Asian Forum at Western Michigan University

The 9th Asian Forum “Self-Cultivation in East Asian Martial Arts” was held on July 26 to 27, 2024. 

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

Keynote speaker:

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

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

Special Presentation:

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

Panels:

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

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

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

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

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