Fall 2009 - Spring 2010:

Leisure and Social Change: The Transcultural Flow of Concepts, Institutions, and Practices
The Leisure and Social Change project is an initiative by Boston University faculty to further investigate the study of leisure activities and its role in societal change throughout Asia. In many Asian societies, the concept of leisure became a testing ground for new, modern thinking, acting, and dressing. This project will entail multiple lectures and meetings. The following events are open by invitation only. This project is co-sponsored by the Boston University Humanities Foundation.

Public Lecture: "Who Really Gives Us Experiences of Awe and Ecstasy?"
Prof. Ronald Inden (University of Chicago)
Wednesday, September 23, 12:00 p.m.
The Castle, 225 Bay State Road

A public lecture on the shifting relationship of entertainment to the conventional religions in the US and the world and the problems of theorizing experience. Ronald Inden is a professor emeritus in the Departments of History and of South Asian Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago and is a major scholar in South Asian and post-colonial studies. Author of Imagining India (1990), a critical survey of the field of Indology and its history, Inden has more recently been working on popular entertainment and its relationship to religions, in South Asia, the USA, and elsewhere. Co-sponsored by the BU Humanities Foundation, BUCSA and BU Religion Department

Workshop Presentation (Invitation Only): “Guides to Paradise: Shanghai Entertainment Newspapers, the World, and the Invention of Urban Leisure”
Prof. Cathy Ye (Boston University)
Discussant: Prof. Ronald Inden
September 24, 2009, 5:30 - 7:00 p.m.
BU History Dept., 226 Bay State Road, Room 504.

Workshop Presentation (Invitation Only):
Prof. Nancy Smith-Hefner
October 15, 2009
12:30 - 2:00 p.m.
Faculty Dining Lounge, GSU, 775 Commonwealth Ave., 5th Floor, Estin Room

Workshop Presentation (Invitation Only): “Masculinity and the Culture of Smoking in Post-War Japan”
Prof. Suzanne O'Brien
December 3, 2009
12:30 - 2:00 p.m.
Faculty Dining Lounge, GSU, 775 Commonwealth Ave., 5th Floor, Estin Room

 

2009-2010 BU Asian Studies Lunch Seminar Series (Asian Studies Faculty Only): The Asian Studies Faculty Lunch Series continues this academic year. BU faculty and occasionally visiting scholars meet to share a meal and listen to a presentation of their colleagues' recent research. Funding for this program is provided by the Boston University Center for the Study of Asia (BUCSA).