May 9 (Friday) 9:00-12:00   AB (Academic Building) 1087

Harmony Lab is holding its first conference on Friday, May 9, 2025, sharing a year-long project.

The Harmony Lab is a nexus of philosophical research undertaken by Duke University, Duke Kunshan University, and Wuhan University. It builds on and extends the Harmony Lab at Duke University’s Franklin Humanities Institute. Under the broad theme of harmony, our DKU project focuses on the subtheme of gender and family harmony. We have four Co-PIs, Profs Hwa Yeong Wang and James Miller from DKU and Profs. Yong Li and Qin Liu from Wuhan University.

Four of the co-PIs aim to investigate the role of Confucian philosophy, ethics, and values with respect to the changing gender norms and family structures that are emerging in contemporary East Asian societies. As the first step to achieve this aim, we explore having a nuanced understanding of how Confucians have historically understood family structures and how contemporary Confucian philosophers are paying attention to contemporary issues such as gender diversity and declining birth rates.

<Schedule>

Moderator: Halla KIM (Sogang University, Korea)

09:00-10:00    Opening

09:15-10:00    <Keynote Speech> Prof. Roger Ames (Peking University)

“Making Yourself at Home: The Familial Roots of Confucian Philosophy”

10:00-10:30    LI Yong (Wuhan University)

“Mainland Confucianism and the Ideal Family”

10:30-11:00    LIU Qin (Wuhan University)

“Differences, Roles, and Fluidity: Exploring the Feminist Potential of Neo-Confucianism”

11:00-11:30    Hwa Yeong WANG (Duke Kunshan University)

“Metaphysics, Ritual, and Gender: The Integrated System of Korean Neo-Confucianism and Its Feminist Challenges”

11:30-12:00    James MILLER and Sue WANG (Duke Kunshan University)

“A Comparative Investigation of the Confucian Philosophy of Family”