[New][Open Lecture 05/28] SSRI-IPSA RC43 Seminar: Religion and Nationalism in East Asia

SSRI-IPSA RC43 Seminar:
Religion and Nationalism in East Asia

Speakers:

Abstract:

Dr. Atsuko Ichijo shall present her sixth monograph on nationalism, Nationalism and Subjectivity: East Asian Experiences (Oxford University Press, 2025). This monograph challenges the dominant view of the origins of nationalism: that nationalism first emerged in the post-Enlightenment and industrializing West and spread to the rest of the world as an unintended consequence of imperialism and colonialism. The volume argues that the view is inaccurate because it draws from a western-centric assumption that the western experiences are paradigmatic, an assumption which is deeply embedded in contemporary social science scholarship.

Dr. André Laliberté, board member of RC43 Religion and Politics, shall also present his research “Religious Revival in China and the CCP Neo-conservative Nationalism.” Using a historical institutionalist perspective, Dr. Laliberté argues that the CCP has developed its new approach to religion in two distinct stages since the beginning of the twenty-first century. He will address in this presentation the international and domestic dimensions of each stage. While under Hu Jintao it amounted to a utilitarian exploitation of the social resources of revitalized religions to serve its regional diplomacy and the CCP work of social assistance at the domestic level, the second stage under Xi Jinping has adopted a more nationalist turn that prioritizes native religions and forms of religiosities that sacralise the traditional family.

Date: Thursday, May 28, 2026

Time: 14:00-16:30 (JST)

Venue: International Conference Room, Dialogue House

Language: English

Registration: Please use the QR code or Link (except for IRL 215 students).

For more on Dr. Atsuko Ichijo's latest work under Oxford University Press, please see here.