Tues 9 March

12:30 - 2:00 pm

CENTRE FOR AUSTRALASIAN RESEARCH

Transcultural Improvisions: Performing Hybridity
by Sneja Gunew, Director, Centre for Research in Women's Studies and Gender Relations

The paper draws on the three-year interdisciplinary project "Transcultural Canada: Cultural Mingling Between, Among, Within Cultures" (http://transculturalisms.arts.ubc.ca), which brought together Canadian, Australian, US and Latin American scholars to produce new models for productively representing hybridity/ métissage within a framework of transcultural translation. It was organised around the four themes: Ethnic and Indigenous relations; 'Mixed race' identities; Performing hybridity: new art forms; Globalization/Immigration/Citizenship. Over the three years of Transculturalisms events, we discovered that there were verydifferent ways of approaching what we had (perhaps naively)believed to be a common body of theoretical work in postcolonial studies and its subsets of diasporic, multicultural and hybridity studies (see bibliographies on the website). Not only did we not perform in the same languages (English, French, Portuguese, Spanish etc.) but we also discovered that our expectations concerning the kind of work theory does differed due, in part, to different intellectual and pedagogical traditions. While there is a burgeoning tradition of performance theory (whether one deals with it in theatre and related arts or in the work of feminist philosopher Judith Butler (who grounds her influential notion of the 'performative' in J.L.Austin's speech act theory) there has been surprisingly little work done on the ways in which theory itself is 'performed' within an academic and pedagogical framework. My paper will offer some links between 'performing hybridity', pedagogical practices, and recent Performance Theory.

Wed 10 March

4:00 - 5:30 pm

CENTRE FOR KOREAN RESEARCH

Korean Nationalism Through Japanese-Canadian Eyes
By Dr. Song Youn-ok, Visiting Scholar, Centre for Korean Research from Aoyama Gakuin University

In order to provide insight into what leaders of the Japanese-Canadian community thought about Japanese colonial rule over Korea, I will provide an analysis of articles on Korea in "Tairiku Nippon," a newspaper published from 1907 to 1941 by and for Japanese living in Canada. In addition, I will provide an analysis of articles on Japanese prostitutes published in that newspaper in order to provide a glimpse of how the Japanese community in Canada thought about gender issues.

Fri 12 March

12:30 2:00 pm

CENTRE FOR CHINESE RESEARCH AND CENTRE FOR SOUTHEAST ASIA RESEARCH

Women and Development Lecture Series:
Women in Reregionalizing Asia
by Professor Tani E Barlow, Dept. of Women's Studies, University of Washington

Tani E Barlow is a historian of modern China teaching in the Women's Studies Department at the University of Washington. Her most recent publications are "The Question of Women in Chinese Feminism" (Duke, 2004) and a co-edited volume with Jing Wang, "Cinema and Desire: The Feminist Marxism of Dai Jinhua" (Verso, 2003) Tani has begun a new research project under the provisional title "Intellectual Foundations of Chinese Social Science in the 1920s and 1930s." She is the founding senior editor of "positions: east asia cultures critique" and will serve as director of The Project for Critical Asian Studies at the University of Washington next year.

Mon 15 March

4:00 - 5:30 pm

CENTRE FOR CHINESE RESEARCH

Getting the News Straight: Semi-colonialism, Transnational Networks and Information Flows in Early Republican Shanghai
By Professor Bryna Goodman, Dept. of History, University of Oregon

Tues 16 March

12:30 - 2:00 pm

CENTRE FOR KOREAN RESEARCH

Dok-San School in Dae-Gu in the 1920s: Contradictions in Educational Administration in Colonial Korea
By Dr. Noriko Furukawa Visiting Scholar, Centre for Korean Research from Faculty of International Relations, Daito Bunka University

Dok-San School was a private educational institute in Wol-Bae district, Daegu City, operated by the Koreans between 1920 and 1930. This institute was not authorized as a 'school' by the colonial government, but was allowed operation as a 'course' of classes. It is now clear, however, through the diaries of the people associated with that institute as well as through interviews conducted by this researcher that, in actuality, that institute was a school. To present the truth about that institute, this report examines the education given at Dok-San School from different angles. By doing so, the report sheds light on private academic courses that were established in large numbers in Colonial Korea in the 1920s, and ultimately illuminates contradictions in educational administration by the colonial government.

Thurs 18 March

12:00 - 1:30 pm

CENTRE FOR JAPANESE RESEARCH

The Japanese Economy: A Return to Confidence?
By David Drake, Minister-Counsellor (Economic), Canadian Embassy, Tokyo

With the latest GDP figures showing that the Japanese economy grew at its fastest rate in 13 years, one needs to wonder whether, in fact, this economic recovery is real, or more of the same "Japanomics". Based on an examination of the facts, it is too soon to suggest that a full recovery and long run sustainable growth are guaranteed. However, despite some remaining challenges, the evidence is mounting that, this time, the apparent recovery is based on more solid fundamentals. The Japanese private sector, in particular, is emerging stronger than before and in a good position to compete in the global economy.

Fri 19 March

12:30 - 2:00 pm

CENTRE FOR INDIA AND SOUTH ASIA RESEARCH

WTO After Cancun : Indian Perspective
By Dr.Charan Wadhva, President and Chief Executive, Centre for PolicyResearch, India

Friday 19 March

4:00- 5:30 pm

CENTRE FOR KOREAN RESEARCH

Korean Women College Students In Japan Under The Japanese Rule
by Park, Sunmi, Lecturer at Ritsumeikan Univeristy and currently visiting scholar in the Department of Women's Studies, University of Victoria.

In regard to Korean women students in Japan, some issues, such as their movement and their acquired new consciousness in the midst of studying in Japan, and their activity after the returning home, have been examined only in part. Therefore it is important to know how many Korean women students were in Japan, why they went to Japan, what they learned, and after their return home what kind of role did they carry out in the Korean society. This must be explained, while being conscious of how those issues are related to the Korean modern history or the Korean modern gender history. With that, we can expect that the entire picture of the Korean Women Students in Japan being constructed in the Korean modern gender history. At this talk, I would like to introduce my dissertation and provide some historical materials, which will give you the statistical picture of Korean students in Japan and tell you how Korean women students understood their studying in the colony home country of Japan.

Wed 24 March

12:30 - 2:00 pm

CENTRE FOR SOUTHEAST ASIA RESEARCH

The Time of Terror: An Oral History of Victims' Experiences in Indonesia
by John Roosa, Assistant Professor of Southeast Asian History and International Relations, UBC.

John Roosa will discuss the making of his co-edited Indonesian-language book entitled The Year that Never Ended: Understanding the Experiences of the Victims of 1965: Oral History Essays [Tahun yang Tak Pernah Berakhir: Memahami Pengalaman Korban 65: Esai-Esai Sejarah Lisan] (Jakarta: Elsam, 2004). His co-editors are Ayu Ratih and Hilmar Farid. The book, consisting of six essays by young Indonesian researchers, is based on life-history interviews with 260 persons, primarily ex-political prisoners, relatives of the ex-political prisoners, and relatives of individuals killed or disappeared in the violence of 1965-66. The book was launched in Jakarta just last month

Friday 26 March

4:00 - 5:30 pm

CENTRE FOR JAPANESE RESEARCH AND DEPT. OF ASIAN STUDIES

Why Work So Hard? Advice from Early Modern Japan
by Mary Elizabeth Berry, History, UC Berkeley

Between 1600 and 1700 the population of Japan doubled, the percentage of city dwellers increased by a factor of five, and the market economy became ascendant in most lives. These rates of change are unparalleled in early modern history. And they depended on extraordinary investments of hard and smart human labor. This talk explores popular printed books, including family encyclopedias, advice manuals, urban directories, and the like, in search of the motives that fueled such investments.

Mon 29 March

5:00 - 6:30 pm

CENTRE FOR AUSTRALASIAN RESEARCH

We Know What it is When You Do not Ask Us: The Unchallengeable Nation
by Peter Fitzpatrick, Law, Birkbeck College, University of London, Doug Harris, Law, UBC, Discussant

Wed 31 March

12:00 - 1:30 pm

CENTRE FOR CHINESE RESEARCH

Withering Away of the Iron Rice Bowl: The Reemployment Project of Post-Socialist China
by Jaeyoun Won, APDR Postdoctoral Fellow, Institute of Asian Research

This presentation explores the transformation of labor relations in China through an examination of the policy of Xiagang and the Reemployment Project. The old style of labor relations featuring permanent employment within work-units is being dismantled, as shown by recent mass lay-offs. Meanwhile, the socialist party-state reinvents its old technique of propaganda, "thought work" in the new task of shaping individuals, but it now does so without taking responsibility for their welfare. This is a paradox of post-socialist labor transformation in China. The old techniques of power from the socialist period are being re-deployed to create a new set of social beings, to give up on "organized dependence" in favor of a new self-reliant, risk-taking Homo Economicus ethos. This presentation discusses two major techniques employed to transform the mindset of the old socialist workers: 1) Job Guidance at the Reemployment Centers, and 2) the Mystification of the "Stars of Reemployment."