Sven Günther, Dialogical Cultures Senior Fellow
Sven Günther is a full professor of Classics at the Institute for the History of Ancient Civilizations (IHAC), Northeast Normal University, Changchun, China, where he is also vice-director. His research centers on Greco-Roman socio-economic history, numismatics, and reception history, and he has published widely in these and related fields. He has always followed the Humboldtian ideal of close linkage between teaching and research which is reflected in his numerous projects crossing traditional boundaries between disciplines, fields, and institutions. At IHAC, he is responsible for all international affairs of the institute that comprises not only Classics, i.e. Greek and Roman studies, but also Ancient Near Eastern Studies, Egyptology, and Byzantine Studies. Among several other editorial responsibilities, he is editor-in-chief of IHAC’s double-blind peer-reviewed Journal of Ancient Civilizations. Professor Günther is strongly committed to the idea of global(izing) Classics and Ancient Studies, which is a cultural heritage of, and for, the world.
Project at KU CAS
Augustus in Saigon: Dialogues between Western Antiquity, Colonial Past, and Post-Colonial Society in Vietnam
The rich culture of nowadays Vietnam is deeply entangled with various histories the country faced in the course of times. While ancient Vietnamese cultures had already (direct or indirect) contact to so-called Western ancient empires, particularly the colonial past has been written into the urban space and practice (in form of architectures, monuments, sculptures, inscriptions, coins, etc.) in a penetrating way. With it, Greek and Roman antiquities and concepts have entered and framed the peoples’, especially the respective viewers’, mind from the 19th century until today, mainly in a top-down, imperialistic way.
The goal of the fellowship is to discuss and finalize a scientific article on this subject that is based on field studies that were conducted during a provost’s distinguished fellowship at the Fulbright University Vietnam (FUV), Ho-Chi-Minh City, in spring semester 2022 (February to May 2022). The field studies accompanied a course for FUV-students that built on the concept of smart city and aimed at critically engaging FUV-students in the debates about the Western classical heritage through the design of an online exhibition via the tool OMEKA which is suitable for digital mapping. Within the field studies and the course, the concept of frames and framing, being used in social sciences and communication studies, among others, was applied to explore the “classical” past in its urban space throughout the times. The whole project shall enable a critical dialogue about the use, and abuse, of classical themes in the past and present and the way one can deal with, and engage in, this heritage. This dialogue will be triggered and established by linking classicizing spaces in present-day Ho-Chi-Minh City with Graeco-Roman antiquities, to see the continuities, modifications, and breaks throughout times.