Pre-conference

Get ready for Crossroads 2018

Pre-conference

The pre-conference is for current Masters or PhD students, or those who are recent graduates of Masters and PhD programs, and involves a full day-long program on August 11^th.

The pre-conference aims to provide a stage for young participants in the filed to exchange views on practical and theoretical issues. Under the main topic of “Youth and Cultural Studies”, panels and papers that focusing on (a) political/cultural consciousness of the youth, (b) alternative practice of the educated youth, (c) the feminine youth in contemporary society and (d) the “communicative turn” of youth culture will be preferred.

See more suggested topics here.

We accept both pre-organized panel proposals and individual paper proposals, yet the former has the priority.

Submission guidelines and forms can be accessed here.

We are greatly honored to invite Kuan-hsing Chen to be the keynote speaker for the Crossroads 2018 pre-conference. In addition to being an outstanding scholar, Dr. Chen is a true friend and mentor to young people.

A self-claimed Bandungist, writer, editor, reporter, cultural organizer, karaoke singer, iPhone photographer,Kuan-Hsing Chen works in the Center for Asia-Pacific Cultural Studies, Hsinchu. Founding Chair of the board of trustee for the Inter-Asia School (an international NPO). He taught in Chiao Tung University (2008-2017), Tsing Hua University (1990-2008) and has held (and is still having long term affiliation with) visiting professorships at universities in the US (UC Berkeley), Japan (Tokyo U), Korea (Yonsei U), China (Shanghai U, Nanjing U's School of Marxism and Xiamen U), Hong Kong (Lingnan U), Singapore (NUS), Uganda (Makerere U), and Ethiopia (U of Addis Ababa), Toshisha U and Ritsumenken U (Kyoto). His recent publication includes Chen Yingzhen's Third World: Leftists' Life and Afterlife (2015), and Asia as Method—Towards De-imperialization (Duke University, 2010) which has Chinese, Korean Japanese, and Thai editions. He has edited volumes in English, including Stuart Hall: Critical Dialogues in Cultural Studies (Routeldge 1996) and Trajectories: Inter-Asia Cultural Studies (Routeldge 1998), Inter-Asia Cultural Studies Reader (Routeldge 2007), and in Chinese: Decolonizing the World: A Mahmood Mamdani Reader (2016), Cultural Studies in Taiwan (2000) and The Partha Chatterjee Seminar--Locating Political Society (2000), Chinese Revolution Reconsidered: Mizoguchi's Mode of Thought (2010), Paik Naik-chung: Division System and National Literature (2010), Chen Yingzhen: Thought and Literature (2011). Founding chair of Taiwan's Cultural Studies Association, founding member of the Inter-Asia Cultural Studies Society (and its Consortium). In recent years, he has been involved in the West Heavens Project (2010-) and in establishing the Inter-Asia School (2012-) to launch the Modern Asian Thought project; with these involvements, he and other members of the Inter-Asia School have organized “Indian-China Social Thought Forum” (2010), “Asian Circle of Thought Shanghai Summit” (2012), “Inter-Asia Biennale Forum” (since 2014) and “Bandung/Third World 60 Years Series” (2015), “Third World Action” (2016-). At this moment, he participates in “Decolonizing the Earth—for a grounded global intellectual movement” Project, including preparation for launching the Bandung School and “Bandungism—Chen Yigzhen's (Another) Third World Action”. A core member of the Taiwan: A Radical Quarterly in Social Studies, he has been a co-editor of the journal, Inter-Asia Cultural Studies: Movements (2000-) and Renjian Thought Review (mandarin Chinese; 2010-).

Conference Abstract
De-imperializing University
University, as the center for knowledge production, has always been an integral part of the history of imperialism. Colonial expansionism and later nationalist modernism, the two entangled driving forces can be identified as the two engines to install this mystical institution called university to unify the world on the level of mode of thought. Contemporary problems of the earth are then the results of knowledge, critical or otherwise. How to de-imperialize university and its modes of knowledge production is on the critical agenda for intellectuals to work together to transform ourselves. Taking cues from African experiences since 1960s this presentation is a thinking exercise to begin to think of alternatives in and outside the gated community of university.

KANG Nae-hui has retired from Chung-Ang University in Seoul, South Korea, after teaching cultural studies in the Department of English and the Graduate Program of Cultural Studies for 29 years. Throughout his career, Professor Kang has been active in the social movements in South Korea. After serving as (co-)representative of such organizations as Munhwa Yondae (Cultural Action), a civil social movement organization, Mingyohyup (National Professors Council for Democratization), and Jinbonet (Korean Progressive Network), a network services provider for progressive organizations, he now works as dean of Knowledge Circulation Cooperative Alternative College, chairman of Chamsesang, an internet newspaper, and co-chair of Marx Communale, a Marxist intellectuals’ organization formed to hold biennial conferences. Publisher of the cultural studies journal Munhwa/Kwahak (Culture/Science) since 1992, he has also been responsible for the Korean edition of Traces, a multi-lingual series of translation and cultural theory. His publications have dealt with such topics as Korean colonial modernity, technologies of writing, the idea of cultural society, knowledge production and education reform, intellectual movements, and neoliberal dominance in South Korea. His published books include Impacts of Modernities, Traces, Vol. 3 (Co-edited with Thomas Lamarre, 2004); Neoliberal Financialization and Cultural Political Economy (in Korean, 2016); The History of the Road: Footprints of an Upright Being (in Korean, 2016). He is currently working on a morphological study of Seoul.

Conference abstract
In Time of Common Scarcity
    KANG Nae-hui, Knowledge Circulation Cooperative Alternative College, Seoul
One of the most worrisome aspects of neoliberalism’s dominance in the world today is that rather than working together to resist it, people are made to pit against each other. The more unequal and unjust neoliberalism renders the society, the more it seems that we end up expressing hatred and disgust toward other people. This is exactly what happened in South Korea where neoliberalism has intensified since the late 1990s. Recently in the country, hate crimes and incidents have sharply increased, leading often to the radicalization of identity politics. More feminists than before thus rely, for instance, on the practice of “mirroring” as a strategy to attack abusive male right-wingers by replicating their behavior. While this response is perfectly understandable, the problem with its tit-for-tat approach is that it cannot make the abusers disappear. For as long as neoliberal capitalism prevails, they will find enough venomous food for their survival. There is then a need to overcome the current situation. It is also crucial to understand how the situation has come into being. The argument of this talk will be that the main cause for different social subjects being embroiled in escalating recriminations should be found in the scarcity, caused by neoliberalism, of basic life resources—lack of food, housing, finances, health care, childcare, education support, social care and solidarity—for their everyday life. What makes the shortages disgraceful is that they are artificially created by today’s capitalism. Worse still, they have become common to most of us. Drawing upon examples from South Korea, this talk will then examine how ours has become a time of common scarcity and how we can possibly cope with it.

We are excited for all participants' contributions to and enrichment of discussions at the pre-conference.

Spread the news! Please share this page with your peers – we look forward to seeing you in Shanghai in the beautiful summer of 2018!