• Date: February 7th, Friday, 2020 14:00-15:30
• Location: Room 303, SNUAC (Bldg. 101)

Speaker: Prof. Baegyoon Park (Director of Center for Asian Urban Societies, Dept. of Geography Education)

On February 7th, Prof. Baegyoon Park (Director of Center for Asian Urban Societies, Dept. of Geography Education) gave a lecture to the 12th cohort of interns on ‘special economic zones in East Asian borders and the space-politics of territorialization and deterritorialization’.

The lecture started with posing questions on what Asian studies are and what they are for. It continued with criticism on methodological nationalism, explanations on the trends of regional research centered on national scale research, a relational understanding of national territoriality, the nationalization of Kinmen economy and its incorporation into the Taiwanese economy.

Prof. Park explained the concept of nation-states with the example of methodological nationalism from the geographical perspective. He talked of the spatial scale of nation-states that it is existentially recognized by humans as the most important in modern political system. He emphasized that nation and territory are network-like territorialities, calling for the need for an alternative understanding of border regions and an understanding of complex space of borders and mobilities intersecting that are not explained solely by the logic of security and walls.

Review and photos by DooWon Chang (Academic Reporter)