The 9th “Engaging with Vietnam- An Interdisciplinary Dialogue” Conference
TOURING VIETNAM: Exploring “Development”, “Tourism” and “Sustainability” in Vietnam from Multi-disciplinary and Multi-directional Perspectives
December 27-31, 2017: Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
December 31, 2017: Express train from Ho Chi Minh City to Tuy Hoa, Phu Yen, Vietnam
January 1-4, 2018: Tuy Hoa, Phu Yen, Vietnam
Co-hosting organizations: University of Social Science and Humanities – Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City and University of Hawai’i at Manoa, USA
Conference Co-Chairs and Co-Convenors:
- Prof. Dr. Phan Le Ha (University of Hawai’i at Manoa)
- Associate Prof. Dr. Liam Kelley (University of Hawai’i at Manoa),
- Associate Prof. Dr. Van Van Sen (President of University of Social Sciences and Humanities, VNU Ho Chi Minh),
- Assistant Prof. Dr. Jamie Gillen (Singapore National University)
The 9th Engaging with Vietnam conference will bring about a completely new experience to those who have so far participated and will participate in our conference series. With the theme of exploring “development, tourism, and sustainability” of Vietnam from multi-disciplinary and multi-directional perspectives, the 9th EWV conference will introduce various activities, ranging from keynote sessions and academic presentations to exhibitions, idea contests, a policy forum, Q&A sessions, curriculum development, sightseeing, field observations, and music performances that are all integrated to offer participants opportunities to feel, think, engage, try out and live the conference theme.
Other distinctive features of EWV9 are its length and location. Its length is innovative, as the complete experience will take place over a period of almost 10 days, from December 27 2017 to January 4 2018. Its location is also innovative, as the conference will be held at two places and participants will “tour” from South (Ho Chi Minh City) to Central Vietnam (Tuy Hoa, Phu Yen), a connection that will entail an enjoyable evening tour on the Thống Nhất (Reunification) train. Participants will celebrate together New Year’s Eve and welcome 2018 on “tàu Thống Nhất”, whereby their explorations of and engagement with Vietnam’s “development,” “tourism” and “sustainability” will continue.
As usual, our keynote sessions with speakers from several disciplines will lay out larger conceptualisations, arguments, methodologies, and questions that invite everyone to think about “development,” “tourism,” and “sustainability.” Examples include: 1) How has the past been packaged in terms of history, heritage, and memory?; 2) In what ways have tourism and development always been tied up with the past?; 3) What is the relationship between education, development, and sustainability?; and 4) How and to what extent do the regionalisation and internationalisation of “development,” “tourism,” and “sustainability” pose challenges and create new discourses for academic disciplines, legal practices, and policy making?
Tentative Agenda
Part I: Ho Chi Minh City
- Date: 27- 31 December 2017
- Venue: University of Social Sciences and Humanities, VNU Ho Chi Minh City, 12 Dinh Tien Hoang, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
- Main activities: Keynote sessions, academic presentations and 1-day tour in Ho Chi Minh City
Part II: Thống Nhất train from HCMC to Tuy Hoa (31 December, arriving 1 January 2018)
Part III: Tuy Hoa- Phu Yen
- Date: 1 – 4 January 2018
- Venue: Utopia International Conference Centre, Tuy Hoa, Phu Yen
- Main activities: Keynote sessions, roundtable discussion with policy makers at various levels on policies and practice on development, tourism, and sustainability; exhibitions and poster presentations of organizations’, teachers’, and students’ “Creative Ideas” projects on topics related to the theme of the conference; and a field trip to various sites in Phu Yen
Thanks to the generous support of the sponsoring parties, we expect that this conference will be unbelievably affordable given its length and locations. We will provide more details about this later, but for now please do not have any hesitations in submitting abstracts for presentations and ideas for exhibitions and poster displays.
You are invited to submit your abstracts and ideas for academic presentations and/or exhibitions and poster displays, following the instructions on our websites www.engagingwithvietnam.net and www.engagingwithvietnam.org (which will be updated by the end of March). Thank you and we look forward to your participation in this very exciting conference.
Please direct all your questions to liam@hawaii.edu and halephan@hawaii.edu. Thank you!