NAJAKS – Nordic Association of Japanese and Korean Studies

NAJAKS 2013

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CONFERENCE ANNOUNCEMENT

(DEADLINE FOR ABSTRACT SUBMISSIONS HAS PASSED)

The 9th conference of the Nordic Association of Japanese and Korean Studies (NAJAKS) will be held in Bergen, Norway, on August 21-23, 2013.

Conference theme: Translation, Education and Innovation

Conference Announcement
In these times of globalization and digitization, the world has become increasingly complex and interconnected. Communication across borders and languages from around the world is now an immense feature of daily life, and the need for cultural, linguistic and translational competence is ever present. Migration, ethnic conflicts and environmental challenges call for new forms of international understanding and cooperation, as well as a constant focus on quality in education and on accommodating innovation across diverse fields. This is especially true for modernized Asian countries like Japan and Korea, which have a great economic and cultural impact on daily life in Europe that is often underappreciated. There is much to be gained from deeper communication and cooperation with East Asia, acknowledging its rich past, impressive present, and promising future.

For the 2013 Nordic conference on Japanese and Korean studies, we have chosen three key words to which participating scholars are encouraged to thematically link their proposed presentations: “Translation, Education and Innovation“. These key words are to be interpreted broadly, intended not to delimit but rather to widen perspectives and inspire interdisciplinary approaches. High quality contributions in the area of Japan and Korea studies that are thematically remote from these topics are nevertheless highly welcome.

The NAJAKS Organizing Committee has selected three prominent Keynote Speakers from an array of fields across Japanese Studies and Korean Studies.

The conference will include panel discussions and individual academic paper presentations. We invite abstracts from established researchers, PhD and Masters´ students and other contributors. It is assumed that individual presentations will be in English, but entire panels in Asian or Scandinavian languages may be considered in exceptional cases for which strong interest is convincingly demonstrated. Submitted abstracts will be reviewed by a panel of referees, and those meeting the criteria will be invited to give presentations at the conference. Although NAJAKS naturally emphasizes the work of Nordic scholars, researchers from other parts of the world are also strongly encouraged to submit papers for this conference. We are confident that visitors from throughout the world will find that Bergen is a beautiful location in the summertime and NAJAKS offers an academically stimulating environment. Participants are responsible for their own travel costs and accommodation and there will be a conference fee of 1500 NOK (NOK 500,- for Master´s students and participants with no presentation). An online payment page will be made accessible in May.

The conference presentations will be organized according to the following categories:

1. Linguistics and Language Teaching

2. Literature and the Arts (e.g. artist biographies, criticism, translations, music, manga, anime)

3. History, Philosophy and Religion

4. Social Sciences (e.g. anthropology, psychology, sociology, economics)

5. Professional/Interdisciplinary Studies (e.g. business, law, medicine, technology)

The deadline for sending in an abstract was March 1st. The Organizing Committee will inform applicants of our decisions in April 2013. The Organizing Committee of NAJAKS 2013 are Benedicte M. Irgens (UoB), David Hebert (HiB), and Kristin Rygg (NHH). Questions can be sent to benedicte.irgens@if.uib.no .

Read more about NAJAKS here.