Forbidden City, China at night

Forbidden City at Night

Stanford-Berkeley Graduate Student Conference in Premodern Chinese Humanities

The premodern conference is on hiatus for 2024. Please check back in the spring of 2024 for updates on when the premodern conference will resume.

Initiated in 2014, the annual Stanford-Berkeley Graduate Student Conference on Premodern Chinese Humanities brings together graduate students from around the country and around the world who specialize in pre-modern Chinese studies. This national meeting of graduate students specializing in premodern Chinese studies aims to bring together young scholars from geographically distant institutions to present and discuss innovative research on China.

The conference, alternating sites each year between Stanford and Berkeley, will feature up to fourteen competitively-selected graduate student presentations of original research on any aspect of premodern (technically, beginnings to 1911) Chinese humanistic culture, drawing on but not limited to the traditional disciplines of history, literature, religion, art, social sciences, and thought. We encourage proposals that explore new methodologies, utilize recent developments in digital technology, or reconfigure or cross disciplinary boundaries.

Applications are due in the fall of each year for the conference taking place the following spring. Currently-enrolled graduate students at any institution are encouraged to apply. Papers will be selected by a joint faculty-student committee of China specialists at the two institutions. Local faculty and graduate students will serve as discussants for the selected papers. Applicants are encouraged to present papers associated with ongoing or projected dissertation research.

Conference registration is free. Presenters will be provided with shared lodging, Friday dinner, and Saturday lunch.  Presenters are expected to seek funds for transportation costs from their home institutions or other sources. Confirmed presenters who demonstrate that no such funding is available may apply for a limited travel subsidy.