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Conference Announcement "Commonality and Regionality in the Cultural Heritage of East Asia" International Symposium Barnard College, Columbia University New York, NY (USA) 9-10 May 2009 __________________________________________________ You are invited to attend to attend a symposium on "Commonality and Regionality in the Cultural Heritage of East Asia" that will be hosted by the East Asian departments of Barnard College/Columbia University on May 9-10, 2009. In todays globalizing world, the question of commonality and regionality, of shared and distinct legacies of local cultures becomes increasingly pressing. Since antiquity various polities in East Asia came to create their distinctive cultural spheres both geographically and historically. These cultural spheres changed over time, taking different shapes depending on the region, so that their inner and outer boundaries always remained fluid. For the ancient period concepts like Sinographic cultural sphere, Confucian cultural sphere, Chinese-language Buddhist sphere, enfeoffment system and tributary system dominate the debate over the common East Asian heritage, highlighting commonality between East Asias various local cultures and polities. In contrast, research on the early modern and modern periods seems to split along national lines and tends to emphasize local characteristics and regionality. In the light of this tendency, this conference examines the shared cultural heritage that emerged from the interaction of various peoples in East Asia from the perspective of commonality and regionality from antiquity to the modern period. Our particular focus will be on the cultural interaction between China and Japan and we hope that the broad temporal frame of the conference will allow us to see distinct patterns of cultural interaction through the case studies that the speakers will be proposing on political, scholarly, linguistic, literary, artistic, and religious aspects of that interaction. True to the topic of commonality and regionality, this conference brings together scholars from China, Japan, Korea, the US and Europe. In its ideal intent it should trigger frank debates about the differences and commonalities in our scholarly work and about how they might relate to differences in academic culture and institutional structures, which in our various home countries inform our everyday and professional lives. The conference is open to the public. If you would like to attend, please respond to Rachael McGuinness <[email protected]> with name, institutional affiliation, and dates of planned attendance by May 4, 2009, so that we can make appropriate space arrangements. Any other questions can also be directed to <[email protected]>. Organizers Wang Yong Professor and Director, Institute for Japanese Culture Studies, Zhejiang Gongshang University, Hangzhou, China Wiebke Denecke Assistant Professor, Asian and Middle Eastern Cultures Department, Barnard College You can find further information on the conference website at: http://www.barnard.edu/amec/eacommonalityconference/ __________________________________________________ InterPhil List Administration: http://interphil.polylog.org Intercultural Philosophy Calendar: http://cal.polylog.org
