Keynote Speaker
Date: 15 - 16 May 2025 (Thursday & Friday)
Time: 9:30 AM – 5:15 PM (THU); 10:00 AM – 4:20 PM (FRI)
Registration Time: 9:30 AM (THU)
Venue: MBG06 Lam Woo Lecture Theatre, Patrick Lee Wan Keung Academic Building, Lingnan University
Registration Link: Registration | International Interdisciplinary Conference - Advances in Comparative Culturology
Programme Schedule
Programme Rundown | International Interdisciplinary Conference - Advances in Comparative Culturology
Conference Booklet
About the Conference
The “Advances in Comparative Culturology” conference invites leading international and local scholars to explore the most fundamental questions in cultural research:
- What is culture, and how do we conceptualize and measure it?
- Why does culture change, and what patterns does this change follow?
- How is culture as an ecological construct related to individuals’ psychology?
- What role does culture play in driving social change?
This two-day event brings together diverse perspectives from sociology, psychology, anthropology, business, government, and other related disciplines.
Conference Topics and Themes
The conference focuses broadly on the concept of culture as patterns of (shared) meanings, practices, and values at the collective level that shape and are, in turn, shaped by human thought and behavior. Topics include:
- Conceptualizing and measuring cultural differences
- Cultural change and its drivers
- Societal and psychological implications of cultural differences and cultural change
- Origins and patterns of cultural variation
- Interdisciplinary approaches to culture
- Methodological developments in cultural research
- Other related topics
Keynote Speaker
Shinobu Kitayama (University of Michigan, USA)
Shinobu Kitayama, the Robert B. Zajonc Collegiate Professor of Psychology and Research Professor at the Research Center for Group Dynamics at the University of Michigan, is a pioneering figure in socio-cultural psychology. His groundbreaking exploration of the cultural diversity of mental processes has placed him at the forefront of this dynamic field. Kitayama's research spans diverse areas, from cultural neuroscience to the study of interdependence in non-Western societies, offering profound insights into the psychological underpinnings of culture. His transformative work has garnered numerous prestigious awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Research Award, the Distinguished Scientific Contributions Award from the American Psychological Association, and the William James Fellow Award from the Association for Psychological Science (APS). In addition to his scholarly contributions, Kitayama has held prominent leadership roles, serving as APS President from 2020 to 2021. He currently serves as President-Elect of the Federation of the Associations for Behavioral and Brain Sciences.
In two recent publications—one in American Psychologist (Kitayama et al., 2022) and another in Annual Review of Psychology (Kitayama & Salvador, 2024)—my colleagues and I have argued that, outside of the Western world (e.g., Western Europe and North America), many cultures are deeply interdependent, meaning that members of these cultures define themselves through their commitment to their group and embeddedness within social relationships. However, the form of this interdependence varies widely, shaped by long-standing ecological and historical factors. One region that has been largely overlooked in cultural psychology is Sub-Saharan Africa. In this context, we identify a unique form of interdependence: self-promotive interdependence. Within this cultural system, within-group competition is not merely tolerated but embraced as a mechanism for skill development and group success. Individuals see their identification with the group and their competitive engagement as mutually reinforcing. Moreover, success is viewed as a shared social experience. As a result, people express both socially disengaging positive emotions (e.g., pride, self-esteem) and engaging emotions (e.g., connection, warmth) in response to both personal and ingroup success. This emerging evidence challenges existing frameworks of interdependence and opens new avenues for cultural psychology research. I will discuss these insights and explore their implications for future studies.