Fw: H-ASIA: [IIAS] Annual Lecture 2012 by Dr. Geir Helgesen (Director, Nordic Institute of Asian Studies). Leiden, 19 September 2012

----- Original Message -----
From: "Field, Andrew David" <adfield@BU.EDU>
To: <H-ASIA@H-NET.MSU.EDU>
Sent: Tuesday, August 28, 2012 5:24 PM
Subject: H-ASIA: [IIAS] Annual Lecture 2012 by Dr. Geir Helgesen (Director,
Nordic Institute of Asian Studies). Leiden, 19 September 2012


H-ASIA
Aug 28 2012

[IIAS] Annual Lecture 2012 by Dr. Geir Helgesen (Director, Nordic Institute
of Asian Studies). Leiden, 19 September 2012
*******************************************************************
From: "Voorter, T.J.H."
<T.J.H.Voorter@iias.nl<mailto:T.J.H.Voorter@iias.nl>>

Dear Sir/Madam, you are warmly welcome to the IIAS Annual Lecture 2012.
In this year's lecture Dr. Geir Helgesen (Director, Nordic Institute of
Asian Studies) will offer us a different approach to North Korea.

"A user's manual to North Korea: Matters and issues that shape relations
between them and us"

Date & Time: Wednesday 19 September 2012, 16:15 - 18:30 hrs

Venue: De Waag, Aalmarkt 21, Leiden, Netherlands

Programme
16.15 - 16.30 Welcome by Dr. Philippe Peycam (Director IIAS)
16.30 - 17.30 Lecture by Dr. Geir Helgesen (Director NIAS)
17.30 - 18.30 Reception

About the lecture
Regardless of the general lack of solid information about North Korea,
few countries with such a relatively insignificant international
importance appear more often in the media. This summer a new leader has
electrified media outlets by being seen with a young lady by his side.
Although this is positive compared with former causes for international
media attention, such as the testing of nuclear devices and other
military activities, or natural disasters and consequent human
suffering, our picture of North Korea is less than adequate. This
notwithstanding, there are good reasons for paying attention to the
media coverage, as it is this - and not much else - that forms our ideas
and impressions of the country. By being relatively inaccessible and
representing some kind of international abnormality, the media creates a
framework within which North Korea can be dealt with, and this framework
affects the main public, as well as scholars in the field. Characterized
as the last communist dictatorship in a world increasingly liberated by
the expansion of free market economies and liberal democracy, North
Korea appears basically to be a remnant from a recent past. With the
ever dominant picture of a Stalinist-like dictator as the front figure
of a system inhumane in its core functions, the nuances tend to not only
disappear, but even to be unwanted. The lecture will challenge this
framework and offer a different approach to the country, and thus hint
to what could be a user's manual to North Korea.


About the speaker
Geir Helgesen is a Norwegian citizen and was trained as a cultural
sociologist at Copenhagen University. His research has focused on the
political cultures of East Asia, with a focus on Korea, North and South.
His main publications are: Democracy and Authority in Korea. The
Cultural Dimension in Korean Politics (1998) and Politics, Culture and
Self, East Asian and North European Attitudes (2006) edited with S.R.
Thomsen. Forthcoming books are: Ideas, Society and Politics in North
East Asia and Northern Europe. Worlds Apart, Learning from Each Other
(2012) (in press), and Preconditions for a Human Rights Dialogue with
North Korea (2012). Helgesen is a frequent commentator on Korean affairs
in Danish and Norwegian news media, and advisor to public institutions
and private companies dealing with the Koreas. Currently he acts as
director of NIAS, the Nordic Institute of Asian Studies, partly financed
by the Nordic Council of Ministers and hosted by Copenhagen University.


Registration
Registration is free of charge. Please register here:
http://bit.ly/PnzDBk


Contact
For enquiries about the IIAS Annual Lecture, please contact: Ms Martina
van den Haak, email: m.c.van.den.haak@iias.nl


IIAS (International Institute for Asian Studies) annual lectures are
organised to bring together all those interested in Asia, including
academics, students, politicians, business representatives and
journalists. IIAS is based in Leiden, the Netherlands.



===============================================
Thomas Voorter
Communication Coordinator
International Institute for Asian Studies
+31-71-5272917 | www.iias.nl

******************************************************************
To post to H-ASIA simply send your message to:
<H-ASIA@h-net.msu.edu<mailto:H-ASIA@h-net.msu.edu><mailto:H-ASIA@h-net.msu.edu>>
For holidays or short absences send post to:
<listserv@h-net.msu.edu<mailto:listserv@h-net.msu.edu><mailto:listserv@h-net.msu.edu>>
with message:
SET H-ASIA NOMAIL
Upon return, send post with message SET H-ASIA MAIL
H-ASIA WEB HOMEPAGE URL: http://h-net.msu.edu/~asia/