From November 19-21, 2025, the University of Latvia hosted an international conference entitled “The Grammar of Time: Ontologies and Practices in Cross-Cultural Perspective,” organized by Professor Kaspars Kļaviņš, Head of the Asian Studies Department at the Faculty of Humanities.
The event brought together a wide range of scholars from Latvia, South Korea, China, Slovenia, India, Azerbaijan, the Philippines, Nigeria, Spain, the United States, the United Kingdom, Denmark, and other countries, making the University of Latvia one of the most prominent online meeting places in this field of research.
Over the course of three days, LU provided a multidisciplinary view of the concept of time, from physics, neurobiology, and philosophy to anthropology, literature, religious studies, and comparative cultural research. At the opening of the conference, Professor Mārcis Auziņš’ keynote speech on the differences between Einstein’s and Bergson’s understanding of time attracted particular attention.
The program included more than 60 presentations analyzing the understanding of time in different civilizations: India, China, Korea, Japan, the Middle East, Europe, and elsewhere. Topics such as plural ontologies of time, traditional and modern models of time, the perception of time in literature, religious texts and visual culture, as well as the concept of time in the context of contemporary social transformation were discussed. The conference was attended by both leading international researchers and young scientists representing a wide range of disciplines and countries.
The conference concluded with a special student section, in which students from the LU bachelor’s program “Asian and Intercultural Studies” presented their research on the concept of time in different cultures.
The following three videos are available to view for free on YouTube: