Announcement of the 11th Annual Meetingof the Society for Cultural Interaction in East Asia
In the past decades, the history of science has experienced a number of paradigmatic changes,
ranging from the postcolonial and poststructural turn to the cultural and social turn. Thesechanges considerably shifted our understanding of the social, political and cultural function ofknowledge in a rapidly globalizing world, a globalization that had already started in the 19thcentury. Owing to the long-held assumption of a universal modernity emerging from European
enlightenment both the epistemologies and taxonomies of knowledge moving from one continent
to the other have long been structured along the well-known dichotomies of modern vs. traditionalor foreign vs. indigenous knowledge. Though historians have increasingly engaged in dissolving
these dichotomies there is still an important lacuna to fill, namely to go beyond the research ofknowledge itself (is X indigenous/colonial/Western knowledge?), and to identify the different
political, social and cultural actors participating in the production and dissemination ofknowledge.
It goes without saying that the study of knowledge transfer among East Asian countries aswell as the one between East Asia and European countries does not start with how passive
recipients in country A react to an impact from country B. Knowledge is never static, nor is it theresult of the discovery of universal truths. Previous research on colonial knowledge and knowledge
in imperial contexts has pointed out that it is continuously mediated, socially (re)defined, acceptedand sometimes even rejected. Considering that both appropriation and rejection are primarily
shaped socially and culturally it is imperative to develop a more adequate approach to reconstruct
the modes of knowledge formation that focuses on the role of transmitters involved in the transfer
and migration of knowledge (just like the participants of the 2019 annual meeting). The focus of
this meeting is on the role of networks, be they organized nationally or transnationally, be they
purely personal or understood as a network of actors, institutions and knowledge resources. We
thereby hope to contribute to a history of knowledge beyond Eurocentrism that does not simply
reproduce the national or ethnic paradigm according to which a Chinese, a Japanese or a Koreanscience is a comparable entity to “Western” or “European” science. In addition, we propose to go
beyond bare definitions of what knowledge is and rather try to achieve a better understanding of
the dynamic formation and dissemination of knowledge.
The Humanities at the Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in Germany
with its interdisciplinary research focus on Knowledge - Temporality - Cultural Comparison andthe International Consortium for Research in the Humanities “Fate, Freedom and Prognostication”
will provide a rewarding environment for the upcoming 2019 Society for Cultural Interaction inEast Asia.
We look forward to everyone’s participation in the effort to make new contributions to the fieldof East Asian cultural interaction studies.
Conference Theme this Year:
Moving Knowledges in East Asia and Beyond—Global Networks in the History of Science and Technology
Panel Themes:
1. Global Histories of Circulating Knowledges
2. A Transnational Conceptual History of Science and Technology
3. Knowledge Epistemologies after Needham
4. Rationalities in Knowledge Making
5. Absolute Truth and Absolute Knowledge in Political Rule
6. The Role of Scientific Institutions and Organizations in 19th and 20th century East Asia
7. Travelling Persons and Travelling Knowledge
8. Imperial/national/local knowledges in interaction
9. Translating and Transmitting Knowledge in Literature, History and Philosophy
10. Miscellaneous topics in research on the history of East Asian knowledge

Venue：Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg
Kollegienhaus, Universitaetsstrasse 15, 91054 Erlangen, Germany
Meeting Schedule
Arrival: May 10, 2019 (Friday)
Annual Meeting: May 11-12, 2019 (Saturday and Sunday)
Departure: May 13, 2019 (Monday)
Application Schedule
The conference will be divided into four categories: keynote speeches, panel sessions,individual presentations, and papers presented by PhD candidates (*Only Graduates in Doctor’s
program when applying).
We encourage each Society member to refer to the above titles for the composition of eachpanel. Panels will be allotted two hours and will be comprised of four to five presenters, one
moderator, and one or two discussants. Presenters can also serve as moderators or discussants.
Please submit your application and abstract (400 characters, including an English abstract of 300
words for each submission) to the Organizing Committee by the deadline if you wish toparticipate.
The deadline for application submission is Friday, December 21, 2018. After the Organizing
Committee reviews your application and abstract, we will send you a formal letter of invitation
around the end of January.
Conference Expenses
With the exception of specially invited presenters, all participants are responsible for theirown roundtrip transportation and lodging expenses. In addition, in accordance with the decision
made at the last SCIEA conference, the 2019 conference fees will be €100 for full members and €70 for PhD students. Fees include a welcome banquet, lunches for both days at the conference.
Please submit payment in cash (€) on site. (Credit cards and foreign currency will not be accepted.)
To apply for participation, and contact: The Organizing Committee: sciea2019@outlook.com
Members of the Organizing Committee for the 11th Annual Meeting of the Society for Cultural
Interaction in East Asia:
Head organizer:
Marc A. Matten, Vice-President (Professor, Contemporary Chinese History,Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg)
Auxiliary organizers:
Hsiao-ti Li, President (Professor, Department of Chinese and History, City University of Hong Kong)
Keiichi Uchida, Vice-President (Professor, Faculty of Foreign Languages, Kansai University)
Fabian Schäfer (Professor, Japanese Studies,Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg)
Takao Fujita, Councilor (Professor, Faculty of Literature, Kansai University)
De-min Tao, Councilor (Professor, Faculty of Literature, Kansai University)
Secretary:
Guowei Shen, Secretary General (Professor, Faculty of Foreign Languages, Kansai University)
Margarete Darr (Administrative Coordinator, Department of Ancient World and Asian Cultures,Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg)