EASt has set up an interdisciplinary visiting lectureship in order to cultivate teaching excellence, foster peer collaboration, and develop resources to enhance teaching and learning experience at the ULB in the area of East Asian Studies.

Starting from September 2017, 2 to 3 recognised professors will be invited every year to teach at the ULB and to provide MA and doctoral students in Political science, Anthropology, Letters and Philosophy with a critical assessment of modern and contemporary East Asian societies.

Teaching Chairs for 2018-2019:

ANDREW K. WHITEHEAD

Andrew K. Whitehead est professeur agrégé en philosophie à Kennesaw State University aux États-Unis. Il est président de l’association philosophique de l’Académie du Midi, éditeur associé de la revue Comparative and Continental Philosophy (Taylor & Francis), et un des dirigeants du Comparative and Continental Philosophy Circle. Durant l’automne 2017-18, il a été professeur invité à l’Institut Supérieur de la Philosophie à KU Leuven. Il est spécialisé en philosophie comparée Est-Ouest, notamment en ce qui concerne la philosophie bouddhiste japonaise, l’École de Kyoto, le taoïsme chinois et les traditions allemande et française de la phénoménologie et de l’existentialisme. Ses projets de recherche actuels incluent une interprétation philosophique des œuvres du poète zen médiéval Ikkyū Sōjun (1394-1481) et une réinterprétation de l’intégration subjective qui examine la tension existentielle qui se pose à l’intersection de systèmes sociaux complexes et de la phénoménologie. Ses publications récentes incluent : Imagination: Cross-Cultural Philosophical Analyses (2018), Wisdom and Philosophy: Contemporary and Comparative Approaches (2016) et Landscape and Travelling East and West: A Philosophical Journey (2014) qui sont publiées chez l’éditeur Bloomsbury.

Teaching Chairs for 2017-2018:

ERICA BAFFELLI

Erica BAFFELLI is currently Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in Japanese Studies at The University of Manchester (UK). Before arriving at Manchester in 2013 she was visiting researcher at Hosei University (Tokyo) and post-doctoral research fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (2005-2007) and Lecturer/Senior Lecturer in Asian Religions at the University of Otago (New Zealand, 2007-2013). She is also the Director of the North West Consortium Doctoral Training Partnership, a consortium sponsored by the AHRC (Arts and Humanities Research Council) of seven universities and HEIs. She is interested in religion in contemporary Japan, with a focus on groups founded from the 1970s onwards. Recent publications include: Media and New Religions in Japan (Routledge 2016); Baffelli and Reader (eds), Aftermath: the Impact and Ramifications of the Aum Affair. Special Issue of the Japanese Journal of Religious Studies, 39 (1), 2012; and Baffelli, Reader and Staemmler (eds), Japanese Religions on the Internet: Innovation, Representation and Authority (Routledge 2011).

TATSUYA ITO

FR – Tatsuya ITO, né en 1968 à Aichi Japon, a étudié la littérature et la linguistique françaises à l’Université de Keio (Tokyo) et dans les Universités de Paris VII et PARIS X, a soutenu sa thèse sur la polysémie lexicale à Paris X (Nanterre) en 2003 dans le cadre de la théorie des opérations prédicatives et énonciatives. Comme professeur à l’Université des langues étrangères de Nagoya, il enseigne la grammaire française et la linguistique et anime un séminaire sur la diversité culturelle et linguistique en Europe et dans le monde. En tant qu’attaché à l’Institut français et associé à l’Alliance française au Japon, il a organisé plusieurs rencontres littéraires et culturelles entre la France et le Japon. Tatsuya ITO sera à l’ULB de février à avril 2018.

EN – Tatsuya ITO, born in Aichi, Japon, studied French literature and linguistics at the University of Keio (Tokyo) and at the Université Paris VII and Université Paris X. He defended his thesis on Lexical Polysemy at the Université Paris X (Nanterre) in 2003, within the framework of the theory of predictive and enunciative theories.

MONIQUE ARNAUD

IUAV University of Venice, Italy – Course on « Performing Arts in East Asia » (Faculty of Letters, Translation and Communication, ULB) Monique Arnaud has been studying Noh with Udaka Michishige since 1984. She received the Kongō-ryū shihan (certified instructor) license in 1991. She has taken the shite role in several full Noh plays: in 2010 she performed Makiginu, while in 2013 she took the tsure role in Kiyotsune. In 1998 she has opened the Italian Branch of the INI in Milan, teaching Noh chant and dance following the Kongō School tradition. Monique is associate professor at IUAV University of Venice, where she directs student productions under the influence of Noh principles since 2008. She also continues her work as opera director in Italy, Japan and Spain. Monique is the only licensed Noh instructor resident in Europe, and teaches Noh chant and dance in Milan. Monique Arnaud will be at the ULB in February 2018.

Teaching Chairs for 2016-2017:

KYOSUKE KURITA

KURITA Kyosuke is Associate Professor of School of Economics at Kwansei Gakuin University. He received his Ph.D. from Hitotsubashi University, in Tokyo. He has held a previous visiting position at UNU-WIDER (United Nations University, Helsinki, Finland). He is also visiting research fellow at DG-REGIO (Directorate General Regional Policy), European Commission; and at SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies), University of London. His main research interests are new technology adoption in agriculture, improvement of productivity of Small and Medium enterprises in Asian countries, poverty reduction in Africa, migration and happiness in Cambodia and applied micro econometrics.