Upcoming Presentations

2007 "The Ethics of Prediction." In the symposium Ethics in Ancient China and Greco-Roman Antiquity," Munich, Germany. October 1-3.

2007. “The History of Science and the History of Women in Early China.” Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation Conference on the sources for Chinese women's history.” Hong Kong Baptist University. Hong Kong. June 19-20.

2007 “On the Intersection of Power and Prediction: Aspects of Divination in Early China and Greece.” In the conference series “The Construction of Power in Ancient China.” University of Granada. Granada, Spain. May 10.

2007 "Comparative Reflections on Embodied Virtue, Performance and Competition in China and Greece." Invited paper in the workshop “From Athens to Beijing: West Meets East in the Olympic Games.” University of Missouri St. Louis, 14 April.

2007. "Debates on Divination: A Comparative Perspective."East Asian Studies Program, Religious Studies Program and Department of Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies. Penn State University. 22 February.

Recent Presentations

2006

• 2006. "Divination and Democracy in Classical Greece." History Department, Fudan University, 12 December.

• 2006. "A Science Fiction Case Study: The Limits of "Humanity" in Comparative Perspective, Cordwainer Smith and the Soushenji" College of Foreign Languages and Literatures, Fudan University. 11 December.

• 2006. "Reflections on les ruses d'intelligence." Invited paper presented in the panel "Cunning Words: Hila or How To Do Things with Tricks." Middle East Studies Association Annual Conference. Boston, November 17-20.

• 2006. "How to Compare China and Greece: Thematic and Historical Approaches. History Department. Beijing Normal University. Beijing, November 1.

• 2006. Warring States Pluralism Reconsidered. Paper in the International Conference on Confucianism and Postmodernism. Beijing Language and Culture University and University of Hawaii. Beijing. 31 October.

• 2006. How (and Why) To Compare China and Greece: Three Approaches. Paper in the Panel Evolution of Civilizations: Historical Experiences in the Modern Times of the East and the West. The Beijing Forum. Beijing. 29 October.

• 2006. "How to Compare China and Greece: Thematic and Historical Approaches. History Department. Fudan University. Shanghai, October 17.

• "Self and Autonomy: New Perspectives from Excavated Chu Texts." Invited paper for the International Symposium on Newly Excavated Chu Bamboo Slips, Wuhan, PR China, 26-28 June, 2006.

• Shiji 27: observing cloud qi. Text reading seminar, Needham Research Institute. 1 June.

• "Comparative Perspectives on Iatromancy: Baoshan and Epidaurus." Presentation in the Wellcome Institute for Medical Texts In Translation Series. The Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine, University College, London.23 May.

• "Debates on Divination: A Comparative Perspective." Philosophy Department. National University of Singapore. 5 May.

• "Thinking Outside Confucianism: New Perspectives on Self and Autonomy" Philosophy Department. Public lecture sponsored by the Philosophy Department and Gender Studies Program. Calvin College, Grand Rapids Michigan. 11 April

• "What Classicists Can Learn From Early Chinese Divination" Humanities Center, Emory University, 20 March

• "Divination and Fate in Women's Biographies." Paper in the International Conference "Women's Biography and Gender Politics in China." University of California, Irvine. 3-5 March.

• "Thinking Outside Confucianism: New Perspectives on Self and Autonomy" Philosophy Department. University of Redlands, Redlands CA. 26 October.

2005

• "Divination in the Bibliographic Chapter of the Han Dynastic History," in the panel  Commentaries and Other Deuteronomic Sources from Ancient China, Greece, India and the Latin World, 22nd International Congress of the History of Science, Beijing, PRC, 24-30 July.

• "New Approaches to Problems of Self and Autonomy."  Plenary lecture in the 14th International Society for Chinese Philosophy, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia, 14-20 July.

• "Comparative Perspectives on Divination and Autonomy."  Conference in Honor of Professor Anthony Yu.  University of Chicago.  12-13 April.

• "Spontaneity and Strategy: Modes of Divination and Prediction in Early Chinese Military Works" Association for Asian Studies, 30 March - 4 April.

• "Chinese Views of Self and the Question of Autonomy." In the conference "Reason and Democracy in European, Middle Eastern, and Asian Political Thought in Comparative Historical Perspective." Cal State San Marcos, 18-20 March.

2004

• "The Diviner's Atelier." Presentation in the workshop "Tables de lettrés, tables de savants." Ecole Normale Superieure, Paris, 18 December.

• "Translating Antiquity: Matteo Ricci's Use of Greek Sources and the Problem of Cultural Translation." Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales (INALCO), Paris, 17 December.

• "Technical Divination and State Ritual: A Chinese and Greek Perspective" " Presentation at the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS), Paris, 14 Dec.

• Discussant, "New Directions in Comparative Studies of Greece and China." Association for Asian Studies, San Diego, March 22.

2003

• "Bases of Pragmatism in Antiquity: Some Reflections on Divination," in the panel Pragmatism and Chinese Philosophy. Third International Convention of Asia Scholars, Singapore. 20 August.

• "Skill-Knowledge Analogies in China and Greece." Philosophy Department, National University of Singapore.  15 August.

• "Languages of Fate: Semantic Fields in Chinese and Greek."  Centre for Translation Hong Kong Baptist University of Hong Kong, 20 July.

• "Divining Forward and Backward: Destiny in Hong Kong Films."  Technoscience, Material Culture and Everyday Life," Chinese University of Hong Kong, 29 March.

• "Cordwainer Smith's Chinese Representations,"  Seminar, Cross-Cultural Studies Centre, City University of Hong Kong, 17 March 2003.

• "Women in Early Chinese Medicine and Law: Memorials of a Han Physician and His Daughter."  Department of Modern Languages and Intercultural Studies, Chinese University of Hong Kong, 20 February.

2002

• "Confucius and the 'Classical Analogy': A Perspective on the Rites Controversy."  International Conference on Intellectual History of the Ming-Qing Period, University of Hong Kong, 23 December.

• "Chinese and Greek Divination," Seminar, Cross-Cultural Studies Centre, City University of Hong Kong, 20 December.

• "Craft Analogies in Chinese and Greek Argumentation,"  Seminar, Cross-Cultural Studies Centre, City University of Hong Kong, 25 November 2002.

• "Comparative Perspectives on Divination."  Chinese Civilization Center, City University of Hong Kong,  18 September.

• "The Baoshan Medical Divinations."  5th International Congress on Traditional Asian Medicine, International Association for the Study of Traditional Asian Medicine, August 18-24, Halle, Germany.

• "A Comparative Approach to Warring States-Han Argumentation."  Approaches to Understanding the Han Dynasty, Harvard University, May 17-19.

• "Daoist Contexts for Chinese Poetry: Readings of Chinese translations and original poems,"  Gest Program for the Comparative Study of Religion, Haverford College, April 25.

• "Skill-Knowledge Analogies in China and Greece." Philosophy Department, Korea University, 28 March.

• "Gendered Virtue and Asian Values," Asian Center for Women's Studies, Ewha Womens' University, Seoul, Korea, March 26.

• "Reflections on Filiality, Nature, and Nurture."  Conference on Xiao: the Nature and Practice of Filial Piety in the Chinese Tradition, Department of Philosophy, National University of Singapore, 10-12 January. 

2001

• "The Baoshan Medical Divinations in Comparative Perspective."  Workshop in honor of Ho Peng-Yoke, Needham Research Institute, Cambridge, December 7-8.

• "Translating Antiquity: Matteo Ricci's Use of Greek Sources and the Problem of Cultural Translation."  Matteo Ricci and After: Four Centuries of Cultural Interactions between China and the West," Centre for Cross-Cultural Studies, City University of Hong Kong and Beijing University, October 11-13.

• "Divination, Prognosis and the Origins of Chinese Medicine: The Case of Baoshan."  Needham Research Institute, Cambridge, August 17.

• "Gendered Virtue and Asian Values."  Annual Lecture.  Centre for Chinese Studies, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.  29 May.

• Discussant and chair, "Exemplary Women in Late-Imperial Texts and Contexts: The Lienh zhuan Tradition from Yuan to Late Qing." Association for Asian Studies, Chicago, March 22.

• Discussant, "Exemplary Women in Late-Imperial Texts and Contexts: The Lienh  zhuan Tradition from Yuan to Late Qing," UCLA Center for Chinese Studies, and Southern California China Colloquium, February 3.

• "The Limits of Humanity in Comparative Perspective: Cordwainer Smith and the Soushenji."  The Eaton Conference.  Chinese University of Hong Kong, January.

2000

• "Contexts for Modularity."  Symposium on Writing and Visuality in Traditional China.  UCLA Center for Chinese Studies, December 8 - 9.

• "Languages of Fate: Semantic Fields in Chinese and Greek." Heaven's Will and Life's Lot: Destiny and Determinism in Chinese Culture. Breckenridge Center, Bowdoin College, May 19-21.

• "Gendered Virtue Reconsidered: Notes from the Warring States and Han."  History Department, SUNY Binghamton, 25 April, 2000.

• "Gendered Virtue Reconsidered: Arguments Ancient and Modern."  Departments of Philosophy and Classics, Bard College, Annandale NY, March 28.

• Discussant for the panel "Genre Politics:  Historical Categorizations in Warring States and Han China." Association for Asian Studies, San Diego, March 10.