PROGRAMME
Conference Programme
The final version of the programme for the 4th EAAA Conference is available online!
>> EAAA Conference Programme – Final version <<
Please note that the conference organisers cannot accept any request of moving the papers to a different time slot to accommodate the schedule of the speaker.
Please bear in mind that the part of the conference taking place on Thursday morning (11 September 2025) at the Museum of Orient (Fundação Oriente) will not be available for online audiences.
Book of Abstracts
Online version of the Book of Abstracts is available HERE. Physical copies of the Book of Abstracts will be available for sale at the Conference venue.
Information for Participants
Please review the conference programme (when available) to check room assignments and consult the faculty building layout for room locations. Conference panels will take place in lecture rooms C127 Anfiteatro I, C130 Anfiteatro II, A201 Anfiteatro III, A202 Anfiteatro IV, sala B112.B, and sala B112.C.
20 minutes are allocated for the presentations, with a further 10 minutes for discussions. Discussions will take place either after each presentation or together at the end of all presentations. Please note: For panels with more than four presentations, the total discussion time will be reduced accordingly. Please bring your presentation on a USB stick, saved in Powerpoint and in PDF format.
Keynote Speeches
For the 4th EAAA Conference in Lisbon, the European Association for Asian Art and Archaeology, in collaboration with the University of Lisbon arranged three different keynote speeches given by Prof. Dr. Lothar Ledderose (Institute of East Asian Art History, Heidelberg University), Prof. Emeritus Dr. Partha Mitter (History of Art, University of Sussex), and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mariana Diniz (School of Arts and Humanities, University of Lisbon).
Keynote speech 1
Time: Tuesday, 9 September 2025, 17:30-18:30
Location: School of Arts and Humanities, University of Lisbon, Anf. I
Senior Professor Dr. Lothar Ledderose
Institute of East Asian Art History, Heidelberg University
Lothar Ledderose was born on 12 July 1942 in Munich. He was the chaired Professor of East Asian art history at Heidelberg University, a position he has held since 1976 until 2010. Lothar Ledderose was educated at the humanistic Apostelgymnasium, Cologne. From 1961-1969 he studied East Asian art history, European art history, Sinology, and Japanology at universities in Cologne, Bonn, Paris, Taipei, Heidelberg. PhD 1969, Heidelberg.
Abstract: China Writes Differently
Two things make China unique in world history: it is the largest political unit with the longest history, and it has created the most complicated system of script. This lecture will demonstrate in four parts the connection between these two phenomena.
• The logographic script helped to overcome political disunity between the Warring States in the centuries before the common era, and in the 6th century CE it facilitated the reunification of the empire after three centuries of division. This happened in marked contrast to the Roman Empire, which used phonetic scripts and never managed to unite again.
• Also, in contrast to Europe, one finds in China almost no public portraits of rulers or public statues of them. Rulers were represented by their calligraphy instead.
• Since the 4th century CE, calligraphy was developed into an aesthetic system that was practiced by all members of the political elite. It served as a powerful cohesive within this elite over space and time.
• Although the urban plan of Beijing’s Tiananmen Square with its mausoleum for Mao Zedong is indepted to both Washington and Moscow, the calligraphy displayed there makes it uniquely Chinese.
Keynote speech 2
Time: Thursday, 11 September 2025, 16:00-17:00
Location: Calouste Gulbenkian Museum (Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian)
Please see the Book of Abstracts and the museum website for information about additional programme.
Professor Emeritus Dr. Partha Mitter
History of Art, University of Sussex
Partha Mitter is a writer and historian of art and culture, specialising in the reception of Indian art in the West, as well as in modernity, art and identity in India, and more recently in global modernism. He studied history at London University and did his doctorate with E. H. Gombrich (1970). He began his career as Junior Research Fellow at Churchill College, Cambridge (1968-69) and Research Fellow at Clare Hall, Cambridge (1970-74). In 1974 he joined Sussex as a Lecturer in Indian History, retiring in 2002 as Professor in Art History.
Abstract: The Virtual Cosmopolitan in the Global Colonial Order
Recently intense debates have centred on the urgent issue of global connectivity in view of the imbalance between the centre and the periphery. Central to this debate is the idea of cosmopolitanism in the light of globalisation that began during the colonial era and has continued to our day. Cosmopolitanism naturally presupposes travel and privilege. But what about mass migration of political and economic refugees who are described as ‘cosmopolitans from below’? And what about those who do stay at home and yet engage with global modernity? It is the last category I will concentrate on today. My talk will focus on the migration of ideas and cross-cultural exchanges during the colonial period that became possible though communication revolution, the spread of ‘hegemonic’ languages and of print culture, all of which contributed to the creation of a global ‘virtual cosmopolis.’ Finally, the paper will propose ways of communicating in our global world that is not compromised by the asymmetrical relations between the centre and the periphery created through colonial dominance.
Keynote speech 3
Time: Thursday, 11 September 2025, 9:00-10:00
Location: Museum of Orient (Fundação Oriente)
Please see the Book of Abstracts for information about additional programme.
Associate Professor Dr. Mariana Diniz
School of Arts and Humanities, University of Lisbon
Marian Diniz is an archaeologist director of the Centre for Archaeology of the University of Lisbon (UNIARQ). She is Member of the board of the Portuguese Association of Archaeologists (Associação dos Arqueólogos Portugueses) and President of the Prehistory Group of the Portuguese Association of Archaeologists (Associação dos Arqueólogos Portugueses). She has participated in multiple diverse international projects, such as Europe Through Textiles: Network for an integrated and interdisciplinary Humanities (EuroWeb – European Cooperation in Science and Technology: BE).
Abstract: Thirty-six ways to honour the Dead – building and digging Kofun and Megaliths
The treatment of the deceased and the associated burial practices, emerging as social responses to the often-profound experience of loss, constitute defining features in the identification of Anatomically Modern Humans (Homo sapiens sapiens) by the scientific community. This attentiveness to the dead, already discernible among Palaeolithic and Mesolithic hunter-gatherer societies, reaches a paramount dimension within agro-pastoralist groups. This is exemplified by the monumental funerary architectures of the Kofun and Megalithic traditions situated at opposite ends of the Eurasian continent. These monuments provide compelling evidence of extensive social investment in the ritual management of death, including the architectural framing of burial sites, the formalised treatment and display of human remains, and the deposition of sophisticated grave goods. Despite the considerable geographical distance between the Megaliths and the Kofun, and the chronological gap separating the 4th/3rd millennium BCE in Western Europe from the 3rd to 7th centuries CE in East Asia, monumental architecture for the dead emerges as a shared response to the social tensions engendered by the introduction of agro-agropastoralist economies within non-literate societies. It also served as an effective medium for displaying power and asserting control over the landscape. The participation of the University of Lisbon team in the Be Archaeo project (Marie Skłodowska Curie RISE grant agreement No. 823826) and in the excavation of the Tobiotsuka Kofun (Okayama Prefecture) provided a unique opportunity to test explanatory models developed to investigate the emergence and decline of Western megalithic traditions.
Accompanying Events
On the last day of the conference, 13 September 2025, the organizers have prepared two optional excursions: a trip to the National Palace of Sintra and a Cultural Visit to the Albuquerque Foundation!
Trip to the National Palace of Sintra – Palace and Gardens
(Palácio Nacional e Jardins)
Date: Saturday, 13 September 2025; afternoon
To register for the tour, please follow THIS LINK.
Cultural Visit to the Albuquerque Foundation
Date: Saturday, 13th September, 14:00-17:00
Meeting point: main entrance of the University at 13:45
To register for the tour, please follow THIS LINK.
Book Exhibition
A book exhibition will be set up as part of the conference programme, intended for publishers to display and advertise the titles that may be of interest to the conference participants and attendees.
Should you be interested in setting up your own stand at the conference, please contact the Conference organizing team at conference@ea-aaa.eu.
