Call for Papers

"Heritage, conflicted sites and bordered memories in Asia"

Sessions Sponsored by the British Association of Japanese Studies

Kyushu University, Nishijin Plaza, Fukuoka

July 18-19, 2020


On July 18 and 19, Kyushu University will host a two-day international conference on "Identity Politics and the Challenges of Cultural Diversity Across Contemporary Asia". As part of the program, we will organize a number of sessions with the collective title of "Heritage, conflicted sites and bordered memories in Asia". These sessions will examine issues of Heritage in contemporary Asia, and will build upon the results of an earlier conference held at Kyushu University in December 2016, on "Borders of Memory".

Together with the tension emerging from UNESCO recognition accorded particular sites of national heritage in East Asia, there has been increased interest in the possibilities for heritage serving as "cosmopolitan" sites of memory, ones able to transcend national boundaries and function within different mnemonic communities. In these sessions, we are particularly interested in the ways that heritage, and its specific material manifestations, works as a means of transcending borders for memory collectives, whether national or local.

The borders referred to here are both spatial and temporal. One concern is the relation between heritage and spatial division, how particular sites of memory are able to speak to communities located in distinct, and frequently antagonistic, national spaces. A second series of borders in which we are particularly interested are the ways sites of heritage "concretize" narratives across temporal boundaries, providing the material foundations for the channelling of contemporary claims about the past.

In bringing together an interdisciplinary group of scholars to reflect on how memories are made, materialized and memorialized within and across societies, these sessions will deepen and enrich our understanding of the significance of heritage for national identities and international relations in the Asia-Pacific and beyond.

We invite interested scholars to submit abstracts (of up to 250 words) to the session organizer by March 31, 2020.

Thanks to the generosity of the British Association of Japanese Studies, who will sponsor these sessions on Heritage, there will be three awards (of 25,000 JPY each) available to support the attendance of graduate students or early career scholars. Please indicate if you wish to be considered for these awards when submitting your abstract.


Contact:

Ted Boyle: boyle@law.kyushu-u.ac.jp