"Sino-US
Bilateral Symposia on Comparative Literature:
Theory
and Politics in the Age of Globalization"
August 10-24, 2005
Professor Zhang (at center,
in grey shirt) and our student delegation with members of the faculty
and graduate students of the Department of Chinese Literature of Beijing University.
Professor
Chen Pingyuan (modern Chinese literature) and Professor Zhang Hui (comparative
literature) are
standing next to Professor Zhang. The building behind them houses the Department
of Chinese
Literature. Designed by an American, the traditional architecture of its facade
contrasts beautifully
with the ultra-modern interior.
Xudong Zhang (Professor of Comparative Literature; Professor of East Asian Studies) organized and led a delegation of ten NYU graduate students to Shenzhen, Shanghai, and Beijing to participate in Sino-US symposia on comparative literature. From the Departments of Comparative Literature, East Asian Studies, and English, the student delegation consisted of Xiang (Ellen) He, Daniel Hoffman-Schwartz, Hui Jiang, Mariano Siskind, Brad Tabas, Lorraine Wong (all Comp Lit), and Philip Kaffen (EAS), Agnes Zhuo Liu (EAS), Jonathan Scott (EAS), and Paul Grimstad (English). David Slocum (Associate Dean, GSAS; Associate Professor of Cinema Studies) and Emily Apter (Professor of French and Comparative Literature) accompanied the group on much of the two-week visit.
Beginning in Shenzhen, the delegation attended the 20th anniversary conference of the Chinese Comparative Literature Association, presenting individual papers and participating in a roundtable panel on "Modernity and Identity: Globalization and Cultural Politics"; in Shanghai the group participated in a two-day symposium on "The Significance of Literature in the Market Environment" with East China Normal University; ending in Beijing they participated in an international workshop with Beijing University and the Open University, London.
The trip was financed by the Department of Comparative Literature with contributions from the NYU Humanities Council, the Department of East Asian Studies, and the GSAS office of Dean for the Humanities.
Reports
