Lecturer: Gil Hizi (PhD University of Sydney)

Abstract:
Through the influence of psychotherapeutic expertise and popular entertainment, pedagogic programs for “self-improvement” in China today define positive affect as a key aspect of learning. In this talk, based on participant observations in the city of Jinan, I describe how workshops for interpersonal skills produce interactive spaces that spark enthusiasm and optimism in participants. These pedagogies draw on the current primacy of “positive energy” (zheng nengliang) in Chinese education, media, and politics. I will discuss how these interactive spaces resemble group interactions from the communist period, while today positive affect is positioned more as an endpoint in separation from ordinary life and collective enterprises.

Short bio:
Gil Hizi (PhD University of Sydney) is a Humboldt Postdoctoral Fellow of Anthropology at the University of Cologne. He studies social change in China by focusing on perceptions of personhood and emotions. His main sites of enquiry have been pedagogic practices of self-improvement and psychotherapy. His work has been published in Anthropology and Asian Studies journals.

Zoom Access:
Topic: Affective Pedagogic Spaces in Contemporary China, Gil Hizi (PhD University of Sydney)
Time: 14.Jul.2020 06:00 PM Amsterdam, Berlin, Rom, Stockholm, Wien
https://uni-goettingen.zoom.us/j/92606540714?pwd=eFFXU3NTZUlNSms3TEJlVklIczJudz09
Meeting-ID: 926 0654 0714
Passwort: 505976