Hybrid Conference: Energy in Asia

A Conference organized and sponsored by EnviroLab at Claremont McKenna College and the UCLA Center for Korean Studies and to be held at UCLA, February 23 and February 24 (all events in PST)

Main Conference Room (11360), Young Research Library (YRL), UCLA

Energy has been commonly viewed as a source of power for performing work. Through its many forms, such as chemical, thermal, electrical, and nuclear, energy has been a crucial component for various types of production. In this capacity, energy has been an integral, material-based resource for economic purposes and security. Beyond its value as a resource for material production, energy, from the premodern to the modern era, has assumed other meanings and been valued in different ways. In religious and spiritual traditions, for example, energy has been defined as a source of creation, living, and healing. As an abstract force, energy has been seen as a spiritual element that influences, determines, and powers location, place, space, relationships, the workings of the human body, and the make-up of nature. In terms of language, energy has been used as a metaphor or a colorful term to describe human actions, emotions, and behavior. In these different forms, energy has been long framed and defined through a variety of angles.

This two-day conference, Thursday, February 23rd and Friday, 24th, 2023 specifically examines the different meanings, values and uses of energy in Asia from the premodern to the modern era and the intersection between energy and context. It provides discussion on energy from different periods of time, disciplines, including the sciences, and fields of study, and specifically explores the deep linkages between energy and social formations and how those relationships have been mediated and influenced by processes and entities in political economy, medicine, science and technology, religion, philosophy, culture, or design. By studying energy in Asia from different angles, the conference expects to interrogate the material and discursive aspects of energy, how those aspects have overlapped from the premodern to modern period to structure human and non-human life, and the relationship between energy, authority, and continuity/transformations in society.

This symposium is co-organized by the Center for Korean Studies, UCLA, EnviroLab at Claremont McKenna (The Claremont Colleges), https://envirolabasia.claremont.edu/, and co-sponsored by the Korea Foundation.

Please RSVP here for in-person session: https://ucla.in/3R5OhyW

For online attendees, please click here. 

For more information or questions, go to https://www.international.ucla.edu/cks/event/15988 or contact Albert L. Park (albert.park@cmc.edu)