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Africa: Migration, Culture, Conflict

The Humanities Research Center at Duke Kunshan University is pleased to announce a three day event Africa: Migration, Culture & Conflict featuring three keynote scholars:

  • Fati Abubakar Gangaran, Duke University
  • Shamil Jeppie, University of Cape Town
  • Charles Piot, Duke University.

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DKU Humanities Research Center Announces Three New Research Labs

Starting January 2020, Duke Kunshan University will be launching three new research labs. The labs will enhance the research capacity and profile of Duke Kunshan University, and provide opportunities for research training for students. Students will be able to sign up for these labs starting in January and gain first hand research experience working with DKU’s top faculty.  (more…)

Report on Journey of the Universe Art Project

By Xiaoxi Zhu

About 100 members of the Duke Kunshan community have taken part in the university’s first mass-participation art project – an illuminated, nighttime campus procession along a route in the shape of the Big Dipper constellation.

The project was organized by student researchers in the Planetary Ethics and Artificial Intelligence Lab to coincide with a visit by filmmakers Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim on Oct. 10. (more…)

宇宙之旅和群众艺术项目

English

宇宙之旅是由来自耶鲁大学的Mary Evelyn Tucker和John Grim教授制作,一部获奖的纪录片和教育项目。融合了宇宙论、天文学、天体生物学、演化学,宇宙之旅以一种诗意和引人深思的视觉形式,娓娓道来从创世大爆炸至今的宇宙故事。宇宙之旅旨在使观众为孕育地球生命的宇宙历史感到惊叹,进而反思在面临气候变迁和环境铺害时,个体对于一切生命形态的责任。这部纪录片将于十月十日在创新楼的礼堂放映,并在放映前举行和制作者的问答环节。

在放映前,昆山杜克大学将迎来全球首演的群众艺术项目。由宇宙伦理和人工智能研究中心(Planetary Ethics and Artificial Intelligence Lab) 的学生研究员设计,并由大二学生Rudy Lu和Ryan Trombly筹划,这项艺术项目将回溯宇宙历史,并在昆山杜克大学的校园内以北斗七星的形式呈现从创世大爆炸至当代的七个阶段。

为了实现这项艺术项目,我们需要需要大约两百位学生拿着手机或其他的手电筒,以学生宿舍为起点,行经湖心亭和会议中心,最后抵达创新楼。本次游行象征着昆山杜克大学群体,与指向性的北斗和140亿年宇宙演化的一脉相承。在这个艺术项目中,八台相机和一台空拍机将会纪录北斗七星在昆山杜克校园内随着人流的形成过程。

The seven stars of the Big Dipper point towards Polaris 北斗七星指向北极星

北斗七星在中国文化和科学中有着极为重要的地位。北斗指向北极星,而北极星曾被认为是天绕行的极点。在中国神话中,北斗七星的拟人形象被称为斗母,是一位在道学传统中重要的女神。而在当代中国,北斗也是昆山杜克前校长刘经南博士的心血之作:中国GPS系统的名称。反映于历史、文化、神话、科学等领域,北斗依然持续为人类在宇宙无限的可能性里,指引了意义和方向。

journey of the universe qr code

若想参与这个艺术项目,请线上登记,并在十月十日周四下午六点十五分带着你的手机或其他的手电筒到学生宿舍前集合。

Journey of the Universe Film and Mass Participation Art Project

中文

Journey of the Universe is an award-winning one hour documentary film and education project produced by Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim from Yale University. Uniting cosmology, astronomy, astrobiology and evolutionary theory, It narrates the story of the universe from the Big Bang to the present day in a visual, poetic and evocative manner. The film seeks to give the viewer a sense of wonder at the cosmic history that has enabled life on earth to develop, and a sense of responsibility toward all forms of life in the face of environmental devastation and climate change. The film will be shown in the IB auditorium on Thursday October 10, starting at 7pm, and there will be a Q and A with the film-makers afterwards.

Preceding the film will be the first world-premiere mass participation art project at DKU. Designed by student researchers in the Planetary Ethics and Artificial Intelligence Lab (PETAL) of the Humanities Research Center, and led by DKU sophomores Rudy Lu and Ryan Trombly, the art work will trace seven stages of the story of the universe, from the Big Bang to the present day, in the form of the constellation of the Big Dipper mapped out on the inner campus of DKU.

For this art project to occur, we need approximately two hundred DKU students, with their phone or other flashlights to process through the campus of DKU from the Student Residence Hall, via the Water Pavilion and the Conference Center to the Innovation Building. The phone-light procession will symbolize the unity of the DKU community with the guiding presence of the Big Dipper and with the 14 billion years of cosmic evolution that have brought us together to this place. The art project will be filmed by eight cameras and a drone that will capture the formation of the Big Dipper constellation on the DKU campus.

The seven stars of the Big Dipper point towards Polaris

The Big Dipper, known in Chinese as the seven stars of the northern dipper (Beidou qixing 北斗七星has great significance in Chinese culture and science. Beidou points towards Polaris, the northern point around which the heavens were thought to rotate. In Chinese mythology, the personification of the dipper is known as Doumu 斗姆, or Mother of the Dipper, an important goddess in Daoist religion. In modern China, Beidou is the name of the Chinese GPS system that was the life’s work of former DKU Chancellor Liu Jingnan. Through history, culture, mythology and science Beidou continues to provide orientation and meaning for human beings within a universe of immense possibility.

To participate in the art project, register online, and bring your phone or other flashlight to the student residence halls at 615pm on Thursday, October 10.

 

Future of the Humanities: Program

Humanities Research Center Fall Conference 2019: The Future of the Humanities: The Gender/Sex Turn

Register to attend the conference here.

Program 

Friday, September 20, 2019

All events take place in the Academic Building Auditorium unless otherwise noted.

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Future of the Humanities: Faculty Papers

The following papers by faculty at Duke Kunshan University, New York University, Shanghai, and Xi’an Jiaotong Liverpool University, Suzhou will be presented at the Fall Conference The Future of the Humanities at Duke Kunshan University, September 20-21, 2019. (more…)

Future of the Humanities: Keynote Speakers

Duke Kunshan University Humanities Research Center is pleased to announce four outstanding keynote speakers at its conference, “Future of the Humanities: The Gender/Sex Turn 人文学的未来:性/别转向” on September 20-21, 2019.

  • Josephine HO 何春蕤, scholar-activist in gender/sexuality studies
  • Yingying HUANG 黄盈盈, China’s leading sociologist of sex work and HIV/AIDS
  • Yin-bin NING 甯应斌, Taiwan’s leading philosopher and theorist of modernity
  • Yueyue WENREN 闻人悦阅, award-winning author of Amber, a top-ten Chinese novel of 2018

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Workshop Report: Uneasy Allies: Sino-American Relations at the Grassroots, 1940–1949

By Alberto Najarro and Zach Fredman

Duke Kunshan University welcomed historians from around the globe to our campus from July 12 to 13 for conference entitled “Uneasy Allies: Sino-American Relations at the Grassroots, 1940–1949.” Sponsored by the Humanities Research Center, this conference explored the wide-ranging encounters between Chinese and Americans in China during this crucial decade. Zach Fredman, assistant professor of history at DKU, co-organized the event with Judd Kinzley, associate professor of history at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. (more…)

2019-2020 Call for Funding Proposals

The DKU Humanities Research Center (HRC) invites proposals from all DKU/Duke faculty and affiliates working on humanities-related projects. Projects should be based at DKU and/or connect Duke and DKU faculty. Proposals should be sent to Chi Zhang (chi.zhang323@dukekunshan.edu.cn), administrative assistant for the Humanities Research Center, by the specified deadlines. (more…)