We are pleased to inform that the 5th International STCS Conference will be held in Ljubljana between April 20-22, 2018. The main goal of the STCS (Specific Topics in Chinese Studies) conferences (organized by the Department of Asian Studies at the University of Ljubljana) is to use knowledge and flow of information through various disciplines to encourage and advance the study of specific topics related to China. The 2018 conference is dedicated to the sinization of Marxism as a paradigm for research on Marxist philosophy in contemporary China.
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Call for Paper:
Even though its constitution declares China to be a socialist state, it is hard to think about it as a Marxist or socialist society. Nonetheless, the socialist theory and ideology remains a resilient power and Marxism a subject of continuous investigation in China’s academic world. However, despite the vast academic efforts to understand and evaluate twentieth-century Chinese Marxism, numerous problems regarding the reasons behind why Marxism has been transformed into its current form in modern China remain open. Although it is hard to evaluate the actual function and impact of socialist and Marxist theories in present-day China, their complex importance and their historical implications are certainly worth considering for political, as well as theoretical and intellectual reasons.
Our main motives for organizing this event are based on the growing international relevance of these discourses, which is linked to the raise of the new Chinese superpower and the global redistribution of political and economic power in contemporary societies. We hope that the presentations and debates surrounding the new ideas and research insights will highlight and critically evaluate the significance of the Chinese theoretical approaches and developments that were shaped during the recent history of Neo-Marxist and Post-Marxist theoretical discourses. Due to the urgent need for historical reflections and reinterpretations of these theories in light of contemporary concerns we aim to highlight the importance of exchanges and mutual influences between the different interpretations of Marxism in contemporary societies. We also hope to illuminate the relation between various current post-Maoist legitimization models and CCP ideologies on one hand, and the various aspects of topical social discourses on the other.
In order to facilitate a fruitful academic dialogue between scholars and students working in these research topics, papers focusing on the following aspects are particularly (but not exclusively) welcome :
- Marxist, Neo-Marxist and Post-Marxist philosophical concepts and issues;
- Hegelian dialectics, the traditional Chinese principle of correlative complementarity and new dialectical models;
- Kant, Hegel and Marx through the prism of modern Chinese interpretations;
- The question of estrangement;
- Chinese interpretations of early and late Marx;
- Intercultural and comparative implications of socialism as a concept and a theory;
- Neo-Marxist aesthetics in China and abroad;
- Dialectical materialism and related concepts in Chinese tradition;
- Ontology, epistemology and phenomenology of sinicized Marxism;
- The concept of permanent revolution and its connotations;
- The relational Self and the modern subject in traditional and contemporary Chinese theory;
- Ethical and political implications of sinicized Marxism;
- Political and ideological applications/appropriations;
- Moral and ethical systems behind human relationships in the scope of Marxist studies;
- Traditional and modern understandings of social justice;
- The role of trade unions, cooperatives and other alternative forms of self-management;
- Socialism and communism “with Chinese characteristics”;
- Collectivism vs. communitarianism;
- Comparative Marxist studies;
- Relations between philosophy, ideology and discourse in sinicized Marxism, etc.
Abstracts of under 250 words should be sent to Jana S. Rošker jana.rosker@ff.uni-lj.si and/or Katja Kolšek katja.kolsek@guest.arnes.si by November 25, 2017 at the latest.
Submissions should include the author’s name, academic qualification, institutional affiliation, position, contact information – address, telephone number, email. Scholars who will submit their proposals by this deadline will be notified of their acceptance prior to January 15, 2018. The official languages of the conference are English and Chinese.
The conference organizers will publish a selection of conference papers in a special issue of our academic journal Asian Studies.
The conference fee which includes conference materials, a welcome reception, a banquet dinner for all participants and coffee break refreshments amounts to 80 Euro (40 Euro for PhD Students). This fee is to be paid on the day of registration.
If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact Jana S. Rošker jana.rosker@ff.uni-lj.si or visit the conference website.
Organizational committee:
Prof. Dr. Jana S. Rošker
Assoc. Prof. Nataša Vampelj Suhadolnik
Assist. Prof. Dr. Katja Kolšek
Lect. Téa Sernelj, PhD Candidate
Matej Zima, PhD Candidate, junior researcher
Marko Ogrizek, PhD Candidate, junior researcher
