Category Archives: Collaboration & Partnerships
Climate Emergency and the Future of Democracy
Date: Monday, April 15th
Time: 5:00PM CST
Location: Zoom – 922 1935 5842
On Monday, April 15th, Professor Robyn Eckersley will have a seminar on Climate Emergency and the Future of Democracy. This seminar tracks the rise of climate emergency claim making as a global discourse, and takes stock of the criticisms from those who argue that the emergency frame should be abandoned because it will necessarily undermine democracy. Against these critics, Professor Eckersley offers an alternative and more sympathetic democratic critique of the grammar of climate emergency claim making, and then poses and critically explores two questions that have been ignored by the critics: what might happen to liberal democracy if the climate emergency movement fails in its demands upon the state? Could the climate emergency movement be a potential saviour of democracy because it seeks to build legitimacy for measures that would safeguard the fundamental socio-ecological conditions for the survival of democratic states?
Robyn Eckersley is Redmond Barry Distinguished Professor in Political Science in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Melbourne, and a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia. She has published widely in the fields of environmental political theory and International Relations, with a particular focus on ecological democracy, the greening of states, and the ethics, politics and governance of climate change. She received a Distinguished Scholar Award (Environmental Studies Section) at the International Studies Association Annual Convention in Toronto 2019.
Student Report on “Chinese Female-Only Script: Unveiling the Stories and Influence of 女书 (Nvshu)”
Reported by Yixin Gu, Class of 2027
The event was jointly sponsored by the HRC Gender Studies Initiative and the CSCC Meanings, Identities and Communities Cluster.
On March 20, 2024, guest speaker Xiuyuan You was invited to the campus to conduct a lecture and workshop on the Chinese national intangible cultural heritage– Nvshu. Ms. You is the Jiangsu Nvshu Cultural Ambassador, Dean of Wuxi Nvshu Academy, and Associate Researcher of the Chinese Nvshu Research Center at Wuhan University.
(more…)Student Report on “Unpacking Civil Warfare: The First Indochina War, 1945-1954”
Reported by Zhenan Xie, class of 2026
During the mini-term session, on March 11st, the DKU Humanities Research Center invited Professor Edward Miller as the guest speaker of an insightful discussion focusing on his research topic about the first Indochina war. The lecture invited and guided nearly 40 participants to examine the ignored facts of this war usually defined as decolonization or part of the Global Cold War, revealing its essence as a civil war instead. Prof. Miller also used this case to help participants learn about the conclusional features existed in civil warfare.
Prof. Miller first introduced and summarized a few commons often applicable to sovereignty in civil wars, featuring divisible, fragmented, and layered. It was also pointed out that the behavior of claiming legitimacy often played significant role shaping such circumstance of sovereignty in civil wars as multi-level conflicts, including Civil wars: multi-level conflicts consisting of conflicts between warring parties, warring parties and civilian populations, and within local populations and communities. Then Prof. Miller led participants to go through the life experience of Colonel Jean Leroy, founder of UMDC, who was born in and excluded by Ben Tre Province. The story of Leroy helped prove that these existed phenomenon of Vietnamese-led army under command of French imperial governance, proving Prof. Miller’s view about The First Indochina War as a civil warfare. By this lecture an insightful topic was proposed that different understandings might be applied to a same historical event or period, depending on the aspects focused on and interpretations implemented from different perspectives. While exploring and unveiling the untold stories behind common view can help historians and the public have a more complete cognition of history.
The second stage of Q&A session involved enthusiastic participation by both students and professors in attendance. Various questions about the class topic and suggestions regarding the research content were put forward and Prof. Miller answered each of them in detail with extensive supplement of presentation to help participants better understand this complex chapter of history.
We’d like to express our sincere appreciation to Prof. Miller’s impressive presentation and engagement by every participant in attendance. With the loosened COVID policy, this lecture would be an exciting start of continuous activities held in person coming up in 2024. This discussion and insights shared in it is believed to contribute to laying the foundation of a series of lectures. We look forward to holding more activities on humanities research and engaging more students and faculties in the future.
Unpacking Civil Warfare: The First Indochina War, 1945-1954
Join us for an eye-opening discussion with Edward Miller as he unveils the untold stories behind Vietnam’s turbulent history. Discover how the conflicts from the 1940s to the 1970s were more than just wars of decolonization or part of the Global Cold War—they were brutal civil wars. Explore the intriguing intersection of colonial violence and civil warfare in Bến Tre, Vietnam, and gain a deeper understanding of this complex chapter in history.
Event Details:
- Date: March 11, Monday
- Time: 5 – 6 pm
- Venue:IB 1047
Abstract: The wars that convulsed Vietnam and the rest of Indochina from the 1940s to the 1970s have long been narrated either as wars of decolonization or as components of the Global Cold War. Recently, however, some Vietnam Studies scholars have pointed out that these conflicts were also bloody civil wars in which Vietnamese and other Indochinese groups inflicted enormous violence on each other. What, exactly, does it mean to treat these complex conflicts as civil wars? In this talk, Edward Miller explores the intersection of colonial violence and civil warfare in one part of Vietnam: the province of Bến Tre in the Mekong Delta.
Don’t miss out on this enlightening event! Join us and broaden your perspective on Vietnam’s past.
