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Conference Announcement
Theme: Classicising Learning, Performance, and Power
Subtitle: Eurasian Perspectives from Antiquity to the Early Modern
Period
Type: PAIXUE Symposium
Institution: PAIXUE Project, University of Edinburgh
Location: Edinburgh, Scotland (United Kingdom)
Date: 12.–14.12.2019
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The symposium aims to explore how public performances of classicising
learning (however defined in each culture) influenced and served
imperial or state power in premodern political systems across Eurasia
and North Africa.
The term ‘classicising’, as understood here, encompasses wide-ranging
aspects and forms of learning that are recognized as carrying on the
legacy of a revered past (however defined), and thus considered
authoritative. The focus of the papers are on performances that
relate to texts or other media, composed in writing or improvised on
the spot, as well as social and/or bodily performances such as
habitus, ritualized behaviour and theatre.
Aiming at encouraging scholarly exchanges among experts in different
fields and cultures, the papers relate to the following three
interconnected thematic strands.
Thematic Strands
* Classicising learning and the social order
- Who were the main carriers (individuals, groups, social strata) of
classicising learning, and what role did classicising learning
play in the fashioning of social and cultural identity? How was
access to classicising learning regulated?
- How did classicising learning play out in systems of patronage and
in forms of social interaction among elite members of society?
What was its importance in the formation of social bonds and
networks?
- How did classicising learning relate to ‘un-classicising’
learning?
- Was there any relationship between classicising learning and
social mobility?
* Classicising learning and the political order
- What was the place of classicising learning and rhetoric in public
and/or political life, either at the political centre or in the
provinces? How did classicising learning figure into the balance
of power between centre and periphery? How did it play out in the
shifting relationship and dynamics of power between rulers/ruling
strata and subjects?
- Did classicising learning play a role in the state’s/ruler’s
propaganda? Or, conversely, did it enable subversion of the
political order?
- What role did classicising learning play in institutionalised
mechanisms of advice-giving or of political (and social)
advancement such as the examination system? And, alternatively, in
the act of withdrawing from political life altogether?
- To which degree was classicising learning embedded in a
functioning legal system?
- Did classicising learning play a role in inter-state
relations/diplomacy?
* Classicising learning and the self
- What was the place and importance of classicising learning in
theories and practices of education and learning in the system of
schooling?
- What role did classicising learning and memorisation play in the
ethical and emotional configuration of the learned subject?
- How did classicising learning shape the everyday performance of
the learned self (be it socially-oriented or geared towards
personal self-realisation?
Speakers
Robert Ashmore (Berkeley), Floris Bernard (Ghent), Mirko Canevaro
(Edinburgh), Javier Cha (Seoul), Ming-kin Chu (Hong Kong), Christophe
Erismann (Vienna), Michael Fuller (University of California, Irvine),
Elena Gittleman (Bryn Mawr), Jaakko Hämeen-Anttila (Edinburgh), James
Hankins (Harvard), Florian Hartmann (Aachen), Michael Hope (Yonsei),
Pascale Hugon (Vienna), Takeshi Inomata (Arizona), Ashton Lazarus
(Kyushu), Marina Loukaki (Athens), Christopher Nugent (Williams),
Daphne Penna (Groningen), Alberto Rigolio (Durham), Asuka Sango
(Carleton), Jonathan Skaff (Shippensburg), Luka Špoljarić (Zagreb),
Ariel Stilerman (Stanford), Justin Stover (Edinburgh), Elizabeth
Tyler (York), Lieve van Hoof (Ghent), Griet Vankeerberghen (McGill),
Milan Vukašinović (ANAMED, Koç), Elvira Wakelnig (Vienna), Stephen H.
West (Berkeley), Julian Yolles (Odense).
Programme and Abstracts
The programme is available to download:
http://paixue.shca.ed.ac.uk/sites/default/files/Symposium/Programme_PAIXUE_Symposium.pdf
Registration
Registration is now open and will remain live until the 6 December:
https://bit.ly/31mFhu9
Early registration is strongly advised as places are limited.
For registration enquires please contact us:
http://paixue.shca.ed.ac.uk/contact
Venue
Meadows Lecture Theatre
William Robertson Wing, Old Medical School
Teviot Place, Edinburgh, EH8 9AG
PAIXUE Project
With generous support from the European Research Council (ERC), the
PAIXUE project examines in tandem, with equal focus on structural
parallels and divergences, the conscious revival and subsequent
dialectics of classicising learning in middle and later Byzantium
(c.800–1350) and Tang/Song China (618–1279): Classicising Learning in
Medieval Imperial Systems: Cross-cultural Approaches to Byzantine
Paideia and Tang/Song Xue
Conference website:
http://paixue.shca.ed.ac.uk/node/12
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