"Cultural Power Asia: Producing Culture, Building Identities" International Conference, November 13-15, 2008

Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University, Frankfurt am Main, Germany

In recent years, East Asian countries have emerged as a major cultural force, from "J-cool products" over Korean soap operas to China's efforts at establishing a global cultural presence through its Confucius Institutes. One reason for the emergence of East Asian cultural power is the success of Asia's creative industries in international markets. However, Asia's cultural success is also closely linked to deliberate efforts of East Asian governments at promoting their cultural power. The conference will address the following issues: The dynamic production of culture in an immaterial and material sense; the use of cultural force for domestic and international politics, and finally the impact of East Asian popular culture in Europe.

Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt will formally establish its Interdisciplinary Centre for East Asian Studies (IZO) in 2008. With a total of nine chairs, the Centre will rank among the largest East Asia-related centres in Europe. These chairs, dedicated to regional studies, humanities and social sciences, will offer access to a broad knowledge base on current developments in East Asia and their historical background.

"Cultural Power Asia: Producing Culture, Building Identities" will be the inaugural conference of the Centre. With this call for papers, we invite contributions from the fields of regional studies, humanities and social sciences and look especially forward to the active participation of PhD. students, young scholars and post-docs for a contribution at a special session on November 15th. The three most outstanding papers will be selected and awarded a grant, covering travel and accommodation costs for the conference.

A preliminary conference programme is available for download here. To find out about the programme on the opening night, click here.

A registration form is available for download here. Participation in the conference is free of charge.

For a list of recommended hotels, click here.

Further information:

Dr. Katrin Fiedler, Coordinator
Interdisciplinary Centre for East Asian Studies
Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main
Senckenberganlage 31, 8/F, D-60325 Frankfurt a.M.
Phone: +49 (0)69-798-23284
E-Mail: K.Fiedler@em.uni-frankfurt.de
www.izo.uni-frankfurt.de/Aktuell.html