UTC will host the fourth annual “Introduction to Asia Conference” on Thursday, February 16 in the University Center Auditorium. The conference includes presentations on the economies of China and India, Taoist mediation, and Tai Chi. The events are free and open to the public.
Dr. Bento Lobo, who holds the First Tennessee Bank Distinguished Professorship in the UTC College of Business, will speak about the changing economic landscape in India.
“For those who study socio-cultural changes in the face of economic growth, India is a fascinating story. Indeed, Mark Twain’s ‘cradle of the human race’ resembles Galbraith’s ‘functioning anarchy’ and is a veritable case study in economic contradictions. In a land that birthed several leading world religions, modernization is taking place on the back of a visible cult of wealth and ‘in spite of the gods,’” Lobo said.
The schedule for the 2012 conference includes:
12:15 p.m. Welcome and Introduction by Dr. Roger Brown, Chancellor
12:20 p.m. – 1:10 p.m. “China and India: Asia’s Economic Giants” by Dr. Yasmeen Mohiuddin. She is a Ralph Owen Distinguished Professor of Economics at Sewanee. She teaches courses on economic development, economics of gender, macroeconomics, microfinance and social entrepreneurship.
1:15 p.m. – 1:55 p.m. “India: The Changing Economic and Cultural Landscape” by Dr. Bento Lobo. Lobo is the the First Tennessee Bank Distinguished Professorship in the UTC College of Business whose expertise is in policy effects on financial markets, and news and exchange rate dynamics.
2:10 p.m. – 2:50 p.m. “The Top Ten Things Americans Should Know About East Asia” by Dr. Lucien Ellington, Co-director of the Asia Program and UC Foundation Professor of Education. Ellington is the founding editor of Education About Asia, an international teaching journal published by the Association for Asian Studies.
2:55 p.m. -3:35 p.m. Essentials of Taoist Meditation by Dr. Stephen E. Eskildsen. Eskildsen has a Ph.D. in Asian Studies from the University of British Columbia. He is a UTC Professor of Religion specializing in Taoism and Chinese Religion Taoist. He has published two books, Asceticism in Early Taoist Religion and The Teachings and Practices of the Early Quanzhen Taoist Masters.
3:40-4:00 Cultural Ideas Behind Tai Chi by Dr. Zibin Guo and the Chattanooga Tai Ji Community. Guo is a UTC Foundation Professor of Anthropology and a medical anthropologist specializing in Chinese medicine & health traditions, community health, culture and medical health, disability and health, Asian American study and cross-cultural aging and health.
