Wherever I am, the world comes after me.
It offers me its busyness. It does not believe that I do not want it.
Now I understand why the old poets of China went so far
and high into the mountains, then crept into the pale mist.
"The Old Poets of China" by Mary Oliver

Asia in an Era of (Un)Certainties: Transitions and Trajectories | 2024 Graduate Student Conference

Details
The UP Asian Center will hold the 2024 Graduate Student Conference with the theme “Asia in an Era of (Un)Certainties: Transitions and Trajectories” on 1 June 2024 at the GT-Toyota Asian Center Auditorium, UP Asian Center. The event is free and open to the public. Seating is first come, first served. Walk-ins are welcome, but participants are encouraged to register online.

ABOUT THE EVENT

The year 2024 is when more than half of the Asian and global population participate in major elections amid the continuing war in Ukraine, and worsening crisis in West Asia. As many nations transition to deepening globalization efforts, establishing new political leaderships, and embracing new ways of living, Asia remains to play a strategic role in its pursuit of security cooperation and sustainable development and in its will to shape its economic, political, and socio-cultural futures. This year’s graduate student conference gathers Asian Center and TriCollege Ph.D. students to exchange ideas about their ongoing studies on Asia to reflect on the region’s role in these uncertain times.

KEYNOTE SPEECH: THE HIDDEN RACIST LOGICS OF CAPITALIST "RATIONALITY"

Systemic racism approaches have analyzed how societies are structurally racist, containing a number of mechanisms that privilege whites and disadvantage people of color. However, the analyses of structural racism have suffered from methodological nationalism. Usually, the analysis has been confined to nation-states, predominantly to those in the Global North. There is a lack of studies that research to what extent structural racism exists globally. This article aims to fill this gap. Based on 64 qualitative interviews with—white and non-white—migrants from the Global North and the Global South as well as receiving society members—managers, business owners, entrepreneurs, and headhunters—in Hong Kong, who were asked about hiring practices and choices as well as career paths in Hong Kong, I argue that Global Capitalism is structurally racist and discriminatory. I show that the structure of global capitalism has a built-in logic that gives higher returns to human capital to applicants from the Global North vis-à-vis similarly qualified applicants from the Global South, and that furthermore provides Whites with higher returns to human capital than Non-Whites, given similar qualifications and similar regions of origin. I identify four factors that lead to these outcomes: (1) Western countries’ headquartering a large share of Multinational Corporations, (2) A high representation of (White) Westerners among business elites, both globally and in global cities, (3) The high buying power of Westerners, specifically Whites, which makes Western markets lucrative as important customer groups and provides incentives to companies worldwide to sell to them, (4) English as a global business lingua franca, privileging native English speakers and creating job opportunities for them as English teachers. I explain how due to these structures, companies making what they perceive as “rational” hiring decisions trying to maximize profit under limited information leads to racist and discriminatory outcomes, accruing an unfair advantage to Whites and Westerners while under-paying people of color and non-Western individuals. Lastly, I delve into the impact of the Hong Kong protests and the security law, and how these impacted the regional structures of capitalism.

ABOUT THE KEYNOTE SPEAKER

CAROLINE M. SCHÖPF, PH.D.
Department of Sociology, University of the Philippines Diliman
Dr. Caroline M. Schöpf is an assistant professorial fellow at the University of the Philippines Diliman. Her main research interests are decolonial approaches to migration studies, intellectual imperialism, and academic dependency. She has successfully completed her Ph.D. at Hong Kong Baptist University, where she was a member of the Joint Research Group ‘Migration, China, and the Global Context’ by the Max Weber Foundation and Hong Kong Baptist University. Setting migration studies into a dialogue with decolonial approaches, her Ph.D. project comparatively analyzes labor market privilege of White Western migrants in Hong Kong. Her work has been published in international journals. She also convened the 2017 and 2018 workshops ‘Global South Perspectives: Towards decolonization, de-stratification and de-centralization of social knowledge production,’ has organized multiple sessions on Decolonial and Southern Theory at the American and International Sociological Association, and has been serving as guest editor at Third World Quarterly and Social Transformations: Journal of the Global South.

CONSTANCIO MAGLANA BEST PAPER AWARD

Oral presenters who will submit their full paper on or before 15 June 2024 are qualified for the Constancio Maglana Best Paper Award. Winners will be announced via the Asian Center official platforms on 30 June 2024. The best paper shall receive a five-thousand-peso cash prize.
For inquiries, please contact us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call 891-8500 loc. 3586.
The Asian Center, University of the Philippines Diliman offers M.A. degrees in Asian Studies with four fields of specialization: Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, and West Asia. The UP Asian Center also has an M.A. program in Philippine Studies that allows students to major in Philippine society and culture, Philippine foreign relations, or Philippine development studies. It also offers a Ph.D. program in Philippine Studies in conjunction with the College of Arts and Letters and the College of Social Sciences and Philosophy. For an overview of these graduate programs, click here. As an area studies institution, the Asian Center also publishes Asian Studies: Journal of Critical Perspectives on Asia, the latest issue of which can be downloaded at the journal's website.