2021年度に歴史家ワークショップの特任研究員を務めていた横江良祐さんと、東京大学大学院経済学研究科の矢島ショーンさん、ブラウン大学大学院歴史学研究科の蔡暁林さんが主催する国際シンポジウムに、対面の一般参加者を募集しております。ご関心のある方はぜひご参加ください。
18~19 November 2023 – The University of Tokyo (Hongo Campus)
We are excited to invite you to an in-person symposium that explores the history of commodities in different temporal and regional contexts and their broader significance for questions of power, knowledge, and social change. As a multifaceted topic, commodity history has been examined from a variety of disciplinary angles, including economic and business history, social and cultural history, global and transnational history, anthropology, philosophy, and sociology. This two-day interdisciplinary event aims to identify these intersections and interrogate what they mean for our understanding of commodities, from those deeply embedded in colonial histories like tea and textiles, to modern items that underwent rapid transformation such as contraception and skincare products.
The symposium will be hosted in person (not hybrid) at the Center for International Research on the Japanese Economy (CIRJE) on 18-19 November 2023. CIRJE and the Historians’ Workshop are proud to deliver this English-language symposium at the University of Tokyo Graduate School of Economics. We aim to create an open, friendly space for scholars from across regional and disciplinary backgrounds to share completed and work-in-progress research.
- Dates
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Saturday 18 – Sunday 19 November 2023
- Venue
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Kojima Conference Room (2F), Kojima Hall, 7 Chome-3 Hongo, Bunkyo City, Tokyo 113-0033
- Registration for Non-Speaking Participants
- Deadline for Registration
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10 November 2023
- Language
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English
- Participation Fee
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Free
Conference Programme
DAY 1 – Saturday 18 November 2023
13:00 – Registration and Introduction (30 min)
13:30 – Panel 1 – Nature as Commodity: Plants, Sea, and Environment (120 min)
Charlotte Ciavarella (Harvard University) – The Social Life of the Sea Forest: Seaweeds and Seawomen in Nineteenth and Twentieth-century Japan and Korea
Devon Newhouse (Brown University) – The Journey of Cashews from Goa to the United States (1930-1961)
Qingfeng Nie (New Era University College) – Consuming the Five-Mineral Powder and Faking the Consumption in Medieval China
SJ Zanolini (Johns Hopkins University) – Trans-Pacific Histories of Foreign Plants: On Kudzu, Sweet Potatoes, and Conceptual Nativism
15:30 – Coffee Break (30 min)
16:00 – Keynote Presentation (90 min)
Ai Hisano (University of Tokyo) – “Eating the Other”: Commodification as a Tangible and Intangible History
17:30 – Wine Reception
19:00 – Dinner
DAY 2 – Sunday 19 November 2023
10:30 – Panel 2 – Textiles and Transformations: From Local Craftsmanship to Global Markets (90 min)
Maumita Banerjee (Waseda University) – Men and Material Worlds: Dress politics in Modern Japan and India
Kazuo Kobayashi (Waseda University) – Commodity Chains of Cotton Textiles During the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries: India, Western Europe, and West Africa
Aki Toyoyama (Kindai University) – Fabricating Socio-Political Value of Indian Textiles in Colonial and Congress Exhibitions during the Mid-nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries
12:00 – Lunch (90 min)
13:30 – Panel 4 – Consumable Commodities and Cultural Adaptations: Tea and Rice in East and Southeast Asia (90 min)
Sampura Bordoloi (Shiv Nadar University) – A Tale of Two Commodities: Tea-Wood Entanglements in Colonial Assam
Joshua Linkous (Harvard University) – The Double Life of Rice under Japan’s Capitalist Development, 1868-1945
Lawrence Zhang (Hong Kong University of Science and Technology) – How to Make Better Tea? Understanding Foreign Taste in Taiwan Tea Production, 1958-1990
15:00 – Coffee Break (30 minutes)
15:30 – Panel 3 – Objectification and Representation: Commodities and Bodies in Social and Political Contexts (120 min)
Amber Burbidge (European University Institute) – Objectification: Assessing Representations of Race and Gender in a Pair of Eighteenth-Century Derby Porcelain Dessert Baskets
Yushu Geng (New York University Shanghai) & Mobeen Hussain (University College, Oxford University) – Marketing Modernity, Selling Hazeline: A Comparative Study of Indian and Chinese Markets, 1908–1957
Jason Petrulis (The Education University of Hong Kong) – From Temple Tonsure to Woman’s Wig: Making Indian Hair Markets in the 1960s-70s
Yen Nie Yong (Kyoto University) – Subtle Marketing: Selling Condoms to Multicultural Societies in Southeast Asia (1980s–2010s)
17:30 – End of Day 2
If you have any questions, please contact poetsutokyo@gmail.com
Featured Image – Milne Ramsey (1869), Marble Tabletop with Fruit and Wineglass, oil painting, National Gallery of Art
Organisers: Lillian Tsay, Shaun Yajima, Koji Yamamoto, Ryosuke Yokoe