Dear Friends of Tang Studies, Professor Lucas Bender of Yale University would like to announce the following upcoming symposium that will be of interest to many of us. Symposium Title: The Margins of the Human in Medieval China Dates: June 1-3, 2022 Venue: Zoom Symposium Website: [ https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/medievalchina | https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/medievalchina ] See below for the full announcement. All best, Tony Anthony DeBlasi President T'ang Studies Society Symposium Announcement: The Margins of the Human in Medieval China (June 1-3, via Zoom) Website: [ https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/medievalchina | https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/medievalchina ] What constitutes being human? What are the boundaries or fuzzy edges of humanity? What can we learn from exploring the margins of humanity? These questions lie at the heart of this symposium, which will bring together twelve scholars across a variety of fields to consider how concepts analogous to our contemporary idea of “the human” were defined and debated in Medieval China. We hope that the papers assembled for the symposium will open new, interdisciplinary vistas on the ways in which ethnocultural others, sociological underclasses, striking and different individuals, animals and gods, and ex- and future-humans were conceptualized and written about in the medieval period, and on the ways in which these marginal beings expressed and challenged the self-understandings of the authors of the materials that survive to us. The symposium will be held via Zoom from 10am to 1pm, EST, on June 1st through June 3rd, 2022. Registration is free and open to the public. Questions and comments can be directed to the symposium's graduate coordinator, Baiqian Bian, at baiqian.bian@yale.edu, or to the organizers, Luke Bender and Xiaofei Tian. June 1 Panel One. Transformations. 10:00 am EST – 10:35: Robert F. Campany, “A Cosmos of Self-Cultivators: Encounters and Transformations across Kinds in China, 100 BCE–700 CE” 10:40 – 11:15: Jonathan Pettit, “On the Brink of Godhood: The Investiture of Extraterrestrial Titles in 4th century CE Daoism” --break-- 11:30 am – 12:05pm: Sarah M. Allen, “Skilled Imposters: Animals in Human Bodies” 12:10 – 12:45: Manling Luo, “The Human to Tiger Transformation in Tang Narratives” 12:45 – 1:00: General Discussion June 2 Panel Two. Shifting Categories. 10:00 am EST – 10:35: Jack W. Chen, “The Ghost at the Margin of the Human” 10:40 – 11:15: Shao-yun Yang, “Monstrous Islands in the Tang-Song Maritime Imaginary” --break-- 11:30 pm – 12:05pm: Lucas Rambo Bender, “The Shifting Geography of the Human in Tang Times” 12:10 – 12:45: Hsiao-wen Cheng, “Human Anomalies and the Temporality of Norms in Ancient and Medieval China” 12:45 – 1:00: General Discussion June 3 Panel Three. Barbarians and Slaves. 10:00 am EST – 10:35: Don J. Wyatt, “From Outlanders to Slaves: The Subjugation of Kunlun Peoples in Tang China” 10:40 – 11:15: Alexis Lycas, “Wuman(s) and non-Wuman(s) in medieval China: Classifying People in Fan Chuo’s Manshu (Book of the Barbarians)” --break-- 11:30 – 12:05pm: Zekun Zhang, “Making Commoners from Slaves and Indigenous Peoples: Liu Zongyuan and the Tang State’s Efforts to Classify Humans in the Lingnan Region, 800–900 CE” 12:10 – 12:45: Xiaofei Tian, “The Marvelous, the Quotidian, the Macabre: Discovering Humanity in Tang Representations of Slaves” 12:45 – 1:00: General Discussion