The Research Training Group GRK 2833 “East Asian Futures” held an internal Summer Workshop with Mercator Fellow Prof. Dr. Kaori HAYASHI (University of Tokyo) on August 6, 2024 at Ruhr University Bochum. Alongside Prof. HAYASHI, some of the RTG’s doctoral and postdoctoral researchers and four of the qualifying fellows as well as two members of the Faculty of East Asian Studies at RUB gave brief introductions into their field of research and discussed with each other.

After a greeting given by RTG speaker Prof. Dr. Christine MOLL-MURATA, Mercator Fellow Prof. Dr. Kaori HAYASHI introduced the participants to her field of research with a brief talk on “Japanese Media in an Age of Digitization”. Postdoctoral researcher Dr. des. Aya HINO (RTG) followed up with insights on “‘Nihon-gaku’ and Colonial, Internal, and Imperial Differences within the Japanese Nation-Empire”.

From the Faculty of East Asian Studies at Ruhr University Bochum, associate professor Dr. Anke SCHERER (Department of Japanese History) gave an overview of “Manchuria as Utopia”, while research fellow Felix DOEGE (Department of East Asian Politics) talked about “Cryptocurrency Regulation in Japan and beyond”. RTG doctoral researchers Buyun GONG, Ming-Feng WU and Youlim KIM introduced their research – respectively, “Scientific Management in Republican China”, “The Confucian-Buddhist Debate and Modern Chinese Buddhist Thought”, and “Social Discourse on Unmarried Mothers in South Korea” – afterwards.

Following a short break, Maria FROLOVA, Denise MUẞMANN, Lea WALRAFF and Estella GREEN, four of the RTG’s Qualifying Fellows, briefly introduced their research topics. Afterwards, the event concluded with a final discussion round amongst the participants.

Invitations to the workshop were sent out in July 2024. Please find a schedule of the workshop and its presentations here.