UKCHA Annual Conference 2021: ‘Re-Imagining the Global’
Led by University of Exeter, May 2021
Fresh in the minds of all delegates to this conference, and the world as a whole, is the experience of living through a global pandemic. Humanities scholars can bring clarity and dimension to that experience, through the knowledge of how people from other cultures and times have dealt with pain and loss, endured confinement, found community, and rebuilt in changed surroundings. As we look towards the future, and seek to develop sustainably in this tightly interconnected and diverse world, a humanities education, with its focus on intercultural and interdisciplinary knowledge production and communication, has a clear function and mission, namely to contribute intellectual resources and human wisdom to the well-being of humanity. At the present moment we are being challenged to rethink relationships between human beings and, ever more urgently, with the natural world, and we continue to explore symbiosis and reciprocity in these two dimensions. The China-UK Humanities Alliance Annual Conference “Reimagining the Global” is a focus and lever for humanities scholars to explore these areas together. Bringing together established scholars and early-career scholars from the humanities in China and the UK, the panels will explore the following perspectives:
1. Building Community in an Uncertain World
How did cross-cultural (mis)understandings contribute to tensions and conflicts in both the historical and contemporary world? And how can an understanding of cultural heritage, inter-community dialogue, and public engagement support post-conflict societies to thrive? Complex philosophical, historical, social, and religious issues can all foster conflict, and in-depth multi-disciplinary approach to these topics can help overcome antipathy and allow communities to build towards peaceful resolutions. This panel includes papers which explore the political and social processes that can help overcome conflict and lead to peace-building in international relations.
2. Transnational Identities, Movement and Travel
This session offers perspectives from all humanities disciplines into how and why people, objects, ideas and cultural practices move across borders. This may include discussion of recently theorized concepts such as hybridity and entanglement. Historical engagement with the many forms of mobility over the centuries can shed light on recurring themes and patterns. The topic includes the digital turn in the humanities and the twenty-first century transformation of ‘mobility’, both practically and conceptually.
3. Biopolitics in a Time of Pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic is an opportunity for humanities scholars to reflect on historical and cultural aspects of disease. This can be historical and/or transcultural consideration of public health or disease control or, within literary or philosophical discourse, questions of pain, solitude and isolation, and finding community. Historically, what ways have people found to connect in times of sickness? How have different cultures commemorated their dead and overcome loss?
4. Environmental Humanities and Sustainability
The panel brings together academics from the arts and humanities involved in current debates around environment and sustainability. Public perceptions of climate change and policy implementation can be greatly influenced by the arts and humanities, fostering a deeper understanding of the history and cultural context in which environmental issues have occurred. This session invites scholars working on texts, artworks, poems, monuments, films and more to discuss how we can better understand the relationship between people and the environment.
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