Duke Kunshan University Humanities Research Center
Interdisciplinary Research Center in the Arts, Humanities, and Interpretive Social Sciences at Duke Kunshan University
IB 1008 (IB Auditorium)
A week 7 screening of Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi & Jimmy Chin‘s 2018 Free Solo (& food & drink) is the Nighthawks‘ way of saying: hang in there… ✊ Thu, Oct 12, 8pm c.t., IB 1008 (Auditorium).
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Superdeep Nighthawks meet on Thu eve (8pm till late).
2023 Session 1 theme: the Mind.
For more info or proposals for the Nighthawks follow this link, for Superdeep more generally this one.
Superdeep is sponsored by DKU’s Humanities Research Center.
Congratulations to Titas Chakraborty on her recent publications!
“Nederlandse slavernij in Zuid-Azië “(Dutch Slavery in South Asia) in Staat en Slavernij, eds, Rosemary Allen, Matthias van Rossum, Esther Captain, Urwin Vyent (Athenaeum, 2023)
This chapter provides an overview of the nature and impact of slavery and slave trade as carried out by the Dutch East India company in South Asia. The chapter was part of a book commissioned by the Dutch Ministry by the Ministry of Interior and Kingdom Relations (BZK), as a direct result of a motion filed by Dutch parliamentary Don Ceder which asked the Dutch government to present the results of independent national research into the history of slavery and into “what took place at the time of slavery, on behalf of whom and how” before the end of 2023. The publication of the book accompanied the King of Netherlands’ public apology for the Dutch state’s involvement in slavery and slave trade.
“Slavery in the Indian Ocean World” in The Palgrave Handbook of Global Slavery, eds, Damian Pargas and Juliane Schiel (Palgrave MacMillan 2023)
This chapter provides a comprehensive history of various forms of slavery in what came to be known in historical works as the Indian Ocean World, or a specific zone of multi-regional connections through maritime practices. It explores the dynamics of enslavement including the trade in slaves, the range of work that enslaved men and women performed, and the possibilities of social mobility for slaves and ex-slaves. In doing so, the chapter familiarizes readers with three major historiographical debates in the field, namely, who/what constituted the figure of a slave; the relationship between slavery in the Indian Ocean world and other forms of bondage such as the Atlantic slavery and indentured servitude; and the relationship between abolition and colonialism in the Indian Ocean world.
Titas Chakraborty is Assistant Professor of History. Her work focusses on slavery, labor, migration and gender in South Asia and the Indian Ocean World.
Congratulations to Caio Yurgel on his recent publication!
God, a Metaphor: A Meditation on Alejandra Pizarnik’s ‘Awakening.’ TEXT 27 (Special 70): 1–14. 2023.
Alejandra Pizarnik’s life was a long preparation for suicide. But instead of letting the Argentine poet’s death define her legacy, this article will focus on her intellectual sparring with the notion of God – and her ultimate strategy of turning God into a strawman for her own processes of creation. In her diaries, Pizarnik vows – like a prayer – never to call on God, never to invoke him. This is, she writes, the ultimate test: her blood may boil, her screams may consume her, her veins may burst, but she would rather keep her mouth shut. Pizarnik couldn’t bring herself to believe in God – which means she couldn’t stop writing about him.
This article will centre its analysis on Pizarnik’s most famous poem, “Awakening,” in which she repeatedly invokes the Lord (“Lord / the cage has turned into a bird / and taken flight”) until she turns him into something else, something darker still. By resorting to her diaries spanning the late 50s until her death in the early 70s, as well as her connection to the oeuvres of Sylvia Plath, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, and Jacques Lacan, this article will show how Pizarnik – labeled as a “gifted girl” – was placed (and placed herself) in the impossible position of being expected to be ambitious (because she was gifted) but not too ambitious (because she was a woman). “Awakening,” written and published between 1956 and 1958, articulates the turning point of Pizarnik’s extreme position toward God: how can someone who pushed herself so hard accept a God that would be willing to forgive anything? Continue reading “Congratulations to Caio Yurgel on his recent publication!”
Congratulations to Hyun Jeong Ha on her new article!
Klocek, J., Ha, H., & Sumaktoyo, N. G. (2023). Regime change and religious discrimination after the Arab uprisings. Journal of Peace Research 60.3: 489–503. Continue reading “Congratulations to Hyun Jeong Ha on her new article in the Journal of Peace Research and the Excellent Academic Book Award”
The Gender Studies Initiative is pleased to announce its lineup of events for the fall semester 2023. Explore a wide range of topics including gender inequality, sexuality, gender identity formation, feminism, liberation and more.
Faculty and students are invited to join the Gender Studies Initiative, a place for everyone to explore gender conversations
Contact Lia Smith <lia.smith@dukekunshan.edu.cn> or Yixin Gu <yixin.gu@dukekunshan.edu.cn> for more information.
IB 1008 (IB Auditorium)
Superdeep remain the Nighthawks when attending to My Octopus Teacher (Pippa Ehrlich & James Reed 2020) …& food & drink. Thu, Sept 28, 8pm, IB 1008 (Auditorium).
The screening is Superdeep‘s first collaboration with the DKU Sustainability Club. Club members will join us to introduce the club and their current activities.
***
Superdeep Nighthawks meet on Thu eve (8pm till late). Session 1 theme: the Mind.
For more info or proposals for the Nighthawks follow this link, for Superdeep generally this one.
Superdeep is sponsored by DKU’s Humanities Research Center.
A research project initiated by Ho Rui An and Zian Chen in collaboration with Feng Haoxin, Liew Xiao Theng, Sun Jiyuan, Wang Ruohan, Xiong Xin, Yan Jiayue, Zeng Yuting, Zhang Tianyu, Zhang Yilin, Zhou Feiyang
Duration: 7th-11th Oct, 2023
Public Program: 7th Oct,2023 (Sat)
Organizers: Ming Yuan Group, Ming Contemporary Art Museum
Supported by: DKUNST Art on Campus｜Division of Arts and Humanities | Humanities Research Center, Duke Kunshan University
Drawing the Lines: Spinning and Weaving Histories at a River’s End is a research project initiated by Ho Rui An and Zian Chen that examines the historical development of the textile industry within the Yangtze River Delta region beginning in the late nineteenth century. Following a six-month process of fieldwork, archival research, and workshops supported by Duke Kunshan University’s (DKU) DKUNST Art on Campus program and with the participation of DKU undergraduates, the project culminates in a research-based installation and one-day public program at Ming Contemporary Art Museum—formerly the premises of a paper machine factory in a reflection of Shanghai’s industrial heritage.
The installation organizes the materials gathered over the research process into three sections, namely Narration, Network, and Noise, each providing an artistically inspired framework to probe into the shifting relations between labor, technology, and capital across over a century of textile histories in the region. Through the public program, the objects and images on display are further articulated through a series of live interventions that include a lecture, guided tour, mapping exercise, and tea session with former textile workers.
The DKUNST Art on Campus program is curated by Prof. Zairong Xiang.
Reported by Lia Smith, Class of 2026
The screening and discussion of Picture a Scientist was the first Gender Studies Initiative event of the Fall 2023 semester. Picture a Scientist is a powerful documentary that illustrates challenges faced by women scientists in the U.S. Women scientists in various fields such as biology, chemistry, and geology discuss their daily encounters of harassment, both big and small. These encounters can range from degradation and bullying from mentors, failing to get the same-sized office compared to their male collogues, and seemingly minor but constant harassment at work. This documentary also reveals the intersectionalities that are at play with gender to further marginalize women of color and women of older age in the field. Continue reading “Student Report on Picture a Scientist Screening and Discussion”
Reported by Lia Smith, Class of 2026
The HRC Gender Studies Initiative‘s Gender+ series continued on Wednesday, September 13, 2023with a discussion of Gender+Mind in DKU’s Water Pavilion. This event brought philosophy professors Hwa Yeong Wang and Emily McWilliams together for a conversation on the development of philosophical thought in relation to gender. Continue reading “Student Report on Gender + Mind Talk”
Congratulations to Gürol Baba, Global Fellow of Arts and Humanities at DKU, on the recent publication of a special issue on the theme of South Asian Impulses in the Middle East: An Asymmetrical Transregionalism, in the Journal of Asian and African Studies, which he guest edited with his colleague Amit Ranhan. The issue features Baba and Ranjan’s introduction, as well as Baba’s research article Middle East–South Asia Relations: Transregional Minilateralism Cemented with Bilateralism.
Continue reading “Congratulations to Gürol Baba on his recent publications!”
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