Call for Application
The 12th Next-Generation Global Workshop
Theme: Inequalities
Date: October 25, 26, 2019
Venue: Faculty of Letters Main Building, Kyoto University
IThe Purposes of the Next-Generation Global Workshop

The Next-Generation Global Workshop (NGGW) has been held annually since 2008 toprovide an opportunity for early-career scholars to present their research and to obtain
feedback from an international audience. It has proved to be a pleasant and effective way forcapacity building through the mentorship provided by the professors of participating
universities around the world. It has also served as an invaluable opportunity for participants
to learn from one another and deepen their understanding of various social phenomena in theworld, particularly in Asia. Ultimately, the NGGW has acted as a forum for scholars ofdifferent generations and from various regions to build a common academic foundation byredefining Asia in a global context.
II Theme: Inequalities
The 12th Next Generation Global Workshop focuses on “inequality” as its theme. Inequalities,
in simple terms, are the gaps between different groups, viewed from economic, social, legal,
political, symbolic and cultural perspectives, among others. The groups compared may vary interms of gender, race, ethnicity, age, place of origin, sexual orientation, disability, social class,educational achievement, religion, caste, and so on.
For example, economic inequality has been a core concern worldwide. One
contemporary issue is whether gaps in economic conditions widen together with the processof globalization. The concentration of wealth on a small proportion of the population is often
criticized, raising questions about the appropriate role of the state in maintaining the welfareof its nationals through wealth redistribution policy. Moreover, we have to ask whether thestate is narrowing or rather widening the gap in an age of cross-border migration and global
hierarchy by delineating the borders between citizens and non-citizens.
Economic inequality is fundamentally related to the economic dynamics at the global
scale. It is symbolic that strong criticism of inequality has arisen in the midst of a phase ofhigh growth in the 2000s to 2010s concentrated in Asia. The prosperity does not always
eliminate inequality. Modern economic growth frequently accompanies rural-to-urban

migration, the deterioration of autonomous communities and a weakening of traditional
redistribution channels, which enlarge income disparity.
But economic inequality is just one aspect of our theme. We should also pay more
attention to various non-economic inequalities and their intersections. Inequalities are deeply
associated with social exclusion, isolation or marginalization, and powerless people haveoften been voiceless and thus struggling for recognition. In premodern times, world religions
such as Buddhism, Christianity and Islam functioned as bases for those struggles to someextent because these religions were against secular values and had a strong tendency towards
equality, while on the other hand also creating new types of discrimination and exclusion.
In modern times, especially since the Enlightenment, questioning and overcoming
inequalities has been one of the major topics in Western thought, sometimes leading to radicalsocial changes. But traditional inequalities never ceased to exist and the new social orderbrought about other forms of inequality. Also in Eastern countries, the same problems
occurred in the course of modernization and Westernization.
In this process, cultural instances such as literature, art, movie, TV series and so on,which often described the situation of inequality between various groups, played an important
yet ambivalent role. While new emancipatory values were proposed through thosedescriptions, it was not seldom the case that conventional norms were reproduced by the samemeans, thus reinforcing the established system of social exclusion. We must in the first place
face this ambivalence in order to think about the problems of inequality from the viewpoint ofculture.

III Provisional Program of the Workshop
Day 1: October 25
Opening addresses
Professors’ roundtable: By professors and experts from various universities
Sessions: Presentations by students and early-career scholars with comments and discussions byadvisors (professors and experts from various universities)
DAY 2: October 26
Sessions: Presentations by students and early-career scholars with comments and discussions byadvisors (professors and experts from various universities)

Wrap-up session
IV Application Schedule of the Workshop
Eligibility for application: Master’s students, Ph.D. students, Ph.D. candidates, post-doctoral
fellows, and those who are in early-career and non-permanent positions. Please enclose the nameof a professor who received the NGGW call for application message directly from the KUASU
office as your referee.
Selection: The Organizing Committee will screen the applications based on candidates’
qualifications and abstracts. Around 12-15 presenters including about 5 travel grant winners will beselected.
Travel grant (For overseas travelers only): Travel award covers airfare and hotel accommodation
for three nights (shared twin room) accordingly to the rules and regulations of Kyoto University.
Flights and hotels will be arranged by our travel agent. The award does not include domestictransportation.
Fee for Registration: No registration fee is required.
Application deadline: July 31, 2019 (Japan Standard Time)
Notification of screening result: August 10, 2019 (Provision of travel grant to be decided at thistime)
Deadline for submission of full paper (4,000-6,000 words): September 30, 2019.
Workshop: October 25, 26
Deadline for submission of full paper for proceedings: January 10, 2020
Proceedings: on the web around March.Applicants should provide the following information directly in the text of the application email（For applicants from Kyoto University, there is no need for item f and g.）:a) Name (please capitalize your surname and provide Chinese characters if available)b) Paper Titlec) Position (Master’s student, Ph.D. student, etc.)d) Affiliatione) Postal Address, Telephone Number, and Email Addressf) Referee (Name and Affiliation)g) Whether travel grant from KUASU is needed.
h) An abstract in English of 350-words maximum.

The application should be sent to kuasu.nextgeneration★bun.kyoto-u.ac.jp(★→＠)
Email Subject Line should say: “Application for NGGW 2019”
Contact:
Organizing Committee of the 12th Next-Generation Global Workshop, KUASU
Mieno Fumiharu, Deguchi Yasuo, Kawashima Takashi, Ochiai Emiko, Asato Wako, Onishi
Takuro, Lu Wanxue, Hisada Yurie (Kyoto University)
Email: kuasu.nextgeneration★bun.kyoto-u.ac.jp(★→＠)