Project Term: 2017-2022
Budget: NT$10 million
Origin: The Tang Prize is awarded on a biennial basis, each with a cash reward of NT$40 million. Projects proposed by the laureates also receive a grant of up to NT$10 million
Project Summary: Professor William Theodore de Bary, the 2016 Tang Prize laureate in Sinology, has long been working toward a cogent articulation of the theory and pedagogy of interculturation for the humanities. Therefore, his grant funds will be used to support further research, development, publications and outreach of ideas related to “interculturation” and interculturation pedagogy at the level of higher education. In particular, the grant will finance 1) the time and resources needed for the grantee to engage in research and writing of books and articles on the theory and pedagogy of interculturation. This project calls for the publication of two books within the allotted five-year’s time, both tentatively titled, the first one, Classics for an Emerging World: Theory and Pedagogy of Internculturation, and the second one, Music: Toward an Interculturation of Nobility and Civility; and 2) the application of said pedagogy to the program development and training of the Symposium, a student-oriented, non-profit organization dedicated to involving college and high school students from throughout the global community in critical and cross-cultural discussions of perennial human issues as embedded in classic texts of the world’s traditions. The Symposium carries great potential to be an effective and efficient conduit by which the theory and pedagogy of interculturation can get tested, applied, and most of all, proactively shared with those likely to benefit from it most—young people.
Related Link: Symposium in Taiwan