The East Asian Graduate Association of CU-Boulder will hold its Fourth Annual Graduate Student Conference beginning Friday, Oct. 26, on the university campus. The event will address cross-disciplinary issues of importance specific to students studying East Asia.
The theme for this year's conference, "Creating Culture," will explore the definition of culture and its development, creation and many manifestations in China and Japan.
The conference alternates each year between hosting a China scholar and a Japan scholar as keynote speaker. This year's keynote address is "Caring for the Caregivers: The Repositioning of the Ancestor Cult in Medieval Chinese Religion" by Stephen R. Bokenkamp, associate professor of East Asian Languages and Cultures at Indiana University. The talk begins at 6 p.m. Friday, in the Humanities building, room 150.
The conference continues Saturday, Oct. 27, from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Sunday from 8:30 a.m. to noon, also in Humanities 150, with panels on different aspects of culture in China and Japan. Topics scheduled for the panel discussions include: Erasing Boundaries, (Re)Emergence of the Female, Language and Translation, Figuring the State, Making Sacred Space, Creating Tradition and the Role of the Foreign.
The Annual EAGA Conference provides a supportive arena for graduate students to present original research on China and Japan. All participants are graduate students, except for the keynote speaker, and many participants are presenting papers for the first time. This is the only graduate student conference focusing on China and Japan in the central region of the U.S. Representatives of five departments at CU-Boulder and students from other universities will present their papers.
Funding for the conference was provided by: the departments of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, Comparative Literature, the Asian Studies Program, Teaching East Asia, the Center for Asian Studies, the Center for Humanities and Arts, the Arts and Sciences Deans, the Council for Colleges and Schools, and the Arts and Sciences Student Government.
For more information or a program of events, visit the Web site at and click on the CUEAGA conference links.