Events

Mohammad Al Attar is a playwright, dramaturg, and author celebrated for his work chronicling war-torn Syria and the aftermaths of the 2011 uprisings. Plays such as Yesterday’s Encounter (2024), Damascus 2045 (2021), The Factory (2019), Aleppo: A Portrait of Absence (2017), and While I Was Waiting (2016) take place at the boundary between fiction and documentary. They have been staged at theaters and festivals around the world.

In conversation with Lisa Wedeen, Al Attar will discuss his creative practice and some of the questions he and other Syrian artists in exile grapple with as they reflect on their country’s recent past and imagine possible futures: What bargains do we make to stay safe? Whose memories count as the truth about the past, and how do revolutionary narratives get authorized? What would justice be for Syrians around the world having to deal with their sense of helplessness and abandonment? And what is the role of art in these urgent political, legal, and ethical discussions?

Born in Damascus and now living in Berlin, Al Attar is in Chicago this spring as a Visiting Scholar, hosted by the Reimagining Cosmopolitanism project with the support of the Neubauer Collegium and 3CT. During his time here, aside from working on a new play, he will take an active part in the project’s research into what it means to be a citizen of the world today.

Presented by 3CT and the Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society with support from the Pozen Family Center for Human Rights.

This event is free and open to the public, and registration is recommended. Please email us at ccct@uchicago.edu if you require any accommodations to enable your full participation.

The John Hope Franklin Workshop
Vivek Bald
Cross-Racial Histories, Transmedia Stories: The Bengali Harlem Project

April 18, 11:30 AM
The John Hope Franklin Room

This will be a hands-on session. No knowledge of Japanese is needed and participants will be examining Japanese books and manuscripts from the Edo period (1600-1868) with Peter Kornicki, the 2024 Paleography and the Book Visiting Professor. Whether you are interested in Japan or in the history of the book, this is a rare opportunity to come to grips with the trajectory that books followed in pre-modern Japan.

This will be a hands-on session. No knowledge of Japanese is needed and participants will be examining Japanese books and manuscripts from the Edo period (1600-1868) with Peter Kornicki, the 2024 Paleography and the Book Visiting Professor. Whether you are interested in Japan or in the history of the book, this is a rare opportunity to come to grips with the trajectory that books followed in pre-modern Japan.

Join us for a presentation by 

Diane Alexander, PhD
Assistant Professor of Healthcare Management, Wharton University of Pennsylvania

THIS IS AN IN-PERSON EVENT AND WILL NOT BE LIVE STREAMING.

LECTURE ABSTRACT

How do people understand their connections to the world outside and inside of themselves? What do they do to give that understanding substance in practice? This is the prolegomena to a study of “learning,” as five fields of knowledge, theory, and practice that unfolded from the late 8th century into the Qing. Professor Bol is interested in conceptualizations of fields and norms of practice. The five fields—the physical world, living organisms, institutions, language, and behavior—were cumulative and contestatory. Cumulative because practice created an ever-growing body of artifacts that constituted a field. Contestatory because new conceptualizations challenged the work of earlier figures and contemporaries. Within a field there were shared modes of practice, but there were also problematics that cut across-fields and conceptualization from one field that penetrated others. Professor Bol’s project is also intended to broaden one’s practice of “intellectual history.”

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Peter K. Bol is the Charles H. Carswell Professor of East Asian Languages and Civilizations at Harvard University. His research is centered on the intellectual and social histories of China’s elites at the national and local levels from the 7th to the 17th century. He is the author of, “This Culture of Ours”: Intellectual Transitions in T’ang and Sung China, Neo-Confucianism in History, and Localizing Learning: The Literati Enterprise in Wuzhou, 1100-1600, co-author of Sung Dynasty Uses of the I-ching, co-editor of Ways with Words, and various journal articles in Chinese, Japanese, and English.

CEAS LECTURE SERIES

The CEAS Lecture Series is an initiative that advances the University of Chicago’s Center for East Asian Studies’ mission in fostering dialogue and interdisciplinary collaboration. This annual public lecture series presents eminent scholars who concentrate on the study of East Asia in a variety of disciplines. For more information on the series, follow the link here: https://ceas.uchicago.edu/content/ceas-lecture-series-1

SPONSORSHIP

This event is co-sponsored with the University of Chicago Library.

PHOTOGRAPHY/VIDEOGRAPHY

Please note that there may be photography taken during this educational event by the University of Chicago Center for East Asian Studies for archival and publicity purposes. By attending this event, participants are confirming their permission to be photographed and the University of Chicago’s right to use, distribute, copy, and edit the recordings in any form of media for non-commercial, educational purposes, and to grant rights to third parties to do any of the foregoing.

Join the Chicago Center on Democracy and the Center for Latin American Studies for a captivating movie screening featuring Dir. Santiago Mitre’s acclaimed film, “Argentina, 1985” (2022). The screening will be followed by a discussion led by UChicago Harris Professor Alicia Menendez. 

The film follows the true tale of courage and justice as a determined public prosecutor, alongside a youthful lawyer and their inexperienced legal ensemble fearlessly undertake the task of prosecuting the leaders of Argentina’s violent military dictatorship.

This captivating film promises to transport you to the tumultuous era of 1980s Argentina, offering insight into the complexities of Latin American history and the enduring struggle for democracy. 

Please RSVP for popcorn and refreshments!

Massage Parlor Outreach Project (MPOP) is a grassroots formation of Asian/Asian American community members organizing to provide support for migrant Asian massage parlor workers, sex workers, and care workers in the greater Seattle area. At this 90 minute event, MPOP organizers Shuxuan Zhou and Rachel Sun will give a PowerPoint presentation on the history and current programs of the organization (such as licensure research, worker school, and outreach) and share workers’ oral histories. The audience will have opportunities to ask questions and have discussions about specific programs following the presentation.

Lunch will be provided!

Presented by the Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality and the Center for East Asian Studies at the University of Chicago.

Please join us at APEA on April 19 for a dissertation proposal workshop. PhD students from EALC who are working on their dissertation proposals will present the basic ideas of their projects and discuss their progress and needs in the process of writing proposals. Abstracts for the proposals will be sent out next week. Food and refreshment will be served at the workshop. We hope to see you there!

Dissertation Proposal Workshop

Presenters:

Lilian Kong, EALC & CMS

Danlin Zhang, EALC

Yunjun Zhou, EALC

Time: Friday, April 19, 3-5pm CT

Location: TBA

Please feel free to contact Danlin (danlinz@uchicago.edu) or James (kennerly@uchicago.edu) with any questions you might have, and we look forward to seeing you at the workshop!