Waseda University Doctoral Student Network (WUDSN)
"Panel: Regional Identity in Asian Integration Research"
Panel Objective
The concept of identity has recently gained considerable currency in the social sciences. Within Asia, the concept of an Asian regional identity has been stressed as a component essential to the process of Asian integration and the formation of an Asian community. This has partly been because the commonalities among countries that would be emphasized through identity construction are also seen as means by which integration can be deepened and by which a regional community can be built. It has even been suggested that the lack of an Asian identity is the central problem for the region to solve, a goal that is evidenced by the clear embedding of the future role of identity in some regional institutions. This vision of identity as a functional tool of Asian integration requires researchers to both fully characterize this identity as well as make an account of how it is constructed and represented. In doing so, it is important to recognize the dynamic existent in Asia when regional and national perspectives clash. This dynamic exists outside the region as well, as countries outside Asia grapple with the idea of engaging an integrated Asian region. Thus, it is also important for researchers to recognize that identity is a question of standpoint; to capture the complexity of the Asian region's identity requires consideration of a multiple number of standpoints, including those from outside the region. This forum addresses the necessity to discern how the concept of an Asian regional identity is being and can be defined internally and externally. Three presenters will address these issues theoretically and empirically from standpoints within, as well as outside, Asia.
Presenter 1: Aminuddin Baki
PhD Student, Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies
Research Assistant, Global Institute for Asian Regional Integration
Title: "Conceptualization of Collective Identity in South East Asian Integration"
Presenter 2: Akiko Ishioka
PhD Student, Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies
Title: "The Significance of Cultural Heritage for an East Asian Community: The Case of University Students at Beijing, Renmin, Fudan, and Shanghai Jiaotong Universities in China"
Presenter 3: Troy Knudson
PhD Student, Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies
Research Fellow, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
Title: "Asian Integration's Low Visibility in the United States Elite Press: External Reflections and Asian Regional Identity Construction"
Abstract [22KB]
Date: Saturday, December 19th, 2009
Time: 13:00-15:00
Venue: Waseda University, Building No.19, Room 309
Discussant: Shigeto Sonoda, Professor of Sociology at the Institute of Oriental Culture, University of Tokyo
Presentation in English (No Interpreter)
Admission Free / No Pre-Registration Required
Organized by Waseda University Doctoral Student Network (WUDSN)
www.waseda-giari.jp/jpn/wudsn/index_e.html
Supported by Global Institute for Asian Regional Integration (GIARI)
