2022
Connecting Research and Practice in Teaching Arabic as a Foreign Language
The University of Oslo – Department of Cultural Studies and Oriental Languages In Collaboration with Leiden University Institute for Area Studies Announce "Connecting Research and Practice in TAFL"
Time and place: Dec. 15, 2022 9:00 AM – Dec. 16, 2022, University of Oslo
Call for abstracts
Connecting Research and Practice in Teaching Arabic as a Foreign Language addresses all important issues pertaining to research in Arabic language learning and teaching and its relation to the practice of teaching Arabic to non-native speakers at undergraduate and graduate levels. The conference also examines how engaging with research affects teachers’ professional development. It aims to bring together academics, researchers, and language instructors in Europe and beyond to share their views, empirical work and discuss the gains and challenges at the levels of AFL pedagogy, assessment, linguistics of the Arabic language, language acquisition, and teacher training as they shed light on future possibilities and needs.
Keynote Speaker
Al-Batal is a Professor of Arabic at the American University in Beirut. He holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in Arabic Linguistics from the University of Michigan. He taught Arabic at Emory University in Atlanta, and at the University of Texas, Austin (UT) and also served as director of the Emory Language Center, director of the Middlebury College Arabic School, director of the Center for Arabic Study Abroad (CASA), and director of the Arabic Flagship program at UT.
Dr. Al-Batal is co-author of Al-Kitaab Arabic textbook series, and has published on various aspects of TAFL and Sociolinguistics. His most recent publications include Arabic as One: Integrating Dialect in the Arabic Curriculum, an edited volume published by Georgetown University Press(2018), and Report on the status and future of the Arabic language, published by the UAE Ministry of Culture and Youth (2021).
Dr. Al-Batal will hold the pre-conference workshop on December 15th. More information coming soon.
Workshop in Conjunction
Ways to employ vocabulary and grammar to develop communicative competence in Arabic at the primary and intermediate levels
This workshop aims to discuss how to approach the teaching of vocabulary and grammar at the elementary and intermediate levels in a functional way that achieves the objectives of communicative teaching and allows learners to develop their level of competence. The workshop will start from a number of principles. It is proposed to be considered in the design of vocabulary and grammar teaching activities with a special focus on how to apply these principles and activities in project-based education, and then presents a number of models and examples of these activities. The workshop will focus on providing the opportunity for participants in the workshop to work on developing their own activities that meet the needs of their programs and students by cooperating with the rest of the participants and participants. Therefore, each participant is expected to think about the activity they would like to develop within the activities of the workshop.
Utilizing vocabulary and grammar to develop communicative competence in Arabic at the elementary and intermediate levels
This workshop aims to discuss how to approach the teaching of vocabulary and grammar at the elementary and intermediate levels in a functional way that will help learners, develop their communicative abilities. The workshop will outline a few principles that should guide the design of vocabulary and grammar teaching activities, with special focus on project-based learning contexts. The workshop will provide sample activities to illustrate these activities, and will give participants the opportunity to work collectively with other participants on developing activities that meet their programs and students’ needs. Each participant is thus expected to come to the workshop having thought about an activity he/she would like to develop as part of the workshop.
Keynote Title
Activating the Theory/Practice Dialectic in Teaching Arabic to Speakers of other languages: Current Limitations and Future Prospects
Conference themes
The conference encourages submissions on research that has implications for teaching and learning Arabic as a foreign language, and on teaching projects that are linked to research on the following areas:
- Action research and classroom research.
- Language use and communication.
- Arabic as a World Language.
- Teacher education and training.
- First and second language acquisition.
- Pedagogy for native and non-native speakers.
- (Online) curriculum and syllabus design.
- Resources for Arabic language teachers and learners.
- Arabic linguistics in TAFL.
- Assessment in TAFL.
- Best practices in TAFL.
Program day 1 - Sophus Bugges hus seminar room 1
13-14
Arabic as a world language: re-imagining Arabic teacher training
Tony Calderbank, Carine Allaf and Heba Elhelbawi
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Infographics Design: An Assessment Methodology
May George
14-15
Placement test between Normative and Communicative
Mahmoud Elshehawy
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Digitalised language proficiency testing & practice system (DLPTP) for Arabic
Mourhaf Kazzaz, Claudia Duttlinger, Nelly Sagirov, Gamiela Safiya, Maissa Markabi and Heba Ahmad
15.30 - 16.30
Spotlight on authentic and inclusive approaches in Arabic language teaching curriculum: A case study of advanced Arabic Skills Module.
Ruba Khamam
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Implicit or explicit oral corrective feedback: what do Arabic students prefer?
Hezi Brosh
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Program day 1 - Sophus Bugges hus seminar room 3
13-14
Challenges & solutions Arabic learners have in an online and blended learning context under COVID-19, utilizing an exploratory sequential MMR approach
Mohamed Mahgoub and Hany Fazza
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Comparing intralingual and interlingual subtitling as aids to vocabulary acquisition in advanced learners of Arabic
Hossam Elsherbiny
14-15
Diglossic Curriculum: An Investigation Into the Exclusion of Spoken Arabic Varieties and the Students’ Learning Outcome of National Chengchi University, Taiwan
Salim Yuhe Fang
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Computer Mediated Discourse and Linguistic variation in TAFL
Cristina Solimando
15.30 - 16.30
Multidialectal Use of L2 Arabic: A Study of Advanced Learner Profiles
Lama Nassif and Nesrine Basheer
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Negotiating Arabic: language accommodation in a multi-dialect setting
Alaa Elgibali and Rana Siblini
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Program day 2 - Sophus Bugges hus seminar room 1
10-11
Innovation in Arabic teacher education research for better teaching and learning practices regarding teaching communication and oral skills
Hebatalla Elhelbawi
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Information Competencies in Arabic Teaching
Olga Bernikova
11-12
Enhancing Arabic language Students’ vocabulary acquisition skills by means of innovative approaches
Ruba Khamam
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13-14
Teaching writing skill to the beginner level "From the first lesson to the last; how do we write?"
Safaa Radoan
14-15
Teaching Arabic Dialects: Challenges and Solutions
Corrine Stokes and Abdessamad M'Barki
15.30-16.30
Engaging And Reflective Practices in Teaching Arabic as a Foreign Language in the Virtual Learning Environment in The United States
Samir El Omari
16.30-17.30
Difficulties in teaching masculine and feminine to learners of Arabic as a foreign language and ways to overcome them
Abderrahim Chenine and Othmane Berriha
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Program day 2 - Sophus Bugges hus seminar room 4
The teaching of Arabic at universities in multicultural English-dominant-Arabic-minority contexts: A review of the literature
Nadia Selim
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Teaching and learning Arabic to non-native speakers, a cognitive perspective.
Mahmoud Aldeeky
11-12
Attention to Verbal Morphology in L2 Arabic Reading: An Eye-Movement Study
Lama Nassif, Elizabeth Huntley and Ayman Mohamed
13-14
Bridging theory and practice: Translanguaging perspectives in the Arabic language classroom
Emma Trentman
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Critical Pedagogy for Connecting Research and Practice in TAFL. Deepen the appropriate theory to strengthen the practical approach
Letizia Lombezzi
14-15
Towards a profile of Arabic Heritage Learners in European Higher Education
Hossam Ahmed
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Difficulties and challenges of teaching Arabic to its heirs from the children of Syrian refugees in Turkey
Albaraa Almokdad
15.30-16.30
Engaging students´ motivation in the Arabic classroom.
Kræn Kielsgaard
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Teaching Arabic through drama: Project-based case study
Zehad Sabry
16.30-17.30
Learning Arabic and Language Acquisition among Foreign Workers in Saudi Arabia
Sarah Alzahrani
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Mentimeter: Giving every student in your Arabic as Foreign Language classroom a voice
Carla El Khoury
Organizer
Zehad Sabry Mohamad Zehad and Institute for Culture Studies and Oriental Languages
Afterlives of Epidemics: Ends, Legacies and Hauntings
An interdisciplinary conference exploring pandemic temporalities.
Time and place: June 8, 2022 4:00 PM – June 10, 2022 3:00 PM, Litteraturhuset and Georg Sverdrups Hus
Meaning of Afterlives
The outbreak of an epidemic is often easy to locate in time. It takes the form of an event, and as such, it can function as a great synchroniser of different forms of lives and times. In the case of the COVID-19 pandemic, the high potential of geographic spread associated with assumed high case fatality, and ensuing political panic accelerated political processes that are usually slow due to the impending need to contain the virus. The end of an epidemic, on the other hand, is more difficult to pinpoint. This can be attributed to the fact that the myriad actors involved in and affected by an epidemic operate on diverging time scales.
Although seemingly synchronised from its outset, these lifetimes become un-synchronised as the epidemic unfolds. Some effects of an epidemic are easily observed, such as infection rates and number of deceased. Others – psychological, social and medical aftereffects, subtle changes in political priorities, or the lasting memory in a population – may be harder to spot. Declaring that an epidemic has ‘ended’ usually relies on the ceasing of the former effects, not the latter. The ending(s) of an epidemic can be regarded in the plural, each operating within its own rhythm and scale. In this conference, we invite papers exploring the multiplicity of afterlives of epidemics – human, microbial, institutional, geographical – and how they affect not only life after a pandemic but also our ability to deal with ‘the next’.
Program
Wednesday, 8 June
Litteraturhuset, The House of Literature, Nedjma
16.00: Welcome
16.30-17.45: Presentation w/Dora Vargha: No End in Sight? Pandemic Narratives, War, and the 'after'
18.00-19.00: Roundtable
Camilla Stoltenberg, Director General, Norwegian Institute of Public Health
Dora Vargha, University of Exeter
Erica Charters, University of Oxford
Jeremy Greene, John Hopkins University
Thursday, 9 June
Georg Sverdrups Hus, UiO
09.00-09.15: Arrival
09.15-11.00: Panel 1: Managing and Perceiving Epidemics
Lea Pare Toe (Helle Samuelsen)
Oline Lund Knudsen
Pia Juul Bertrup (Landry Bambara)
Alireza Shams Lahijani
Chair: Anne Kveim Lie
11.15-12.15: Keynote w/Erica Charters
13.00-14.45: Panel 2: History of Epidemics
James L.A. Webb
Tone Druglitrø
Ben Kasstan, presenting (Sandra Mounier-Jack & Tracey Chantler)
Cesar Enrique Giraldo Herrera
Chair: Alp Eren Topal
15.00-16.45: Panel 3: Crisis through Time and Place
David Bannister
Øivind Larsen
Emmanuellle Roth
Felix Stein
Chair: Einar Wigen
Friday, 10 June
Georg Sverdrups Hus, UiO
09.00-09.15: Arrival
09.15-11.00: Panel 4: Resistance and Epidemics
Ida Lillehagen and Carolina Rau
Minguyan Zhang
Ayşe Nalan Azak
Helge Jordheim
Chair: Anne Kveim Lie
11.15-12.45: Panel 5: Health and Treatment
Linda Madsen
Katerini Storeng
Antoine de Bengy Puyvallée
Gitte du Plessis
Chair: Espen Ytreberg
13.00-14.45: Panel 6: Epidemic Endings
Lu Chen
Tony Joakim Ananiassen Sandset
Truls Strand Offerdal
Espen Ytreberg
Chair: Ayşe Nalan Azak
14.45-15.00: Closing Remarks w/ Einar Wigen
Involved research projects
Lifetimes
The Lifetimes of Epidemics in Europe and the Middle East
2021
Messianic Leadership Across the World: A Comparative Look at Savior Politics
This is a online conference organized by IKOS taking place over two weeks.
Time and place: May 19, 2021–June 2, 2021, ZOOM
Authoritarian rule is on the rise all over the globe. Making sense of this new wave of authoritarian regimes is one of the most central questions facing political research. Much has been written on common structural patterns and institutional elements, particularly under the analytical approach of “competitive authoritarianism”. Much less has been done to analyze the discursive and performative elements of this new wave of leadership in a comparative perspective.
This workshop explores the Messianic elements of contemporary politics via a variety of cases ranging from the USA to India.
The workshop will take place on Zoom over a two week period with eight meetings including a keynote André Gagné who will give a lecture on Trump and American evangelicals.
The events are open to all who are interested.
For the zoom-link to the event, please contact eriklju@student.ifikk.uio.no
Organizer
Alp Topal, Erik Ljungberg, Ingrid Eskild and Department of Culture Studies and Oriental Languages
Opening Seminar of Fudan-European Centre for China Studies
Climate, health and the imagination of human futures.
Time and place: May 18, 2021 9:00 AM–12:15 PM, Oslo - Fudan
On the occasion of developing new cooperation between the University of Oslo and Fudan University through the Fudan-European Centre for China Studies (FECCS), we are pleased to bring to you an open forum to highlight some of our joint research interests.
The forum features three topical seminars with outstanding scholars and experts from China and Norway. This event will offer a unique opportunity to share research insights and dialogues on the innovative solutions to climate change, brain health, and the cross-cultural imagination of human futures in various formats of fiction.
The logo of the Fudan-European Centre for China Studies. A mix of Chinese and Latin letters.
Time and place
The event will take place via Zoom, May 18, 2021. Time: 9:00-12:15 a.m. (Oslo) / 15:00-18:15 p.m. (Fudan)
Sign up
Participation is free, but please sign up before 15 May 2021.
Programme
09:00-09:10/15:00-15:10 Opening Remarks
09:10-10:35/15:10-16:35 Session I: Climate Change and Sustainability
Energy systems and energy use play a significant role in producing both carbon emission and air pollutants, thus linking the two. China, Norway and others have made a commitment to achieve the goal of carbon peak and neutrality.
Which sustainable energy approaches can achieve the goals of carbon peak and neutrality in China? What are the co-benefits of energy transition in tackling climate change? And are there potential negative effects? What is the role of cities in dealing with climate change and environmental issues at the local level? How can researchers from both countries learn from each other and work together with common interests?
10:35-10:45/16:35-16:45 Coffee break
10:45-12:05/16:45-18:05 Session II: Understanding Brain Disorders
The human brain and its disorders remain a key challenge in health-related research. Recent technology development in brain imaging and genetics has provided novel opportunities for new insight, and together with population birth cohorts capturing environmental stressors, it is now possible to revolutionize our understanding of brain-related traits and disorders.
How can we obtain synergy between China and Norway in brain research, and which research projects can benefit most from collaboration?
(Please note that this session will have a separate link to be joined after the coffee break)
10:45-12:05/16:45-18:05 Session III: Fiction and Future
Human society is facing shared anxiety of the future, in the context of a changing global order, spreading of disruptive technology, public health emergency and others. Fiction used to look back in history and seek experiences or reflections, but now it increasingly casts value into the future.
What kind of futures have been imaged in various format of fiction? How can fiction help us to influences and share the future? How can we pursue multiple, diverse and rich futures instead of a single unified and linear one via fiction?
12:05-12.15/18:05-18:15 Closing remarks
Please note that session II and session III will take place in parallel. Please indicate which one you will attend in the registration form.
Organizer
Executive Vice Director Chunrong Liu
2016
Narrative Cultures - International AESToR.net Conference
Narrative Cultures and the Aesthetics of Religion: Storytelling - Imagination - Efficacy
Religious discourse is a paragon of imaginative practice: Within religions, worlds beyond ‘this’ world are created and everyday realities are sacralised. [… ] Systems of meaning are transformed into sensual worlds, sensual worlds are translated into systems of meaning (cf. Traut & Wilke 2015). This IKOS and AESToR.Net conference focuses on storytelling in religious narrative cultures.
Time and place: June 16, 2016 3:30 PM–June 18, 2016 6:00 PM, University of Oslo, Niels Treschows Hus (12. floor)
Narration in religious discourse is more than dyadic communication: audiences serve as co-narrators, different media and voices mingle and interact. Storytelling situations are complex, when speakers “align their words to the words of others – other texts, other genres, other performances” (Baumann 2004) and are responded to and circulated accordingly.
Narrative cultures are meant as a heuristic concept to acknowledge this complexity and to counter emic identity rhetoric. Defined by compositional rather than contentual elements, they constitute the field in which religious narrative worlds unfold and collapse, are developed, subverted, and blended. Specific rhetoric or poetic forms, modes of speech and plot devices, are used across the boundaries of religious communities, of large and little traditions, confessions or language borders. Exploring narrative cultures allows for entangled perspectives. And it allows seeing narration as an aesthetic phenomenon, focusing on storytelling practices and sensual aspects, the techniques and the effects that create imaginative formations.
The conference aims to establish narrative cultures as a perspective to theorize narratives, narration and narrativity in religious discourse with aesthetic sensitive methods. How is the production and reception of narratives organized in religious discourse? What techniques and mechanisms are employed to convey meaning or trigger debate? How do narratives generate sensual spaces and invite for shared imagination? Approaches may include aesthetic narratologies – uncovering formal foundations of narrative efficacy –, and cultural narratologies – refining perspectives on narration in its social and cultural context –, as well as reflections on their interaction.
Organizer
IKOS and AESToR.net
Contact: Dirk Johannsen (IKOS)
Every Picture Tells A Story – The Visualization of Japanese History
How has the images and interpretations of the most outstanding periods and personages in Japanese history changed during the modern periods?
Time and place: Mar. 10, 2016 9:00 AM–Mar. 11, 2016 6:00 PM, University of Oslo, Georg Sverdrups house (Library)
This international conference will conduct a comparative analysis of how the images and interpretations of the most outstanding periods and personages in Japanese history have changed during the modern and contemporary periods, and will scrutinize which products of mass media were most instrumental in bringing about these changes.
A related aim is to reflect upon the question what the increasing influence of the mass media on the 'making' of history implies for the academic trade of historical research. We will try to describe long-term structures, characteristics and recent developments in the field of the relations between the media, popular culture, academia, and collective historical memory.
Thursday 10 March
- Carol Gluck (Columbia University), Keynote: Fact and Fiction, Sight and Insight: Historians and the Popular Past
- John Hennessey (Linnaeus University), An Overlooked Golden Age?: Representations of the Heian Era in Contemporary Japanese Public History Venues
- Martin Picard & Martin Roth (Leipzig University), Playing Versions of Japanese History
- Allen Hockley (Dartmouth College), Visual History as a Cultural System: A Meiji-period Case Study
- Andreas Niehaus (Ghent University), Narrative, Narration or Historical (Re)Presentation?: The Biographical Manga Jūdō no rekishi – Kanō Jigorō no shōgai and Ueshiba monogatari
- Shiro Yoshioka (Newcastle University), “It Was a Time Full of Romantic Flavor”: Idealization of the Taishō Period in Contemporary Japanese Popular Texts
- Griseldis Kirsch (SOAS), Rewriting Empire: Colonial Nostalgia in Japanese Television Drama
- Fukuma Yoshiaki (Ritsumeikan University), Keynote: 「断絶」の風化と脱歴史化：特攻映画と戦跡観光の戦後史
Friday 11 March
- Reiko Abe-Auestad (University of Oslo), The 1989 Filmatization of Ibuse Masuji’s Kuroi Ame (Black Rain 1966) by Imamura Shōhei
- Alistair Swale (Waikato University), Manga and Anime in Postwar Japan: Alternative Attempts to Bridge Graphic Art and Historiography
- Nissim Otmazgin (Hebrew University of Jerusalem), Keynote: Stories for the Nation: Manga as 'Banal Memory’
- Thomas Keirstead (University of Toronto), Hand-crafted History: Studio Ghibli and the Artisanal Approach to the Past
- Yulia Mikhailova (Hiroshima City University), Once Pain Turns into Fun: Japan’s Territorial Problems Represented in Popular Culture Discourse
- Dick Stegewerns (University of Oslo), Revisionism in Motion: Coping with the Japanese Red Army Past in Film, Documentary and Manga
- Maja Vodopivec (Leiden University), How Do the Past, Present and Future Interact in Post-3.11 Japan: Examining the ‘Future Past’ in the SF Manga Coppelion
- Paul Berry (Kansai University of Foreign Languages), How Can History be Written in Japan Today?: The Attempted Suppression of Aida Makoto’s Exhibition at the Tokyo-to Gendai Bijutsukan
Organizer
IKOS, Contact: Dick Stegewerns.
This conference is sponsored by the Japan Foundation and the University of Oslo.
2015
Revolution, Dialogue and Transition: What the World Can Learn from Tunisia
In Honor of the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize to the Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet. A one day conference about the Tunisian democratization process.
Time and place: Dec. 8, 2015 8:30 AM–3:30 PM, Håndverkeren Kurs og Konferansesenter
Program
- Registration and coffee
- Opening Remarks – Tore Hattrem, State Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Norway
- Panel 1: Social Dialogue and Democratization
Why and how did the Tunisian Quartet for National Dialogue succeed? In this session we focus on the role of a strong and representative civil society and ask what role social dialogue and trade unions play as actors of democratization. Can national dialogue succeed without the leadership of strong representative organizations such as the UGTT in Tunisia? And what are the implications of the Tunisian experience for our understanding of democratization processes in other countries and regions?- Maria Glenna, Researcher at the American University in Washington
- Nasreddine Sassi, Representative of the Tunisian General Labour Union (UGTT)
- Tor-Arne Solbakken, Deputy Chairman of the Norwegian Federation of Trade Unions (LO)
- Hèla Yousfi, Associate Professor at the Paris Dauphine University
- Moderator: Kristian Takvam Kindt, Researcher at Fafo
- Panel 2: The 2014 Constitution – Process and Content
The Tunisian Constitution of 2014 is celebrated as the most progressive and democratic in the Arab world. This session will focus on the constitution-making process and explore different aspects of the Tunisian constitution. What were the major issues of debate during the drafting process? How does the constitution balance different demands with regard to human rights and issues of national identity, religion, and gender?- Mounira Charrad, Associate Professor at the University of Texas at Austin
- Lobna Jeribi, President of Solidar Tunisia
- Meherzia Laabidi, Member of Parliament, Ennahdha
- Jonathan Murphy, Senior Lecturer at University of Cardiff, Wales
- Moderator: Ragnhild J. Zorgati, Associate Professor at the University of Oslo
- Panel 3: Challenges – Security, Economy and Human Rights
The democratic transition in Tunisia can show for remarkable achievements including free and fair elections, a progressive constitution and peaceful transfer of power. Still, the country faces daunting challenges with regard to its economy, endemic corruption and national security. Tunisia is currently confronted with high unemployment (especially among the youth) and a growing terrorist threat, which includes a large number of Tunisian jihadists. What is the response of Tunisian authorities, how to effectively deal with these challenges without slipping back to authoritarian rule? And how does the international community respond?- Souhail Alouini, Member of Parliament, Nidaa Tounes
- Amine Ghali, Program Director of Kawakabi Democratic Transition Center
- Rikke Hostrup Haugbølle, Ph.D. Middle East Studies, the Royal Danish Defence College
- Moderator: Joachim Nahem, Programme Director at ILPI
- Concluding Remarks – H. E. Mr. Ammar Ben Lamine, Tunisian Ambassador to Norway
Organizer
Department of Culture Studies and Oriental Languages, International Law and Policy Institute (ILPI) and Fafo
Contact: Gjermund Granlund, IKOS
2014
Oslo International Graduate Students Conference: Space, Culture, and Religion: Considering Implications of The ‘Spatial Turn’
In this conference, we would like to examine implications of the ‘spatial turn’ for the humanities. In particular, we look at the possible impact of new considerations of space on the disciplines represented at our institute: Asian studies, Middle Eastern studies, cultural studies, and the study of religion(s).
Time and place: May 19, 2014–May 21, 2014, University of Oslo
Oslo organizers: Jens Borgland, Moumita Sen, Aike Rots, Siyu Chen, Theresa Pepe.
Comparing Catechisms - Entangling Christian History
Christianity is mostly conceptualised as particular European religion. This conference will challenge this perspective and instead look for transcultural dimensions of Christianity. The event is open to the general public.
Time and place: May 14, 2014 3:00 PM–May 16, 2014 12:00 PM, Oslo University, Blindern; P.A. Munch's building, Seminar Room 14 and Georg Sverdrup's building, Group Room 4
Christianity is mostly conceptualised as particular European religion, whereas its transcultural character, its non-European origin and its non-European forms are mostly blinded out. Missionary translations claim to have maintained an orthodox Christian purity.
For this it focusses on missionary work in Europe and the world. Missionary work always entails translation, linguistic as well as cultural. Christian belief and its rituals needed to be translated into the language of the people who were to be evangelized or converted.
Translations result always in a modifying of the content that has to be integrated in another language and in a different cultural pattern. Therefore a translated text, practice or dogma has always some transcultural dimensions.
To explore the scope of transculturation, of religious and dogmatic negotiation, the conference will compare catechisms and their translation. Catechisms are considered to be a central instrument to educate and communicate Christian belief and dogma, both in the missionary as well as in the confessionalising context. Therefore they are also the central media for all kinds of translation processes.
Program
May 14th
1. Session: Chair: Antje Flüchter (Oslo/Norway)
- Antje Flüchter (Oslo/Norway): Introduction: Comparing Catechism – Translating Religion?
- Ana Hosne (Heidelberg/Germany): Finding, naming and translating the Christian God in the Jesuit missions (China, Japan, Peru, 16th-17 Centuries)
- Anand Amaladass (Chennai/India): The Mystery of the Holy Trinity in Roberto de Nobili's "Catechism" (1577-1656)
May 15th
2. Session: Chair: Renate Dürr (Tübingen/Germany)
- Karen Anderson (Toronto/Canada): The Christianization of women in 17th century New France and some 21st century entanglements
- Giulia Nardini (Heidelberg/Germany): The concept of wedding dharma in Nobili’sGnanaUpadesam
- Leonardo Cohen (Jerusalem/Israel): Marian catechism as apologetic literature: The Jesuits and the devotion to the Virgin Mary in Ethiopia
3. Session: Gita Dharampal-Frick (Heidelberg/Germany)
- John Steckley (Toronto/Canada): Making up Words: Father Jean de Brebeuf'sWendat Catechism
- Alex Walsham (Cambridge/UK) Posies against Pestilential Vapours: Catholic Translations of Peter Canisius's Catechism in Protestant Britain
- Maria Crăciun (Cluj/Romania): Interpreting Luther's Small Catechism: definitions of sin within the Saxon community of early modern Transylvania
- Flemming Nielsen (Nuuk/University of Greenland) The earliest Greenlandic catechisms
May 16th
4. Session: Chair: John Ødemark (Oslo/Norway)
- Paolo Aranha (Munich/Germany): Sneaky catechisms: Was the Ezour Vedam apræparatioevangelica?
- Kiri Paramore (Leiden/Netherlands) Inculturation in East Asia History: the Problem of Politicization
2012
Workshop on Tōzai Bunmeiron and Other Perspectives on a Unique Japanese Position in this World
This collective research project is related to research on the Japanese conceptualisation of the national self, the (East) Asian region and the larger world. The workshop is open to staff and graduate students.
Time and place: 29. march 2012 10:15–30. mars 2012 18:15, P.A. Munchs hus 454 & Georg Sverdrups hus, room 3524
The aim is to conduct a comparative analysis of modern and contemporary political visions in which Japan is given a unique role or mission in the world, often portrayed as a bridge between ‘the East’ and ‘the West’. In these visions Japan usually belongs neither to Asia or ‘the West’ and is treated as a distinct and autonomous political (or cultural) entity.
A well-known early example of such visions is the so-called Tōzai bunmei (chōwa)ron, advocated by party leader and prime minister Ōkuma Shigenobu during the first decades of the 20th century, in which Japan is bestowed with the mission to bring about ‘the harmonisation of Eastern and Western civilisation’. Similar political visions have been conspicuously present in the debate on Japan’s position vis-à-vis the outside world ever since, A recent very prominent example was the inaugural policy speech by Prime Minister Hatoyama Yukio. This project is conducted by a team of European and Japanese specialists. The related book will also be published in Japan.
Schedule
Thursday 29 March
- Dick Stegewerns (Oslo), How to Combine the Aim of Becoming a Normal Country with the Ambition of Having a Unique Mission?
- Urs Matthias Zachmann (Edinburgh), Being Japan: Nationalist Visions of the World in Late Meiji Japan - The Case of Kuga Katsunan, 1857-1907
- Mark Teeuwen (Oslo), Ōkuni Takamasa: Internationalizing Japan by Converting the West
- Rune Svarverud (Oslo), The Volatile Chinese Image of Japan in the Late 19th Century
- Aike Rots (Oslo), Japan’s New Mission? ‘Animism’, ‘Sacred Forests’ and Environmentalist Rhetoric in Contemporary Academic Discourse
- Iwabuchi Kōichi (Waseda, Tokyo), Hybridity and “Japan" re-visited
Friday 30 March
- Vladimir Tikhonov (Oslo), Korea's Orient?: ’Tongyang/Tōyō’ in 1900-1910s Korea
- Matsuda Kōichirō (Rikkyō, Tokyo), Hozumi Nobushige’s Comparison of East and West
- Naraoka Sōchi (Kyoto), The Lineage of Japanese Anglophiles: Katō Takaaki and his book Eikokuron (On England)
- Torsten Weber (Freiburg), Ajia meishu: Debates on Japanese Uniqueness in Asia from the 1910s to the 1930s
- Alistair Swale (Waikato, New Zealand) Watsuji Tetsurō on Japan, the West, and Asia
- Christian Uhl (Gent), The Land Without Qualities – Takeuchi Yoshimi’s Critique of Modern Japan and the Problem of Identity and Difference in the Age of Global Capitalism
2011
The End of the Road
The Routes project team is happy to invite you to ’The End of the Road’: an open symposium on roads, landscapes, and their multifarious entanglement.
Time and place: Sep. 28, 2011 10:00 AM–4:00 PM, The Oslo School of Architecture and Design
We have invited three outstanding speakers to help us celebrate the end of the Routes project:
- Antoine Picon is a historian of technology and professor at Harvard University.
- Sverker Sörlin is an intellectual historian and professor of environmental history at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.
- Hans Liudger Dienel is a historian, specializing in the history of technology and infrastructure. Dienel is professor at the Technische Universität Berlin, leading Zentrum Technik und Gesellschaft.
Conference: "South Asian Festivals on the Move"
A common workshop by "Staging Religion" project, Cluster of Excellence "Asia and Europe in a Global Context" at Heidelberg University (Axel Michaels) and "Perspectives on Festivity", Department for Culture Studies and Oriental Languages at Oslo University (Ute Hüsken)
Time and place: June 23, 2011 10:00 AM–June 25, 2011 5:15 PM, Rådsalen, Lucy Smiths hus
Program
Thursday, 23.6.2011
- Axel Michaels & Ute Hüsken: Introduction
- Festivals as Sites of Public Negotiation – Between Social Coherence and Social Division (chair: Jörg Gengnagel)
- Alexander Henn: Struggling for Self in Ambiguous Spaces: The Jagor Ritual of the Goan Gaudde (abstract)
- Ute Hüsken: Whose Flag is Hoisted? Festivals and Social Divisions (abstract)
- Political Festivals and the Festive Aspects of Political Activities (chair: Christiane Brosius)
- Jörg Gengnagel: Inside and Outside the Palace: the Worship of Arms and Weapons (śastrādipūjā) as a Royal Festival on the Move (abstract)
- Arild E. Ruud: The Changing Vote Festival: Elections in India in 2011
- William S. Sax: Staging Religion in Sri Lanka: The Kandy and Kataragama peraheras (abstract)
Friday, 24.6.2011
- Festivals in the Diaspora and at Home: The Old, the New, and the Old Renewed (chair: Heike Moser)
- Paul Younger: New Pilgrims from Canada for Ayyappan and the Goddess (abstract)
- Annette Wilke: Tamil Temple Festival Culture in Germany (abstract)
- Kerstin Schier: Performative Re-Presentation of the Past in a South Indian Temple Festival (abstract)
- The Global and the Local: Space, Design and New Concerns (chair: M.D. Muthukumaraswamy)
- Axel Michaels: The Dipankarayatra in the Kathmandu Valley (abstract)
- Silke Bechler: Kumbh Mela 2010: A Quest for Immortality and Identity (abstract)
- Christiane Brosius: Delhi as Festival City: Public Art Ecology (2008) (abstract)
Saturday, 25.6.2011
- Festivals as Heritage – Remodeling of Group Identities (chair: Silke Bechler)
- M.D. Muthukumaraswamy: Changing Significance of Chaitra Parva festival to Seraikella Chhau: State, Hegemony, and the Notions of Heritage (abstract)
- Lokesh Ohri: Political Appropriation and Cultural Othering in a Heritage Festival (abstract)
- Heike Moser: Kūṭiyāṭṭam on the Move: From Temple Theatres to Festival Stages (abstract)
- Film by Kesang Tseten: On the road with the red god: MACHHENDRANATH (synopsis)
- Leah Lowthorp: Changing Festival Contexts: The Translation of Kūṭiyāṭṭam Sanskrit Theatre into National and World Heritage (abstract)
- Karin Polit: Moving Deities: an Analysis of Possession, Performance and the Concept of Heritage in the Himalayas (abstract)
The proceedings of the workshop "South Asian Festivals on the Move" will be published as a volume in the series "Ethno-Indology" (Harrassowitz) in 2012. In addition, we will publish a more visually oriented special issue of the magazine Marg.
Democracy at last? Egypt and Tunisia on the road to democracy
Conference.
Time and place: 12. May 2011 11:15–17:00, Helga Enghs hus, Auditorium 1
Program
- Opening of the conference
Bjørn Olav Utvik (University of Oslo) - Key-note speech
François Burgat (Institute français du Proche-Orient, Damascus) - Tunisia on the road to democracy, obstacles and challenges
Yousra Ghanoushi (al-Nahda) Samir Dilou (al-Nahda) - Egypt on the road to democracy, obstacles and challenge
Issam al-Aryan (Muslim Brotherhood) Ayman Nour (al-Ghad Party) Elham al-Kassir (Popular Socialist Alliance) Islam Lotfy (Muslim Brotherhood Youth) Sondos Asem (Muslim activist) - Democracy at last? Concluding session
Organizers
Arranged by the University of Oslo, Department of Culture Studies and Oriental Languages.
The political economy of the Gulf States: - When does oil become sand in the machinery?
The Gulf Research Unit at The University of Oslo has the great pleasure of announcing our annual conference, this year entitled “The political economy of the Gulf States: - When does oil become sand in the machinery?”.
Time and place: 4. May 2011 09:00–16:00, University of Oslo, Blindern
The conference will dive into questions such as; is there a resource curse at play? Does resource wealth have a negative effect on the political and economic performance of the Gulf States? And furthermore, could the resource wealth have a negative effect beyond the borders of the Gulf Region
When does oil become sand in the machinery?
The speakers discuss different aspects of resources in the Gulf States. Is there a resource curse at play? Does resource wealth have a negative effect on the political and economic performance of the Gulf States? And furthermore, could the resource wealth have a negative effect beyond the borders of the Gulf Region? In an attempt to answer these questions, the speakers present their ongoing research on how the Gulf States' resource wealth relates to their migration policies, economic growth, demographic transition, regime durability, oil pricing policies and gasoline subsidization policies.
How has resource wealth affected the migration policies of the Gulf States? Does having the majority of the population consist of foreign workers affect the democratization process in the relevant Gulf States? How does resource wealth affect the growth impact of demographic transition? To what extent can resource wealth explain regime durability in the Gulf States? What are the effects of OPEC's policy on oil extraction for the oil market? To what extent does OPEC behave strategically and what are the consequences for importers and for non-OPEC oil exporters? How is the effectiveness of transport policy instruments affected by OPEC's market power and how do different policy instruments affect oil prices? How can we explain the wasteful gasoline subsidization in the Gulf States?
Papers and presenters
- The political economy of Gulf democratisation
Giacomo Luciani(Princeton University Global Scholar and Senior Consultant, Gulf Research Center, Dubai) - Migration into resource rich economies
Halvor Mehlum & Karl Ove Moene (University of Oslo) - Resource rent, demographic bonus, and economic development: Theory and evidence
Kjetil Bjorvatn (Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration (NHH)) & Mohammad Farzanegan (University of Dresden) - Modeling OPEC behaviour
Ådne Cappelen (Statistics Norway (SSB)) - The effects of transport regulation on the oil market - Does market power matter?
Knut Einar Rosendahl (Statistics Norway (SSB)) (co-authored with Snorre Kverndokk) - Gasoline subsidization as a political tool
Ingrid Krüger (University of Oslo) - Consequences of conflict for the MENA region
Håvard Strand (The Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO)) (co-authored with Scott Gates, Håvard Hegre & Håvard M. Nygård) - Oil and political survival
Silje Aslaksen (University of Oslo) (co-authored with Jørgen Juel Andersen)