In her history of the idea of "relevance" since the 19th century, Elisa Tamarkin explores the term as a means to grasp how something once disregarded, unvalued, or lost becomes interesting and important.
Sophie Volpp considers fictional objects of the late Ming and Qing that defy being read as illustrative of historical things, and are instead often signs of fictionality itself.
Communities in China: Ethics, Laws, and Politics
Loubna El-Amine and Haiyan Lee contrast visions of the good life in communities in Early China and in today's PRC, using them as vantage points from which to explore the moral imagination.
Families in Imperial China
Exploring sources from travel diaries to legal casebooks, panelists address the complexities and contradictions surrounding the notion of the traditional family in mid- and late-imperial China.
Grant-Seeking in the Arts and Humanities
This online workshop provides guidance for pursuing research and programmatic support from private foundations interested in the arts and humanities.
Cultural Heritage in China as Endangered Species?
In contemporary China, the concept of cultural heritage encompasses a range of political and economic considerations. Panelists ask who benefits from the policies and politics of heritage.
The identity of Homer is shrouded in mystery, including doubts that he was an actual person. James Porter explores Homer’s mystique, approaching the poet not as a man, but as a cultural invention.
Kate Heslop approaches Viking Age poetry through an innovative interpretive framework that considers the texts as pieces in a premodern multimedia landscape.
The Atlantic Realists: Empire and International Political Thought between Germany and the United States
Matthew Specter offers a revisionist interpretation of the "realist" worldview, which shaped US foreign policy, public discourse, and international relations theory after World War II and throughout the Cold War.
Figures of Possibility: Aesthetic Experience, Mysticism, and the Play of the Senses
Niklaus Largier explores the ways in which devotional practices have informed experimental engagements in literature and art from the 17th to the 20th centuries.