Cultural Exchanges and the Frontiers of Knowledge

The 2011 annual meeting of the Cluster of Excellence “Asia and Europe in a Global Context” will focus on modes of exchange between cultures and the frontiers of knowledge. This event, entitled “Frontiers of Knowledge: Health, Environment and the History of Science”, will be held from 5 to 7 October 2011 at Heidelberg University. About 150 participants are expected to the conference. In addition to the researchers working within the cluster, scientists from all around the world will travel to Heidelberg to take part in the event. In addition to the researchers working within the cluster, nearly 150 scientists from all around the world will travel to Heidelberg to participate in this event. Keynote speakers include Prof. Sunder Rajan from the University of Chicago (USA) and Prof. Janet Hunter, Director of the Department of Economic History at the London School of Economics (Great Britain). 

“Whenever people from different cultures meet, knowledge is exchanged. At the same time, the limits on that knowledge are made visible. We want to look at these exchange processes, and the frontiers they create, from a new global perspective,” explains Prof. Harald Fuess, organiser of this year’s conference and speaker of the research area “Health and Environment”. A number of lectures and discussions will target the conference’s focus areas: medicine in antiquity, changing concepts of knowledge, and the spread of new technology, especially in medicine as well as in navigation and seafaring. In the first keynote, Prof. Rajan will use the example of a patent conflict to explain the legal and societal situation of medicine in India. In the second keynote, Prof. Hunter will show how the markets recovered surprisingly quickly in 1923 after the Great Kanto earthquake in Japan. 

This annual conference is aimed at scholars, students and anyone interested in the exchange processes between cultures and the frontiers of knowledge or wishing to inform themselves about the work going on in the Cluster of Excellence “Asia and Europe in a Global Context”. Further information about the conference and about the cluster can be found at:  www.asia-europe.uni-heidelberg.de.

Note to newsdesks:
This annual conference will open on Wednesday, 5 October, with Prof. Sunder Rajan’s lecture in the Great Hall of the Old University beginning at 6 pm. The conference will move to the New University for the sessions on 6 and 7 October.

Contact:
Dr. Alexander Häntzschel
Cluster of Excellence “Asia and Europe in a Global Context”
phone +49 6221 544008
haentzschel@asia-europe.uni-heidelberg.de

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