Over 100 mobility researchers from 26 countries including the US, UK, Italy, Finland, Australia, China and the Philippines participated in the 2021 Global Mobility Humanities Confernce (GMHC), positioning the GMHC as a venue for true international research networking.

At the opening ceremony, a Konkuk University campus tour was provided virtually using metaverse for researchers around the world who were unable to visit Konkuk University to attend the conference. In his opening statement, Shin In-seop, Director of the Academy of Mobility Humanities, said: “I hope that this conference will serve as an opportunity where researchers from the Asia Mobility Humanities Network and mobility researchers around the world are gathered together to share their perception on differences, cooperation and co-existence”.

Following the opening ceremony, world-renowned mobility researchers in the field of humanities and social sciences delivered a keynote speech. Professor Mimi Sheller of Worcester Polytechnic Institute, US stressed the responsibilities of researchers for ethical future of mobility, pointing out the problem of academic movement of scholars regarding carbon neutrality in “Imagining Ethical Future Mobilities: A Mobility Justice Perspective”. Professor Peter Merriman of Aberystwyth University explained that there were variable speeds and affective resonance in movement and argued that mobility research is moving away from the dichotomy of movement and stillness in his speech “Mobility/Fixity: Rethinking Binaries in Mobility Studies”. Professor Nie Zhenzhao of Zhejiang University, who serves as the chairman of the International Association for Ethical Literacy Criticism, gave a lecture under the theme of the Basic Theory of Ethical Literacy Criticism, which interprets and analyses literacy from an ethical perspective. He is recognised as a scholar who opened a new horizon for ethical literacy criticism in the world.

In the 13 presentation sessions held over the two days, researchers from the Asia Mobility Humanities Network (AMHN), Australian Mobility Research Network (AusMob), Mobility Research Institute of Lancaster University (CeMoRe), UK and Centre for Advanced Studies in Mobility & Humanities in Italy (MOHU), alongside mobility researchers from Europe and the US participated to make presentations on various topics and engage in discussion. The video clips related to the Global Mobility Humanities Conference will be open to the public on the YouTube channel of the KU Academy of Mobility Humanities.

The KU Academy of Mobility Humanities has made the GMHC a regular conference, which is now held every last week of October to ensure that mobility researchers from the east and the west can conduct academic exchanges in an interdisciplinary and convergence manner. The KU Academy of Mobility Humanities plans to hold the GMHC next year at Konkuk University in October under the theme of “Mobility, Infrastructure and the Humanities”.