From 11to 13 December 2008, the University of Hong Kong and the University of Nottingham jointly organised a workshop on the theme of Diasporas: Cultural Transfer, held at the University of Hong Kong.  This was the second workshop on the theme of Diasporas, the first, organised by the University of Nottingham, having been held at the University of Queensland in July 2006, and devoted to the theme of Diaspora(s): Movements and Cultures.

The Hong Kong workshop brought together representatives from the University of Auckland; University College Dublin; University of Hong Kong; National University of Singapore; University of New South Wales; University of Nottingham; University of Nottingham Ningbo China; University of Queensland; University of Virginia; and Waseda University, together with representatives from partner institutions: University of Bologna; Baptist University of Hong Kong; Brown University; University of California Berkely; University of California Santa Barbara; University of Durham; Niagara University; University of Western Sydney; and Wuhan University.

The programme, available on http://arts.hku.hk/diasporas, included papers on Chinese cultural diaspora, both within South-East Asia and beyond; diasporic communities in the UK, the Pacific and the United States; British childhood in Hong Kong; Russian émigré theatre;and the Roma communities in Europe, and focussed on memoirs, film, literature, theatre, the plastic arts, dance and journalism.

The workshop, which was generously funded by contributions from both organising institutions, will result in three outputs:  a general collection from the conference proceedings, to be published by CCC Press, UK; a more targeted book on China and the West, to be published by the University of Hong Kong Press; and an e-book on the theme of Ports and Borders, to be published by Melbourne University Press as part of Universitas 21's e-books series.

The aim of these workshops is to further collaborative research networks under the U21 umbrella on Diasporas, possibly through smaller regional or thematic groupings and projects, and the next full workshop will take place in December 2010 at the University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus in Kuala Lumpur. 

 Advance proposals for papers are welcome and should be addressed to Professor Nicholas Hewitt at the University of Nottingham (nick.hewitt@nottingham.ac.uk).