Title: Intellectual Creativity and Moralities of Academic Collaboration

Time: Thursday, 7 April 2016, 14:00 – 16: 00 pm

Language: Lecture will be given in English

Venue: Seoul National University Asia Center Rm. #303

Presenter: David Szanton

Bio: David L. Szanton is currently the President of the Berkeley, California based Ethnic Arts Foundation, currently active in India, France, South Africa, and the United States. He received his Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Chicago in 1970. From 1970 through 1974 he worked for the Ford Foundation in Manila and Bangkok as a social sciences and humanities Program Officer.  From 1975 to 1991 he was on the professional staff of the Social Science Research Council where he developed and ran a series of interdisciplinary research committees dealing with Southeast Asia, South Asia, and the Muslim World, and  also initiated a series of thematic International Doctoral Dissertation Workshops that are still running today.  From 1991 to 2001 he was Executive Director of International and Area Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, where he was responsible for the university’s international research programs and centers, exchanges and publications. He has published numerous books and articles on the Philippines, Indian Art, Higher Education in Africa, as well as The Politics of Knowledge: Area Studies and the Disciplines (University of California Press, 2002)

Host: SNUAC

Contact: 02-880-2693

Email: gounkim@snu.ac.kr

Abstract: Based on observations and experience during an unusual academic career, involving 5 years as a social science and humanities program officer with the Ford Foundation in Manila and Bangkok, 16 years developing and running research committees on the international staff of the Social Science Research Council, 10 years as Executive Director of International and Area Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, and continuing academic engagements, I look forward to reflecting on the sources of intellectual creativity and the value of various modalities of academic cross-disciplinary collaboration.

The presentation will move from the origins, character, value, and limitations of the social science disciplines to an array of specific modalities – that is, specific programmatic (and relatively low cost) forms and activities – that both build upon and strengthen the disciplines, and generate fresh intellectual vitality at the levels of Doctoral Research, Graduate Education and Training, and collaborative thematic cross-disciplinary Research Planning and Publication.