International Workshop "Entangled By Multiple Tongues: The Role of Diaspora in the Transfer of Culture", Zurich, June 3-4, 2010
Almost all long-distance transfer of conceptions, institutions and practices was, and still is, shaped by one very peculiar setting: it is done by individuals and groups living in diaspora networks. But this implies mediating between parallel reference frames, switching forth and back between a home and one or more host cultures, in short: "speaking multiple tongues".
This continuous merger of home and host conceptions, institutions and practices into hitherto unknown new ones made, and still makes, diaspora the one major place of intercultural mediation and transcultural negotiation. The question how this multilingualism (in its widest sense) peculiar of all diaspora shapes the transfer of culture will be the focus of our workshop on "Entangled By Multiple Tongues: The Role of Diaspora in the Transfer of Culture".
Date and Venue
University of Zurich, Ethnographic Museum (Völkerkundemuseum), Pelikanstrasse 40, 8001 Zurich, Switzerland (http://www.musethno.uzh.ch).
Conveners
Prof. Dr. Mareile Flitsch, University of Zurich, Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology/Ethnographic Museum, and Prof. Dr. Andreas Kaplony, University of Zurich, Oriental Institute.
This workshop is an activity of the University Priority Research Program "Asia and Europe" (http://www.asienundeuropa.uzh.ch), Research Field 2: "Entangled Histories".
Support
The Swiss-Asia Society (http://www.sagw.ch/asiengesellschaft.html); the Swiss Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences ((http://www.sagw.ch); and the University of Zurich, University Priority Research Program "Asia and Europe" (http://www.asienundeuropa.uzh.ch).
Further Information and Registration
For all further information, see our website (http://www.ori.uzh.ch/actual/conferences/tongues.html). You are kindly asked to register with cantele(at)vmz.uzh.ch. There are no conference fees.
Program
Thursday, June 3, 2010
A. Diasporas of the Wider Mediterranean
9.00 am: Jörg Lanckau, Zurich: " 'The Highest': The Cultural Translation of Monotheism in the Hellenistic Period"
9.45 am: Andreas Kaplony, Zurich and Raffaele Luiselli, Florence, "The Arabization and Islamization of the Administration of Syria and Egypt As Viewed by Bilingual Greek-Arabic Documents (550-750 CE)"
Break
11.00 am: Hans-Lukas Kieser, Zurich, "Transfer of Revolutionary Language in the Diaspora? The Case of the Russian Socialist Helphand Parvus in Switzerland, Germany and Istanbul"
11.45 am: Leyla von Mende, Berlin, " 'Mecque de la pédagogie': Two Ottoman Study Guides and Their Plea for Swiss Pedagogics"
Lunch
2.00 pm: Patrick Brozzo, Zurich, "Legal Diaspora: Islamic and Jewish Marriage Laws in Europe"
B. Diaporas Along the Silk Road
2.45 pm: Wolfgang Behr, Zurich, "Diglossia and Alloglottographia in Late Pre-Imperial Siniform Writing from Southern China"
Break
4.00 pm: Jörg Plassen, Bochum, "Some Tentative Musings on the Influence of Multilingual Settings on the Reception of Buddhism in East Asia" cancelled
4.45 pm: Erling von Mende, Princeton and Berlin, "The Lantern Bearers. How the Qidan Saved Chinese Culture Through the Alien Dynasties of the Jurchen Jin and Mongol Yuan (1115-1368)"
8.00 pm: Evening Program
Friday, June 4th, 2010
C. Diasporas of the Indian Ocean
9.00 am: Mareile Flitsch, Zurich, "Hesitant Hands on Changing Tables: Negociating Dining Patterns in Multilingual and Diaspora Contexts"
9.45 am: Dhruv Raina, New Delhi and Heidelberg: "Speaking in Many Tongues: Nineteenth Century Projects in the Cultural Translation of Science"
Break
D. The New Global Diasporas
11.00 am: Hamid Naficy, Evanston Il., Accented Cinema’s Mode of Production and Multilinguality
11.45 am: Rohit Jain, Zurich, "Biographicity, Cultural Translation and Translocality: Multiple Representations of 'Indianness' Among Second Generation Indians Socialized in Switzerland"
Lunch
2.00 pm: Nathalie Böhler, Zurich: "Made in Thailand: The Role and Perception of Diasporic Filmmakers in Contemporary Thai Cinema"