We cordially invite you to the fourth Annual Conference of the Cluster
of Excellence "Asia and Europe in a Global Context" to be held at
Heidelberg University, Germany, October 10th - 12th, 2012. It has been
organised in cooperation with the Collaborative Research Centre
"Material Text Cultures" at Heidelberg University.

Entitled "Things that connect - pathways of materiality and practice"
this year's meeting focuses on the study of materiality and the power
it exercises in cultural processes. The expanding field of material
culture studies has infused a new dynamism into a range of disciplines
from archaeology and epigraphy to anthropology, histories of
consumption, quotidian life, technology, curatorial and museum
studies, aesthetics and art history.

The conference features two keynote lectures: by Neil MacGregor, the
Director of the British Museum in London and author of "A History of
the World in 100 Objects", and Ian Hodder (Stanford), who will speak
about the interrelationship of humans and things. The conference will
consist of four plenary panels in the morning on "The Obstinacy of
Things", "Multiple Materialities: Local, National, Global", "Material
Text Cultures on the Move", and "Materializing Messages: Metamorphoses
and Placement of Texts in Early China". The afternoon segment will
feature a number of smaller, parallel panels designed to present the
best results of the wide-ranging research carried out during the past
years by scholars in the congenial cross-regional and
transdisciplinary setting of the Cluster "Asia and Europe". A plenary
round-table discussion will conclude the conference.

For further information on the conference, please visit our website at
http://www.asia-europe.uni-heidelberg.de/en/annual-conference-2012.

Please let us know if you will attend the conference by sending an
email to annualconferenceasia-europe.uni-heidelberg.de.

We kindly ask you to forward this information to your colleagues and
potential participants and thank you for your support.

Programme

October 10, 2012

17:30-18:30 Registration Alte Aula
18:30-20:00 Keynote I: Trajectories of meaning: the shifting power of
things. (Neil MacGregor) Alte Aula
20:00-22:00 Reception Bel Etage

October 11, 2012

08:30-09:00 Registration & Coffee
09:00-10:30 Panel I: The Obstinacy of Things. Chair: Philipp W.
Stockhammer, Discussant: Ian Hodder, Speakers: Hans P. Hahn,
Philipp W. Stockhammer, Diamantis Panagiotopoulos KJC, Room 212
10:30-11:00 Coffee
11:00-12:30 Panel II: Multiple Materialities: Local, National,
Global. Chair: Melanie Trede & Christine Guth, Discussant: Monica
Juneja, Speakers: Melanie Trede, Hans Thomsen, Terry Milhaupt,
Christine Guth KJC, Room 212
12:30-14:00 Lunch Break
14:00-15:30 Panel A (Session I): Soy, Gold and Opium: Cultural
dimensions of global commodities. Chair: Roland Wenzlhuemer,
Speakers: Ines Prodöhl, Bernd-Stefan Grewe, Frank Grüner
14:00-15:30 Panel B (Session I): On the use and re-use of
manuscripts: materiality, textual practice and changing values
Chair: Markus Hilgert, Speakers: Martin Delhey, Vito Lorusso,
Birgit Kellner
14:00-15:30 Panel C (Session I): A Eurasian Story about Public
Justice Told by a Drum or a Bell. Chair: Bernd Schneidmüller,
Speaker: Monica Juneja, Antje Flüchter, Rudolf G. Wagner
15:30-16:00 Coffee
16:00-17:30 Panel A (Session II): How Material is the Immaterial?
Sacred ´Things´ Transferred. Chair: Udo Simon, Speakers: Peter J.
Bräunlein, Udo Simon, Astrid Zotter
16:00-17:30 Panel B (Session II): Unvalued transculturality. The
hidden pathways of paper from Orient to Occident in premodern times.
Chair: Antje Flüchter, Discussant: Michael Friedrich, Speakers:
Agnieszka Helman-Wazny, Rebecca Sauer, Carla Meyer
16:00-17:30 Panel C (Session II): How do we connect with things?
Concepts of materiality in modern and contemporary artistic
practices across Asia, Africa and Europe. Chair & Discussant: Gerald
Schröder, Speakers: Kerstin Schankweiler, Birgit Hopfener,
Franziska Koch
17:30-18:30 Poster Presentation
18:30-20:00 Keynote II: From Materiality to Entanglement (Ian Hodder)
KJC, Room 212
20:00-21:00 Small Reception

October 12, 2012

08:30-09:00 Coffee
09:00-10:30 Panel III: Material Text Cultures on the Move. Chair:
Diamantis Panagiotopoulos, Speakers: Julia Lougovaya-Ast, Hanna
Liss, Ludger Lieb KJC, Room 212
10:30-11:00 Coffee
11:00-12:30 Panel IV: Materializing Messages: Metamorphoses and
Placement of Texts in Early China. Chair: Enno Giele, Discussant:
Olivier Venture, Speakers: Paul Nicholas Vogt, Guo Jue, Enno Giele
KJC, Room 212
12:30-14:00 Lunch Break
14:00-15:30 Panel A (Session III): "Votive stupas for the
(post-)colonial nation state" - Inquiries into the performative
practices of cultural heritage. Chair: Christiane Brosius, Speakers:
Marieke Bloembergen, Michael Falser, Deborah Klimburg-Salter/Verena
Widorn
14:00-15:30 Panel B (Session III): Things that connect, divide and
transform: The materiality and performance of religious conversion
in the early modern period. Chair: Antje Flüchter, Speakers: Gauri
Parasher, Tobias Graf, Manja Quakatz
14:00-15:30 Panel C (Session III): Between uniformity and individual
needs. Sacral architecture and imagery in religions from "the East"
and the process of its adaption in different regional contexts.
Chair & Discussant: Christian Witschel, Speakers: Darius Frackowiak,
Matthias Aulenbacher, Robert Langer
15:30-16:00 Coffee
16:00-17:30 Roundtable
17:30-18:30 Material Encounters: Musical practice between Asia and
Europe - A Lecture-Concert Chair: Barbara Mittler, Duo
Seidenstrasse: Zhao Chanyuan (Zheng & Vocals), Benjamin Leuschner
(Marimbaphone & Percussion)