Citizenship Lab Research Project: “Familial Love or Social Justice? Confucian Dilemmas of Ethics and Politics”

The Humanities Research Center’s Citizenship Lab proudly funds Xiaoliang Yang’s  Signature Work project.

Student: Xiaoliang Yang, Class of 2023, Ethics and Leadership/Philosophy

Mentor: Lincoln Rathnam, Assistant Professor of Political Science

In this project, I consider Classical Confucians’ treatments of ethical dilemmas, as reflected in Confucian classics (especially the Analects and Mengzi). I respond to current scholarly debates, including where scholars (e.g., Fan Ruiping and Liu Qingping) frame Confucian ethics as “familial favoritism,” which means that familial interests possess higher priority than social goods. I argue that their account of Confucian familial favoritism is entirely based on Confucians’ compliments of those who prioritize familial interests in ethical dilemmas between family vs. society. But the acceptance of one choice does not necessarily lead to the refutation of the other, since Confucians might also praise those who prioritize social interests. In the latter parts of the thesis, I provide theoretical reasons for why I support an ethically pluralistic interpretation of Classical Confucianism and analyze why Confucians will also credit those who prioritize social interests where there are conflicts between family and society. Some of the sources I will incorporate in my research include primary and secondary literature in Classical Confucianism, such as the Analects, Mengzi, Xunzi, works of the New Confucian Mou Zongsan, Stephen Angle’s Contemporary Confucian Political Thought, and Joseph Chan’s Confucian Perfectionism. Ultimately, this project rejects the commonly held notion of “familial favoritism” ascribed to Confucianism by unveiling the underappreciated dimension of Confucianism in which social interests can be prioritized as well. This research also seeks to reconstruct Classical Confucianism as a system encompassing high tolerance of diversified solutions for the same problem. It aims to demonstrate the internal complexity and flexibility of Classical Confucianism, deepening our understanding of Confucian responses toward ethical dilemmas.

Student Report on Ghost Rivers in the Urban Anthropocene

Reported by Cody Schmidt, class of 2025

This talk was hosted by HRC’s Citizenship Lab. The Citizenship Lab seeks to understand the transformation of citizenship and the ways in which citizenship is expressed through ecological, temporal, and spatial terms.

Professor Kregg Hetherington from Concordia University joined Duke Kunshan’s Citizenship Lab on February 17th to deliver a presentation titled “Ghost Rivers in the Urban Anthropocene.” Moderated by Citizenship Lab co-director Robin Rodd, the lecture recounted the story of the St. Pierre, a river that once ran through Montreal and nourished the city in its foundation, now considered a “ghost river.” Continue reading “Student Report on Ghost Rivers in the Urban Anthropocene”

Anthropocene XR Lab is accepting proposals for the “Onsite Student Hackathon”

HRC Anthropocene XR Lab presents:
Onsite Student Hackathon Registration Open

Interested in XR (VR&AR) and environmental designs? Come and learn, practice, have fun with us!

Submit your team/individual hackathon proposals to get:

  • Funding: up to ¥ 5,000 per project
  • Equipment support: VR headset, AR glasses, etc.
  • Mentorship; indicate a DKU faculty mentor/seek mentorship from XR lab co-directors

Timeline:

Feb: Accepting Proposals
Feb-Mar: Workshops and Individual Mentoring Sessions
March 17-18: 48 hours of Hackathon
March 18: Showcase / presentation

Check out the HRC website to learn more about the Lab! sites.duke.edu/dkuhumanities/projects/anthropocene-xr-lab/ Any question, please email: leiyuan.tian@dukekunshan.edu.cn

Anthropocene XR Lab Presents: Entrepreneurship in AR/VR/XR

Date/Time: Fri, Feb 24, 12-12:45pm China time
Zoom ID: 879 6872 6939
Guest Speaker: Dr. Simon Mak

Biography: Dr. Simon Mak is Executive Director of the Caruth Institute for Entrepreneurship and Professor of Practice in the Department of Strategy, Entrepreneurship, and Business Economics at the SMU Cox School of Business. He directs the Caruth Institute staff and its many community service programs, such as the Dallas 100 Entrepreneur Awards, the Southwest Venture Forum, the Starting A Business certificate course, and the Startup Camp for Teens. In addition, Dr. Mak leads the academic entrepreneurship programs at Cox by overseeing the BBA Specialization in Entrepreneurship and the MBA/graduate program in entrepreneurship, managing a team of over a dozen adjunct professors in teaching over 20 entrepreneurship courses. Dr. Mak also works with the Lyle School of Engineering on the MS in Engineering Entrepreneurship degree program.

Anthropocene XR Lab Presents “A Room of One’s Own: novel interactions and contextual storytelling in virtual spaces”

A ROOM OF ONE’S OWN: novel interactions and contextual storytelling in virtual spaces.

Date/Time: Tues, Feb 21, 9-10am China time
Zoom ID: 93375892386
Speaker: RAY LC. Assistant Professor of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong

Virtual environments provide ways to intervene in the storytelling process, both by showing the context in which the narrative takes place and by applying interactions that go beyond the physical world to model mental conceptions. This talk describes a body of research in art, design, and human-computer research focused on understanding new interactions with the VR paradigm in both naturalistic and created environments, applied to storytelling for marginalized groups, sub culture communities, and artistic applications.

Continue reading “Anthropocene XR Lab Presents “A Room of One’s Own: novel interactions and contextual storytelling in virtual spaces””

Citizenship Lab Presents: The Climate Emergency and Tuvalu’s Escape to the Metaverse: Challenging the Complicity of Design in Technological Solutionism 

Date: March 9, 2023
Time: 4-5:30pm China time
Location: IB 1010
Zoom ID: 962 8265 9729
Speakers: Nick Kelly, Marcus Foth (Queensland University of Technology)

The full recording of this event can be found here.

Rising sea levels due to climate change are already having severe impacts on the nation of Tuvalu. It proposes to build a digital replica of itself in the metaverse. In this talk, we will not only ask whether it can be done but explore the actual message hidden in this announcement. This leads us to explore some broader questions pertaining to the relationship between citizenship and the politics of climate change: Will technology innovation save us? What responsibility should citizens take in making ethical consumption choices? What is the role of design and designers in intermediating between government, industry and citizens? Continue reading “Citizenship Lab Presents: The Climate Emergency and Tuvalu’s Escape to the Metaverse: Challenging the Complicity of Design in Technological Solutionism “

Citizenship Lab Presents: Ghost Rivers in the Urban Anthropocene

Date/Time: Friday, February 17, 9:00 AM China time
Location: [ZOOM] 974 1691 6744
Speaker: Kregg Hetherington, Associate Professor at Concordia University in Montreal

Abstract
Several years ago, a group of students at Concordia University went looking for water and found a ghost. They weren’t alone in this. Local activists, urban planners and eventually city officials all found themselves, over the past decade, drawn into relation with a long-forgotten river that, for different reasons, had begun to haunt local infrastructure. In 2021 they even held a funeral, played the bagpipes, and tried to come to terms with a new form of mourning. As this paper will argue, the appearance of ghost rivers is a kind of infrastructural inversion proper to the urban Anthropocene, conjured by shifting attention to landscapes of ecological destruction. To know a ghost river is to understand underground pipes and legal histories, it’s to become aware of contamination and histories of disease, and it’s to reflect on the future of human cohabitation. But communing with a ghost, and holding funerals for the deceased, is not the same as repair. Instead, it’s an invitation to reflect on new kinds of Anthropocene beings, and the responses that they demand. Continue reading “Citizenship Lab Presents: Ghost Rivers in the Urban Anthropocene”

HRC Citizenship Lab is Seeking a Research Assistant

HRC CITIZENSHIP LAB IS SEEKING A RESEARCH ASSISTANT 

Application due date: December 18, 2022

To apply, please send CV and cover letter to citizenshiplab@dukekunshan.edu.cn

Workload: Project based, and up to 10hrs/week (40 RMB/hour)
Starting date: Immediately

Main Duties and Responsibilities: Assisting the Lab co-directors with Lab-related research activities. This may include, but is not limited to, identifying potential guest speakers; assisting the lab directors with bibliographic research for citizenship-related publications; and identifying case studies and other materials for inclusion in article and book manuscripts written by the Lab co-directors or affiliates. Continue reading “HRC Citizenship Lab is Seeking a Research Assistant”