2011 - JSAA Biennial Conference - Internationalising Japan: Sport, Culture and Education
The University of Melbourne is hosting the 17th Biennial Conference of the Japanese Studies Association of Australia (JSAA) in July 2011. It is the first time that the conference has been held in Melbourne since 1997.
Date
The Conference will be held at the University of Melbourne on 4-7 July, 2011.
Conference Theme
The Conference theme is Internationalising Japan: Sport, Culture and Education. Japan is both a subject and an object of internationalisation. It is internationalising, and it is being internationalised by the growing transnational flows of people, goods and ideas that are the hallmarks of globalisation. Although consciousness of these developments may be strongest within Japan itself, it would be a mistake to frame internationalisation as a simple matter of ‘Japan’ engaging with the ‘international’. Transcending conventional dichotomies and stereotypes, this conference will employ specific themes to explore the synergies and discords of internationalisation and to highlight the processes and agents of change, both passive and active.
Sport, culture and education are three areas in which questions of identity, history and tradition come into direct contact with the realities of a rapidly internationalising world. Sport: In Japan, debates over professionalisation, fan culture and the preservation of indigenous sporting traditions are revealing scenarios for both cooperation and conflict across national borders. Culture: As Japanese popular culture takes the world by storm, the potential for international engagement is also being explored across many other cultural forms and creative communities. Education: Long-standing issues in international education in Japan are also finally coming to a head, with an expanded intake of international students and experimentation with new educational approaches, both within Japanese institutions and surrounding the teaching of Japanese language outside the country.
Sport, culture and education are also integral to life in Australia, and Victoria in particular. The importance of a vibrant sporting and cultural scene to Australians’ physical, social and economic wellbeing is obvious. The AFL alone is said to contribute more than $1 billion annually to the Australian economy; the National Gallery of Victoria welcomes close to 1.5 million visitors each year. Meanwhile, education is now Australia’s second largest services export sector, with almost 550,000 international students currently studying in this country.
In the realms of sport, culture and education, Australia faces many challenges similar to those confronting Japan: how to reconcile local, national and international identities in sport and maintain a healthy balance between grassroots promotion and commercialisation; how to maintain a vibrant and diverse cultural landscape in the face of changing funding paradigms and new technologies; and how to maximise the benefits of international education for both the students and the host communities. We hope that broad-ranging discussion of these and other issues in a Japanese context will contribute not only to wider appreciation of Japan and Australia-Japan relations, but also to understandings of Australia’s own processes of internationalisation. The conference will reach beyond academic communities and involve government, the corporate sector and the wider community.
Enquiries
For further information about the conference, please contact:
Co-convenor: Carolyn Stevens, Asia Institute, University of Melbourne
Co-convenor: Stacey Steele, Asian Law Centre, Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne
JSAA 2011 Co-ordinator: Jeremy Breaden, Asian Law Centre, Melbourne Law School
Email: jsaa-2011@unimelb.edu.au
This conference is supported by:
- Asia Institute, University of Melbourne
- Asian Law Centre, University of Melbourne
- Japanese Studies Association of Australia