The International Conference on “Asian Values and Human Future”, organized by the University in collaboration with Hubei University, PRC was held at the University’s Azara Campus on 7-9 July 2015. The Conference unfolded with an inaugural session, a plenary session and six technical sessions stretched over 3 days. A total of 21 papers were deliberated and discussed over.
The Conference began with the inaugural and welcoming function held in the evening of 7th July at the atrium. Dignitaries present at the function included Chief Justice (Acting) Guwahati High Court K. Sreedhar Rao, Minister of Culture of Assam Bismita Gogoi, Archbishop John Moolachira of Guwahati, and former Archbishop Thomas Menamparampil of Guwahati and other eminent citizens.
Highlight of the inaugural session included cultural programme by the Assam Government’s Ministry of Culture as well as an exhibition portraying the history of Assam by Assam State Museum.
At the plenary session, Prof. T. Menamparampil delivered the key note address and Prof. Edward J. Alam deliberated on “Role of Asia in the Quest for Global Justice”, with Prof. Corazon Toralba as the chairperson.
The first technical session was chaired by Prof. Dhruba J. Saika, Hon’ble vice-chancellor of Cotton College State University. The theme of the session was Asian Values: A Way Forward for Human Future. 3 eminent scholars presented their papers, which was followed by elaborate discussions and deliberations on each paper.
The second technical session with the theme Asian Reality and Probity in Public Life was chaired by Dr. Joshua Thomas, Deputy Director, ICSSR-NERC. This session witnessed a brilliant presentation by a Historian, a sociologist and a Philosopher. The papers presented invited an engaging discussion.
The third and fourth technical sessions were combined making the third session chaired by Prof. Trophy D’ Souza. This session also saw three well research papers presented and elaborated discussion on the papers. The Themes of the session was Emerging Perspectives and Transformation of Values and Fellowship and Fellowshipping of Cultures and Values.
The 9th of July, Ms Yogini Nath, chaired the fourth session on the theme, New Age Values and Spirituality for Human Future. Three scholars deliberated on the theme, which was followed by discussion and clarification.
The theme, Strident Nationalism and Identity Construction with 3 presenters and discussion, which was chaired by Edward J Alam formed the fifth session.
The last technical session of the conference was chaired by Prof. Siddharth Singh, with the theme Values in Conflict Transformation. The session witnessed 4 papers with active discussions.
The conference on Asian Values and Human Future is well represented with 1 Chinese from Macau, 2 South Koreans, 2 Malaysian, 1 Filippina, 2 Mexicans, 1 from Bangladesh, 1 Lebanese, 1 Thai and over 30 Indian. These representations are from 20 Universities and 10 institutions. (9 Chinese joined after the conference).