“Future Exploration 2050” IFI Seminar – Exploring the Future of Knowledge- 1st Seminar: Questioning “Humanity” from Art History and Environmental Ethics

In the 21st century, where science and technology are advancing at an accelerating pace and international society is undergoing turbulent changes, we are increasingly concerned about the future. As we witness the progress of information and communication technologies and biotechnologies, and look back at the turbulence in the international society caused by the global spread of the COVID-19 disaster that began in 2020, it is obvious that simply looking to the future based on past experiences and events is insufficient.

One thing that will certainly play an increasing role in the future is knowledge. Modern society is increasingly becoming a knowledge-intensive society where new values are created through knowledge, and in order to look into the future, we need to consider the knowledge that will be produced in the future. Moreover, collaborative creation among researchers in various fields and with stakeholders in society will be important.

In this series of seminars, based on the book “Future Exploration 2050” (Nikkei BP) compiled by the Institute for Future Initiatives (IFI) of the University of Tokyo in March 2021, lecturers from different but potentially synergistic fields and IFI faculty members will engage in cross-disciplinary discussions to open the door to deep thinking about a complex and multilayered future.

In the first seminar, we will invite experts in seemingly distant fields, namely art history, and environmental ethics, and they will discuss the theme “What is ‘humanity’ ? “, with a moderator whose expertise is in the field of science, technology and society.

–Mayumi Fukunaga, Associate Professor, Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, UTokyo (Environmental Ethics)

After working as an assistant professor at the College of Sociology, Rikkyo University, an associate professor at the Research Center for the 21st Century, Osaka Prefecture University, and a visiting researcher at UC Berkeley, Mayumi Fukunaga assumed her current position in April 2015.

–Atsushi Miura, Professor, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, UTokyo (Art History)

In 1985, Atsushi Miura moved to France to study the history of modern Western art at l’Université Paris-Sorbonne (Paris-IV). After working as an assistant professor at the University of Tokyo’s College of Arts and Sciences, and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, he assumed his current position in 2006.
He holds a doctorate from l’Université Paris-Sorbonne (Paris-IV) and is a Chevalier of the French ‘Order of Arts and Letters’.
His major publications include “Representations of the Modern Artist: Manet, Fantin-Latour and French Paintings in the 1860s” (2006, Suntory Prize for Social Sciences and Humanities), “Edouard Manet: A Revolution in Western Art History” (2018), and “Art in Migration: Japonisme, Collin, Japanese Modern Painting” (2021), etc.

–Arisa Ema, Associate Professor, Institute for Future Initiatives, Utokyo (Science, Technology and Society)
Arisa Ema is Associate Professor at the Institute for Future Initiatives, the University of Tokyo and Visiting Researcher at RIKEN Center for Advanced Intelligence Project in Japan. She is a researcher in Science and Technology Studies (STS), and her primary interest is to investigate the benefits and risks of artificial intelligence by organizing an interdisciplinary research group.

fe-seminar★ifi.u-tokyo.ac.jp(★→@)