iafornews
the newsletter of the international academic forum - asia’s think thank
August / September 2013
The City of Osaka will be host to six IAFOR conferences taking place in Japan this autumn. October and November are probably the most pleasant months for traveling in Japan. In October the weather remains warm, and in November the weather is relatively dry and mild. Osaka is centrally located in Japan, and enjoys easy access to nearby Kyoto and Kobe, as well as to the rest of the country’s main sights and cities. It has its own international airport and a bullet train can take you to Tokyo in just over two hours. Wednesday October 23 - Sunday October 27, 2013 ACE 2013 - The Fifth Asian Conference on Education 2013 will be held alongside ACSET 2013 - the Inaugural Asian Conference on Society, Education and Technology. Registration for either conference will allow attendees the option of attending sessions in the other. The paper submission deadline for these two conferences has been extended to September 1, 2013. Friday November 8 - Sunday November 10, 2013 MediAsia2013 - the Fourth Annual Asian Conference on Media and Mass Communication 2013, will be held alongside FilmAsia 2013 - the Second Asian Conference on Film and Documentary. Registrants to either event will have the option of attending parallel sessions in the other for no extra charge. The paper submission deadline for these two conferences has been extended to September 15, 2013. Thursday November 21 - Sunday November 24 2013 ABMC 2013 - the Fourth Annual Asian Business and Management Conference will be held alongside ACPEL 2013 - the First Asian Conference on Politics, Economics and Law, and registrants for either conference will be given the opportunity to attend sessions in the parallel event at no extra charge. The paper submission deadline for these two conferences has been extended to October 1, 2013
目eye magazine IAFOR is now inviting submissions for the second edition of the “Eye” magazine! Below are categories to which we would like to share your vision, perspective, insight, and ‘eye’ on things. - Spotlight on Humanities - Spotlight on History - Spotlight on Economy - Insight - Political Economy - Energy - Corporate We also invite submissions in the following areas: - Culture - New Technologies - New Solutions - Reflections - Casual Editorials - Photo Essays
Please limit your submissions to 1000 words and send them to magazine@iafor.org. You will be contacted if your article is selected for publication – Autumn 2013. We welcome photos/photo essays as well. Please attach high quality pictures of over 1 MB with your full name, country of origin, and a brief description of the photo. Photo essays are limited to 800 words. We look forward to your submissions!
You can view the magazine on our website iafor.org or view it on issuu at issuu.com/iafor. We welcome you to take a look!
IAFOR Open Film Competition 2013
The International Academic Forum (IAFOR) is inviting filmmakers from around the world to submit san original short film for the annual IAFOR Open Film Competition. Amateur and professionals are welcome to enter, however entrants are limited to just one submission for the category, regardless of category. There is no charge for entering a film. Submissions in English (or with English subtitles) are welcome in the following categories: - Fiction (under 40 minutes/over 40 minutes) - Documentary (under 40 minutes/over 40 minutes) - Anime (under 20 minutes/under 40 minutes) - Spot News (International/Regional/National; under 20 minutes/under 40 minutes) - Music Video (under 10 minutes) The closing date for entries is September 15, 2013. Winners will be announced at the Asian Conference on Film and Documentary in Osaka, Japan (November 8 – 10, 2013). The overall winner will be awarded a grand prize of US$1000 and a trophy. Winners of the individual categories will be awarded a trophy. For more information and to download an entry form, please visit http://filmasia.iafor.org/film.html
2012 winner Denis Quinn (left) receives his award from Professor Gary Swanson (right) at Film Asia 2012.
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The First Asian Conference on Society, Education and Technology 2013 will be held alongside the Fifth Asian Conference on Education (ACE 2013). Registration for either conference will allow attendees the option of attending sessions in the other
The Asian Conference on Education is an interdisciplinary international conference that invites academics and independent scholars and researchers from around the world to meet and exchange the latest ideas and views in a forum encouraging respectful dialogue, and offering the opportunity for renewing old acquaintances, making new contacts, and networking across higher education. Since its inception in 2009, ACE has welcomed over 1500 academics and practitioners to its annual Osaka event, and this year we expect to welcome a further 500 attendees as ACE continues to grow. We are also excited to develop the conference with the addition of the Asian Conference on Society, Education and Technology (ACSET 2013), which will be run in parallel to ACE and create further exciting research possibilities and synergies. Academics of all ages, ranks, nationalities, cultures and disciplines will be encouraged to forge working relationships with each other, as well as with colleagues from Europe and the US, facilitating partnerships on both the individual and institutional levels. ACE/ACSET 2013 Conference Co-chairs Professor Sue Jackson - Birkbeck, University of London, UK Professor Michiko Nakano - Waseda University, Japan Professor Barbara Lockee - Virginia Tech, USA Dr Robert Logie - Osaka Gakuin University, Japan Professor Keith Miller - University of Illinois Springfield, USA
About the Conferences
Where: Osaka, JAPAN When: Wednesday October 23 - Sunday October 27, 2013 The paper submission deadline for these two conferences has been extended to September 1, 2013. See the ACSET (acset.iafor.org) & ACE (ace.iafor.org) websites for further details.
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MediAsia2013 will be held alongside the Second Asian Conference on Film and Documentary (FilmAsia 2013) this November in Osaka. The MediAsia and FilmAsia events are remarkable cross-cultural and interdisciplinary discussions, which encourage academics and scholars to meet and exchange ideas and views in a forum encouraging lively but respectful dialogue. These international conferences will bring together a number of university scholars working throughout Japan, Asia, and beyond to share ideas. MediAsia 2013 will afford the opportunity for renewing old acquaintances, making new contacts, and networking across higher education. Academics working in Japan and Asia will be encouraged to forge working relationships with each other, as well as with colleagues from Europe and the US, facilitating partnerships across borders. We hope to see you (again) in Osaka in the fall.
Conference Chairs & Keynote Speaker
Professor Gary E. Swanson (pictured top) Mildred S. Hansen Endowed Chair in Journalism The University of Northern Colorado, USA Conference Chair Professor Tamara Swenson (pictured center) Osaka Women’s University Local Conference Chair Dr Bradley J. Hamm (pictured bottom) Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University, USA
About the Conferences
Where: Osaka, JAPAN When: Thursday November 21 - Sunday November 24 2013 The paper submission deadline for these two conferences has been extended to October 1, 2013. See the ACSET (acset.iafor.org) & ACE (ace.iafor.org) websites for further details.
looking forward >>> ACPEL 2013 will be held alongside the Fourth Asian Business and Management Conference (ABMC 2013) this November in Osaka. Come to the inaugural ACPEL 2013, to engage in challenging interdisciplinary discussion centering on the latest ideas and research finding in Politics, Economics and Law. This year’s conference sessions will be wide-ranging, covering both policy and research. They will bring together experts and leaders from the academic and business world to address key contemporary issues in these social sciences, by both reflecting on the recent past, and looking forward; to exchange ideas, and share research findings in the exciting environment of Osaka, Japan.
The Asian Business and Management Conference offers the occasion for wide-ranging, interdisciplinary discussion covering both policy and research in Asia, and beyond. ABMC 2013 will again bring together experts and leaders from the academic and business world to consider some of the pressing issues scholars and academics are facing in an open forum; seeking to define questions, pursue answers, search for research synergies and more; to both reflect on the recent past, and look forward, to exchange ideas and findings, in the exciting environment of Osaka, Japan. Keynote Speaker & Featured Speakers Professor Yozo Yokota - President of the Japanese Center for Human Rights Affairs Dr. Jerry Platt - San Francisco State University, and Vice-Chair of IAFOR Peter Gardiner - Director of the Department of International Relations and Licenses, Bridgestone Corporation Professor Edward Yagi - Nanzan University Graduate School of Business Administration, Japan.
About the Conferences
Where: Osaka, JAPAN When: Thursday November 21 - Sunday November 24 2013 The paper submission deadline for these two conferences has been extended to October 1, 2013. See the ACSET (acset.iafor.org) & ACE (ace.iafor.org) websites for further details.
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ACAS & ACCS 2013 - Conference in Review The Third Annual Asian Conference on Cultural Studies (ACCS) and the Third Annual Conference on Technology in the Classroom (ACAS) welcomed 180 delegates from nearly 40 nations to Osaka to experience an exciting and enjoyable exchange of culture, academic practice and collaboration. The theme for the joint ACAS/ACCS 2013 Conference was “Intersecting Belongings: Cultural Conviviality and Cosmopolitan Futures.” Though it is one of the smaller IAFOR conferences, ACAS/ACCS was both a cosmopolitan and convivial event, as many of the academics present were coming from divergent cultures and backgrounds, different academic disciplines and world-views. This unique and interdisciplinary diversity of the conference made for a compelling range of views, exchanges, research topics, and most importantly respectful dialogue. IAFOR was pleased to have as its Keynote speaker, Professor Baden Offord of Southern Cross University, Australia, whose topic “Through the Looking Glass: Home, the World and the Anthropocene” was an engaging exploration into the context of “the other” and tensions of belongingness and change. According to Professor Offord the key challenge for us all is co-existence, which he urged delegates is possible if we embrace the theme of the conference, conviviality. The first of the featured speakers was Professor Kiyoshi Abe from Kwansei Gakuin University, Japan who presented his paper, “A critique of Japan’s politicalcultural nostalgia and its impasse: How can the LDP restore lost Japaneseness?” It was a fascinating presentation that revealed the underlying discourse of modern political marketing in Japan and how a mediated nostalgia for the golden past of post-war Japan is used to emotionalize voter responses.
Photo: Professor Kiyoshi Abe (left) Professor Baden Offord (right)
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ACAS & ACCS 2013 - Conference in Review Professor Yujin Yaguchi of the University of Tokyo, spoke on “Making Paradise: Cultural Dynamics of Tourism and Shifting Images of Hawai’i in Japan.” Profesor Yaguchi revealed to the audience both the politico-cultural clashes and synergies that lay behind the Japanese views and representations of Hawaii as space for cultural gaze and experimentation. Finally Professor Yasue Arimitsu, of Doshisha University, spoke on the question, “Is Australia the Other for Japanese Writers? Differences of Literary Perceptions of the ‘Other’ between Australia and Japan.” Professor Arimitsu, in her presentation, focused on examining the literary traditions of both nations’, as they move from a binominal post-colonial framework into a context, where the narrative of ‘otherness’ is more contested.
Photo: Professor Yujin Yaguchi of the University of Tokyo
IAFOR would like to thank conference chairs, Professor Baden Offord, and the program advisers for their continued and committed academic support and guidance. Lastly IAFOR wishes to thank the delegates’ for their fantastic contribution and enthusiasm when attending the 2013 ACAS and ACC Conference. It certainly made for a most convivial conference. We look forward to seeing you again next year! Dates for the diary: ACCS 2014 & ACAS 2014: May 29 - June 1, 2014
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ACSS & ACSEE 2013 - Conference in Review The Fourth Annual Asian Conference on the Social Sciences 2013 (ACSS) and Third Annual Asian Conference on Sustainability, Energy and the Environment 2013 (ACSEE) welcomed 280 delegates from around the globe to share, explore and discuss the conference themes of Sustainability, Society, Environment and Trust. IAFOR were pleased to have available as the conference keynote speaker, Professor Eric Uslaner of the University of Maryland (USA). Professor Uslaner is one of the world’s leading academics in the field of ‘Trust’. In his address titled ‘Segregation and Mistrust,’ Professor Uslaner emphasized that those countries promoting close personal ties within integrated diverse communities, build far greater levels of intra-community trust, than those countries whose policies promote multiculturalism and segregation into distinct in-group identities. The plenary session then transitioned to the Featured Speaker, Professor Thomas Simon from John Hopkins University in Nanjing, China. His topic ‘Future Governance and Disappearing Nations: Canaries in the Sustainability Mine?’ postulated on the refugee fallout and international legal consequences, from the loss of small island nation states through climatic and environmental change. Professor Simon in his address called for immediate international cooperation in dealing with, both the legal and human issues, before they escalated into more profound and intractable problems. The plenary session was closed by an energetic Taiko Drum performance by the students of Akutagawa High School from Osaka, who have won numerous awards and will next be performing in Europe.
Photo: Professor Thomas Simon (left) Professor Eric Uslaner (right)
This years’ conference featured a strong line up of Spotlight Speakers. Dr Ernie Ko of the National Taiwan University of Arts presentation, ‘An INGO’s Development and Fission – A Case Study on Transparency International,’ was a fascinating behind the scenes look at the internal politics and personalities of a prominent global NGO and how this can affect the morale and direction of the organisation.
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ACSS & ACSEE 2013 - Conference in Review (continued) His presentation was then followed by an extended IAFOR lead discussion session titled, ‘Sustaining Good Governance in the 21st Century through Trust and Transparency’. IAFOR wishes to thank Dr Ernie Ko, Dr Lillian Woo, Professor Stuart Picken and Dr Alex Petrisor for their insights and contributions during this session. Emeritus Professor John Regan of Texas A&M University closed the Spotlight Session speaking on innovation through syntactic manipulation. Professor Regan demonstrated how individuals can learn to make sense of any new situation they encounter and then create from seemingly opposite characteristics, a single innovative new idea. Though many artists have intuitively used this syntactic manipulation approach, Professor Regan believes that researchers and educators can themselves harness this interdisciplinary process to create new and innovative directions. Dr Joseph Wunderlich from Elizabethtown College (USA) began the Saturday Spotlight Session with his presentation on recent trends in green architecture and environmental design by relating his experiences using ‘Sandbox,’ a social network based rapid prototyping tool. Dr Wunderlich revealed the advantages of how new technologies can greatly assist in the modeling and creation of sustainable architecture. The featured speaker for the conferences’ closing ceremony was IAFOR’s Advisory Board Vice Chairperson Professor Jerry Platt from Akita International University (Japan). Professor Platt’s spirited and well received critique of the inconsistencies and foibles of University ranking, used humour, reminiscences of college football, and sound statistical analysis to bust much of the criteria and bias used in formulating these widely quoted ranking systems that have become the bane of many University departments. Earlier on Sunday delegates got the opportunity to try the ancient art of Japanese Calligraphy during a workshop held by Art Students from Ritsumeikan University from Kyoto. It was a unique chance for delegates to take home their own creative souvenir from ACSEE/ ACSS 2013. IAFOR would like to thank the IAFOR Advisory Board and Conference Chair, Reverend Professor Stuart Picken, the Osaka Conference Organising Committee, and the Conference Programme Advisers Drs Alex Petrisor and Andrea Molle for their continued and committed academic support and guidance, as well as all the participants that attended ACSEE/ACSS 2013. We look forward to seeing you again next year! Dates for the Diary: ACSS 2014 & ACSEE 2014: June 12 – June 15, 2014
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uk2013 ECSS 2013 / ECSEE 2013 - A Conference in Review The European Conference on Sustainability, Energy and the Environment (ECSEE), was held with the European Conference on the Social Sciences (ECSS) on July 4 – 6 2013 in Brighton, the start of six new Europe based IAFOR conferences over three weekends. Though this joint conference was the smaller of the European events, with an attendance of 125, the energy was nevertheless palpable as the conference began with a wide-ranging speech by Jun Arima, Director General of the Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO) in London, seconded by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI). Mr Arima covered issues of economic regeneration, environmental sustainability, and governance on both the national and international level, and as someone who has been engaged at a very high level in shaping some of these debates, his words carried extra weight. From 1992 Mr Arima served in the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy (ANRE). In 1996, he was sent to the OECD as Councilor (energy advisor), to the Permanent Delegation of Japan. He served in senior positions in ANRE following his return to Japan. From 2002, he spent four years in Paris as Head of the Country Studies Division for the International Energy Agency (IEA). His activities in international climate and energy issues have seen him recognised internationally, most recently as Japan’s chief negotiator at the UN Climate Talks in Cancun, Mexico in 2010. The conference also included a number of featured presentations. Professor Jay Friedlander spoke on “Sustainable Enterprise: Unlocking Innovation & Preparing for the Next Economic Wave”. Professor Friedlander is the Sharpe-McNally Chair of Green and Socially Responsible Business at College of the Atlantic (COA) in Bar Harbor, Maine, USA, and founder of COA’s Sustainable Business Program. Professor Peter Oakley of the Royal College of Art is Research Leader for the School of the Material, and his work addresses the luxury goods sector from a social science perspective. His spotlight speech was on “Immanence vs. Provenance: Fairtrade Gold and the Social Complexity of Substance Identities”. continued on next page ....
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uk2013 ECSS 2013 / ECSEE 2013 - A Conference in Review (continued) Another featured presenter on sustainability was Professor George Martin, currently visiting professor at the Centre for Environmental strategy at the University of Surrey, and a sociologist specializing in urban sustainability looked at just that in his paper: “Urban Agriculture’s Synergies with Ecological and Social Sustainability: Food, Nature, and Community.”
Photo: ECSS/ECSEE Featured Speakers L-R: Jay Friedlander, George Martin, Peter Oakley, Rob Gill, Dan Sullivan
Addressing the ECSS conference theme of governance was featured speaker, Dr Rob Gill. Dr Gill is the Discipline Leader for Public Relations and Advertising at Swinburne University of Technology, where he has worked since 2007. Rob completed his doctorate in 2006 on the theme “Employer of Choice and building a positive Corporate Social Responsibility reputation for the Australian Financial Sector.” and he gave a thought-provoking address entitled, “Using Corporate Storytelling to Build Internal and External Trust”. Professor Dan Sullivan, Cowles Chair in Media Management and Economics at the University of Minnesota School of Journalism and Mass Communication, delivered the conference closing presentation on “Unrecognized Conflicts Between the Online Revenue Strategies and Social Media Strategies of Major Newspapers in the United States and Europe”. Professor Sullivan’s research involves helping advance the thinking of traditional media organizations regarding how they deal with change in the communities they serve and with changes in technologies that are altering their competitive and business landscapes. We look forward to expanding and continuing the discussions next year in both Japan and the UK.
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uk2013 ECE 2013 / ECTC 2013 - A Conference in Review The First European Conference on Education was held alongside the First European Conference on Technology in the Classroom. Our largest European event attracted 350 delegates from over forty countries in a program chaired by Professor Sue Jackson, Pro-Vice Master of Teaching & Learning at Birkbeck, University of London (UK), and Professor Barbara Lockee of Virginia Tech (USA), and to consider the conference theme, “Learning and Teaching Through Transformative Spaces”. The plenary session saw a number of thought leaders in UK Higher Education, including 2013 keynote, Professor Mary Stuart,Vice Chancellor of the University of Lincoln (UK), who looked at Social Mobility in the current climate of austerity. Professor Stuart also chaired a panel addressing the conference theme with Professor Rosemary Deem, OBE,Vice-Principal (Education) and Professor of Higher Education Management at Royal Holloway, University of London (UK), Professor Miriam David, Emeritus Professor at the Institute of Education. A plenary panel was also lead by Professor Sue Jackson, and featured leading academics from Brighton’s two universities: Professor Yvonne Hillier from the University of Brighton, and Professor Valerie Hey and Dr Linda Morrice of the University of Sussex. The Technology in the Classroom featured speaker was Professor Catherine McLoughlin of the Catholic University of Australia, who looked at the rise of the MOOC, and its role in modern higher education. We were very happy that the inaugural conference was so well supported by the local universities, and would like to extend our gratitude to the conference chairs, the featured speakers, and student volunteers from Blatchington Mill Sixth Form College for helping to staff the event. Photos (left side): Professor Rosemary Deem, Professor Miriam David, Professor Valerie Hey Photos (right side): Professor Sue Jackson, Professor Yvonne Hillier, Dr Linda Morrice
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uk2013 ECAH 2013 / ECLL 2013 - A Conference in Review The last of IAFOR’s European Conference series saw the First European Conference on Arts and Humanities (ECAH) paired with the First European Conference on Language Learning (ECLL). The ECAH event was chaired by IAFOR IAB Chair, Professor Stuart Picken with the ECLL event chaired by Professor Steve Cornwell of Osaka Jogakuin University.
Photo: Professor Picken (left) welcomes delegates to the conference
This event saw 250 people from more than 50 countries in an incredibly diverse celebration of interdisciplinary and intercultural study. The theme for the Arts and Humanities conference was “Connectedness, Identity and Alienation” and our selection of featured speakers came at this topic from a number of different angles: Aaron Sachs, Professor of History at Cornell University (USA) took delegates back a century to the end of the First World War and Modernist theories which tried to make sense of this low point in European civilization in a paper entitled, “From Trauma to Rediscovery: Lewis Mumford and the Modern Search for Connection through Time and Space”.
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uk2013 ECAH 2013 / ECLL 2013 - A Conference in Review (continued) Professor Roberto Bertoni of Trinity College Dublin took us to the present to look at questions of identity and alienation in the highly mediatized society of modern day Korea with a presentation on “The Innocent Man (착한 남자): Alienation of Characters and Audience, Acquisition of New Identity, Catharsis”. Daniela Nadj, currently a lecturer in law at the University of Westminster delivered a powerful and wide-ranging address on “The Juridicalisation of Gender-Based Violence against Women in the Current Political and Legal Moment - A Critical Feminist Observation of International Wartime Sexual Violence Jurisprudence”. The paper provided a critical feminist analysis of international wartime sexual violence jurisprudence, as it is constructed in current feminist scholarship and the surrounding debate, and elicited much debate among the international delegates. The European Conference on Language Learning saw featured speakers from a number of different countries look at concepts of “Connectedness, Identity and Alienation” as they relate to different aspects of language, including Professors Kiyomi Chinen, Masako Douglas, and Hiroko Kataoka from California State University, Long Beach, USA, who looked at issues surrounding heritage-language education with particular relation to Japanese in California. Professor Olesya Orlova, of Kemerovo State University (Russia) looked at language in the Russian context in a paper entitled “National Stereotypes as Means of Connectedness, Identity and Alienation”. Finally, Dr Miho Inaba of Lund University (Sweden) looked at autonomous learning in the acquisition of languages, asking: “What is the Role of “language classes” in Autonomous Learning?: The Implications from Japanese Language Learners’ L2 Activities Outside the Classroom” We would again like to extend our gratitude to the conference chairs, the featured speakers, and student volunteers from Blatchington Mill Sixth Form College for helping to staff the event, and look forward to welcoming delegates back to Brighton in 2014.
Photo: Professor Cornwell (right) invites delegates to introduce themselves at the opening session of ECAH/ECLL 2013
For Your Reading Pleasure IAFOR has recently released several short publications. You can view these on our website iafor.org or view them on issuu at issuu.com/iafor. We welcome you to take a look! A School’s-Eye View Mediasia 2012 - Keynote Address Professor Thomas G Endres Director of the School of Communicaton University of Northern Colorado, USA
Life after Death? Writing the Alienated Self in Post-war Japan ACAH 2013 - Keynote Address Professor Mark Williams Professor of Japanese Studies, University of Leeds, UK Vice President for Academic Affairs, Akita International University, Japan
Selected Haiku Vladimir Devidé Haiku Award 2013 The Third Vladimir Devidé Haiku Award was organized by The International Academic Forum as part of The Third Annual Asian Conference on Literature and Librarianship 2013 The 2011 & 2012 editions are also available.
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