International Symposium at Yale University -- Routes of Science and Culture in China, 1860s-1930s
Organized by Professors Jing Tsu (Yale University) and Benjamin Elman (Princeton University)
This two-day symposium aims to bring together scholars of history and literature in an attempt to reevaluate the meaning and practice of “scientism” in nineteenth- and twentieth-century China. In the past fifteen years, strong interests in critical theory and a comparative methodology have developed among historians and literary scholars in an effort to rethink the significance of nationalism, the means by which knowledge travels, and new intersections between method and episteme. While historians are prompted to develop alternative frameworks that move beyond the “belated” hypothesis of the development of science in China (Needham paradigm), literary scholars are also turning to the uneven geography of cultural translation in order to better understand the relationship between the humanities and the sciences. In an effort to identify key issues in approaching this new interdisciplinary area, discussions during the symposium will cover some of the following themes: Science, Nationalism, and Empires: Translation, Methodology, and Paradigm; Scientism and the History of Science: New Approaches Toward Intellectual History, Scientism vs. Humanism; “Scientists” and the Professionalization of Science: Dissemination and Institutionalization; Popular Science and Empirical Practice: Everyday Life; and Science and Literature: Crossing Disciplinary Borders.
PARTICIPANTS INCLUDE: Iwo Amelung (University of Frankfurt, Germany) Howard Chiang (Princeton University) Benjamin Elman (Princeton University) Fa-ti Fan (Binghamton University, State University of New York) Hu Danian (City University of New York) Joachim Kurtz (University of Heidelberg, Germany) Eugenia Lean (Columbia University) Peter Perdue (Yale University) Hugh Shapiro (University of Nevada, Reno) Grace Shen (York University, Canada) Shen Guowei (Kansai University, Japan) Jing Tsu (Yale University) Rudolf Wagner (University of Heidelberg, Germany) Joanna Waley-Cohen (New York University) Wang Hui (Qinghua University, China)
Day One will be held in Room 202 of Henry R. Luce Hall, Day Two will take place in the Auditorium (Room 101) of Henry R. Luce Hall.