Censorship and Academic Freedom in China since the 1940s

12.04.2021 - 12.04.2021

Time:
10.00-12.00 (Paris time)

Venue:
Zoom Webinar

Registration link

Abstract: This public lecture focuses on censorship and academic freedom in China since the 1940s by offering some case studies related to different Chinese people in different time periods. Together with audiences, all panelists will engage in lively discussions on the future of China Studies in Europe and the real meaning of freedom of opinion and expression in digital times. In the Q & A section, audiences are welcome to participate in an active way.

Opening Remarks: Olivier Bouin (Director of RFIEA and Member of the Executive Committe of EURICS)

Chair: Katrin Kinzelbach (Professor of political science at FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg)

Speaker: Peidong Sun (EURICS fellow, Associate Professor of History for China and Asia-Pacific Studies at Cornell University)

Discussants:

Michel Bonnin (Professor Emeritus at the School of Advanced Studies in Social Sciences – EHESS, Paris)

Sebastian Veg (Professor of intellectual history of 20th century China at the School of Advanced Studies in Social Sciences – EHESS, Paris)

Short bios

Michel Bonnin is Professor Emeritus at the School of Advanced Studies in Social Sciences – EHESS, Paris. Since his retirement in 2015, he has taken up a post of Adjunct Professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, where he teaches the History and Memory of the Chinese Cultural Revolution. His main research interests are the social and political issues in the People’s Republic of China. He has written extensively in French, English and Chinese on the Cultural Revolution and especially on the Rustication Movement during the 1960s-1970s. He has also published books and articles on the Chinese democratic movement, on the question of generations, on collective memory and on the nature of the regime, as well as on Hong Kong affairs. 

Katrin Kinzelbach is a professor of political science at FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, where she teaches the international politics of human rights. Before joining FAU, Kinzelbach was associate director of the Global Public Policy Institute in Berlin and a visiting professor at the Central European University in Budapest. She initiated the Academic Freedom Index and recently edited a book entitled Researching Academic Freedom (FAU UP, 2020).

Peidong Sun (Ph.D. of Sociology, Sciences Po, Ph.D. of Law, Sun Yat-Sen University) is Michael J. Zak Associate Professor of History for China and Asia-Pacific Studies at Cornell University. She is currently a EURICS fellow. Much of her research has centered on the history and contemporary implications of Chinese everyday life.  After publishing her first book Who Will Marry My Daughter: Parental Match-making Corner in Shanghai’s People’s Square and the second one Fashion and Politics: Everyday Clothing in Guangdong Province during the Cultural Revolution, she is currently working on her third book entitled Underground Reading of the Sent-down Generation: History and Memory of the Cultural Revolution.

Sebastian Veg is a Professor (directeur d’études) of intellectual history of 20th century China at the School of Advanced Studies in Social Sciences (EHESS), Paris and an Honorary Professor at the University of Hong Kong. He was director of the French Centre for Research on Contemporary China (CEFC) in Hong Kong from 2011 to 2015. His latest book is Minjian: The Rise of China’s Grassroots Intellectuals (Columbia UP, 2019).