Asian Forum at WMU

The purpose of the Asian forum at WMU is to bring together academicians, artists, scholars and international education professionals from Asia and the West to dialogue and explore various aspects and issues related to Asia and the global community through a multidisciplinary and multifaceted conference.

UPCOMING ASIAN FORUMS

We are very pleased to announce that our 9th Asian Forum “Self-Cultivation in East Asian Martial Arts” will be held on July 26-27, 2024. Please see the call for papers below. We welcome everyone to participate and encourage you to involve and invite your colleagues, students, and international research and teaching partners.

Call for Papers

 

PAST ASIAN FORUMS

2023 Asian Forum

The 8th Asian Forum “Death and Dying in East Asia” was held on May 5-7, 2023 Asian Forum 2023 Program

Keynote speaker:2023 Asian Forum

Dr. Karen Thornber
Harry Tuchman Levin Professor in Literature and Professor of East Asian Languages and Civilizations
Harvard University

Panels: 

  • Memorializing Children
  • Suicide
  • Mourning and Ritual
  • Space and Materiality

Invited Speech

Bioethics of life and death East and West--what can we learn from each other?

Invited Panel

Death and Dying in Contemporary East Asia

 

2021 Asian Forum

Keynote speaker:

Dr. Leta Hong Fincher
Author and Journalist
Winner of Society of Professional Journalists Sigma Delta Chi awardPanels: 

Panels: 

  • Economics and Resource Management
  • Literature and Language
  • Fulbright Faculty Scholar Experiences in Asia
  • History and Religion
  • Japan in the Classroom and the World: Literature, Translation, Morality, and Ethics
  • Individual Presentations

Workshops:

  • Simple Japanese Woodblock Printing Techniques

2021 Asian Forum Program 

 

2020 Asian Forum

Special Presentation:

"The Present as Prologue: The Gloomy Outlook for US-China Relations"
Dr. Avery Goldstein, David M. Knott Professor of Global Politics and International Relations, University of Pennsylvania

Panels:

  • Voice of the Arts: Chinese Poetry, Song, and Beijing Opera in America
  • Different Elements of Teaching Chinese as a Second Language
  • Individual Presentations

Workshops:

  • Food Consumption Changes Due to COVID-19: Lessons from China

Print 2020 Asian Forum Program 

 

2019 Asian Forum

Panels:

  • Global Education
  • Global Politics
  • Literature and History
  • Policy and Society

Print 2019 Asian Forum Program

 

2018 Asian Forum

Keynote speakers:

Dr. Stephen MacKinnon
Emeritus Professor
Director of Center for Asian Studies
Arizona State University

Dr. Alisa Freedman
Professor & Editor-in-Chief of U.S. Japan Women's Journal
University of Oregon 

Panels: 

  • Communicating Colonial Discourse in Asia
  • Development of Physical Education and Sports in Modern China
  • Economy, Education and Finance
  • History and Society
  • Language and Arts
  • The Demonic and Otherworldly in Medieval Japan

Print 2018 Asian Forum Program  

 

2017 Asian Forum  

Keynote speaker:

Dr. Jeffrey Angles
Professor of Japanese 
Western Michigan University

Panels: 

  • Art, Culture and Society
  • Current Scholarship on South Asia Across Languages, Perspectives and Time
  • Individual Presentations

Print 2017 Asian Forum Program

 

2016 Asian Forum

Keynote speaker:

Dr. Graeme Wilkinson
Vice-chancellor & Professor
Sunway University, Malaysia

Panels:

  • Creating and Advancing Partnerships in Japan
  • Language and Education in Modern China
  • Culture and Society in Medieval China
  • Collaborative Researchers on Land, Water and Environment
  • Research on Sports Development Issues
  • Challenges in Economic Transformation

Print 2016 Asian Forum Program 

 

2015 East Asian Forum

Keynote speaker:

Dr. Timothy Light
Professor Emeritus & Former Provost 
Western Michigan University

Panels: 

  • Environment and Tourism in China
  • Language and Literature
  • History, Literature and Religion of Japan
  • Asia and Globalization
  • Business and Finance

Print 2015 Asian Forum Program.