[KS] The Third Flying University of Transnational Humanities, July 15-18, 2012

[RICH HK]

*Flying University of Transnational Humanities*
*- Summer School for Graduate Students and Young Scholars -*
**
*July 15-18, 2012*
*Hanyang University, Seoul, Korea*
**
**
*Introduction *



The Flying University of Transnational Humanities (FUTH) is an annual
summer school for graduate students and young scholars interested in the
transnational paradigm of humanistic inquiry. FUTH takes its name and
immediate inspiration from Poland’s Flying University, an underground
institution that offered an alternative education outside the confines of
state control and government censorship. The program is particularly
concerned with developing critical understandings that resist the
ideological and conceptual hegemony of the nation-state and the
epistemological and hermeneutic conventions that support it. This does not
mean that FUTH seeks to dispense with the “national” and construct a
reified “transnational” with which to replace it, or to foster
“transnationalism” as an ideological alternative to “nationalism.” Rather,
FUTH aims to free our imaginations from essentialist approaches to the
nation or the state and to offer new ways of thinking about the political,
social and cultural order of the world, both past and present.



The Flying University of Transnational Humanities is accordingly:



*–** Trans-cultural:** *FUTH not only critically examines the production
and circulation of (trans-)national knowledge and culture, but it also
problematizes imagined geographies of the “East” and the “West.” We explore
periods, places, and subjects as fluid and hybrid, rather than as confined
and constrained by geopolitical or cultural boundaries.

*–** Trans-disciplinary:* FUTH seeks to comprehend the complex nature of
various trans-cultural issues through trans-disciplinary approaches. To
that end, FUTH is open to scholars, educators, researchers and students
from all academic specializations.

*–** Trans-institutional:* FUTH is an intellectual network, founded and run
by a global consortium of scholars, departments, and institutions. With the
support of this network, we hope to facilitate trans-cultural and
trans-disciplinary collaborations.



*Program*



Started in 2010, the Flying University of Transnational Humanities is
organized annually—usually in the summer—by the Research Institute of
Comparative History and Culture (RICH), Hanyang University, Seoul, Korea.
FUTH consists of a series of advanced lectures, student presentations and
feedback sessions where renowned scholars from RICH’s partner and other
institutions are invited to share their knowledge, insights and
perspectives. Student participants are required to study the recommended
readings in advance. They are also expected to present their own scholarly
work related to the theme of each year. The official language of FUTH is
English, although the possibility of trans-lingual practices is being
considered. Graduate students and recent PhDs interested in the
transnational turn in the humanities and social sciences are welcome to
apply with a presentation proposal.


The overarching theme for the first three years (2010-2012) is “borders.”
There have been numerous studies on how borders are constructed,
negotiated, and policed and how they are simultaneously transgressed,
challenged, and renegotiated. Borders are no longer seen simply as physical
divisions but as discursive practices and cultural institutions. However,
the multiplicity and hybridity of borders (e.g., national, cultural,
geographical, gender, political, economic, *etc*.), as well as their
transnational scalability (e.g., local, national, supranational, global, *
etc*.), have yet to be intensively investigated. To address this gap, the
first FUTH “Regions and Regionalization” in 2010 examined regions as sites
of bordering practices and processes. In 2011, the second FUTH
“Border-crossing Self” extended the scope of discussion to explore the ways
in which the construction and performance of subjectivities and identities
are connected to the demarcation and transgression of borders.



The third FUTH will take place at Hanyang University, July 15-18, 2012,
under the title of “Borders of Knowledge.” As numerous empirical studies in
intellectual history, sociology of knowledge, and
history/sociology/anthropology of the social, human, and natural sciences
have convincingly demonstrated for several decades, the production,
dissemination and use of knowledge, though seemingly universal, are always
embedded in specific social, cultural, and historical contexts. Often, the
subject, the object and the modus operandi of knowledge are defined,
construed, and constrained by (national) borders. Knowledge and its
associated practices thus shaped may in turn reinforce, reproduce or
redefine those very borders. How then, does knowledge travel across
borders? Rather than following the naïve modernist assumption that
knowledge is spread because it is true and/or is channeled through
universally transferable methodical practices, one should approach the
travels of knowledge as themselves explananda rather than merely explanans
for other phenomena. For instance, one may ask, what are the ways in which
locally-produced knowledge is translated, adapted, appropriated, or
contested in different local contexts? By the same token, one may also ask,
how does knowledge, despite its local origins, come to acquire a proclaimed
universality or globality? With such questions as a basis, the third FUTH
in 2012 aims to provide graduate students and young scholars with a unique
opportunity to critically examine the making and unmaking of the borders of
knowledge—including the social sciences, humanities, natural sciences, and
other forms of knowledge.



*Lecturers *(surname-alphabetical order)**



*·** Alice L. Conklin* (Department of History, Ohio State University,
U.S.A.)

*·** Christian Fleck* (Department of Sociology, University of Graz,
Austria)

*· **Sari Hanafi* (Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, American
University of Beirut, Lebanon)

*·** Johan Heilbron* (Centre Européen de Sociologie et de Science Politique
de la Sorbonne, France / Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands)

*·** Michael Kim* (Graduate School of International Studies, Yonsei
University, Korea)

- And other lecturers will be announced soon.



*Eligibility / How to Apply*



FUTH 2012 welcomes applications from graduate students as well as recent
PhDs of all fields who are interested in the transnational paradigm of
humanistic inquiry and also currently conducting research on topics related
to the theme of the making and unmaking of borders of knowledge. All
student participants are expected to give a full paper presentation on
their own scholarly work.



Applicants should fill out the form on our website (
http://www.rich.ac/eng/fly/apply.php) and send it as attachment to
hk.transnational at gmail.com along with their CV, research statement and an
abstract of proposed presentation. *The deadline for applications is March
16, 2012*.



*Costs / Accommodation *



There is a registration fee of USD 80. While accommodation including
breakfast and lunch will be provided, participants are expected to arrange
their own funding for travel and daily living expenses. Partial travel
grants may be awarded to a limited number of applicants.



*For further details, please contact:  *



Research Institute of Comparative History and Culture

College of Humanities, Hanyang University

Seoul 133-791, Korea

E-mail: hk.transnational at gmail.com

Fax: +82-2-2298-0542

Website: http://rich.ac/eng/fly/introduction.php?pageNum=5&subNum=1
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