A Multitude of Encounters with Asia – Gender Perspectives

RIKK - Centre for Women’s and Gender Research University of Iceland
EDDA – Center of Excellence University of Iceland
NIAS – Nordic Institute of Asian Studies
GAN - Gendering Asia Network
8th Annual Nordic NIAS Council Conference
A Multitude of Encounters with Asia –
Gender Perspectives
University of Iceland, Reykjavik 13-15 October 2014
&
Nordic & International PhD Course
University of Iceland, Reykjavik 16-17 October 2014
Co-organized with IIAS International Institute for Asian Studies, Leiden
2ND CALL FOR CONFERENCE PAPERS
One of the great challenges in increased relations with Asia through business, culture, life
biographies, historical relations as well as ITC networks is to make the importance of
gender visible. Encounters have become increasingly, mutually interrelated and perhaps
even dependent in multiple ways. Economically encounters are wide-ranging with
financial decisions made in one part of the world affecting the real lives of many in the
other part of the world. In the political sphere the need for enhancing mutual
understanding and tolerance grows every day. How can we understand these multiple
links, interactions and encounters and how are they gendered? Some encounters are
vividly obvious and others are less prominently visible, or perhaps consciously or
unconsciously made obscure. How is knowledge of encounters being produced, by whom
and for what purposes?
This conference on macro and micro level encounters with Asia, including encounters
between Asia and the Nordic countries, takes the traveling of theories, concepts, ideas,
practices, products and people as its starting point and asks
1) How gender and gender relations play into, create, and are created in the course
of a multitude of encounters
2) How transnational feminism has produced knowledge in the context of
globalization
This year’s NNC conference has sprung out of the activity of the Gendering Asia Network
- a research group in the Nordic region that has been dealing with the following
questions:
What are the implications of conceptualizing and analyzing gender/Asia?
How do we become aware of, identify and conceptualize the invisible workings of
gender norms and power relations as they manifest themselves in all fields of Asia
– politics, economics, culture and society as such?
These basic questions also underlie the conference focus on encounters with Asia.
A Multitude of encounters with Asia – Gender perspectives at University of Iceland, Reykjavik, 1317 October 2014
Keynote Speakers
The following speakers will inspire our proceedings:
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Kathy Davis, Senior Research Fellow, Sociology, VU University, Amsterdam
Mary E. John, Senior Fellow, Centre for Women's Development Studies, New Delhi
Wil Burghoorn, Senior Lecturer, Social Anthropology, School of Global Studies,
University of Gothenburg
Mayumi Saegusa, Assistant Professor, Office for Gender Equality, Nagoya
University
Mina Roces, Professor of History, School of Humanity and Languages, University
of New South Wales, Sydney
Papers on encounters with Asia from a gender perspective are invited on topics
such as for instance:
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Families in flux
Gendered mobility in Asia
Intra-action and communication
Travelling theory and cultural translation
Experiencing technology – intra-active construction of identity and the body
Politics of memory/disasters, trauma and recovery
Literary relations and the post-colonial
Asia and the Arctic relations
Japan and the Nordic in focus
Chinese Confucian culture constructions
Asia in the Nordic – Nordic in Asia
Emotions in Asia-Europe Encounters
Nordic studies of gender/Asia
Other topics are also welcome
Special session on Travelling Theory and Cultural Translation
A special session on ‘Travelling theory and cultural translation’ is being convened by
Professor Min Dongchao, Shanghai University, who is currently EU Marie Curie guest
professor at the Nordic Institute of Asian Studies.
Transnational feminism has challenged Eurocentric, colonialist perspectives of
knowledge production that have disregarded local knowledge. Focusing on how feminism
has flowed around the world, scholars of transnational feminism have argued that
knowledge production takes place through multiple related contexts. These contexts
acknowledge the roles played by, and the interaction between, different localities in the
process of globalization, and that flows of knowledge generate different meanings in
different places. From this analytical perspective, feminisms in different places not only
reflect, but are also active and explicit participants in processes of globalization,
engaging with and producing cross-border cultural, political, and economic flows.
Research has shown that gender theory has flowed far more easily from North to South
or from West to East, particularly from the US to other parts of the world, whereas flows
in other directions are practically non-existent. There are many ‘invisible’ discursive
trajectories that link the development of gender theories and movements in the world
that have so far been ignored. This panel will focus on the role of hidden sets of power
relations involved in these processes of theory travelling and cultural translation.
Paper abstracts for the session are welcome.
A Multitude of encounters with Asia – Gender perspectives at University of Iceland, Reykjavik, 1317 October 2014
On Monday 13 October in the afternoon, the conference will start with registration
followed by a Reception including an opening speech by Halldor Asgrimsson, former
Icelandic Prime Minister and Secretary General for the Nordic Council of Ministers. The
reception will take place at Harpa Conference Hall, which enjoys spectacular views of
Reykjavik and its surroundings.
Participation
Conference participation, including participation in the special session, is open to scholars
and doctoral candidates in the social sciences and humanities.
We encourage contributions with emphasis on interdisciplinary perspectives.
It is possible for a limited number of participants to attend the conference without
presenting a paper, or to attend only the keynote speeches.
Conference Fee and Accommodation:
The conference fee for paper presenters is 250 Euro, which includes accommodation
during the conference, as well as reception, conference dinner and lunches.
Accommodation will be provided at a hotel near the conference site. More information will
follow on the conference website soon.
If you wish to attend the conference without presenting a paper the conference fee is
100 Euro and does not include reception, conference dinner and lunches.
Deadlines:
International researchers working on Asia in any social science and humanities discipline
are invited to submit abstracts for papers. Each abstract should not exceed 300 words.
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15 June 2014: Deadline for submitting abstract (maximum 300 words)
7 July 2014: Acceptance of abstracts by Academic Committee
22 September 2014: Deadline for submitting the full paper and paying the
conference fee
Abstracts and full papers should be submitted by registering on the conference website
where all practical information about the conference also is available:
http://gendernnc2014.niasconferences.net/
For further information please contact
 Katrine Herold, Project Coordinator, NIAS, [email protected], or
 Rakel Adolphsdóttir, Project Manager, RIKK – Centre for Women’s and Gender
Research, University of Iceland, [email protected]
A Multitude of encounters with Asia – Gender perspectives at University of Iceland, Reykjavik, 1317 October 2014
PhD Course – Doing gender/Asia studies
The conference will be combined with a PhD course where doctoral candidates will
present and discuss their research projects with senior researchers as well as with fellow
doctoral candidates.
This PhD course will focus on the methodology of gender/Asia studies – that is the study
of the toolboxes of gender/Asia studies. Taking the questions, problems, dilemmas and
decisions of the individual research project as the point of departure the focus will be on
clarifying processes of knowledge production.
The course can be taken as a 7.5 ECTS credit course (to be approved by the individual
student’s home university/institution). To receive the credits, doctoral students must
attend the conference on October 13-15, the PhD course on October 16-17, submit and
present a paper (10-12 pages) which draws on the course readings, and give comments
to a fellow PhD student’s paper.
Doctoral candidates are also encouraged to present a paper at the conference. This paper
may not be similar to the methodology paper prepared for the PhD course. Students
wishing to present a paper at the conference and to attend the PhD course must submit
two abstracts.
Commentators for the PhD Course
 Wil Burghoorn, Senior Lecturer, Social Anthropology, School of Global Studies,
University of Gothenburg
 Anna Karlsdottir, Assistant professor, Department of geography and tourism
studies, University of Iceland
 Cecilia Milwertz, Senior Researcher, NIAS - Nordic Institute of Asian Studies
 Mayumi Saegusa, Assistant Professor, Office for Gender Equality, Nagoya
University
 Mina Roces, Professor of History, School of Humanity and Languages, University
of New South Wales, Sydney
Fee and Accommodation PhD Course
The fee for the conference and PhD course is 350 Euro, which includes conference fee,
accommodation, reception, lunches and dinner (according to the programme).
Accommodation is provided for 5 nights from 13 to 17 October. More information on this
will follow on the conference website shortly.
PhD course – Guidelines and reading list
The course will focus on the ‘doing’, that is the processes, practices, procedures, and
theories involved in the gender / Asia studies you are conducting. The course is, in other
words, concerned with methodology - how research is done, the knowledge production
process, all the many considerations that are involved in choosing first the research
question itself and then the theories and methods that will be used to address the
question as well as the challenges you encounter in the process of gathering and
processing data.
A Multitude of encounters with Asia – Gender perspectives at University of Iceland, Reykjavik, 1317 October 2014
The first part of the course consists of your participation in the lectures and sessions that
form the conference A Multitude of Encounters with Asia – Gender Perspectives.
The second part of the course will consist of your individual written work, oral
presentations and feedback from and discussion with teachers and course participants.
Methodology
When we engage in research, when we study a particular phenomenon we are concerned
with:
1. What exists out there in the world – ontology – the study of the existing, the
study of what exists
2. How we can know what exists – epistemeology – the study of knowledge, the
knowers, the known
3. And methodology
This third ‘discipline of study’, the methodology is the study of the research
toolbox!
It is the study of research process and choices and the reasons, explanations and
positions underlying these choices. Note that methodology is something broader than
questions of the specific methods – such as for instance a quantitative survey or
qualitative interviews, or primary or secondary sources – that we may choose to apply.
Here are some definitions of methodology:
1. ‘Methodology is ‘a theory and analysis of how research does or should proceed’
(Sandra Harding 1987: 2, also quoted in Naples 2003:3).
2. ‘Methodology in social research is concerned with procedures for making
knowledge valid and authoritative.’ (Ramazanoglu with Holland 2002:9,
emphasis added)
3. A question of acknowledging ontological and epistemological position
(Ramazanoglu with Holland 2002:146)
4. A methodology in social research comprises rules that specify how social
investigation should be approached. Each methodology links a particular
ontology (for example, a belief that gender is social rather than natural) and a
particular epistemology (a set of procedures for establishing what counts as
knowledge) in providing rules that specify how to produce valid knowledge
of social reality (for example, the real nature of particular gender relations.’
(Ramazanoglu with Holland 2002:11, emphasis added).
Methodology is – in short - concerned with clarifying what is done – how is knowledge
produced.
Your presentations
You are expected to prepare and present a ten page text about the doing of your
research in which you draw on and relate to the course readings.
What you write will of course depend on where you are in the research process:
1. If you are at the very beginning of defining your research question then you may
choose to write about your considerations regarding the formulation of a
researchable question. You might do this by drawing on the course texts as well
as by drawing inspiration from a selection of monographs and reflecting on the
authors’ problem formulation, theories and methods used and knowledge
production in relation to the course texts.
A Multitude of encounters with Asia – Gender perspectives at University of Iceland, Reykjavik, 1317 October 2014
2. For those who have come a bit further and who are searching for funds for their
project, or have recently started a PhD project, you can present your research
proposal as well as further reflections on the proposal based on your reading of
the course texts.
3. If your project is well underway then you may choose to reflect on any aspects of
the process of doing your project that you want to discuss at the course.
Regardless of where you are in the research process your text should focus on
methodological issues – the doing of research.
Your text should not present and discuss your research findings in the format of a
traditional academic text. The focus should be on reflection and discussion of
methodological issues.
You might want to include reflections on
 your choice of research topic and research question
 your choice of theories
 your choice of methods
 your own situatedness
 difficulties you have encountered during the research process
 what does the gender dimension add to your study or how does gender
characterize your study
 or any other methodological aspect that you want to discuss
Importantly – the point is not to show how smart you are, but to discuss the aspects of
your project that are difficult or that you are struggling with and where you can benefit
from a discussion. You may find interesting arguments in the readings that can help you
to solve problems, reflect on the ways you are doing your project or perhaps you will find
something that you want to contest or problematize based on your own research.
You might want to discuss whether or not the study of gender involves a feminist
research agenda for you. Here is one definition of feminist research from the book
Feminist Methodology – Challenges and Choices by Caroline Ramazanoglu and Janet
Holland (2002:147): ‘The point in doing feminist research is to ‘give insights into
gendered social existence that would not otherwise exist.’ And here is another definition
by Nina Lykke who does not really distinguish between gender studies and feminist
studies:
 a feminist approach is characterized by at adopting a critically reflecting and
problematizing perspective on the category of gender and the ways in which it
(re) creates exclusions, power asymmetries and reductions (Lykke 2008:41)
 gender studies open up static and stereotypical imaginations of gender (Lykke
2008:11)
While this critical perspective is not exclusionary to feminist studies it does characterize a
feminist approach.
Course readings:
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Nancy Naples (2003). Feminism and Method: Ethnography, Discourse, and
Activist Research, Routledge.
Caroline Ramazanoglu with Janet Holland (2002). Feminist Methodology:
Challenges and Choices, Sage.
A Multitude of encounters with Asia – Gender perspectives at University of Iceland, Reykjavik, 1317 October 2014
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Michael S. Kimmel and Abby L. Ferber (eds) (2009) Privilege. A Reader. Westview
Press
Sandra Harding (2008) Sciences From Below. feminisms, Postcolonialities, and
Modernities, Duke University Press
Nina Lykke (2010) Feminist Studies. A Guide to Intersectional Theory,
methodology and Writing. Routledge.
Marilyn Strathern (1987) An Awkward Relationship: The Case of Feminism and
Anthropology. The University of Chicago Press
For further information please contact
 Katrine Herold, Project Coordinator, NIAS, [email protected], or
 Rakel Adolphsdóttir, Project Manager, RIKK – Centre for Women’s and Gender
Research, University of Iceland, [email protected]
Or go to the conference website
http://gendernnc2014.niasconferences.net