×SDGs

Edward Boyle, Assistant Professor
Department of Politics, Faculty of Law

The project will emphasize heritage sites as spaces for reconciliation, and ask how the memories with which such sites are associated could be placed in agonistic engagement, rather than antagonistic opposition, with one another. This will be considered in terms of the three processes that constitute the focus of the larger project, heritage as tools of (1) national identity, (2) international influence, and (3) local revitalization. The workshop will bring together a diverse, interdisciplinary group of scholars to reflect on such issues.

Dokdo
Model of the Dokdo Islands, known as Takeshima and also claimed by Japan, at the Dokdo Museum in central Seoul, Republic of Korea. This museum is an early representative of the trend for representing marginal spaces of the nation as symbolic repositories for national identity in state capitals. The opening of the National Museum of Territory and Sovereignty in Tokyo in 2017, and its relocation and expansion in 2020, reflects the same process.

Upopoi
The reincorporation of an existing Ainu museum at Shiraoi in Hokkaido into ‘Upopoi’, or the Symbolic Space of Ethnic Harmony, shows the impact of transnational patterns of heritage making on domestic issues. At the same time, a dispute over the role of this space in the eventual fate of Ainu remains held by Japanese universities shows that the meaning of such sites is open to contestation from those it purports to celebrate.

Related Link

www.borderthinking.com

Team Member

Alexander Bukh, Senior Lecturer, Victoria University of Wellington

Research Collaborations

British Association of Japanese Studies
Asia New Zealand Foundation

Related Publications

1. “Borders of Memory: affirmation and contestation over Japan’s heritage”, Japan Forum 31.3 (2019), 293–312.
2. 「パラオの戦跡－記憶化の視点から」、古川浩司（編）『知っておきたいパラオ：かつてのボーダーランズの記憶を旅する』札幌：北海道大学出版会 [近刊]

Contact

[Contact] Edward Boyle
[Telephone] 080-9143-0948
[E-mail] boyle★aw.kyushu-u.ac.jp
Please change the ★ in your email address to @.

Events

Young Leaders’ Forum: Promoting Engagement on Heritage and Memory
-Asia Week Spin Off Event, Kyushu University Border Studies-　NEW

*The Program is subject to change due to circumstances.

[Event Details]
This Young Leader’s Forum is devoted to asking if sites of heritage can incorporate and promote diverse histories and memories. It will be hosted as part of Kyushu University’s Asia Week by Kyushu University Border Studies, in collaboration with the National University of Taiwan, Victoria University of Wellington, and the Asia New Zealand Foundation.

[Related Link] Call – Young Leaders Forum_Nov 5

[Website] https://borderthinking.com

[Contact]
　[Contact Name] Edward Boyle
　[E-mail] bordersofmemory★gmail.com
　Please change the ★ in your email address to @.

Contesting Memorial Spaces in the Asia-Pacific
-Asia Week Spin Off Event, Kyushu University Border Studies-　NEW

*The Program is subject to change due to circumstances.

[Outline]
　On 6-7 November 2020, Kyushu University Border Studies will host an international conference
　devoted to the operation and conceptualization of contested memorial spaces.

　Across the two days, the conference features eight panels examining the temporality and territoriality
　of memory, explorations of official and marginalized memorials, new spaces of mnemonic performance,
　and national and transnational memorial networks. It will also host two plenary roundtables,
　discussing tangible and intangible heritage practices, and the affective power of territorial disputes.

[Website] https://borderthinking.com

[Contact]
　[Contact Name] Edward Boyle
　[E-mail] boyle★law.kyushu-u.ac.jp
　Please change the ★ in your email address to @.