Reported by Hao Zheng, class of 2029
On April 3, Duke Kunshan University’s Humanities Research Center held its annual undergraduate spring conference, bringing together 80 participants under the theme “Nature and Society.” The event explored the intersections between human communities and the natural world through diverse topics including gender, ecology, sustainability, craft, disability, memory, and visual culture.
The morning keynote, chaired by HRC co-director, Professor Carlos Rojas, featured a lecture titled “Social Construction” by Professor Ásta. She examined why social construction carries philosophical and political significance, arguing that categories such as gender, race, disability, money, and social institutions cannot be analyzed in the same way as ordinary physical objects. She made clear that human ideas are socially shaped and social categories are themselves socially constructed. Using disability, gender, and sex as examples, she showed that social meanings emerge through institutions, environments, and everyday interactions. She emphasized that while these categories are socially constituted rather than naturally given, they remain very real in their real-world effects.
The student panels showcased a wide range of undergraduate research spanning food systems, sustainability, craft, and visual culture. Collectively, the papers demonstrated how everyday materials and practices can raise larger questions about borders, ecology, labor, and cultural meaning.
In the afternoon, HRC co-director Professor Selina Lai-Henderson chaired a keynote address by Professor Liangliang Zhang entitled “Re-Storying Ecology: Regenerative Education and Ecological Care from Rural China.” Opening with a reflective exercise on living with questions, Zhang presented regenerative education as a life-centered, relational, and ecologically rooted approach to learning. Drawing on her background in anthropology and long-term work with rural ecological communities across China, she shared how this research led to the founding of the Inclusive Ecology Collective at NYU Shanghai. Through initiatives including rural immersions, the Gaia Commons exhibition, the Restoring Futures Fellowship, and the Eco-futures research project, she argued that rural communities, ecosystems, and daily life should not be treated merely as a backdrop for education, but as active partners in fostering more caring, collaborative, and transformative forms of learning.
The student presentations in the afternoon shifted focus to gender, disability, embodiment, fetishization, and memory, exploring how social norms are constructed and contested across varied contexts. Topics covered disability and interdependence, gender dysphoria, marginalized women’s experiences, representations of Asian women, and historical and literary memory.
Overall, the conference provided a vibrant platform for interdisciplinary exchange across the humanities and interpretive social sciences. The day concluded with a reception honoring student publications and the “Humans of DKU” exhibit, and a gala dinner celebrating the “Best Paper” awards received by six student presenters, celebrating the strong collaborative spirit within the DKU community.
