The conference aims at a collective reflection on the development of a new vocabulary of change outside of Europe between the end of the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century, in connection with the process of modernisation.

At the moment, our three keynote speakers are Prof. Wang Hui (Tsinghua University), a recognised world leader in global intellectual history, Prof. Jon Davidann (Hawaii University), a specialist of Japanese-US cultural diplomacy and authors of numerous publications in world history and cross-national cultural and political exchanges, and Prof. Bart Dessein, the director of our School of Chinese Studies. Please, refer to the website below for more detailed information on the theme of the conference.

We would be happy to host papers dealing with the reinterpretation of European historiographical and philosophical notions—such as renaissance, enlightenment, revolution, evolution, etc.—and with the re-signification of traditional terminology deriving from Chinese characters as well as Arabic, Turkish, Sanskrit, Pali, etc. expressions indicating change. We welcome papers exploring North and Latin America, Asia and the islamic world.

We are looking forward to receiving proposals for individual presentations (20 to 25 minutes). The deadline for abstracts' submission is July 20, 2017.
More information can be found on our website: http://www.paradigms.ugent.be