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UTCP Graduate Student Conference

“The Plural Present of Historical Life”



Is “the present” singular or plural? We tend to regard “the present” as the sole reality in a homogeneous time-line. However, the present always generates gaps and tensions of temporality and locality between agents. Sometimes it even causes deadly conflicts of culture, region and nation. How can we describe this irreducible complexity of lived time in history or “historical life,” so to speak? In order to get a hold of this, we have to portray the elusive plurality of time. But understanding this relativity itself is insufficient. Rather, we need to come up with a synchronized network that would connect such presents in historical life. We shall call it “the plural present,” and we will explore methodologies and possibilities under this theme.



This conference is a follow-up to the NYU graduate student conference “Age of Comparison?” held in March 2008. This time the conference will be in partnership with Peking University and East China Normal University, along with NYU.



Conference Organizers:

Toru Arakawa
Kei Hirakura
Misato Ido
Yoichi Isahaya
Young Ran Ko
Mariko Naito
Maika Nakao
Eisuke Nakazawa
Ryoji Sato
Mizuki Uno
Kei Yoshida

© UTCP Graduate Student Conference Committee, 2009.