Summary of Decisions of the XXXII General Assembly of CIPSH

Beijing, December 8th and 9th, 2015

The General Assembly of CIPSH met in Beijing, at the Friendship Hotel, the 7th December 2015, on the occasion of the XXXII General Assembly of the CIPSH.

The following members (and respective delegates) were present: UAI International Academic Union (Jean-Luc de Paepe and Madeline Caviness), CIPL Permanent International Committee of Linguists (David Bradley), CISH International Committee of Historical Sciences (Laurent Tissot), FIEC International federation of associations of classical studies (Chris Carey), FILLM International Federation for Modern Languages and Literatures (Li Cao), International Federation of Societies of Philosophy (Dermot Moran and Luca M. Scarantino), IAHR International Association for the History of Religions (Tim Jensen and Satoko Fujiwara), DHST International Union of History and Philosophy of Science and Technology/Division of History of Science and Technology (Efthymios Nicolaidis), DLMPST International Union of History and Philosophy of Science and Technology/Division of Logics, Methodology and Philosophy of Science and technology (Menachem Magidor), UIEAE International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Studies (Zhang Jijiao), UISPP International Union of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Sciences (Hou Ya-Mei).

The following member was excused, due to agenda overlapping: International Committee for the History of Art.

The following academic institutions (and respective delegates), that applied to become members of the CIPSH, were present from the beginning, as guests: CASS Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (Jia Li), CHCI Consortium of Humanities Centers and Institutes (Hsiung Ping-Chen), IGU International Geographic Union (Zhou Chenghu and Yukio Himiyama), IAA International Association for Aesthetics (Gao Jianping).

The following members of the board were also present: Chao Gejin (President), Rosalind Hackett (Vice-President), Luiz Oosterbeek (Secretary), Adama Samassekou (Past President), Xiochun Sun, Isenbike Togan, William L. Mcbride.

The following other guests also attended the meeting: Nada Al-Nashi (ADG of UNESCO for the Human and Social Sciences), Zhang Qin (Vice-President of CAST), Cai Fang (Vice-President of CASS), Xiao Junming,Bamo Qubumo, Gang Li, Jean Winand (representing Liège Together)

Decisions of the General Assembly:

  1. Admission of new members: CASS Chinese Academy of Social Sciences as a national member and, as international unions or federations the CHCI Consortium of Humanities Centers and Institutes, the IGU International Geographic Union and the IAA International Association for Aesthetics.
  2. Approval of reports:
    1. The report of the Secretary General, Luiz Oosterbeek.
    2. The report of the Treasurer, Franco Montanari.
    3. The report of the co-editor of Diogenes, Luca Scarantino.
    4. The report on scientific strategy, by François Djindjian, also considering the relevance of the International Year of Global Understanding.
    5. The report on outreach strategy, by Rosalind Hacket, also having decided to establish an outreach task-force.
  3. Creation of work groups and election of representatives:
    1. The creation of a work-group on Diogenes, led by Chris Carey and involving Luca Scarantino, Catherine Jami, Jean-Luc de Paepe, Dermot Moran, Xiaochun Sun and Luiz Oosterbeek. Subsequently, its own report was approved.
    2. The election of the members of the Nominations Committee: Tim Jensen, Catherine Jami and Hsiung Ping-Chen.
    3. The election of responsibles for contacts with other global organisations: ICSU and natural sciences (François Djindjian), IFL and Libraries (Efthymios Nicolaidis), IFA and Archives (Laurent Tissot), ICOMOS (Madeline Caviness), the education sector of UNESCO (Adama Samassékou) and ISSC (Luiz Oosterbeek).
    4. The election of the outreach task-force: Rosalind Hacket, Menachem Magidor, Tim Jensen, Adama Samassékou and Hsiung Ping-Chen.
    5. The creation of a task-force to prepare the Foundation of the Humanities, led by Adama Samassékou and involving past presidents and Jean-Luc de Paepe.
  4. Approval of an amended version of the constitution of the CIPSH and related by-laws.
  5. Approval of the overall structure of the World Conference of the Humanities, having the following 8 recommendations to be considered: 1) to phrase the themes as questions that the Conference will address; 2) to compile a series of highlights of the Humanities, to present at the Conference, fed by the member organizations and to be summarized and presented to the World Conference of the Humanities by the Secretary General with the co-chairs of the International Programme Committee; 3) to Consider a conference structure that includes plenary sessions and, in certain days, parallel sessions, evidencing both converging trends, innovative fields and the diversity of topics; 4) to take into consideration the debate in the General Assembly, avoiding too customized themes (e.g. specifying just two types of heritage), securing gender, regional, thematic and age balances; 5) to provide room for reporting on the regional conferences, in the beginning, and on the various sessions, in the closing plenary sessions; 6) to offer room for good examples of research, outreach and social impact of the humanities; 7) to foster the integration of research students in the congress preparatory debates and in the world conference sessions; 8) to enlarge substantially the International Programme Committee, to adequately cover different perspectives, including regions, themes, gender and age concerns, the committee needing to act as a referee for proposals of sessions and shall have a specific commission to foster themes on interdisciplinary themes. The General assembly also endorsed the need to announce widely the World Conference of the Humanities, in the occasion of the anniversary of the CIPSH, 18th January, as already agreed with UNESCO. In order to reinforce the core group, the CIPSH indicated also Satoko Fujiwara and Rosi Braidotti. Also in this sense, it was recommended that the International programme committee should also be reinforced and more balanced, currently being too western and male dominated, and that a combination was needed between top-down and bottom-up processes, also providing room for young people.
  6. Votes of appreciation:
    1.  Concerning Franco Montanari, recognising the importance of keeping a stable balance of the finances, under difficult conditions.
    2. Concerning Janet Arnulf for her continuous voluntary collaboration.
    3. Concerning the preparation of the World Conference of the Humanities, namely the efforts of the core group, the engagement of UNESCO expressed by Nada Al Nashif and the relevant involvement of Liege Together.
    4. Concerning Adama Samassékou, for having had the original idea of preparing the World Conference of the Humanities, based on the understanding of its need both for research and for society as a whole.

That the next General Assembly will meet just before the World Conference of the Humanities, in Liège.

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