Paris, October 2025
Seated n the first row, the Mayor’s advisor for science policies.
The CIPSH 2025 Academy on Chinese Cultures and Global Humanities, supported by the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange, has inaugurated this week in Paris, at the Excelia Business School.
The theme of the Academy Seminar this year is “Waterscapes Management”, and brought together a very wide range of experts from different academic backgrounds.
For a week, scholars and students pursued discussions triggered by 18 conferences. The debates expanded though site visits, which included open air and museums experiences.
Humanities’ interpretations of waterscapes emerged as a reflexive tool directed both at the past – taking stock of the cumulative effects of the relationship between humans and water – and at the future – depicting imagined futures in a context of scarcity and sustainability – thus contributing to furthering our understanding of waterscapes as a product of cultural agency that needs to be properly managed. The academic domains of Aesthetics, Archaeology, Design, Economy, Geography, History, Literature, Management, Marketing, Neuroscience, Political science, Sinology and Philosophy engaged int a fruitful set of debates.
The program was coordinated by the APHELEIA International Association for Humanities and Landscape Management with Excelia Business school. Participants came from universities in Beijing, Hong-Kong, Kaohsiung, La Rochelle, Lisbon, London, Madrid, Nanjing, Paris, Roskilde, Taipei, Tomar. Besides engaging CIPSH and UNESCO Chairs, the speakers are also connected with seven international academic unions and federations: APHELEIA, ANHN (Asian New Humanities Network), IGU – International Geographic Union, FISP – International Federation of Philosophical Societies), UISPP – International Union of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Sciences, CASS (Chinese Academy of Social Sciences) and several Academies affiliated to UAI (International Union of Academies).
The CIPSH Academy also inaugurated its Early Career Researchers, which in 2025 selected Dr. Li CHIH-HUNG, Postdoctoral Fellow, College of Social Sciences, NTU, in Taipei.
The sessions were also broadcasted and remain available online:
Following the Academy Seminar in Paris, the involved scholars will continue collaborating. The publication of a book of proceedings, several other academic papers and the establishment of a new Chair on Waterscapes are among the outcomes of this week’s intensive interactions.