第一屆新文科國際會議 The 1st International Conference on New Liberal Arts (ICNLA-1) -Invited Speakers

Keynote Speaker

Professor Jing Yijia – Fudan University, China

Title: Building New Competence of Public Management Research via Multidisciplinary Studies

Abstract: (to be updated)

Speaker Bio: (to be updated)

Keynote Speaker

Professor Ming Fang He – Georgia Southern University, USA

Title: Paradigms, Perspectives, and Possibilities of Liberal Arts Education

Abstract:

Drawing upon William H. Schubert’s (e.g., 1986, 1996, 1997, 2009, 2018, 2022, 2024, & 2025) lifelong work on curriculum perspectives, paradigms, and possibilities and my own work on exile pedagogy (e.g., He, 2010), East meets West in curriculum studies (e.g., He, 2016), curriculum innovations (e.g., He, 2021), diaspora curriculum (e.g., He, 2022), Asian diaspora theories, methodologies, and practices (e.g., He, Sharma, & Yu, 2024, 2025), this keynote focuses on the perspectives, paradigms, and possibilities of liberal arts education through a wide array of intellectual traditions such as the intellectual traditionalist, the social behaviorist, the experientialist, the critical reconstructionist, the postmodernist and poststructuralist, digital humanities, and exile/diaspora imaginaries/futurities. Potentials, challenges, and future directions of liberal arts education will be explored.

Speaker Bio:

Ming Fang He is Professor of Curriculum Studies at Georgia Southern University. She has been teaching at the graduate, pre-service, and in-service levels in the United States, Canada, Hong Kong, and China. She explores education, curriculum, and life in-between the Eastern and Western philosophy with a focus on Confucius, John Dewey, Tsunesaburo Makiguchi, Daisaku Ikeda, Weiming Tu, Martha Nussbaum, and Edward Saïd. She has written about cross-cultural narrative inquiry of language, culture, and identity in multicultural contexts, cross-cultural teacher education, curriculum studies, activist practitioner inquiry, social justice research, exile curriculum, diaspora curriculum, narrative of curriculum in the U. S. South, and transnational and Asian diaspora studies. Her books include: A River Forever Flowing: Cross-Cultural Lives and Identities in the Multicultural Landscape (2003); Narrative and Experience in Multicultural Education (with Michael Connelly & JoAnn Phillion, 2005); Handbook of Curriculum and Instruction (with Michael Connelly & JoAnn Phillion, 2008); Personal~Passionate~Participatory Inquiry into Social Justice in Education (with JoAnn Phillion, 2008); Handbook of Asian Education [with Yong Zhao (Editor), Jing Lei, Goufang Li, Kaori Okano, Nagwa Megahed, David Gamage, & Hema Ramanathan (Co-Editors), 2011]; Sage Guide to Curriculum in Education (with Brian Schultz & William Schubert, 2015); and Oxford Encyclopedia of Curriculum Studies (Editors-in-Chief with William Schubert; with Associate Editors: Isabel Nuñez, Patrick Roberts, Sabrina Ross, & Brian D. Schultz). She co-edits two book series with Information Age Publishing: Research for Social Justice: Personal~Passionate~Participatory Inquiry (with JoAnn Phillion) and Landscapes of Education (with William Schubert). She guest edited an issue of Critical Inquiry into Curriculum and Instruction on Experiential Approaches in Curriculum Studies: Personal, Passionate, and Participatory Inquiries (with JoAnn Phillion, 2001); a special issue of Journal of Curriculum Theorizing on Narrative of Curriculum in the U. S. South: Lives In-Between Contested Race, Gender, Class, and Power (with Sabrina Ross, 2013); a special issue of The Sophist’s Bane: A Journal of the Society of Professors of Education on Minority Women Professors Venturing on the Landscapes of Education (with Sabrina Ross, 2015); and Part I and Part II of a special issue of The Journal of Diaspora, Indigenous, and Minority Education: Studies of Migration, Integration, Equity, and Cultural Survival (DIME): Asian diaspora theorizing: Defying racism~re-imagining alternate nows~invigorating otherwise futures (with Suniti Sharma and Min Yu, 2024 & 2025). She was an Editor of Curriculum Inquiry (2003-2005). She is Co-Editor-in-Chief of Educational Studies (2020-2025; 2025-2030), a Leading Associate Editor of Multicultural Perspectives (2003-2024), and a member of International Editorial Board of Curriculum Inquiry (since 2015). She was the Vice President of the AERA Division B (2014-2017). Her current research is expanded to the education of ethnic minorities and disenfranchised individuals, groups, tribes, and societies, particularly Asian diasporas, in the United States, Canada, Hong Kong, Mainland China, and other international contexts.  

Keynote Speaker

Professor Lawrence Zhang  – University of Auckland, New Zealand

Title: Navigating Ethical Frontiers: AI Integration in L2 Writing Education

Abstract:

In this plenary, I address the urgent and evolving ethical considerations surrounding the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in second language (L2) writing instruction—a shift that is rapidly reshaping the landscape of language education. As AI tools become more deeply embedded in writing pedagogy, questions of fairness, agency, and contextually appropriate use demand critical attention. My aim is to foreground these concerns through empirical insights from two recent studies conducted by my research team. The first study involved the development and validation of a scale designed to measure English language teachers’ ethical anxiety about AI use in L2 writing. Surveying 309 college instructors across China, we adopted Exploratory Structural Equation Modelling (ESEM) and multidimensional Rasch model to identify key dimensions of ethical tension, including intellectual agency, critical evaluation, equitable access, cultural and contextual awareness, and authentic assessment. These findings highlight how teachers are negotiating the ethical stakes of AI in their day-to-day practice. In the second study, we adopted Q methodology to explore how 20 pre-service teachers constructed local understandings of AI ethics in L2 writing through an ecological lens. By sorting and reflecting on 36 ethically charged statements, participants revealed diverse and sometimes conflicting perspectives on the promises and risks of AI-mediated instruction. Their viewpoints underscore the need for nuanced, context-sensitive approaches to ethical decision-making in classrooms. Taken together, these studies illuminate how both experienced and future educators are grappling with the ethical terrain of AI in language teaching and learning. It can be argued that these findings have critical implications for teacher education, policymaking, and the responsible, human-centred integration of AI in L2 writing. Through this talk, I hope to encourage more grounded, inclusive, and reflective conversations about the future of AI in language education.

Speaker Bio: (to be updated)

Keynote Speaker

Professor Lin Huayong – Sun Yat-sen University, China

Title: 面向比較的方言數據標註

Abstract: (to be updated)

Speaker Bio: (to be updated)