In this lecture series, academics from the PLUS and other universities, present their research on topics in the context of the Asia-Pacific region. Students of the study supplement and the study focus Asia-Pacific Studies can take an exam in the last week of the semester and receive credit for their participation in the lecture series.
We also welcome others interested in the FOR APAC lecture series to participate!
LECTURES IN WINTER SEMESTER 2024/2025
Wednesday, 23 October 2024, 1:00-3:00 PM, Bibliotheksaula at the PLUS
Hofstallgasse 2
5020 Salzburg
“Interconnectivity and Entanglement in the Ancient Worlds of Afro-Eurasia: From the Levant to China and Back”
Prof. Dr. Robbert ROLLINGER
University of Innsbruck
The lecture offers an overview of the history of Eurasian networking from early times to the late 1st millennium BC, focussing on several historical regions such as China, Japan, Southeast Asia, Australia and Oceania, but also Central and Western Asia, which were always closely interlinked and connected. Different actors play a specific role in each case. These include early seafarers, migrating farmers, traders, but also diplomats and warriors. In this way, a variety of material and intellectual products were exchanged, which can be regarded as essential components of dynamic historical processes.
Robert Rollinger is Professor of Cultural Relations and Cultural Contacts between the Cultures of the Ancient Near East and the Mediterranean Region at the University of Innsbruck, he is Chair of the ÖAW Commission ‘Transformation Processes and Empire in the Ancient Worlds of Afro-Eurasia’ and a full member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. In addition, he is NAWA chair of the international project ‘From the Achaemenids to the Romans: Contextualising empire and its longue-durée developments’, 2021-2025 (University of Wrocław/Breslau) and member of the board of the FWF Cluster of Excellence ‘Eusrasian Transformations’. His research focuses on the history of ancient Asia Minor, the history of the Achaimenids, ancient historiography and the history of Afro-Eurasian networks in antiquity, with a particular focus on comparative imperial history. (Photo: see poster)
Tuesday, 5 November 2024,1:15-2:45 PM, HS 888, Forum Asia Pacific
Sigmund-Haffner Gasse 18
5020 Salzburg
“Neither invisible nor Mute: On the Historicity and Conceptualization of Asian Germans”
Dr. Kien Nghi HA
University of Tübingen
In his lecture, Dr. Kien Nghi Ha will outline the history of Asian immigration to Germany and discuss the cultural-political concept of “Asian Germans”. The term “Asian Germans” goes back to the anthology “Asian Germans. Vietnamese Diaspora and Beyond” (2012), and reflects historical experiences of anti-Asian racism. In addition to exoticization and social exclusion, this history is also linked to massive racist violence such as the pogrom in Rostock-Lichtenhagen (1992) against the Vietnamese community. However, the self-designation “Asian Germans” also represents a self-constructed form of cultural and political identity that recognizes the diversity and differences within the Asian diaspora and offers solidarity and cooperation on this basis. Recently, some efforts have been made to establish Asian German Studies as a new field of research. Rather than reproducing the dominant white view of German majority society, this scholarly approach aims to focus on Asian Germans and their perspectives. Against this background, Dr. Ha would like to conclude by addressing the question of what academic and socio-political potential this entails.
Kien Nghi Ha holds a doctorate in cultural and political science and is head of the Postcolonial Asian German Studies department at the Asia-Orient Institute at the University of Tübingen. He has conducted research at New York University and at the universities of Bremen, Heidelberg and Bayreuth and was awarded the Augsburg Science Prize for Intercultural Studies. As a curator, he has realized various projects on the Asian diaspora at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin, the Hebbel am Ufer-Theater and the Sinema Transtopia, among others. He has published more than ten books on postcolonial criticism, racism, migration and the Asian diaspora. Most recently, the anthologies “Asian Germans Extended. Vietnamesische Diaspora and Beyond” (Association A 2012/2021) and ‘Asiatische Präsenzen in der Kolonialmetropole Berlin’ (Association A, 2024). The volume “Anti-Asian Racism in Transatlantic Perspectives: History, Theory, Cultural Representations and Social Movements” (transcript) is planned for 2025 (Photo: © private).
Tuesday, 12 November 2024,1:15-2:45 PM, HS 888, Forum Asia Pacific
Sigmund-Haffner Gasse 18
5020 Salzburg
“Climate-Environment-People: Asia’s Natural Areas in Transition”
Prof. Dr. Jussi GRIESSINGER
PLUS
The regions of Asia are characterised by an enormous variety of different ecosystems, which are characterised by unique sequences of very dry and cold to warm and humid natural areas between high mountains and lowlands. At the same time, these regions have long been settlement areas for different cultures, which in the course of their history have developed highly adapted land utilisation systems, for example, to these specific climatic conditions. The lecture offers an overview of these natural areas, looks at their respective specifics and also shows how these areas are currently changing and (have to) adapt as a result of current developments. (Photo: see poster)
Tuesday, 19 November 2024,1:15-2:45 PM, HS 888, Forum Asia Pacific
Sigmund-Haffner Gasse 18
5020 Salzburg
“Cyborg in Otaku Culture: An Analysis of the Representation of Cyborg Bodies in Two Anime Works, ‘Ghost in the Shell’ and ‘She, the Ultimate Weapon’’’
Dr. Miyuki HASHIMOTO
PLUS
Since the mid-1990s, Japanese otaku culture, which includes anime, manga and computer games, has become internationally popular and an important part of contemporary popular culture. This culture has now gained significant cultural importance not only for its fans, but also for international society.
In this lecture, I would like to explore the topic of ‘cyborg’ by analysing the two anime works ‘Ghost in the Shell’ and ‘She, the Ultimate Weapon’. A cyborg is a hybrid between a machine and an organism. In her famous essay ‘A Cyborg Manifesto’, Donna Haraway claims that we are all cyborgs. By this she means that we are always using technology in a high-tech society and cannot live without it. This view is understandable. On the other hand, we can discard technology at any time, whereas cyborgs in science fiction cannot, because their bodies are irrevocably connected to the machine. This is the difference between a cyborg and a human being.
With this premise in mind, I would like to analyse the representation of the cyborg bodies of Motoko Kusanagi and Chise, protagonists of two anime works. How are the bodies of Motoko and Chise portrayed in their respective anime? Does it look different in terms of the ‘male gaze’ according to Laura Mulvey? How do Motoko and Chise feel about their own cyborg bodies? What identity do they have as a result? I deal with these questions. I also use the term ‘fetishism’ (human as object = objectified body) to explain the connection between these works, otaku culture and our modern society.
Miyuki Hashimoto received her BA and MA in Human Sciences from Waseda University and her PhD in Philosophy from the University of Vienna. Since then she has been conducting research in the field of Japanese popular culture with a focus on otaku culture. She received a research fellowship from IFK Vienna in 2008. Since 2019, she has been working on her habilitation project at the Faculty of Japanese Studies at the University of Erlangen.Miyuki Hashimoto was also a lecturer at the Department of Japanese Studies at the University of Vienna from 2004 to 2010. She has been teaching Japanese at the Language Centre of the University of Salzburg since 2023. (Photo: see poster)
Tuesday, 3 December 2024,1:15-2:45 PM, HS 888, Forum Asia Pacific
Sigmund-Haffner Gasse 18
5020 Salzburg
“’Statistics with Chinese Characteristics’ in the Field of Tension between Science and Politics”
Prof. Dr. Andrea BRÈARD
University of Erlangen-Nürnberg
Since the second half of the 20th century, China has repeatedly made efforts to explicitly counter international standards, both in statistical methodology and in the underlying mathematical theory. In particular, Chinese characteristics of statistics have been worked out. So even if one believes the economic growth of 5.2 % in 2023 currently communicated by the National Bureau of Statistics – after a temporary pause in autumn 2023 – it is not guaranteed that the underlying calculation of GDP makes the figure comparable with other industrialized nations. The lecture will analyze the political-historical conditions that have led and continue to lead to tensions between China’s efforts to fit into a global quantified world on the one hand, while at the same time wanting to retain “Chinese characteristics”. This tension also leads us to question the cultural character of statistics and the normative ambitions
declared by international bodies.
Andrea Bréard was Professor of History of Science at the Université Paris-Saclay, Faculté des Sciences d’Orsay, before taking up an Alexander von Humboldt Professorship at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg in 2021, where she holds the Chair of Sinology with a focus on the intellectual and cultural history of China and the position of Vice-President Education. Trained as a mathematician, sinologist and historian of science, she works at the interface between mathematical sciences and sinology, with her research topics ranging from antiquity to the 21st century with numerous publications on topics from the early history of the concept of number in China to the global knowledge history of statistics (Photo: © Gudrun-Holde Ortner).
Tuesday, 17 December 2024, 1:15-2:45 PM, HS 888, Forum Asia Pacific
Sigmund-Haffner Gasse 18
5020 Salzburg
“Trade and Geopolitics in the Pacific Region”
Prof. Dr. Andreas DÜR
PLUS
This presentation will provide an overview of key trade policy developments in the Pacific and how these relate to the increasing geopolitical tensions in this region of the world. It will focus on the trade war between the US and China, China’s attempt to use trade as leverage against Australia and how the EU is positioning itself in these conflicts. It will look at how trade influences security conflicts and how these conflicts influence trade. The presentation ends with an outlook on possible developments in the near future.
Andreas Dür is Professor of International Politics and Head of the Department of Political Science at the University of Salzburg. He conducts research on trade policy, interest groups and European integration. His publications include The Political Influence of Business in the European Union (Michigan University Press, 2019), Insiders versus Outsiders: Interest Group Politics in Multilevel Europe (Oxford University Press, 2016) and Protection for Exporters: Discrimination and Power in Transatlantic Trade Relations, 1930-2010 (Cornell University Press, 2010). Since 2024, he has been leading the GEOTRADE project funded by the European Research Council with an Advanced Grant (Photo: © fotohech.at).
Tuesday, 7 January 2024, 1:15-2:45 PM, HS 888, Forum Asia Pacific
Sigmund-Haffner Gasse 18
5020 Salzburg
“China and Japan or the Eternal Competition for Regional Hegemony”
Prof. Dr. Susanne WEIGELIN-SCHWIEDRZIK
University of Vienna
Since the middle of the 19th century, it has become clear that there are two contenders for regional hegemony in East Asia. With its defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War, Japan won this competition for the first time and imposed a form of rule on the region that combined Chinese rule with the approach of European colonial powers. The division of East Asia into two camps after the Second World War initially led to a stalemate between the two rivals, but it took less than 20 years for Japan to achieve by economic means what it had previously been unable to achieve by military means. It was the dominant regional power and became a competitor to the world power USA. With China’s rapid economic development from 1978 onwards, the cards were reshuffled again. Now it is China that is making its presence felt as a hegemonic power in the region and, like Japan before it, is acting as a competitor to the USA.
Studied Sinology, Japanese Studies and Political Science (1973-1978) in Bonn, Beijing and Bochum, doctorate in 1982, habilitation in 1989 at the Ruhr University Bochum. 1989-2002 Full Professor of Modern Sinology at the University of Heidelberg. 1999-2001 Vice-Rector for International Relations at the University of Heidelberg. 2002-2020 Professor of Sinology at the University of Vienna, since 2012 k. Member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. 2011-2015 Vice-Rector for Research and Promotion of Young Researchers at the University of Vienna. Member of the Academic Council of the Austrian Academy of Sciences since 2022 and Program Director for China at the Center for Strategic Analysis, Vienna.research stays and visiting professorships in the People’s Republic of China, the USA, Japan and Hong Kong.research interests: Chinese history in the 20th century, history of East Asia, politics and memory in the PRC, politics and foreign policy of the PRC. Most recent publication: China und die Neuordnung der Welt, Vienna: Brandstätter Verlag, 2023 (Photo: © Christoph Glanzl).
Tuesday, 14 January 2024, 1:15-2:45 PM, place to be announced
5020 Salzburg
“The Sorrow of Man. On the Idea of Finitude in the Work of the Chinese Poet Li Bai (701-762)”
Prof. Dr. Wolfgang KUBIN
University of Bonn
Although Li Bai is perhaps the most important Chinese poet, his work is not widely researched outside of East Asia. This is strange, as his poetry was translated into German in its entirety very early on. The speaker is one of the few scholars to have published widely on Li Bai. He is of the opinion that his subject matter has been wrongly reduced to women, wine and song. Rather, his work is about the questions of human existence.
Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Kubin, sinologist, translator and writer at a reading in “Buchladen 46” in Bonn. Born in Celle in 1945, studied sinology, philosophy and German studies. Doctorate (1973) and habilitation (1981) in Sinology. 1985 Professor of Chinese and from 1995 Professor of Sinology at the University of Bonn. Since 2011 also Senior Professor in Beijing, Shantou, since 2023 in Shanghai. As a sinologist specializing in literature and philosophy, he also works as a translator and writer. His list of publications comprises around two hundred pages (Photo: © Eckhard Henkel Wikimedia Commons).
Tuesday, 21 January 2024, 1:15-2:45 PM, HS 888, Forum Asia Pacific
Sigmund-Haffner Gasse 18
5020 Salzburg
“In Chain Mail to Hangzhou: The Journey of the Franciscan Odorich of Pordenone to Yuan-period China”
Prof. Dr. Romedio SCHMITZ-ESSER
University of Heidelberg
The report by the Franciscan missionary Odorich of Pordenone (d. 1331) was one of the most widely read texts in Latin Europe at the end of the Middle Ages. His travel experiences, which took him from the Venetian hinterland via India to the China of the Yuan dynasty at the beginning of the 14th century, are still among the most important testimonies to an open Eurasian world, in which China and Italy in particular were in close contact. The lecture uses Odorich’s example to outline the surprising results of Mongol expansion in the mid-13th century and then shows how the report itself was received and received in Europe. Of particular interest here is the question of the representational intention of Odorich’s report itself and how Latin European perspectives influenced the new insights of the numerous Asian travelers of the time and made them usable for their own discourses.
Romedio Schmitz-Esser is Professor of Medieval History at the University of Heidelberg. After studying history and art history at the University of Innsbruck, he initially worked as a town historian for the city of Hall in Tyrol. In 2008, he moved to the LMU in Munich, where he completed his habilitation with a thesis on the corpse in the Middle Ages. From 2014-2016, he headed the German Study Center in Venice before being appointed Professor of General Medieval History at the University of Graz. Longer stays abroad have taken him to Rome, Paris, London, Guangzhou and Duke University, NC/USA. His work focuses primarily on cultural history; he is currently writing a book on the reception of Buddhism in medieval Latin Europe (Photo: © Heidelberg University, Communications and Marketing).
