About the conference
The twentieth-century encounter between Protestant Christianity and the upland peoples in the China-Southeast Asia borderlands has been one of the most significant historical developments in the region, and has reshaped both the communal life of ethnic minorities and their relations to the valley civilization.
The vigorous expansion of Christian communities among the peripheral peoples has also been part of the modern transformation of Christianity as its center of gravity shifted away from the global north to the global south and east.
Adopting an interdisciplinary approach that draws on the participants’ background in history, anthropology, linguistics, missiology, and gender and cultural studies, the conference explores the critical role of Christianity in the minority peoples’ response to modernity. It focuses on their identity construction, community building, and struggles for material and cultural survival in the face of political turmoil, social upheavals, and technological revolutions of the past century.
The co-organizers of this conference are: David Bradley (Emeritus Professor of Linguistics, La Trobe University); Xi Lian (David Steinmetz Distinguished Professor of World Christianity, Duke Divinity School); and Ralph Litzinger (Associate Professor of Cultural Anthropology, Duke University)
Information for in-person attendees
The Carpenter Conference Room (249) is located on the second floor of the Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, adjacent to the Perkins Library. All scheduled panel sessions will take place in this room. Please note that the welcome as well as all panel sessions will be broadcast in real time over Zoom so that remote attendees may take part.
Entrance to the library building with directions to stairs to conference room
Visitors to Duke can find information about parking on campus as well as dining options near the Rubenstein Library.
The closest visitor parking lot to the conference site is PGIV, also known on Google maps as the Bryan Center garage. Visitor spaces in this garage do tend to fill up on weekdays, so guests to campus should be mindful, especially when arriving later in the day.
Walking directions from visitor parking (Parking Garage IV) to Rubenstein Library entrance
Visitors who are taking a shuttle or bus from Durham or other sites on campus should disembark at the West Chapel bus stop (served by the C1/C3 bus line).
Walking directions from West Chapel bus stop to Rubenstein Library entrance
