all fields concerning Asia. The conference was very well attended, with close to 150 papers presented by scholars from around New Zealand and overseas.
The opening ceremony featured welcoming remarks from the Governor General of New Zealand, His Excellency The Hon Sir Anand Satyanand, who inaugurated the conference, and the Minister of Ethnic Affairs, the Hon Pansy Wong and was immediately followed by a keynote speech from Sugata Bose, the Gardiner Professor of History at Harvard University. Other keynote speakers included Jeffrey Wasserstrom, Professor of History at the University of California, Irvine and Robert Buswel, Distinguished Professor of Buddhist Studies and and chair of the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures, at the University of California, Los Angeles.
'Globalization and National Identity in Asia' - Research Symposium
On 29 October 2009, the Asian Studies Institute will hold a research symposium on "Globalization and National Identity in Asia" that will address the following theme: Globalization and National Identity in Asia.
While influential commentators have posited an end to the nation-state as a result of globalization, empirical evidence suggests that the nation-state remains, in fact, alive and well. Nonetheless, around the world, not least in Asia, the complex and often contradictory processes of globalization are undeniably encouraging the rearticulation of local and national identities in frequently unpredictable ways. While some theorists of globalization have argued for scenarios in which cultural diversity is being effaced (e.g. "Coca-Colonization," "McDonaldization"), others have suggested that through processes of contestation, pluralization, and "glocalization", local and national identities are being maintained or even enhanced.
Assessing these phenomena has crucial implications for understanding how Asian societies are adapting to increased transnational movement of capital, goods, ideas, and people, and to swift developments in information and communication technologies (ICT). In this workshop we hope to consider a series of detailed case studies on responses to these phenomena in order to probe the precise effects of these trends throughout the Asian region. The papers for this symposium will be considered for publication in a book on an international press.