Humanitarianism, Imperialism and Universities: European and East Asian Perspectives on Higher Education in the Early Twentieth Century

Global Histories of Education Dialogue 全球教育史對話 (GHED-10)

Topic:

Humanitarianism, Imperialism and Universities: European and East Asian Perspectives on Higher Education in the Early Twentieth Century

Feeding the Mind: Educational Reconstruction in Europe after the First World War, 1918-1925

(Prof. Tomás IRISH)

Takushoku University and the Reshaping of Higher Education in the Japanese Empire

(Dr. CHOI Jamyung)

Abstract:

This seminar presents two fresh global perspectives on higher education at the beginning of the twentieth century. On the one hand, European universities had suffered enormously during the First World War (1914-1918). After the end of hostilities, major humanitarian efforts were undertaken to guarantee the continuity of academic life under difficult conditions. On the other hand, universities also played a role in imperial expansion. In particular, Takushoku University in Tokyo served as a key institution to underpin Japanese imperialism. The presentations thus evidence how higher education was closely linked to the trajectories of war and peace in both Europe and East Asia.

Date:

12 March 2026 (Thursday)

Time:

3:30 pm – 6:30 pm

Language:

English

Venue:

B4-LP-01, EdUHK (Tai Po Campus)

Registration

https://eduhk.au1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_8IBQOFWn9FNKTiu

(Prior registration is required!)

Speakers:

Tomás Irish is Professor of Modern History at Swansea University in Wales, UK. He was educated at Trinity College Dublin where he took his BA (2006) and PhD (2012). He is a historian of the First World War and interwar Europe and has published three monographs dealing with aspects of education, universities, internationalism, intellectual life, and humanitarianism. These are The University at War 1914-25: Britain France and the United States (Palgrave, 2015); Trinity in War and Revolution 1912-23 (Royal Irish Academy, 2015). His most recent book, Feeding the Mind: Humanitarianism and the Reconstruction of European Intellectual Life, 1919-33 (Cambridge University Press, 2024), looked at the reconstruction of intellectual life in Europe after the First World War. He is currently writing a book which explores the foundation of UNESCO and the connection between international education and peace.

Choi Jamyung is an Associate Professor of modern Japanese history at Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul, South Korea. He earned his PhD from the University of Pennsylvania in 2014, and has long been working on a book manuscript about the history of higher education and social stratification in modern Japan. His articles in English have been published in the Journal of Japanese Studies, International Labor and Working Class History, the Journal of Women’s History, and Social History of Medicine.  He is currently preparing a monograph on the history of higher education and social stratification in modern Japan.