Lecture

The Asian Studies Center, in close partnership with the Center
for Latin American Studies and the Graduate School for Public
and International Affairs, is pleased to announce the
appointment of Professor Enrique Dussel Peters as Global
Professor in the University Center for International Studies.
As Professor at the Graduate School of Economics, Universidad
Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) Dr. Dussel Peters is an
internationally recognized expert on China-Latin America
relations. His work focuses on economic development, political

Socialism is often discussed as a singular, proper noun devoid of ideological, regional, political, or economic difference. Several types of socialism were operative in the twentieth century--from Soviet state socialism to Yugoslav worker self-management. What were some of the transnational movements of socialist experimentation and how, in the later decades of the twentieth century, intersect with, offer alternatives, and even shape neoliberalism?

This talk reflects on public media art festivals and screen media projects produced in collaboration among Hong Kong media/video art collectives and commercial to real estate institutions and their material facades, addressing debates concerning how such scaled screening situations potentiate (or refuse to potentiate) new collective modes of not only communicating in but also inhabiting the city.

As China’s global interests expand, how do its leaders envision security abroad? How is their security vision being implemented on the ground? This talk examines the security implications of Xi Jinping’s One Belt, One Road connectivity and investment project from three angles: case studies highlighting cultivation of military and security partnerships; privatization of security; and extension of the security concept into non-traditional domains.

Nationalization is one of the most important epochal events in the history of twentieth-century China. Through the large-scale expropriation of factories, mines, and plants first from the Nationalists in the late 1940s and then from private businesspeople in the early 1950s, the Communist regime transformed the Chinese economy into full state ownership. More importantly, by eliminating capitalists and private business, nationalization laid the ideological foundation of the Communist rule, a legacy that continues to resonate in contemporary China.

Globally cities are on the front lines of dealing with greenhouse gas and air pollution issues, particularly Chinese cities that are growing rapidly. Steps Chinese cities take to become truly low carbon will ultimately determine China's success to address climate change emissions. Through the case studies of three cities - Shenzhen, Nanchang, Xiamen and Zhenjiang - the research seeks to bring a more nuanced understanding to how China’s pioneer low-carbon city model contributes to China’s climate governance and the bottom-up approach in the world.

Thirty years after the democratic transition in 1989, hybrid political cultures and peculiar, neither Western nor fully Eastern power practices seem to have taken root in the European semi-peripheries. Regional experts speak of de-globalization as the outcome of the emergence of populist and nationalist movements in both Western and Eastern Europe, and warn against the peculiar role the latter area might play—as it already did in the interwar period and during the Cold War—as a laboratory of authoritarian politics.

A surprising number of animals appear in the fictional representations of the March 11, 2011 disasters in Japan. Why? My hunch is that the portrayal of animal inferiorities and portrayal of disaster are linked by narrative challenges and techniques: they both are "impossible." Furukawa Hideo has been writing through animals for some time, and with added poignancy after the Tohoku disasters; this presentation focuses on his fiction of Furukawa Hideo to examine his exploration of the fictional possibilities, and limits, of portraying animal inferiorities in fiction.

Taking aim at the conventional narrative that standard, national languages transform 'peasants' into citizens, Gina Anne Tam centers the history of the Chinese nation and national identity on fangyan--languages like Shanghainese, Cantonese, and dozens of others that are categorically different from the Chinese national language, Mandarin.

Formerly Distinguished Professor and Dean of the College of Energy, Xiamen University, Dr. Ning Li is the co-founder and senior advisor of Ultra Safe Nuclear Corporation, a US-based company dedicated to the development and commercialization of advanced nuclear energy based on innovations on fuel and micro modular reactor. His expertise addresses a key dimension of global environmental issues: how to alleviate the danger of global warming while meeting rising demands for reliable 24-hour energy. Questions? email us at asia@pitt.edu