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Category: De-Centering Academia: InterAsian Perspectives

Taking the workshop “De-centering academia: InterAsian Perspectives,” held at the German Institute for Japanese Studies (DIJ) in Tokyo, as its starting point, this blog series investigates recent transformations in higher education across Asia. It examines how processes of de-centering challenge enduring Western dominance in academic knowledge production and institutional hierarchies. The contributions engage with questions of epistemic asymmetry, marketization, language hegemony, and transregional mobility of scholars and students. Special emphasis is placed on emerging centers of academic authority in Asia, the reversal of global academic flows, and critical reflections on canonized knowledge. The series features insights from the Shaping Asia network and the Knowledge Lab at DIJ, bringing together comparative and collaborative perspectives from Japan, Germany, and beyond. A more detailed description of this conference is available here.
This series is edited by Harald Kümmerle, DIJ Tokyo.

A historic newspaper in Korean.

Beyond Binaries: Decentring Foreign Knowledge in 20th Century Korea

By Dolf-Alexander Neuhaus. Drawing on the history of education in 20th century (South) Korea, this essay examines the historical development and adaption of foreign epistemologies and knowledge systems in Korea. While postcolonial theory, developed primarily against the backdrop of Western colonialism in Africa, the Caribbean, India, and the Middle East, has proved fundamentally useful in questioning dichotomies, exposing asymmetrical power relations, and highlighting the agency of colonised people, it remains largely confined to a binary framework of Euro-American coloniser and non-European colonised. This dichotomy fails to fully capture the complex historical reality in East Asia.

A page of a typewriter manuscript.

Bumantara and a World Federation. Revisiting Sutan Takdir Alisjahbana’s Ideas on a Culture of Inclusion in Times of Crisis

By Fathun Karib. Sutan Takdir Alisjahbana (1908–1994) was a prominent Indonesian author and intellectual who developed an alternative term for the Southeast Asian area. This article will focus on examining his concept of Bumantara – a combination of the words Bumi (land) and Antara (in between) – and delve into his proposal for a “World Federation” as a solution for addressing ongoing global crises. Bumantara and the World Federation refer to specific territorial units that offer alternative opportunities for those living in this era.

A man with grey hair in a dark blue sweater and a black leather jacket, photographed outside.

Carl Schmitt’s Afterlife in Decolonial Theory: Rereading Walter Mignolo

By Harald Kümmerle. To say that Carl Schmitt is a controversial figure would be an understatement. Called the “crown jurist of the Third Reich” for his proactive engagement with Nazi politics, he remains a key point of reference for the New Right. His influence, however, reaches far beyond this milieu. This article argues that while Mignolo’s alignment with Russia cannot be solely attributed to his appropriation of Schmitt, his ultimate stance reveals deeper contradictions inherent in Schmitt’s work itself.

A colorful abstract mural featuring lines of green, pink, and blue that draw the eye toward a central focal point.

De-centering academia: InterAsian Perspectives

By Claudia Derichs, Riho Isaka and Joanna Pfaff-Czarnecka. “De-centering academia: InterAsian Perspectives” was a workshop held by the initiative ‘Shaping Asia: Connectivities, Comparisons, Collaborations’ and the German Institute for Japanese Studies on September 13, 2024. It addressed the recent dynamics in higher education in Asia, under the conditions of pronounced power asymmetries, but also of processes of ‘de-centering’—in the sense of challenging the Western dominance in this field.