[Talk1]
Speaker:
Prof. German KIM (Kazakh National al-Farabi University, Kazakhstan / Konguk University, Korea)
Title: In/Visible Images of Korean Women in the Soviet Korean Newspapers

Abstract:
Due to the class and ideological discrepancies, the image of a Soviet woman was interpreted differently in the Soviet and Western academic literature, mass media and art. In the Soviet Union, it was typical to demonstrate only visible, considerable achievements in the field of emancipation and gender equality. In the eyes of the Western world, the image of a Soviet woman was also stereotyped bearing some critical connotation. Such opposing approaches in the interpretation of the image of a Soviet woman can be compared to an iceberg, when each side revealed only its visible tip, hiding the underwater block. Based on the photo collection, the author presents visible and “invisible” images of Korean women in the materials of the Soviet Korean newspapers Senbon (선봉, Vanguard. 1923-1937) and Lenin Kichi (Lenin’s Way. 레닌 기치, 1938-1991).

[Talk2]
Speaker:
Dr. Nigora KARIMOVA (Institute of Fine Arts Studies, Academy of Sciences, Uzbekistan)
Title: The Images of Women in the Cinema of Uzbekistan

Abstract:
The presentation examines the socio-political and cultural conditions that influenced the formation of films about women in the region. The author analyzes the features of the chronicle of women in the 1925-80s in the context of the prevailing ideology. Information is given about the first women filmmakers, about the first silent film actresses in Uzbekistan. The formation of cinema in Uzbekistan coincided with many socio-political reforms of the Soviet state: land-water reform, the campaign for the liberation of women “Khujum,” the fight against illiteracy, etc. In the Soviet era of “silent cinema,” the images of women of the new world are created. So, in the mid 30-ies of the twentieth century, in illustrated magazines and cinema periodicals (cinema magazines) for the mass audience, 70% of the visual information was photographs of happy women, despite the fact that there were almost no reports on political processes. The plots of all the “silent films” of the 1920s and 30s―“Minaret of Death” (1925), “Second Wife” (1927), “Leper” (1928), “Daughter of the Saint” (1930), “Chador” (1927)―were built around the female fate. The author considers stereotypes, symbols of the era, the main ideological dominants, plot features, representative models of female characters, which are reflected in feature films of the period under review.

Discussion:

Moderator: Narumi SHITARA (Assistant Professor, CSEAS)

Commentators: Jinhye LEE (Researcher, ASAFAS, Kyoto University), Chika OBIYA (Associate Professor, CSEAS)

About the Speakers:
Prof. Dr. German KIM is Director of the Center for Korean Studies, Kazakh National Al-Farabi University, Kazakhstan, as well as the Director of the Center for Central Asian Studies and Cooperation, Department of History, Konguk University, Korea. He has published many articles and books on Soviet/post-Soviet Koreans for more than 30 years. He is now staying at CSEAS as a visiting research scholar in 2019.

Dr. Nigora KARIMOVA is a film critic, the head of the Department of Cinema and Television, Institute of Fine Arts, Academy of Sciences of Uzbekistan. She received her doctor’s degree (Doctor of Sciences) from the Academy of Sciences on the subject of formation and development of the play cinema in Uzbekistan, and on the basis of the dissertation she published Cinematography of Uzbekistan (in Russian) (Tashkent, 2018). She is an author of many articles, media projects, scientific monographs on the history of cinematography in Uzbekistan. She is a member of Fédération Internationale de la Presse Cinématographique (FIPRESCI)

*This seminar is organized in collaboration with CIRAS joint usage/research project “Muslim Communities and Family Norms in Central Eurasia: A Comparison with the Middle East.”

[Talk1]
Speaker:
Dr. Aynalem Megersa (Addis Ababa University)
Title: Ethiopian Higher Education Institutions: A Reflection from a Gender Perspective

[Talk1]
Speaker:
Dr. Shanthi Thambiah
Title: Gender in Southeast Asia: Fluid, Contested and Negotiable

Abstract:
This presentation examines the bilateral organization of kin in Southeast Asia and women’s active role in social and economic activities in all its complexity in a diverse and changing Southeast Asia. It is the bilateral kinship system that contributes to the consideration of Southeast Asia as a region that has certain shared practices and a region with a wide cultural span, diversity and hybridity. A Southeast Asian “cultural matrix” that is fluid and dynamic can be related to the bilateral social organization system that allows for flexibility in its gender relations and inclusiveness in its group formation contributing to the flourishing of diversity and hybridity. Kinship in Southeast Asia is associated with a lack of structure and a lack of permanence and therefore the “cultural matrix” of the region emerging from this context is more of shared resemblances rather than fixed or normative in nature. Therefore, gender in this region can be seen to be constructed and constituted from such a context and this is an attribute of the “cultural matrix” of Southeast Asia. This is not to make a claim for a generalized and essential bilateral principle and with it gender equality in the region but that this social organization system that may manifest in myriad forms in the local context contributes to the outcome on how gender is seen in the region as fluid, contested and negotiable. Such diversity of behavior, responses and outcomes were and are being overwritten by homogenizing colonial, state, nationalist and global capitalist ideologies and discourses.

About Speaker:
Associate Professor of Gender Studies at the Faculty of Arts and SocialSciences, University of Malaya. She studied at the University of Malaya for her bachelor’s degree, M.Phil from the University of Cambridge and her PhDin Social Anthropology is from the University of Hull. She has publishedwidely on gender, family and work and changing gender relations in Malaysia.

Commentators:
Tatsuro Fujikura (ASAFAS, Kyoto University)

Moderator:
Chika Obiya (CSEAS)

[Talk1]
Speaker:
Dr. Shanthi Thambiah
Title: The Development and Growth of the Gender Studies Program at the University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Abstract:
In Malaysia, women’s studies and gender studies are new fields struggling to be accepted as legitimate academic fields equal to mainstream disciplines. The academic and intellectual validity of women’s studies and gender studies was recognised because of the research done by early feminists. Research and studies on women before the seventies were scarce but researchers who welcomed international changes achieved by the global women’s movement were prepared to work to localise the need to elevate the position of women in society.
Public universities were also urged to look into ways of contributing towards uplifting the status of women. The article outlines the history of the institutionalisation of gender studies and its profile since its inception at the University of Malaya.

About Speaker:
Associate Professor of Gender Studies at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Malaya. She studied at the University of Malaya for her bachelor’s degree, M.Phil from the University of Cambridge and her PhD in Social Anthropology is from the University of Hull. She has published widely on gender, family and work and changing gender relations in Malaysia.

Commentators:
Mario Ivan Lopez (CSEAS)
Naoko Yoshinaga (Graduate School of Agriculture, Kyoto University)

Moderator:
Junko Koizumi (CSEAS)

[Talk1]
Speaker:
Dr. Nguyen Thi Thu Huong (University of Social Sciences and Humanities, VNU, Vietnam)
Title: ‘Queering Death Rites’: Cultural Legacy, Identities and Rights among Transgender Funeral Performers in Southern Vietnam

[Talk2]
Speaker:
Prof. Peter A. Jackson (Australian National University, Visiting Researcher of CSEAS)
Title: From Premodern Androgyny to Modern Gender Binary: Semicolonialism and the Making of Gender in Thailand

Commentators:
Atsufumi Kato
(Kyoto Sangyo University)

[Talk1]
Speaker:
Dr. Kurniawati Hastuti Dewi
Title: More than Just Passion: Reflective Note of Female Young Scholar in Promoting Gender Studies and Improving Participation of Women in Academia Indonesia

[Talk2] (Cancelled)
Speaker:
Dr. Shanthi Thambiah (Associate Professor, Gender Studies, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Malaya, Malaysia)
Title: The Development and Growth of the Gender Studies Program at the University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Commentators:
Takuro Furusawa
(Chair, Fieldworker Family Care Support Group, Associate Professor, Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies, Kyoto University)

Liulan Wang-Kanda
(Associate Professor, Faculty of Global and Regional Studies, Doshisha University)

Seminar:
Special Seminar: Frontiers of Gender Studies in Asia

[Talk1]
Speaker:
Dr. Kurniawati Hastuti Dewi
Title: Research on Women’s Leadership in Indonesia: Women as the Source of Knowledge, New Narratives,and Existing Limitations (2005-2017)

[Talk2] (Cancelled)
Speaker:
Dr. Shanthi Thambiah (Associate Professor, Gender Studies, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Malaya, Malaysia)
Title: Gender in Southeast Asia: Fluid, Contested and Negotiable

Commentators:
Yoko Hayami
(Professor, CSEAS)

Emi Goto
(Associate Professor, Network for Education and Research on Asia & Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia, The University of Tokyo)

[Talk1] Speaker:
Prof. Chalidaporn Songsamphan

Title: Subverting Sexism: Women in the Academic World

Abstract:
Despite the fact that women outnumber men, as lecturers and students, in the universities in so many countries, they are still facing many problems relating to gender stereotypes and biases. The belief in the incompatibility between femininity and academic activities has influenced the perception and assessment of women as researchers/lecturers. This line of thinking reflects the cultural images of women in different cultures. The experiences and understanding regarding the impact of gender can be distinctive among women in the universities due to differences in social and class positions and the academic disciplines. Women in the academic world can have different views on the gender situation and its impacts and the approaches to deal with hierarchical genders. Although academic women are quite divisive, their contribution and presence will gradually change many beliefs and values of sexism. This presentation will depict the interaction between gender, intersectionality, sexism and the experiences of women as academics by pointing out several important issues and using the experiences or situations in Thailand and Japan to elaborate some of the points. The implication of the establishment of women’s studies as a distinctive arena for women’s academic activities will be addressed.

About Speaker:
Chalidaporn Songsamphan is an associate professor of political science at Thammasat University in Bangkok. She is currently the head of Department of Politics and Government, a Vice-President of the Association of Asian Women’s Studies (AAWS), and the president of the Service Workers in Groups Foundation (SWING). Her main research interest include feminist political theory, politics of sexuality, and gender – based/sexual violence. Her current research projects are “Femininity, Pop Culture and Beauty Industry”and “Supernatural Prophecy: Construction/Reflection of Hope and Fear in Thai Politics.”
Some of her publications are:
“The Political and Gender Power Relations: Contemporary Discourse on Sexuality in Thai Society,” in _Women’s Studies in Thailand: Power, Knowledge and Justice_, edited by Suwanna Satha-anand (Seoul, South Korea: Ewha Womans University Press, 2004; History of Sexuality: Sexual History/Sexuality in Thai History (2008); “Localizing Feminism: Women’s Voices and Social Activism in Thai Context” (2011); Reproductive Autonomy and Public Policy: Contestation on Unintended Pregnancy/Abortion in Thai Society (forthcoming).

[Talk1] Speaker:
Prof. Sylvia Estrada-Claudio, the Chairperson of the Department of Women and Development Studies, College of Social Work and Community Development, University of the Philippines

Title: Always Mainstreaming but never Mainstream: Feminists in Academia

Abstract:
The talk will cover my own experiences in trying to bring gender perspectives to one academic institution: the University of the Philippines. This will be my insights into my roles as professor of the Department of Women and Development Studies, and former Director of the UP Center for Gender and Women’s Studies.

This involves different arenas of advocacy—in the area of academic teaching and scholarship, in the area of policy development and implementation.

Finally, the paper will look at the engagement of women’s studies professors with the women’s movement and how this enriches scholarship.

About Speaker:
Dr. Sylvia Estrada-Claudio is a doctor of medicine who also holds a PhD in Psychology. She is currently the Chairperson of the Department of Women and Development Studies, College of Social Work and Community Development, University of the Philippines. She was formerly Director of the University of the Philippines Center for Women’s Studies.

She is author 2 books, Rape Love and Sexuality: The Construction of Woman in Discourse (UP Press, 2002) and €œAnd Then She Laughed: Experiences in Counseling Women (Anvil Press, 2015). She is also a regular columnist for Rappler, the Philippines€™ leading social and news network.

Like most Filipinas, she is known to friends by a nickname, Guy.

Guy considers herself an activist and academic because she has spent most of her life working in social movements. She is proudest of being co-founder, and now Chair of the Board of Directors of Likhaan, an organization working with grassroots women on issues of reproductive and sexual health and rights.

Commentator: Dr. Hidefumi Hitokoto (Kokoro Research Center, Kyoto University)