The 2nd IAS Annual Conference organized by the Institute of Advanced Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences (IAS) of the University of Macau took place in the Library Auditorium of the University of Macau from 11 – 13 May 2022, with the theme as “The Power of ‘Truth’: A Dialogue Across Disciplines”. A total of eight keynote speeches and nine panel discussions were brought to a successful close. 12 external scholars were invited as keynote speakers and conference participants from renowned universities including Stanford University, University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, University of Edinburgh, Tsinghua University, Peking University, Fudan University, Zhejiang University etc. The impressive interdisciplinary dialogue covered different areas on literature, culture, history, society, science, technology, economics, law, medicine, and public mental health.
The conference was initiated by the IAS, with the aim of engaging the international community of academics in in-depth discussions and exchanging their unique perspectives on “truth” in Chinese cultural context, global context, and Macau context, and “truth” brought by and epistemology, science and technology, market. The conference discussed a wide range of issues including from the past, the present, Chinese and global, and connects the multiple dimensions of time, place, and space, and truly promoted the intersection, integration, and communication of different disciplines.
All speakers presented their latest research findings in disciplines namely language and translation, finance and markets, artificial intelligence applications, East Asian maritime research, land rights reform and changes, etc. It also involved local research that contributed to the construction of the Greater Bay Area, such as the study of the educational environment in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, the legal history of Macao, the musical narrative of the Macao songs, etc. At the same time, the speakers discussed mental health based on Covid-19, public space and mass communication, literary contemporaneity, and other social issues that are of the general concern, which aroused a total of over 700 participants to attend the 17 presentations over the three days.
The 2nd IAS Annual Conference built an academic bridge for interdisciplinary dialogue, aroused heated discussions and extensive participation, and promoted active exploration and in-depth exchanges between scholars with different professional backgrounds from an interdisciplinary perspective, which aligns to the initiatives of the IAS of launching high-quality academic activities and promoting multidisciplinary interaction and dialogue in the humanities and social sciences.
