Title: ‘Framing Asian Studies in a Global Context’
Speaker: Philippe Peycam, Director of the International Institute of Asian Studies (IIAS), Leiden, The Netherland.

Date and Time: June 7th, 2018 16:00 – 18:00
Place: Tonantei on the first floor of Inamori Building, CSEAS, Kyoto University

Moderator: Mario Lopez, Associate Professor, CSEAS

Abstract:
Under its cluster Global Asia, IIAS coordinates two inter-disciplinary programs: ‘Humanities Across Borders, Asia and Africa in the World’ (2017-2021) and Southeast Asia Neighbourhood Network (2017-2021). These two initiatives experiment new methods of intellectual engagement that favor a decentralized approach grounded on local knowledge practices while facilitating regional and transregional exchanges between them. The aim is to help shape a new pedagogical framework built on multi-sector participatory collaboration at both local and global levels. In the same vein, IIAS is supporting a South-South humanistic exchange platform between Asia and Africa. Following the groundbreaking conference “Asia-Africa: A New Axis of Knowledge” held in Accra, Ghana, in 2015, IIAS is facilitating the organization of a second event in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, on September 20-22, 2018, and in Morocco, in 2020. These are elements of a connected academic engagement by IIAS that Dr. Peycam would like to share with his colleagues at the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at Kyoto University.

Bio: Philippe Peycam is the director of the International Institute of Asian Studies (IIAS), Leiden, The Netherland. He is a trained historian of Southeast Asia (Vietnam). For 10 years, he worked in Cambodia to establish the Center for Khmer Studies (CKS), a hybrid academic and capacity building institution. He is working on an essay based on this experience provisionally entitled Cultural Renewal Amidst Social Ruins? Reflections on Cultural Activism in Cambodia. At IIAS, Peycam moreover engaged the institute in the reinforcement of its network-based activities by deepening its intellectual and societal impacts under three clusters (Urban; Heritage; Global). He supervises the transnational program “Humanities across Borders, Asia and Africa in the World” (2017-2021).