TIMEJ Online Conference 2021

On August 18–20th 2021, a 3-day online symposium was organised by the TIMEJ team to discuss and refine contributions going towards an edited volume on time in medieval Japan (forthcoming in 2022). The volume covers a variety of research fields, from historiography, to Shintō doctrines, to warfare strategy, combining the expertise of scholars from various universities in Japan, Europe and the US (see collaborations).

The symposium acted as a platform for an internal peer review, as all contributors provided drafts of their chapters for review by the other participants. At the symposium, each contributor had the opportunity to present their chapter and gain valuable insights from others in order to finalise the contribution. Furthermore, it allowed the group to consider shared methodological approaches and to reflect on commonalities across the findings.

While the three conference days served as the main platform for discussion, an internal online forum provided a further opportunity to give feedback, and will remain an important means to keep dialogues going after the conference.

The symposium had originally been planned as an in-person event in Zürich, but had to be redesigned into an online format due to the ongoing pandemic. Despite challenges faced by time-zone differences, the symposium was a total success thanks to the commitment and diligence of all participants.

The edited volume is planned to be published in 2022.