WINTER PILOT PROGRAM

2022 The ACE Summer Intensive Program

The five-day event featured discussions between university students from South Korea, Japan, China, and Singapore to demystify social inequality in Asia through a media analysis

By ACE Conference Team

*ACE, founded in 2021, is short for The Asian Consortium for Excellence in Liberal Arts and Interdisciplinary Education. This program is a four-way interscholastic exchange between the liberal studies colleges within Seoul National University, Rikkyo University, Peking University, and National University of Singapore.

DATE: 2022.08.01 ~ 2022.08.05

LOCATION: Rikkyo University(Zoom)

STUDENT PARTICIPANTS

• Seoul National University: 6 students

• National University of Singapore: 5 students

• Peking University: 6 students

• Rikkyo University: 6 students

OTHER PARTICIPANTS

• Keynote Speaker: Professor Hannah Kim from Macalester University

• Seoul National University Faculty: 1 professor, 1 student advisor, 1 teaching assistant

• National University of Singapore Faculty: 2 professors

• Peking University Faculty: 1 professor

• Rikkyo University Faculty: 1 professor

uary 14th (Monday) through February 18th (Friday), Seoul National University hosted the first-ever ACE Conference over Zoom, a platform that replaced what would have been an offline conference had it not been for the pandemic era. The topic of this conference was ‘Demystifying Social Inequality in Asia’. For this online conference setting, students were separated into three themed sections: social media, film and drama, and news media, with each section splitting into two groups, every group including a member from each university. Over the five days, student groups analyzed the topic of ‘Demystifying Social Inequality in Asia’ through their assigned theme lens to prepare a group presentation for the final day. This confer

The ACE 2022 Summer Intensive Program was hosted by Rikkyo University for a total of six days: five days from Monday, August 1, 2022 to Friday, Augusu 5, 2022 (offline), and one day on Wednesday

The ACE 2022 Summer Intensive Program was hosted by Rikkyo University for a total of six days: five days from Monday, August 1, 2022 to Friday, August 5, 2022 (offline), and one day on Wednesday, September 21, 2022 (online). This was the first face-to-face program since the establishment of The ACE*. A total of 26 students participated in the program, including 6 from Seoul National University, 6 from the National University of Singapore, 8 from Rikkyo University, and 6 from Peking University (Peking University students partially participated online during hybrid sessions). Hiroyuki Naito, Specially Appointed Associate Professor of Center for Global Human Resource Development., discussed the theme of global leadership with the students, explained the urban redevelopment of Ikebukuro, and assigned the task of “Proposals to make Ikebukuro a space for international exchange where foreigners can gather.” Students from the three universities were divided into four teams. Capitalizing on the perspectives of each group member, they conducted fieldwork, observation and discussion, and gave presentations on the final day. Peking University students actively provided feedback on each team’s presentation, adding new perspectives and insights.

Each group took their unique approach to clarify different kinds of social inequality in Asia. After the presentations were done, the students were asked to vote on a presentation that resonate with them. By a close vote, 1-1 Social Media group (Shauna Tan, Aicy Li, Yuka Sato Hyeshin Oh) was awarded best presentation for their eye-opening discussion on the everyday impacts of linguistic inequality in Asia. During the closing ceremony, all students were awarded Certificates of Participation and the winning group participants received an additional Award of Excellence and the books Pachinko by Min Jin Lee and Minor Feelings by Cathy Park Hong. With a final speech from the host students, the five-day conference was brought to a close.