Over 100 speakers and participants took part in an international, cross-institutional, and interdisciplinary conference, ‘Urban Mediations: International Conference on the Narratives, Ecologies, and Poetics of the City’ to discuss various critical and creative praxes and emerging frameworks for inquiring into urban phenomenon and literary and cultural production across historical periods and geographical regions from 5-6 December 2024.  

At a time when cities around the world confront various questions to do with the epistemological, cultural, and ecological impact of rapid urban changes, this conference, co-hosted by City University of Hong Kong (CityUHK) and the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), provided a timely opportunity for participants to exchange thoughts, reflect on the past and the present, and ask new questions about critical methodology and approaches, as well as addressing the challenges facing our urban futures. 

This conference started with a welcome speech by Professor Jason Harding, Head of the Department of English (CityUHK), and opening remarks by Professor Klaudia Lee of the Department of English (CityUHK) on behalf of the organising committee. This conference featured nearly 60 speakers, who are established and emerging international and Hong Kong-based scholars from diverse fields of study, including literary and cultural studies, film and media studies, architectural and urban studies, art and visual studies, cultural anthropology, history, and geography. Among the presenters were EN literary scholars Professor Klaudia Lee, Professor Jeffrey Mather and Professor Eric Sandberg, as well as PhD students Nicola Wan and Christine Kan.

Through their critical and creative engagement with cities and countries including Seoul, Singapore, Macau, Manila, Kabul, Tokyo, Hong Kong, New York, Dubai, Helsinki, Pakistan, Iran, and Shanghai, the speakers have demonstrated how the urban has constantly been shaped and reframed by various forms of mediation. The ‘urban’, as the conference has shown, is not as a bounded, stable object, but as an intermediary agency that is both specific to a particular milieu and connected to people and processes elsewhere.

In addition to parallel panels, three plenary panels comprising of leading scholars with different areas of expertise were organised. They shared their research and engaged in discussions related to methodological and epistemological questions pertaining to their focuses of inquiry. The plenary speakers included Professor Lieven Ameel (Tampere), Professor Nishat Awan (UCL), Professor Cecilia Chu (CUHK), Professor Dominic Davies (City St George’s, London), Professor Peter Dickinson (Simon Fraser), Professor Lee Kah-Wee (NUS), Professor Gina Marchetti (Pratt), Professor Jasmine Nadua Trice (UCLA), and Professor Jini Kim Watson (Melbourne).

The first day of the conference ended with thought-provoking sharing by interdisciplinary artist, academic, and curator, Dr Linda Chiu-han Lai. Interviewed by Silke Schmickl, CHANEL Lead Curator for Moving Image at M+ Museum, Dr Lai explained how she drew inspiration from the everyday for her artwork and how the classroom can be a place for experimentation.

Walking tours to Sai Ying Pun and Tsim Sha Tsui, respectively led by Professor Cecilia Chu and Professor Melody Hoi-lam Yiu from the School of Architecture, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, were organised the day after the two-day conference to give interested participants an opportunity to explore the city and learn about the history of its urban development from the nineteenth century to the present day.

This conference was co-convened by Professor Klaudia Lee (CityUHK), Professor Elmo Gonzanga (CUHK), Professor Joanna Mansbridge (CUHK) and Professor Alvin K. Wong (HKU).

It was co-organised by Department of English, City University of Hong Kong; Research Institute for the Humanities and Departments of English and Cultural and Religious Studies of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, as well as Centre for the Study of Globalisation and Cultures in the Department of Comparative Literature of University of Hong Kong.

Further details of the event can be found here: https://urbannarrativesnetwork.com/urban-mediations-2024/