The Life and Legacy of Pope Francis
When: Tuesday April 29, 12:00-1:30pm
Location: Performance Cafe
You are warmly invited to attend a panel discussion on the life and legacy of Pope Francis on Tuesday April 29, 2025, 12:00-1:30pm in the Performance Cafe. The panel will feature short presentations from DKU students and faculty reflecting on the personal, political, theological, and global impact of Pope Francis’s life and work.
Student Report on Reading Group for “Embracing Diversity: Developing Cultural Competence for Inclusive Education”
By Yaxuan Wang, Class of 2027
On Friday, March 28, 2025, DKU faculty, staff, and students gathered for our second reading group session on “Embracing Diversity: Developing Cultural Competence for Inclusive Education.” This event brought together participants from various backgrounds for a timely and engaging discussion on the experiences of LGBTQ+ communities, with a particular focus on the Chinese social and cultural context.
The session began with a brief overview of the week’s reading, which examined the current landscape for LGBTQ+ individuals in China.The article highlighted the rise in visibility and online activism alongside persistent challenges such as censorship, traditional family structures, and limited legal recognition. Participants reflected on how these overlapping dynamics shape the lived experiences of LGBTQ+ people in China, especially youth.
Facilitators Dr. Zhenjie Weng and Dr. Yanan Zhao led the group in an open and thoughtful conversation. Participants shared insights into how LGBTQ+ issues are discussed—or not discussed—within their own communities, and what kinds of language and representation are available to them. The discussion emphasized the importance of solidarity, active listening, and creating safer spaces where queer voices can be heard and respected.
The session concluded with a hands-on group activity, where participants were asked to rank five categories of policy recommendations from most to least important or feasible. The categories included: Legal and Policy Reforms; Public Awareness and Social Inclusion; Healthcare and Mental Health Services; Education and Employment Protections; and Support for Civil Society and Research. Each group compared their rankings and justified their choices based on real-world considerations, sparking further reflection on what meaningful change might look like in both local and national contexts.
The event was organized by Dr. Zhenjie Weng, Assistant Professor of English Language Education, and Dr. Yanan Zhao, Senior Lecturer of English for Academic Purposes, from the Language and Culture Center, and was sponsored by the Humanities Research Center. Student worker Yaxuan Wang contributed to the planning and success of the event.
Having It All: Understanding Work & Family Dynamics in Contemporary Korea
Join us for another installment in the HRC Gender Studies Lab Lecture Series alongside Portland State University’s Professor Woo. In Korea, educational attainment has risen for all, but women’s employment is M-shaped and marriage/fertility rates are down. The complex social-gender mix is unique. During this event, we’ll compare gender health in Korea, Finland & US for working-age adults. Explore work-family-health links among young Koreans. Discover how underrepresented Korean women face gender inequality. Insights await!
Speaker: Hyeyoung Woo, Professor of Sociology, Portland State University
Time: April 15, 11 AM – 12:15 PM
Location: LIB 1113 or Online (Zoom meeting ID: 927 8924 0248)
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Between Worlds, Beneath Gazes: Gendered Fieldwork in Afro-Chinese Encounters
Time: March 31, 4:30 PM
Location: LIB1117
Speaker: Yu Qiu
The GSL Workshop Series is proud to present this event! Join the talk for Yu Qiu, a social anthropologist at Zhejiang University. Her research focuses on intimacy, migration, ethics, and identity politics, with fieldwork experience in Nigeria, Tanzania, and China. Her work has been published in leading journals such as Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, Open Times, and Journal of African Cultural Studies.
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Pizzas & drinks provided.
DKU History Professors Receive UNESCO Grant Award
The HRC is proud to announce that Museums as Transnational Heritage Hubs: Civilian War Victims, Memory Networks, and Global Recognition, led by DKU History Professors Dr. Kolleen Guy and Dr. Jay Winter, has been awarded funding through the Transnational Heritage Joint Research Grants, supported by UNESCO.
This project builds on the foundational work of Professor Guy and Professor Jay’s Parapolitics of Empathy project, exploring how museums, especially those dedicated to Jewish refugees in WWII-era Shanghai and the ‘comfort women’ experience across East Asia, serve as transnational heritage hubs. It aims to create new frameworks for historical justice and global recognition of civilian wartime trauma.
The HRC congratulates Professor Guy and Professor Jay, and looks forward to the continued progress of this substantial research!
Joking, Swearing, Translating: Two Days on Intercultural Translation
Have you ever wondered why some jokes don’t translate well into another language? Or how profanity in different languages and dialects can impart incisive wisdom or even express poetic beauty? Two Days on Intercultural Translation opens the gateway to the hilarious, tricky, and thought-provoking world of cross-cultural storytelling.
Two Days on Intercultural Translation invites you into the fascinating, hilarious, and sometimes tricky world of cross-cultural storytelling. Featuring award-winning translators and poets Jessica Cohen, Jennifer Kronovet, Ken Liu, Austin Woerner, and Jenny Xie, this two-day event explores the challenges and artistry of translating humor, swearing, and everything in between.
Get ready for insightful discussions where language gets messy, witty, and wonderfully complex!
Event Details
Day 1: March 28 | 10:00 – 11:00 AM (BJT) | Zoom
Zoom ID: 382 860 0131
A roundtable discussion featuring:
- Jessica Cohen – Hebrew literary translator, International Booker Prize winner (2017), Guggenheim Fellow (2021).
- Jennifer Kronovet – Translator of Chinese and Yiddish poetry, Editor of Circumference Books.
Moderated by Professor Yitzhak Lewis.
This is a great opportunity to gain insight into the world of intercultural translation from some of the most accomplished professionals in the field. Stay tuned for more details on Day 2!
Hope to see you there!
Student Report on Prof. Dorothy Wang’s Lecture: “Rethinking English Poetics”
Report by Yaxuan Wang, Class of 2027
On Wednesday afternoon, about 40 DKU faculty, staff, and students attended a lecture by Dorothy J. Wang, Professor of American Studies at Williams College and a prominent scholar in contemporary poetics. Prof. Wang’s acclaimed book, Thinking Its Presence: Form, Race, and Subjectivity in Contemporary Asian American Poetry, examines the intersections of literary form, race, and identity, challenging traditional notions of form as a neutral aspect of poetry.
Prof. Wang began by sharing her personal and family background in literature and poetry, leading into her exploration of English poetics. She introduced two perspectives: the traditional approach, which often overlooks a poet’s cultural or racial identity and focuses on analyzing poetic techniques, and a more inclusive view that considers biography and history as central to understanding poetry. Through a close reading of Louise Glück’s “The Past,” she examined the poem’s “presumed speaker” and “audience,” demonstrating how identity shapes both poetic content and its interpretation.
Prof. Wang then discussed the concept of “form,” arguing that it’s not a neutral construct but one influenced by cultural and racial contexts. Traditional criticism’s emphasis on “formal complexity” as a standard of artistic value can marginalize minority poets, whose forms may differ due to unique backgrounds. She called for a broader understanding of form that respects diverse expressions.
In the Q&A, participants asked about approaching poetry in other languages, understanding modern Chinese poetry, and the possibility of integrating other languages into English poetry. Prof. Wang acknowledged the difficulties, citing political factors and resistance, yet emphasized the importance of including varied voices in our understanding of poetry in English.
Prof. Wang concluded by highlighting DKU’s unique role as an international platform for exploring a more inclusive approach to poetics, envisioning it as a space where diverse cultural and linguistic perspectives can enrich our understanding of poetry.
The event was organized by Stephanie Anderson, Assistant Professor of Literature and Creative Writing, was sponsored by the Humanities Research Center.
Lecture: Western Feminism and Its Analytics in Neoliberal Times
Date: Thursday, November 7th
Time: 11 AM BJT
Zoom ID: 261 330 4845
Location: IB 1047
Lecture Overview:
The talk will explore how Western Feminist theorists and social scientists have moved away from the Marxist tradition, particularly at the turn of the century, just when Marxist intellectuals began critically examining the relationship between various late 20th-century post-isms (poststructuralism, post-industrialism, postmodernism) and the rise of neoliberalism. This shift has led to a focus on micro-level perseverance and struggles of the underprivileged, moving away from larger structures of domination and exploitation.
Krylova will discuss how these changes have de-scaled and de-radicalized key categories like power, resistance, and agency, with lasting consequences on feminist scholarship.
About the Speaker:
Anna Krylova is an expert in historical and social theory, gender theory, and Marxism, with a focus on modern Russia and feminist theory. She is the author of Soviet Women in Combat: A History of Violence on the Eastern Front, which won the 2011 AHA Herbert Baxter Adams Prize. Her current book project, History-Writing or Sleepwalking Through History in Neoliberal Times, reexamines American historians’ engagement with poststructuralism.
Don’t miss this opportunity to engage with cutting-edge feminist theory and its intersections with Marxist thought!
McaM 2023 Youth Theater Drawing the Lines: Spinning and Weaving Histories at a River’s End
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.
HRC launches Health Humanities initiative
The Humanities Research Center is pleased to announce the launch of a Health Humanities Initiative at DKU, led by Professors Daniel Weissglass and Meifang Chen.
The Health Humanities initiative provides an interdisciplinary research and practice space for students and faculty with a broad range of skills and interests to investigate how the human experience contributes to aspects of individual and population health. It builds on the earlier Health Humanities Lab which launched a number of successful projects in the first three years of the undergraduate program at DKU, and last year’s resilience initiative involving Professors Lijing Yan and Sze Chai Kwok, together with the present initiative co-directors.
The initiative hosts a regular weekly meeting on Wednesdays from 4-5pm in WDR2201.
If you are interested in joining the lab or have any great ideas, please contact the Lab co-Directors Prof. Meifang Chen (email: meifang.chen@duke.edu) or Prof. Daniel Weissglass (email: daniel.weissglass@duke.edu)
