Short report on the Slavic Research Center panel at the Association of Asian Studies (AAS)
2011/04/18
To celebrate its 70th anniversary, the Association for Asian Studies (AAS) held a special joint conference with the International Convention of Asia Scholars (ICAS) in Honolulu between March 31 and April 3 at the Hawai'i International Convention Center. This conference was perhaps the major event of the year for scholars interested in all aspects of politics, history, geography, religion and culture across Asia.
At the conference there were over 700 panels with sessions focusing on countries and regions as diverse as North Korea, Nepal, Japan, India and Russia. Perhaps unsurprisingly, a great number of panels were devoted to the opportunities and challenges that a rising China is presenting to the region and beyond. Thousands of delegates were in attendance and included such academic ‘celebrities’ as Francis Fukuyama.
Supported by the GCOE Programme: ‘Reshaping Japan’s Borders’, the Slavic Research Center presented a panel entitled: ‘Evolving States of Northeast Asia: Borders and Representation’. This panel provided a broad historical and contemporary look at the various meanings of boundary lines in this region with a particular focus on the border between the two Koreas, the dispute over Russia’s border with Japan, as well as the wider representations of borders through cartography and museums.
Ted Boyle, a graduate student at the Faculty of Law, Hokkaido University began the proceedings with a paper on the cartographic construction of state borders in northeast Asia. He was followed by Dr. Naomi Chi (Assistant Professor at the SRC), who gave an insightful presentation on inter-Korean Relations and their implications for a new regional order. Paul Richardson, a final year doctoral researcher from the University of Birmingham and visitor at the SRC, introduced the concept of the ‘hyper-border’ as a device for helping to understand the issue of the Southern Kurils / Northern Territories. The panel was concluded by Professor Akihiro Iwashita’s discussion of the importance of museums for representing and interpreting borders.
Although the SRC panel took place on the last afternoon of the conference and despite many distractions provided by the beautiful island of Oahu, the session was well attended and included in its audience eminent professors from the United States, Japan, Canada and Russia. There was a lively but good-natured discussion after the presentation and all the panellists received useful comments and questions. In short, this panel proved to be an excellent forum to promote both the work being undertaken on borders at the SRC as well as allowing the participants to discuss their work and broaden their contacts with international experts.
At the conference there were over 700 panels with sessions focusing on countries and regions as diverse as North Korea, Nepal, Japan, India and Russia. Perhaps unsurprisingly, a great number of panels were devoted to the opportunities and challenges that a rising China is presenting to the region and beyond. Thousands of delegates were in attendance and included such academic ‘celebrities’ as Francis Fukuyama.
Supported by the GCOE Programme: ‘Reshaping Japan’s Borders’, the Slavic Research Center presented a panel entitled: ‘Evolving States of Northeast Asia: Borders and Representation’. This panel provided a broad historical and contemporary look at the various meanings of boundary lines in this region with a particular focus on the border between the two Koreas, the dispute over Russia’s border with Japan, as well as the wider representations of borders through cartography and museums.
Ted Boyle, a graduate student at the Faculty of Law, Hokkaido University began the proceedings with a paper on the cartographic construction of state borders in northeast Asia. He was followed by Dr. Naomi Chi (Assistant Professor at the SRC), who gave an insightful presentation on inter-Korean Relations and their implications for a new regional order. Paul Richardson, a final year doctoral researcher from the University of Birmingham and visitor at the SRC, introduced the concept of the ‘hyper-border’ as a device for helping to understand the issue of the Southern Kurils / Northern Territories. The panel was concluded by Professor Akihiro Iwashita’s discussion of the importance of museums for representing and interpreting borders.
Although the SRC panel took place on the last afternoon of the conference and despite many distractions provided by the beautiful island of Oahu, the session was well attended and included in its audience eminent professors from the United States, Japan, Canada and Russia. There was a lively but good-natured discussion after the presentation and all the panellists received useful comments and questions. In short, this panel proved to be an excellent forum to promote both the work being undertaken on borders at the SRC as well as allowing the participants to discuss their work and broaden their contacts with international experts.
