IAFOR > The 11th Asian Conference on Arts & Humanities (ACAH) > ACAH2020 > Programme (Live-Stream)

Programme (Live-Stream)

Due to continued uncertainties surrounding the ongoing global coronavirus pandemic, ACAH2020 will be held Online via Zoom.

The 11th Asian Conference on Arts & Humanities (ACAH2020) is a multidisciplinary conference held concurrently with The 11th Asian Conference on the Social Sciences (ACSS2020). Speakers will provide a variety of perspectives from different academic and professional backgrounds. Registration for either conference will allow participants to attend sessions in both.

This page provides details of featured presentations, the conference schedule and other programming. For more information about presenters, please visit the Speakers page.

Conference Outline

All times are Japan Standard Time (UTC+9) (time difference)

Monday, May 25, 2020Tuesday, May 26, 2020Wednesday, May 27, 2020

16:00-16:15: Welcome Address & Recognition of IAFOR Scholarship Winners
Joseph Haldane, IAFOR, Japan

16:15-17:00: Keynote Presentation
Embracing the Power of Difference as an Elementary Idea
Chris Dalton, University of Reading, United Kingdom

17:05-17:50: Keynote Presentation
Embracing Difference by Design: Virtues and Vices
Bruce Brown, Royal College of Art, United Kingdom

17:50-18:30: Embracing Difference: Discussion Session (with both Speakers)
Chris Dalton, University of Reading, United Kingdom
Bruce Brown, Royal College of Art, United Kingdom
Co-Moderators: Grant Black, Chuo University, Japan & Joseph Haldane, IAFOR, Japan

18:30-18:45: IAFOR Documentary Photography Award

12:50-13:00: Welcome from the Organising Committee
Moderator: Haruko Satoh, Osaka University, Japan

13:00-14:15: Live-Stream Session I

14:15-14:30: Virtual Coffee

14:30-16:10: Live-Stream Session II

16:10-16:20: Virtual Coffee

16:20-17:00: Keynote Presentation
Numeratives in Japanese: How speakers perceive things when they count
Asako Iida, Chuo University, Tokyo

17:00-17:10: Discussion
Moderator: Grant Black, Chuo University, Japan

17:10-18:00: Live-Stream Session III

18:00-18:15: Virtual Coffee

18:15-19:30: Live-Stream Session IV

19:30-19:45: Virtual Coffee

19:45-21:00: Live-Stream Session V

21:00-21:15: Networking Session

09:40-09:45: Welcome from the Organising Committee
James W. McNally, University of Michigan & NACDA Program on Aging, United States

09:45-11:00: Live-Stream Session I

11:00-11:15: Virtual Coffee

11:15-12:55: Live-Stream Session II

12:55-13:40: Lunch Discussion Groups

13:40-14:30: Live-Stream Session III

14:30-14:45: Virtual Coffee

14:45-16:00: Live-Stream Session IV

16:00-16:15: Virtual Coffee

16:15-17:55: Live-Stream Session V

17:55-18:10: Closing Session

The draft version of the Conference Programme will be available online on May 07, 2020. All registered delegates will be notified of this publication by email.

The above schedule may be subject to change.

Featured Presentations

  • Embracing Difference by Design: Virtues and Vices
    Embracing Difference by Design: Virtues and Vices
    Keynote Presentation: Bruce Brown
  • Embracing the Power of Difference as an Elementary Idea
    Embracing the Power of Difference as an Elementary Idea
    Keynote Presentation: Chris Dalton
  • Numeratives in Japanese: How speakers perceive things when they count
    Numeratives in Japanese: How speakers perceive things when they count
    Keynote Presentation: Asako Iida

Final Programme

The online version of the Conference Programme is now available to view below via the Issuu viewing platform. Alternatively, download a PDF version. The Conference Programme can also be viewed on the Issuu website (requires a web browser). An Issuu app is available for Android users.

Click to download as a PDF

The Conference Programme contains access information, session information and a detailed day-to-day presentation schedule.

Accepted abstracts of confirmed presenters are available here.

Pre-Recorded Virtual Presentations

A number of presenters have submitted pre-recorded virtual video presentations. We encourage you to watch these presentations and provide feedback through the video comments. A full list of these is on the conference website.

Virtual Video Presentations

Previous Programming

View details of programming for past ACAH conferences via the links below.

ACAH2019ACAH2018ACAH2017
ACAH2016ACAH2015ACAH2014
ACAH2013ACAH2012ACAH2011
ACAH2010
Embracing Difference by Design: Virtues and Vices
Keynote Presentation: Bruce Brown

The emergence of design as a professional discipline in the 1950’s heralded a new age of consumption and individualism. In response to the traumas of two world wars, design brought the promise of new utopias and a stable world. Being tied to industrial mass production the design of this Modernist utopia was built on “problem-solving”, “form follows function”, “less is more” and a conviction that the evils of society could, and should, be eradicated. This 20th century view of a virtuous world was shattered by 21st century communications technologies. Here the tools of centralised authorities were replaced by social networks with their decentralised cacophonies of voices and avalanches of information. But, if an old world order has receded then a new kind of order still needs designing to meet these contemporary conditions and prevent societies from slipping back into anarchy, mob rule or tribalism. Indeed, we seem to have liberated ourselves from the industrialised tyrannies of one-over-many to inhabit a new extreme in which the many are starting to dominate the few and information overload works like anaesthetic. We seem to have oscillated from one polarity, “problem, solving” to its antithesis, “wicked problems” – ones that cannot be solved due to the complexity of their conditions.

This, in itself, forces binary options to be adopted so that paralysis is avoided and decisions made. If the existence of such polarities is to be managed then the multifarious differences of a messy world must be embraced and structured for a new order to emerge. As the relentless march of industrialisation forced people to migrate from countryside to city so did the word “virtue” assume a new meaning. Setting itself against the vices of inner city existence (prostitution and crime) virtue became associated with chastity and innocence (as we still know it today). But, its original meaning was different – virtue being the soundness of judgment to find points of equilibrium between opposing vices (e.g. between excess or deficiency, heaven or hell, sex or love, rich or poor, fast or slow). In other words, to embrace (not neutralise) difference as a key to finding new ways of making the world in which we want to live. This is the virtue of design in meeting our challenge.

Read presenter biographies.

Embracing the Power of Difference as an Elementary Idea
Keynote Presentation: Chris Dalton

This presentation is a response to the call of this conference to embrace difference.

Difference is more than simply a driver or inhibitor of creativity, it is the elementary source of all information. It defines us and is often how we define ourselves. In humans difference is embedded in the act of perception, yet we rarely stop to understand the nature of difference as an idea. This talk argues that difference is the basic building block of knowledge, but its properties are often overlooked, misunderstood or ignored.

Embracing Difference means understanding it, and this involves a shift in seeing. Social science, which here includes management learning and education, has struggled to reconcile varying perspectives between disciplines, between methodologies, and between individual researchers. “Difference” has generally become a synonym for “disagreement”. This will not do, as it does not address the complexity of issues we face or the multidisciplinary response required.

This presentation uses the context of post-experience management learning in a European Business School to illustrate some of the problems and pitfalls of difference, as well as the tremendous potential of an awareness of its true nature. It will propose three fundamental, universal properties of difference; zero-dimension, inter-connectivity and generativity. These form a conceptual framework for multidisciplinary researchers and practitioners to re-evaluate their perceptions and dialogue.

Read presenter biographies.

Numeratives in Japanese: How speakers perceive things when they count
Keynote Presentation: Asako Iida

Japanese language has morphemes which only appear next to a numeral when a speaker counts things. They are called josuushi or “numeratives”. Typical examples are -ko, -mai, -hon, and -dai. They also categorise the referent of a noun terms of its animacy, shape, size, function, and properties.

It is estimated that there are more than 500 numeratives in modern Japanese. This presentation is going to analyze what kind of cognitive activities are working when a native speaker picks an appropriate numerative out of the vast list of morphemes. For example, -hiki is a numerative used when we count creatures in general, such as insects, fish, reptiles, small mammals and even bacteria. Bigger mammals, such as elephants, horses, and whales are preferred to be counted with -tou, while we have collected several examples which allow the use of -tou to count beetles, butterflies, and small mammals. It proves that speakers see some common features between elephants and beetles when they count.

Another example is -hon considered to be used in counting long objects such as pens, strings, trees and roads. It is interesting that this numerative is also used to count shapeless entities such as homeruns, rehearsals, phone calls, pieces of email correspondence, TV programs, and Judo’s techniques.

In conclusion, we will show the cognitive frameworks which are filtering the morphological application of numeratives in Japanese, and consider the cultural backgrounds affecting them.

Read presenter biographies.