BRINFAITH RELIGION AND EMPIRE PUBLIC LECTURE SERIES Making the Muslim World in the Age of Britain’s Steam and Print Initiative ABSTRACTEuropean Imperialism during the long 19th century was characterized by increasing connectivity and mobility across Asia due to infrastructure grid of steamships and trains, telegraph lines and printing press. Symbolized by the opening of the Suez […]
BRINFAITH RELIGION AND EMPIRE PUBLIC LECTURE SERIES History Written in Advance: The Temporal Politics of Learning Mandarin for Jehovah’s Witnesses in Zambia ABSTRACTOver the last decade, there have been a proliferating number of Mandarin-language Jehovah’s Witnesses congregations in Zambia. These congregations are almost exclusively composed of local Zambians who have learned Mandarin as a second […]
BRINFAITH RELIGION AND EMPIRE PUBLIC LECTURE SERIES Infrastructure and Connectivity across the Karakoram-Pamir Watershed, since 1918 ABSTRACTLocated at the crossroads of Central, East, and South Asia, the watershed that divides the Karakoram and Pamir mountains today also serves a geopolitical function in marking the territorial boundary between the People’s Republic of China and Pakistan. This […]
BRINFAITH RELIGION AND EMPIRE PUBLIC LECTURE SERIES Reflecting on Maritime Transportation as the Sinew of Commerce and Conflict ABSTRACTIn this talk, drawing from her recent book, Sinews of War and Trade, Professor Laleh Khalili will discuss the centrality of maritime transport infrastructures to the making of capitalism in the Arabian Peninsula. She will highlight histories of […]
BRINFAITH RELIGION AND EMPIRE PUBLIC LECTURE SERIES New Visions for the New Globality: China’s BRI vs. Russia’s Greater Eurasian Space ABSTRACTThe Belt and Road Initiative has caused a lot of controversy in Russia’s expert discussion. Formally, Moscow is very enthusiastic about the BRI project and considers it a positive factor in international relations. Russian-Chinese relations […]
BRINFAITH RELIGION AND EMPIRE PUBLIC LECTURE SERIES Hidden Treasures of the Silk Road—An Ontological Shift in Thinking of Things ABSTRACTThis talk focuses on an ontological shift in thinking of small-sized Silk Road talismans and amulets. The true value of them has been neglected by previous studies. Among them, the Ordos Bronze Crosses, problematically identified as […]
BRINFAITH RELIGION AND EMPIRE PUBLIC LECTURE SERIES Old Roads, Religious Mobility, and Paradigms of Long-Distance Transmission: Epigraphic and Petroglyphic Complexes in a Transit Zone between Eurasian Frontiers ABSTRACTGraffiti inscriptions and rock drawings mark an ancient network of capillary routes that connected Central Asian Silk Routes with major South Asian arteries for religious mobility and trade. […]
BRINFAITH RELIGION AND EMPIRE PUBLIC LECTURE SERIES "Without ritual, there would be no ethnic culture": Religion and changing Chinese diasporic identity in Vietnam ABSTRACTIn this talk, I will present a total of four case studies to analyse the transformations and hidden discourses of ethnic Chinese (người Hoa 華人) rituals dedicated to public gods. Vietnam’s ethnic […]
BRINFAITH RELIGION AND EMPIRE PUBLIC LECTURE SERIES “The Dharma Assembly”: Exploring a dynamic infrastructure for contemporary Han Chinese participation in Tibetan Buddhist monastic contexts ABSTRACTDuring the first half of the twentieth century, all but a handful of intrepid Han Chinese practitioners of Tibetan Buddhism undertook the long and difficult journey to the Tibetan plateau. In […]
BRINFAITH RELIGION AND EMPIRE PUBLIC LECTURE SERIES Magic Power Reconfigured: Chinese Popular Religion in CitiesABSTRACTThis talk analyzes how divine magic power is reconfigured in the urban setting. The speaker will discuss how a spirit medium, who moved from the countryside in Taiwan to an urban area, refashioned the elements of village religion to cope with […]
BRINFAITH RELIGION AND EMPIRE PUBLIC LECTURE SERIES Iran and BRI: A Cultural Perspective of Strategic Cooperation ABSTRACTIran and China’s relationship is following a long tradition of exchanges that can be traced back to ancient times. Certainly, when studying the long tradition of Iran and China, we can perceive that the Silk Road was not only […]
BRINFAITH RELIGION AND EMPIRE PUBLIC LECTURE SERIES Sailors and Slaves in Medieval Maritime Asia: from baghdād to baghpūr ABSTRACTThis talk presents some of the preliminary ideas and findings of Dr. Ha Guangtian’s ongoing project which examines the role of multi-racial, multi-religious, and multi-lingual sailors and slaves in facilitating Muslim trans-regional trade in medieval maritime Asia. […]