30 November 2017

Cleveringa lecture, Philippe Peycam

On Thursday 30th of November, Philippe Peycam will give a lecture in the tradition of the annual Cleveringa meetings held all over the world. To find out where the other Cleveringa meetings are held please check Leiden University Fund.

Abstract

‘In favor of a Humanistic Academic Asia-Africa Platform’

Under the IIAS cluster Global Asia, Dr. Peycam coordinates two inter-disciplinary transregional programs: ‘Rethinking Asian (Regional) Studies in a Global Context’ (2014-2016), and ‘Humanities Across Borders, Asia and Africa in the World’ (2017-2021). These two initiatives, both supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, experiment new methods of intellectual engagement that favor a decentralized approach grounded on local knowledge practices while facilitating transregional exchanges between them. The aim is to shape a new inclusive humanistic curricular program. In this vein, one of the major IIAS projects is the facilitation of new intellectual exchange platforms including those between Africa and Asia, Latin America and Asia, and through the Indian Ocean crossroad. One of the most emblematic and powerful South-South events facilitated by IIAS was the first conference of the African Association for Asian Studies that was held in Accra, Ghana, in 2015 (400 participants, 50 nationalities, 60 panels and roundtables). The next conference of this kind will take place in Dar es Salaam, on September 18-20, 2018. These are some of the elements of connected academic engagement that Peycam would like to share with his Moroccan colleagues.

 

Biographical data

Philippe Peycam is the director of the International Institute of Asian Studies (IIAS), Leiden, The Netherland. Peycam is a trained historian of Southeast Asia (Vietnam). For ten years, he worked to establish a dual academic and capacity building institution in post-war Cambodia, the Center for Khmer Studies (CKS). He is working on an essay based on his Cambodian experience provisionally entitled Cultural Renewal Amidst Social Ruins? Reflections on Cultural Activism in Cambodia. At IIAS, Peycam has engaged the institute in a reinforcement of its global-local network-based activities and a deepening of its intellectual and societal impacts under three clusters (Urban; Heritage; Global). With Dr. Aarti Kawlra, he supervises the transnational program “Humanities across Borders, Asia and Africa in the World” (2017-2020).

 

Practical information

Time: Thursday 30th of November at 7 pm

Place: Nimar  3, Avenue Mohamed El Fassi (ex. Av. Marrakech)

Language: French

RSVP nimar@hum.leidenuniv.nl