Humanities Research Centre, University of York
Keynote Speaker: Margaret Hillenbrand, Associate Professor of Modern Chinese; Fellow of Wadham College, University of Oxford
In recent years, there has been an explosion of global interest in East Asian popular culture. Although it has proved incredibly fascinating amongst the general public, East Asian popular culture remains an underdeveloped area in academic research. This conference seeks to redress this imbalance between popular engagement and critical attention. As the body of early career researchers and PhD students expands and breaks new ground in this area across British institutions, it seems to be the perfect time to bring researchers together to forge new networks, inspire collaboration, provoke stimulating debate and encourage the sharing of knowledge.
It is imperative to this emerging and dynamic field that we think critically, not just about the content, but about how academic research itself is conducted on East Asian popular culture in the UK. What is unique about East Asian popular culture within an East Asian, and global, context? How has East Asian popular culture been studied in the past and how might we approach it in the future? To what extent can we challenge or extend existing debates around ideas of popular culture? And how might we situate research on East Asian popular culture within the rapidly transforming social, political, cultural, philosophical and economic contexts? Through this interdisciplinary one-day conference, we intend to develop a friendly and supportive environment to cultivate, reflect on and exchange ideas about this field with specialists from across the UK.
We are delighted to announce that Dr. Margaret Hillenbrand, University of Oxford, will deliver a keynote speech. Dr. Hillenbrand is an associate professor of modern Chinese, whose research and publications to date have focused on literary and visual culture in twentieth-century China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan. She is currently completing a book on the intermedial relationships between photography and a range of other aesthetic forms – literature, cinema, painting, and sculpture – in post-socialist China.
To this end, we aim to be as inclusive as possible and to provide a space for all colleagues working on topics related to East Asian popular culture. Therefore, we welcome discussions on all forms of popular culture, including film, television, anime, music, theatre, literature, magazines, comics/manga, art, video games, fan-produced content, fashion, etc.… Topics may include, but are not restricted to:
Ø Identities
Ø Gender, sexuality and representation
Ø Audiences and fandom
Ø Popular culture tourism
Ø Remaking/re-interpretation of cultural products
Ø Industrial practice and production of popular culture
Ø Transnationalism, textual migration and translational practices
Abstracts of no more than 250 words should be sent to by 10th December 2015. The conference is free to attend and includes a light lunch and wine reception in the evening. We may also be able to offer some financial help towards travel costs; please get in touch so that we can discuss this with you.
We wish to thank the White Rose East Asia Centre (WREAC) for its financial contribution to this event. The White Rose East Asia Centre is a collaborative endeavour between the departments of East Asian Studies at the Universities of Leeds and Sheffield under the umbrella of the White Rose university consortium. The organisers also gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the British Academy through their funding of the White Rose East Asia Centre (Grant Ref: AH/L006758/1).