Recent community engagement and educational initiatives in East Asia actively aim to contribute to both the preservation of cultural heritage and the evolution of contemporary pedagogy. This panel engages in global interdisciplinary conversations on education, heritage, and community-building seen in two regional case studies of such initiatives connecting local practices with broader international trends. In Japan’s case, Mr Hongmin Ahn focuses on the Shikoku Pilgrimage in Japan, demonstrating how regional and national educational programs advance cultural preservation and promote local pride while supporting Japan’s UNESCO heritage recognition efforts. Dr Yanhua Zhou discusses a case study on the Handshake 302 art collective in Shenzhen, China, where art-geographic explorations serve as a means of engaging with migrant communities, resulting in the shaping of identity through contemporary art education. The panel ultimately calls for a rethinking of how we educate future generations in East Asia through community involvement, offering a timely reflection on the role of community-engaged art and education in addressing global challenges related to cultural preservation and social transformation.

Biographies

Hongmin Anh

Hongmin Ahn is an incoming student at the Inter-University Center for Japanese Studies in Yokohama, Japan (2024-25). He holds a Master of Theological Studies in Buddhism from Harvard Divinity School at Harvard University, United States, and a Bachelor of Arts in Religion from Bard College, also located in the United States. As an interdisciplinary scholar, Mr Ahn’s research focuses on modern transnational Buddhism in Korea and Japan, exploring their history, culture, practices, gender dynamics, and institutions such as clerical marriage and the popularisation of Buddhism through military chaplaincy.

Supported by IAFOR grants, Mr Ahn’s forthcoming ethnographic study on Japan’s Shikoku Island will examine Buddhism's socio-economic and demographic changes, particularly evolving female leadership and ageing, declining populations. His work seeks to bridge the gap between academic research and contemporary religious realities, offering insights into how Buddhist communities navigate and adapt to rapid social changes throughout East Asia.

Yanhua Zhou

Dr Yanhua Zhou is currently a Professor of Art History at the Research Center for Visual Art, Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, China. She is also affiliated as a Professor of Contemporary Chinese Art and Gender and Associate Director of Wanwu Art Research Lab at the Department of East Asian Studies, University of Arizona, United States. Born in Chongqing, China, Dr Zhou completed her PhD in East Asian Studies with a focus on Chinese Anthropology from the University of Arizona and her MA in Art History from the University of St Andrews, United Kingdom. Taking an interdisciplinary approach combining art history, anthropology, area studies, and cultural studies, her research focuses on the issue of art and geographic politics of contemporary art in Asia, global socially engaged art in a transnational context, affective infrastructural studies, and non-human agency in art.

Joseph Haldane (Moderator)

Dr Joseph Haldane is the Founder, Chairman, and CEO of IAFOR. He is responsible for devising strategy, setting policies, forging institutional partnerships, implementing projects, and overseeing the organisation’s business and academic operations, including research, publications, and events.

Dr Haldane holds a PhD from the University of London in 19th-century French Studies, and has had full-time faculty positions at the University of Paris XII Paris-Est Créteil (France), Sciences Po Paris (France), and Nagoya University of Commerce and Business (Japan), as well as visiting positions at the French Press Institute in the University of Paris II Panthéon-Assas (France), The School of Journalism at Sciences Po Paris (France), and the School of Journalism at Moscow State University (Russia).

Dr Haldane’s research and teaching is on history, politics, international affairs, and international education, as well as governance and decision making. Since 2015, he has been a Guest Professor at The Osaka School of International Public Policy (OSIPP) at Osaka University, where he teaches on the postgraduate Global Governance Course, and is Co-Director of the OSIPP-IAFOR Research Centre, an interdisciplinary think tank situated within Osaka University.

A Member of the World Economic Forum’s Expert Network for Global Governance, Dr Haldane is also a Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Philology at the University of Belgrade (Serbia), a Visiting Professor at the School of Business at Doshisha University (Japan), where he teaches Ethics and Governance on the MBA programme, and a Member of the International Advisory Council of the Department of Educational Foundations at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s College of Education (United States), collaborating on the development of the Global PhD programme.

Dr Haldane has given invited lectures and presentations to universities and conferences around the world, including at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, and advised universities, NGOs, and governments on issues relating to international education policy, public-private partnerships, and multi-stakeholder forums. He was the project lead on the 2019 Kansai Resilience Forum, held by the Japanese Government through the Prime Minister’s Office and the Cabinet Office in collaboration with IAFOR.

From 2012 to 2014, Dr Haldane served as Treasurer of the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan (Chubu Region) and he is currently a Trustee of the HOPE International Development Agency (Japan). He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society in 2012, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in 2015.

About the Presenter(s)
-Hongmin Ahn is an incoming student at the Inter-University Center for Japanese Studies in Yokohama, Japan (2024-25).
-Dr Yanhua Zhou is currently a Professor of Art History at the Research Center for Visual Art, Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, China.
-Dr Joseph Haldane is the Founder, Chairman, and CEO of IAFOR.

See this presentation on the full schedule – Tuesday Schedule

Bookmark

---

A Note to Presenters

To enhance academic profiles and showcase research, we encourage all presenters and co-presenters to include links to their public LinkedIn, ResearchGate profile, and research websites. Presenters may update their bio for their presentation by completing the form linked below by October 22, 2024.
- Presenter Information Update Form
Submitted changes will be reflected on November 01, 2024

Additionally, presenters should also update their IAFOR account details if there have been any changes to affiliations or biographies.
- https://submit.iafor.org/my-account/edit-account