The Hiroshima Peace Institute, Hiroshima City University will hold the HPI Research Forum as follows:
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1. Speaker
Lindsay Black
(Associate Professor, Leiden University Institute for Area Studies (LIAS), Netherlands)
2. Topic
“Critical Area Studies and Global Politics: the False Promise of Global IR”
3. Date and Time
August 7, 2025 (Thursday) 14:00-16:00
4. Venue
Seminar Room 1, Satellite Campus, Hiroshima City University
(Otemachi Heiwa Building 9F, 4-1-1 Otemachi, Naka-ku, Hiroshima)
5. Capacity
30 people (first-come first-served basis)
6. Language
English only
7. Discussant and Moderator
Discussant: Josuke Ikeda (Professor, Faculty of Law, Tohoku Gakuin University)
Moderator: Shiro Sato (Professor, Hiroshima Peace Institute (HPI), Hiroshima City University)
8. Abstract of the Forum
The discipline of International Relations (IR) evolved as an imperialist endeavour, orientated around the interests of dominant Western states. From the outset, area studies scholars were beholden to the Western-centric discipline of IR and complicit in the expansion of Western imperialism. Area studies scholars were perceived as ‘cameras not thinkers’ or ‘real estate agents’ providing ‘local’ knowledge to the discipline and to inform foreign policy.
Amitav Acharya’s call for a Global IR has received a good deal of attention in the discipline for encouraging the greater involvement of area studies scholarship and opening up new avenues for the development of post-Western IR. Unfortunately, Global IR has a limited and antiquated view of area studies as a field, as well as being a reformulation of prior efforts to internationalize the discipline. Crucially, the Global IR project marginalizes critical approaches and fails to appreciate how area studies has evolved as a critical venture.
As its ontological start point, critical area studies asks ‘where is here?’. It seeks to understand how areas are defined, by whom, and for what purpose. It is particularly attentive to contested historical narratives, as well as expressing a predilection towards how communities are impacted by global politics and how they make sense of their world. It is multidisciplinary in approach, self-reflexive in its application, and intimately concerned with translation. It perceives areas as sources of theoretical development and exchange. In so doing, critical area studies expands opportunities to comprehend global politics beyond merely the international.
9. Profile of the Speaker
Lindsay Black is an Associate Professor in the International Relations of East Asia and is currently serving as Educational Director at the Leiden University Institute for Area Studies (LIAS) in the Netherlands. His most recent major publication is Disciplining Democracies: Human Insecurity in Japan-Myanmar Relations (Bristol University Press, 2023) and he has published numerous articles and book chapters on the International Relations of East Asia.
10. Registration
Fill out the application form (external link) with the necessary information.
Deadline: August 4, 2025 (Monday)
*If you do not receive an email from the Hiroshima Peace Institute (HPI) within 3 days, please register again. The email address you provided may have been inaccurate.
11. Notes
・This forum will be conducted only in English.
・This forum may be cancelled at short notice due to the lecturer's circumstances or other unexpected reasons. Thank you for your understanding about this possibility in advance.
<Contact>
Hiroshima Peace Institute (HPI), Hiroshima City University
Email：office-peace&m.hiroshima-cu.ac.jp
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