Books as Jews: The Burning of the Talmud, Paris 1241 and Rome 1553-

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The Politics of History and the Historicity of Politics: Documentaries of Hong Kong’s Umbrella Movement

Jennifer Wilson, Postdoctoral Fellow for Academic Diversity, Slavic Language and Literatures, University of Pennsylvania

This talk will draw from Dr. Jennifer Wilson's recent experience teaching "The Harlem Renaissance: From New York to Tashkent" at the Russian State University for the Humanities (RGGU) in Moscow; the course dealt with the racial dynamics of the Cold War as told through the perspectives of influential black artists and thinkers such as Langston Hughes, Claude McKay, and Zora Neale Hurston. Dr. Wilson will reflect on her...

Speaker: Leigh Jenco, Associate professor of political theory at the London School of Economics

Recent work in contemporary Confucian philosophy promises the holy grail of comparative philosophy: the elaboration of a globally compelling thought-system whose terms and practitioners are generally found outside of the Euro-American historical experiences that currently dominate global terms of knowledge-production.  I argue, however, that in styling their Confucianism as adapted “for the modern world” many of...

Presenter: Professor Mae Ngai, Lung Family Professor of Asian American Studies and Professor of History, Columbia University

Discussant: Professor Arthur Kleinman, Director, Harvard Asia Center

Asia Diaspora Series, Harvard Asia Center; co-sponsored by the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies

This conference is co-sponsored by the Harvard University Department of History of Art and Architecture, Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, Harvard-Yenching Institute, and China Academy of Art. There will also be a round-table discussion on CCP visual culture and Chinese revolution at 3:30pm, April 22, which includes discussants: Eugene WANG (Harvard University), Elizabeth PERRY, (Harvard University), Arunabh GHOSH (Harvard University), Jie LI (Harvard University), Catherine YEH (Boston University), and Rudolph WAGNER (Heidelberg University).

Please note that on Friday, April...

Presentations Include:

Professor Ralph A. Thaxton, Jr., Politics Department, Brandeis University — "Brief Reflections on The History and Politics of the Great Leap Forward Famine:  Understanding the Present through the Past"

Professor Sun Feiyu, Sociology Department, Beijing University — "The Tragedy of Mao's Revolution— The Chinese Communist Party's Destruction of the Traditional Rural Elite: Implications for the Quest for Good Governance in the PRC"

Liu Shigu, Post-Doctoral...

Speaker: Ben Vinson III, Dean, Columbian College of Arts and Sciences, The George Washington University

Speaker: Ben Vinson III, Dean, Columbian College of Arts and Sciences, The George Washington University

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Speaker: Ben Vinson III, Dean, Columbian College of Arts and Sciences, The George Washington University

CMES is pleased to present the 2016 Hilda B. Silverman Memorial Lecturer

Irene Gendzier
Professor Emeritus, Department of History, Boston University

For more on the Silverman Memorial Lecture at CMES, click here.

Contact: Liz Flanagan

The Center for Middle Eastern Studies presents

Mohammed Sharafuddin
CMES Visiting Scholar, Associate Professor of English and American Literature, University of Sana'a

Dr. Sharafuddin received his M.A. from the University of Kansas in 1983 and his Ph.D. from the University of York (UK) in 1988. He has taught in various universities including Augsburg College, University of Minnesota, George Washington University, the Arab Open University (Kuwait) and the University of Sana'a.

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Ahmad Sadri
Professor of Sociology, and James P. Gorter Chair of Islamic World Studies, Lake Forest College

Professor Sadri will start with the world debut of the new rhymed translation of the 700-year-old satirical Rhyme of the Cat and Mouse by Obeyd of Zakan. This talk aims to put the poem in its social, political and philosophical contexts and explore reasons for its staying power as the beloved national satire of Iran.

Professor Sadri provided the new translation used in artist Hamid Rahmanian's stunning illustrated edition of the Shahnameh...

"Claim No Easy Victories: Can the Social Sciences Serve the Equity Interest of the Poor?"

This talk argues that  much of the academic discourse on inequality, educational and otherwise, has been hijacked, if you will, by two elite discourses, both self-congratulatory, both framing inequality in ways that don’t give us as much real-world leverage as we might have. On the one hand, scholars may be so afraid of “blaming the victim” they may be unable to consider a full-range of the possible levers to change, often working to the detriment of the most disadvantaged...