De-centering academia: InterAsian Perspectives

Workshop at the German Institute for Japanese Studies (DIJ) in Tokyo

This workshop addressed the recent dynamics in higher education in Asia, under the conditions of pronounced power asymmetries, but also of processes of ‘de-centering’ – in the sense of challenging the Western dominance in this field. Today’s global landscape of higher education is driven by neo-liberal policies and by the enhanced positional competition (Bourdieu) between countries, universities, academic staff, and students. The unequal nature of academia is especially observable in the scope of marketization and in different forms of classifying, ranking, and measuring. It is also characterized by cultural asymmetries, for instance by the dominance of the English language in academic expression: English-speaking journals located in the West continue to be most influential in all academic fields; they tend to privilege certain reservoirs of knowledge as well as specific forms of knowledge transmission.

At the same time, at least two processes of de-centering take place. First, in terms of an emergence of new centers of higher education outside of the Western hemisphere and in a reversal of academic migrations – of faculties and students – towards new destinations in Asia. Second, in terms of the recent debates on the legitimacy and validity of knowledge. Modernity has allotted the center stage to canonised academic knowledge that is strongly influenced by Western positions.

The workshop explored these interrelated fields by deploying comparative perspectives on different Asian regions, and by inquiring into Asian connectivities and forms of cooperation. It drew upon European experiences and transregional interactions. Japanese and German scholarship contributed new perspectives to these debates because both countries look back at an intensive involvement throughout history in shaping the academic constellations, e.g. in terms of their intellectual contributions. Yet, both countries are currently not at the peak of the global academic hierarchies – which allows for critical but constructive assessments.

Morning session                     Organized by the Shaping Asia Network Initiative “Knowledge Production and Circulation”

10:00-10:05                             Welcome address by Franz Waldenberger (DIJ)

10:05-10:30                             Introduction to the ‘Shaping Asia’-program and methodology: Claudia Derichs (Humboldt University Berlin) and Joanna Pfaff-Czarnecka (Bielefeld University)

10:30-11:00                             Keynote 1: “Negotiating Decolonisation Efforts and Academic Freedom: Resisting Co-optation into the Mainstream” by Vineeta Sinha (National University of Singapore)

11:00-11:30                             Keynote 2: “De-centering epistemic coloniality at the research-policy interface: migration studies and the migration state” by Francis Collins (University of Auckland)

11:30-12:00                             Short Q&A and short break

12:00-12:10                             Comments by Tsuyoshi Ishii (University of Tokyo)

12:10-12:20                             Comments by Noorman Abdullah (National University of Singapore)

12:20-12:30                             Comments by Dhruv Raina (Jawaharlal Nehru University)

12:30-13:00                             General discussion

13:00-14:30                             Lunch break

Afternoon session, part 1      Organized by the Knowledge Lab, DIJ

14:30-14:35                             Introduction of the Knowledge Lab by Franz Waldenberger (DIJ)

14:35-14:50                             “Problematizing Carl Schmitt’s Position in Decolonial Projects” by Harald Kümmerle (DIJ)

14:50-15:05                             “De-centering Japanese knowledge in (post)colonial Korea” by Dolf-Alexander Neuhaus (DIJ)

15:05-15:20                             “De-Centering Thai Studies” by David Malitz (DIJ)

15:20-15:35                             “Disassembling Southeast Asia: On Geological Body, Bumantara and Decolonizing Southeast Asia” by Fathun Karib (National University of Singapore)

15:35-16:00                             Combined discussion

Afternoon session, part 2

16:00-17:00                             Plenary discussion, including a reflection on synergies and/or complementary fields of interest between the DIJ and Shaping Asia

Evening

17:00-19:00                             Networking reception