第37回 2013年度： “Human-Nature Interactions in Southeast Asia: Trans-disciplinary Approaches”

開催期間：平成25年10月29日(火)〜31日(木)

開催場所：Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang

Participants will arrive in Penang, Malaysia on October 28 and depart for their respective
country of residence on November 1, 2013.

Co-Organizers：
Universiti Sains Malaysia and Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto
University)

Sponsors：
MEXT Research Program “Promoting the Study of Sustainable
Humanosphere in Southeast Asia” and JSPS Asian Core Program “Constructing a
Southeast Asian Model for Co-existence of Multiple Civilizations in the Global
Era”

The Southeast Asia Seminar has been held annually by the Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University since 1976. Organized thematically around a variety of topics, the seminar offers three full days of intensive lectures by experts in the field and group discussions and presentations by the participants. This year, the Southeast Asia Seminar will be an international seminar co-sponsored by the Cebuano Studies Center of the University of San Carlos. We welcome your application.

The Aims and Contents

Advances in human knowledge are taking place alongside the rapid
transformation of the
ecosystem in which humans co-exist with nature. Can we survive and cope with the on-going
reformulation of the relationship between humans and nature and its impact on the geosphere,
biosphere, and our society? Are we truly equipped with a comprehensive range of insights and
knowhow from the humanities, social science and natural science to provide solutions to the
fast-paced environmental and social changes that are reshaping our everyday lives and the
environment itself?

This year’s Southeast Asia Seminar addresses the issue of how we can promote sustainable
human-nature relations. In order to examine the ways in which the geosphere, biosphere, and human
communities interact with each other and their implications for the survival of the human and natural
world and for balanced growth and development of Southeast Asia more generally, we need to
develop a new concept that can capture the complex dynamism of human-nature interactions in a
cross-disciplinary or trans-disciplinary way.

The term “humanosphere” treats the natural and social environments as parts of a complex,
dynamic whole. Humanosphere includes not only the land surface on which people cultivate and
produce, but all other factors—cultural, social, political, and economic–that affect livelihood and
environmental sustainability. In abstract terms, the humanosphere can be understood in terms of
material and energy flows and conversions between the biosphere, geosphere, and human society. In
practice, such factors as water flows, biological activities in the seas, lands, and forests, and rainfalls
and temperatures are among the main concerns of the people living in local societies. For example,
to the extent that the climate is affected by the changes in the atmosphere and oceanic currents,
mapping these changes through equatorial atmospheric radars and satellites can provide vital
information to deepen our understanding of the humanosphere at local, regional, and global levels.
The movements of water and air, but also people, goods, and even ideas also influence the life cycles
and spread of organisms, including pathogenic ones. The interscalar interactions of these phenomena
make up the substance of our concept of humanosphere.

The seminar is composed of three sessions:

Session I: Insects, a two-edged sword: Integrated pest management for sustainable humanosphere.
Session II: How do human activities affect the environment in Southeast Asia?: Lessons from case
studies.
Session III: Transmission diseases and the borderless Asian society

The Center for Southeast Asian Studies (CSEAS) at Kyoto University has a long tradition
of promoting area studies with a strong interdisciplinary orientation. With a long history of working
in the field of applied science, CSEAS bridges the divide between frontier science and innovation
technology, on the one hand, and established disciplines of ecology, politics and economics,
sociology and anthropology, history, and the medical sciences, on the other hand. This seminar aims
to bring together a new generation of area studies specialists and scientists who are able to cross the
disciplinary boundaries that separate the humanities and social science from the natural sciences for
three days of intensive discussion.

• Period： October 29 (Tues.) to October 31(Thurs.), 2013
  Participants will arrive in Penang, Malaysia on October 28 and depart for their respective
  country of residence on November 1, 2013.
• Venue：Universiti Sains Malaysia in Penang, Malaysia
• Program： please click here
• Participants： Applicants who want to join the seminar must have strong academic interest in the
  topic of this year’s seminar, and should be prepared to participate actively and join in the discussion
  for the full three-day seminar. We accept applications from young and up-and-coming scholars in
  Southeast Asia and East Asia and will select 20 participants.
• Seminar fee： Participation is fee. Roundtrip airfare, accommodation, and per diem allowance for the
  seminar will be covered by the sponsors.
• Online application form： Please download the application form from here, fill in, and send to the following
  e-mail address: summer_com@cseas.kyoto-u.ac.jp (*please indicate “Southeast Asia Seminar” as
  the subject of your e-mail, otherwise your e-mail may not reach us).
• Application deadline： September 6, 2013
• Selection：The seminar committee will select on the basis of the application forms and we will notify
  all applicants by September 13, 2013.

 

Contact: please address all inquiries to
Okamoto Masaaki, CSEAS, Kyoto University　
46 Shimo-adachi, Yoshida, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8501
(〒606-8501京都市左京区吉田下阿達町46　京都大学東南アジア研究所 )
Tel 81-75-753-7336 　
Fax 81-75-753-7350 　
e-mail: okamoto[at]cseas.kyoto-u.ac.jp