The 5th Shantou University Global Studies Symposium
Global Studies: Value and Life Meaning
Oct.27-29, 2016
The subject matter of Global Studies is wide, and draws often from current issues in politics, education, the biosphere, and global economy. The theme to this year’s Global Studies Symposium finds its chief inspiration in philosophy, and bears the name "Global Studies: Value and Life Meaning." It emphasizes human values (read broadly to include positions either religious or secular) and the quest for a meaningful life in relation to an ever changing and varied human condition. Symposium contributors will address present day concerns that emerge within such areas as theology, literature, political economy, and moral philosophy. In the process the Global Studies Symposium will explore an underlying conception of value that unites these concerns that seek expressions as ethical and moral imperatives that have been touchstones of global society and culture.
“Values” have been the center of global debates in fields to which our visiting experts have devoted their scholarship. World religions have been globalizers for thousands of years and continue to localize, changing the values of local scenes while at the same time being changed by the values of their new converts. Climate change has struck a global chord as people around the world from researchers to fisherman have come face to face with startling new realities that are emerging from our world’s ecosystems. Ecological changes are forcing people to question their faith in a global economy based on the plastic world of mass consumption. Scholars in the field of global justice have questioned the responsibility that rich nations, leaders of the global economy, have in resolving global poverty. Scholarship on borders and borderlands, places with hybrid identities and diverse populations, asks questions about the value of identity that shapes our ideas of gender, class, and ethnicity. Identity is linked to questions about culture and the value of cultural meaning in an era of radical sharing of ideas. From transnational media corporations and national media outlets vying for “soft power” to the ubiquitous smartphone networked via global social media platforms, our media world has fundamentally changed the intersection between global and local. Is technology itself, in the form of cloning, robotics, and artificial intelligence, leading us to an era of the post-human, changing forever the meaning of human life? Global Studies historians have traced migrations, wars, and holocausts to examine how people who claimed to be moral or ethical have committed monstrous atrocities in the past in order to warn us about our own values, responsibilities, and behaviors. The value of territory, security, and sovereignty continue to be questioned by terrorism and disasters as well as by border-crossing ideas and opportunities that allow people around the globe to look towards shared futures. These are just some of the questions regarding value and human life that will be discussed by our visiting scholars who will be participating in the Fifth Annual Global Studies Symposium.
Global Studies Symposium 2016 Schedule
Session 1
Date: Thursday, October 27
Venue: ACC Room 3
Chair: Kelly Nicholson, Associate Professor CGS, STU
19:30Opening Remarks
LI Jie, Deputy Dean, CLA;
Wuming ZHAO, Co-Director, CGS; and James McDougall, Co-Director, CGS
20:00Plenary Session
“Teaching Asian History and Culture in a Globalized World”
Joseph Tse-Hei Lee, Professor, Pace University, USA
Session 2
Date: Friday, October 28
Venue: ACC Room 5
Chair: James McDougall, Associate Professor, CGS, STU
9:45 Coffee
10:00 “Of Mountaintops and Masterpieces: What kind of problem is justice?”
Michael Goodhart, Associate Professor, University of Pittsburgh, USA
11:10 “‘To End Impunity’: Africa, the International Criminal Court, and the Quest for Global Justice”
Derrick Nault, Professor, Sophia University, Japan
12:00Lunch Break at the ACC Restaurant
Session 3
Time: Friday, October 28
Venue: ACC Room 3
Chair: Karsten Krueger, Associate Professor, CGS, STU
14:00“The Poetics of Plastic: Images of Global Entanglement”
Marques Nuno, PhD Candidate, Umeå University, Sweden
15:00“Cosmopolitanism and Natural Law”
Jun YANG, Associate Professor, China University of Political Science and Law, China
16:00 Coffee Break
16:20CGS Panel: Cultural Heritage Preservation and Value
“Global Heritage: The Ethics of Heritage Presentation”
Karsten Krueger, Associate Professor, CGS, STU
“Camp in Heritage Preservation, or ‘Returning the Museum to the Muses’"
James McDougall, Associate Professor, CGS, STU
18:00Dinner at the ACC Restaurant
Session 4
Date: Saturday, October 29
Venue: ACC Room 3
Chair: Wuming ZHAO, Associate Professor, CGS, STU
9:00 “Tao and Logos: Diversity and Union in the World’s Moral Traditions”
Kelly Nicholson, Associate Professor, CGS, STU
9:50 Coffee Break
10:10“Interaction Between Global Governance and National Governments”
Zhenye LIU, Professor, China University of Political Science and Law, China
11:10“Reflections on the Maturity of Religion and Theology in Literature: A Cultural Dialogue”
David Jasper, Professor, University of Glasgow, UK
12:00 Lunch Break at the ACC Restaurant
Session 5
Date: Saturday, October 29
Venue: ACC Room 3
Chair: Jinfeng SUN, Doctor, CGS, STU
Theme: STU Alumni Panel: “Shantou University and Beyond: Global Studies Meets the Real
World in Contemporary China”
14:00“Why Do I Think That CGS Courses Are Very Special for STU Students?”
Alan LIAO Yanlin, PhD Student, Nanjing University, China
(BA in Journalism, STU, 2013; MA in Philosophy, HKUST 2014)
“My School-Drifting Life: Why I Stayed and How I Practice”
Amelia RAO Du, Project Assistant, Center for Women's Studies, STU
(BA in English, STU, 2016)
“From Shantou University to Corporate World in Shenzhen: My Global Experience”
Jessica LI Jiayu, Customer Relation Management Specialist, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
(MA in English, STU, 2016)
“The Transformation from the Philosophical and Religious Mindset to the World of Competition”
Jackie HUANG Bin, MA Student, Hong Kong University (BA in Law, STU, 2016)
“Global Chances: Language Provides the Key”
Munzie PENG Man, Instructor, Bon's English Studio (BA in Journalism, STU, 2015)
15:40 Coffee Break
16:00 Global Studies in Shantou University: a Round Table Discussion
Chair: Stephen Leahy, Associate Professor, CGS, STU
