Dr. Chad Hoggan: The Varieties of Transformative Experience

By Hantian Zhang
Class of 2025

On December 3rd, 2021, Dr. Chad Hoggan was invited as the speaker to Third Space Lab’s “Guest Speakers Series” to speak about “The Varieties of Transformative Experience.” As an Associate Professor of Adult & Lifelong Education at North Carolina State University and the Co-editor of the Journal of Transformative Education, Dr. Hoggan does research on significant learning experiences in adulthood.

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By Hantian Zhang

As the last keynote lecture in 2021 Humanities Research Center’s Fall Conference, Behind the Scenes: Cao Fei in conversation with Zairong Xiang adopted a unique form. In this lecture, Professor Zairong Xiang, who researches in art and literature, asked questions to renowned multimedia artist Cao Fei, which generated a conversation for audience to obtain inspiration. (Due to the requirements of epidemic prevention and control, Cao Fei spoke online.)

To open up the theme of the conference: The Future of Work and Labor, Professor Xiang first introduced the guest speaker — Cao Fei, whose works reflect on mental changes in the rapid development of modern China and consistently focus on the question of labor in them through film, video, photography, and other media.

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By Hantian Zhang

Cao Fei, winner of the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize (2021) , is an internationally-renowned Chinese contemporary artist. She was the guest of the one of the three student seminars in 2021 Humanities Research Center’s Fall Conference. The prerequisite of this seminar was to watch two of Cao Fei’s films about the future of work and labor – 11.11 (2018) and Asia One (2018).

11.11 is a documentary that records the work overload of the entire JD.com logistics system before and after the “double eleven” shopping day in China and reflecting on the reality. Asia One focuses on art performance. It shows an emotional entanglement between the “unmanned” (intelligentized production), “human” and “non-human” (robot). In this seminar, Cao Fei answered a series of edgy and meaningful questions from students, which provided lots of inspiration in art realm.

“Art is so romantic but what is its realistic function?” (more…)

By Peter (Yanming) Shen

On the last day of the Humanities Research Fall Conference, the newest lab under the Humanities Research Center, the DOC Lab, was initiated. The DOC Lab, co-established by Prof. Kolleen Guy, Prof. Seth Henderson, and Prof. Kaley Clements aims to explore and understand the world of documentary.

At first Prof. Henderson briefly introduced leading members of the DOC Lab, also appreciated the support from the HRC. The lab plans to promote documentaries in any form and documentary studies in various approaches. Other than directly funding student-led documentary making and documentary-based research, the lab is planning a series of activities, including screening salons, filmmaking workshops, and many more.

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By Xiaoliang Yang

On Saturday, November 13^th, the student seminar hosted by Professor Jianbao Wang was held in the innovation building 1051, from 13:00 to 14:30 pm. The topic was “Entrepreneurship and Confucian Ethics.”

Professor Jianbao Wang is the Director of the Center for the Humanities and Business Ethics at Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business. His research focuses on Confucianism as well as developing new business models. His publications are published in renowned journals and other outlets including ChinaNews, Chuanshan Journal and People’s Daily. Before pursuing his doctoral degree in Philosophy at Peking University, Professor Wang had rich experiences in practicing entrepreneurship, from corporate group management to representing Pakistan Railway.

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Humanities Research Center Labs & Student Research Projects Seminar

By Peter (Yanming) Shen

The HRC Labs & Student Research Projects presentations were held on November 12, 2021, at the Lecture Hall in the Innovation Building. The purpose of the event was to show the research work of the labs of the Humanities Research Center, especially featuring the outcome of student researchers and student-led projects. Due to travel restrictions, the speakers joined the event both in-person and online. All the projects were founded by HRC, the SELF (Student Experimental Learning Fellowship) program, and/or the SRS (Summer Research Scholar) project. Also, many of the programs are products or period products of students’ Signature Work.

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An Exploratory Science Fiction Journey of a Storyteller: Mr. Stanley (Qiufan) Chen’ s Student Seminar

By Dongkun Lyu

Started with a short introduction from the student leader, the whole seminar went smoothly in a peaceful afternoon. The student leader asked Mr. Chen a question as a brief introduction – which identity does he prefer among all the identities he has. His answer was, “a storyteller.”

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November 12, 2021

Faculty Panel 1B: Literary and Virtual Reality
By Waner Shao

Ben Van Overmiere: Zen and the Art of Detective Fiction: The Case of Janwillem van de Wetering (1932-2008)

Few people have thought that there is a relation between detective fiction and Zen Buddhism. This research examined this relationship through the work of the Dutch writer Janwillem van de Wetering. Before he became famous as a detective writer, he also deeply explored Zen Buddhism. He drew his inspiration for detective fiction through Buddhism. This relation is considered important, and this research hypothesized that popular literature could immensely influence people’s impression of Buddhism.

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