CIPSH Chairs Programme

CIPSH-UA Chair on Global Studies, at Aberta University (chair older Prof. José Eduardo Franco). The Chair includes a Doctoral Program in Global Studies of the Aberta University providing a specialized learning process and a research path articulated with a cycle of studies, also including the integration of research projects managed by international students and experts, with various publications, including a peer-reviewed journal, Journal in Global Studies. The project is in tune with the objectives of CIPSH (www.cipsh.net), since the doctoral program plans the confluence of humanities and natural and social sciences, and culture, relating them to the phenomenon of globalization, also closely related to the research and publication projects only made possible with the establishment of a network between institutions and experts, where dissemination and debates can occur in an effective way, also targeting general audiences. The Chair promotes the use of Portuguese language internationally, and in partnership with Spanish and French universities, for global linguistic diversity, within CIPSH’s Global History of Humanity project.

CIPSH created the CIPSH Chair project not only to make up for the lack of attention to the humanities in the existing UNESCO program but also to patch up its own inherent character as an umbrella organization of academic disciplines, in need of including interdisciplinary research that’s increasingly important in the development of humanities recently. Furthermore, in terms of institutional structure, as the organization of international federation and associations, CIPSH had not been able to establish effective working relations with leading research universities and centers, which had clearly taken the lead in defining intellectual direction and organizing academic activities. At the first World Humanities Conference (WHC) in 2017 in Liege, the CIPSH Chair was introduced by the General Assembly as a constructive approach to rekindle academic life while enhance interdisciplinarity and increase networking with research universities worldwide.

My CIPSH Chair on “New Humanities” at the University of California at Irvine was designed clearly to address these concerns suggested by CIPSH leaders.

Rooted in lifelong research on socio-cultural history on such groundbreaking subjects such as childhood studies and materiality. My own double training in history (PhD at Brown, 1983) and science (Public Health at Harvard , 1992) ensured an interdisciplinary approach. The fresh look at food cultures in Asia and comparative digital humanities undertaken by my CIPSH chair indicated such an intellectual cross fertilization promised by the CIPSH Chair in New Humanities from the outset. My labor in founding the Asian New Humanities Net twenty years ago, now an active member of CIPSH, showed the insightful view behind the program that this CIPSH Chair concurred.

For establishing close collaborative partnerships with leading research institutions, we can hardly find a better anchor than UC Irvine, home to the world renowned UCHRI. Following this, this CIPSH Chair is then complimented by the support of research universities in Asia, North America, and Europe as its outstanding supporting partners. Over the past few years, conferences held in Shanghai Jiaotong U, Fudan U, Xiamen U, McGill, UCLA, UCSD, Gottingen, Chinese Academy of Science, National Taiwan U, Keio U, Tokyo U, have amply demonstrated the strengths of this new partnership between new humanities and forward-looking institutions combining arts and sciences.

This CIPSH Chair on New Humanities will continue to focus on deep interdisciplinary work across humanities and sciences, as intellectual renewal after regional studies as its outstanding features. Childhood studies and Food Culture being the specific fields it would demonstrate its academic strength together with its institutional partners while working with special initiatives in the growth of CIPSH.

Most of the partners (such as McGill, SJTU, Hangseng U of HK, Hangzhou Normal U) consist of ongoing collaborations from the first 5 years of this Chair, while a few represent unfolding of newer work relations (Son Gang U , Taipei Medical U, and National Donghua U).

Continuous mutual enhancement with CIPSH itself shall be evident in the nurturing of the Health Humanities ( with Tony Chen at School of Public Health at National Taiwan U), Techno Humanities (with Peng Qinglong at Shanghai Jiaotong U), and the creation and development of the CIPSH Academy (supported by the CCK Foundation).

The following is a tentative activity plan for 2024-29 at/with partner institutions:

1. Annual residence in UC Irvine Humanities School and Humanities Center.
2. 2025: McGill University, together with UNESCO Chair, Colloquium on “From Regional Studies to Global Humanities”.
3. 2026: Workshop at the College of Education, Hangzhou Normal U, together with Northeastern Normal U in Changchun, and translation and publication series on history of childhood of the world, at Shanghai Education Press.
4. 2027: Workshop at Global Humanities Initiative and Asian New Humanities Net at Hangseng University of HK, together with National Donghua University in Hualian, Taiwan, on “Food in Transition and Translation.”
5. 2028: Seminar on Oral Hygiene, Health, in Arts and Philosophy (based on annual short two-week course on Medical Humanities).
6. 2029: Humanities Summit on “University as the Foundation of Academic Humanities” (possibly at UC Irvine).
7. Collaborative events with other CIPSH Chairs, e.g. with Lim J. H. Chair on “Global East” in South Korea.