Speaker 
Dwaipayan Banerjee (Program in Science, Technology, and Society, Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
Dwaipayan Banerjee is an Associate Professor of Science, Technology, and Society at MIT with a PhD in Cultural Anthropology from NYU. He's a former Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at Dartmouth College. His book "Enduring Cancer: Life, Death and Diagnosis in Delhi" is a seminal ethnography on cancer care in India. He also co-authored "Hematologies: The Political Life of Blood in India," examining the sociopolitical impact of blood donation.. His research has garnered support from the Mellon Foundation, the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Wenner-Gren Foundation, the Social Science Research Council (SSRC), and the Levitan Prize.

Zoom Meeting link: https://cuhk.zoom.us/j/91548294577 
Meeting ID: 915 4829 4577
Passcode: 145446

In this talk, I explore the efforts of Delhi's urban poor to create a livable life with cancer as they navigate an overextended health system unequipped to respond to the disease. Owing to long wait times, most urban poor cancer patients do not receive a diagnosis until it is too late to treat the disease effectively. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in the city's largest cancer care NGO and at India's premier public health hospital, I describe how, for these patients, a cancer diagnosis is often the latest and most serious in a long series of infrastructural failures.

In the wake of these failures, I track how the disease then distributes itself across networks of social relations, testing these networks for strength and vulnerability. I demonstrate how living with and alongside cancer is to be newly awakened to the fragility of social ties, some already made brittle by past histories, and others that are retested for their capacity to support. Through this lens, the talk offers an intimate look into the intricate interplay between medical inefficacies, social relations, and the lived experience of cancer.

Keynote Speakers:
Nicolas DE WARREN, Pennsylvania State University 
Walter HOPP, Boston University
Dermot MORAN, Boston College
Søren OVERGAARD, University of Copenhagen

Speakers:
Wenjing CAI, Shanghai Jiaotong University
Huei-ying CHENG, National Chengchi University
Ching-yuen CHEUNG, The University of Tokyo
Giovanna COLOMBETTI, University of Exeter
Saulius GENIUSAS, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Ka-wing LEUNG, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Zhongwei LI, Zhejiang University
Chang LIU, Nanjing University
Zhida LUO, Sun Yat-sen University (Zhuhai)
Shigeru TAGUCHI, Hokkaido University
Man-to TANG, City University of Hong Kong
Lei ZHONG, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Joining the Face-to-Face Talks (Please register by 19 November) 2023): https://cloud.itsc.cuhk.edu.hk/webform/view.php?id=13669879

Joining the conference Online (No registration is needed):
Zoom Meeting ID: 915 2379 7510
Link: https://cuhk.zoom.us/j/91523797510

Speaker 
Professor Gregory E. Sterling
The Reverend Henry L. Slack Dean of Yale Divinity School

The “ontological difference” is a signature thesis of Martin Heidegger stating that “the being of beings ‘is’ not itself a being” (SZ: 6 [2]). I am concerned with arguing, against the received wisdom, that the ontological difference should not be understood literally - that is to say, as entailing that being (roughly, what it is for beings to be) is not an instance of itself. However, what I have to present of that larger project will be systematic rather than exegetical in nature. I will argue that, understood literally, the ontological difference is false and that none of the four kinds of arguments offered in its support by Heidegger scholars is sound.
 

Speaker 
Dr. Maciej Czerkawski
Lecturer, CUHK Shenzhen

Online
No registration is required
Meeting ID: 989 5437 6260
Link: https://cuhk.zoom.us/j/98954376260

Face-to-face
Register by 26 Oct 2023
https://cloud.itsc.cuhk.edu.hk/webform/view.php?id=13675969

The benefits of music training can extend beyond the music domain. In correlational research, musicians often outperform non-musicians on perceiving lexical tones (tones hereafter).. Methodologically, most if not all correlational studies on tone perception have treated musicianship as a binary variable. As such, a musician group often contained learners of diverse musical instruments. Different types of musical instruments have different pitch processing demand, so it is possible that they have different effects on tone perception. From a theoretical perspective, Patel’s OPERA hypothesis explicitly acknowledges the heterogeneous nature of musicianship, but no correlational study to our knowledge has directly tested this claim. To enrich OPERA and its body of evidence, we compared pitch musicians, unpitched musicians, and non-musicians on tone discrimination, identification, and word learning.
In Experiment 1, pitched musicians discriminated tones more accurately than unpitched musicians and non-musicians. However, unpitched musicians performed similarly to non-musicians. In Experiment 2, pitched musicians identified tones more accurately than unpitched musicians and non-musicians, with the latter two groups performing similarly. In the first session of the word learning task, all three groups performed similarly. However, in the seventh session, pitched musicians outperformed unpitched musicians and non-musicians. Moreover, unpitched musicians did not significantly outperform non-musicians. 
Our results suggest that pitched musicians have a unique musical advantage in tone discrimination and identification. Furthermore, their unique perceptual advantage can feed forward to higher-level linguistic processing such as word learning. Without prejudice to the alternative interpretation of pre-existing differences, the findings offer fine-grained correlational support for OPERA’s Precision element. In sum, we propose that it is not musicianship per se that fuels music-to-language transfer but rather the musical experience in using the relevant acoustic feature.
 

Speaker 
Professor William CHOI (The University of Hong Kong)
Dr. William Choi is an Assistant Professor of Speech-Language Pathology and the Director of the Speech Music Perception Laboratory at The University of Hong Kong. He was a Fulbright Scholar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and a Croucher Fellow at University College London (UCL). Dr Choi’s research focuses on tone perception, stress perception, music perception, and the interconnections between speech and music.. His notable works include the Acoustic-Attentional-Contextual Hypothesis and the Dimensional Transfer Hypothesis. In addition to his research endeavors, Dr. Choi actively participates in academic and community services. He serves as an Associate Editor for Frontiers in Psychology, Frontiers in Communication, and Deafness & Education International. Furthermore, he has served as an external reviewer for both the HKSAR government and other funding bodies.

A New Chapter at CUHK Arts

Drawn to the brilliant works of CUHK researchers and professors during her master’s pursuit, Lim was intrigued by the university’s comprehensive approach to Chinese linguistics research. The opportunity to receive academic training in a renowned institution and work with experts in the field was immensely compelling.

The geographical location of CUHK provided a unique platform to explore language variation, aligning perfectly with Lim’s research interests. She recognised the potential of Hong Kong as a hub for Chinese linguistics studies, and the chance to delve into this rich academic environment was irresistible.

The Allure of the PhD Programme offered by CUHK Department of Chinese Language and Literature

The prestigious reputation of CUHK Department of Chinese Language and Literature, alongside its strong research programme in linguistics, further solidified Lim’s decision. The academic environment of the Faculty and the Chinese Department offers remarkable resources that help advancing her research, including leading-edge courses, extensive libraries, and access to linguistics databases, these are crucial in facilitating research and fostering academic growth.

The university’s competitive funding packages and collaborative atmosphere among students and faculty provide a supportive environment for intellectual exchange and collaboration. Such an environment is fertile ground for networking opportunities and support for research endeavors.

Research Goals: Malaysian Mandarin and Beyond

In the coming years, Lim plans to study the syntax and semantics of Malaysian Mandarin alongside languages and dialects influential to it, such as Cantonese, Southern Min, and English. She aims to unravel the relationship between different language structures using formal approaches while also considering their semantical and pragmatical aspects.

Her aspirations in CUHK extend beyond merely expanding the existing knowledge base; she is determined to uncover new insights about language structures and cross-linguistics variations. She expects to develop advanced research skills, improve her analytical abilities, and acquire theoretical consciousness to critically analyze linguistic phenomena.

Embracing Local Delights and Rich Blend of Culture

Apart from the academic allure, Hong Kong’s culinary scene has also captivated Lim’s taste buds. From the DaiPaiDong-style Tungpo Kitchen’s chicken liver to Mido’s pork chop baked rice, the city’s gastronomic delights have left a lasting impression. She looks forward to exploring more of these local eateries and immersing herself in the rich blend of culture influenced by British and Chinese heritage.

Acknowledging the Support from Teachers and Parents

Lim owes her journey so far to her teachers , whose mentorship fostered her passion for learning. She also acknowledges the unwavering support from her parents.

The opportunity to pursue her PhD at CUHK was made possible by the Hong Kong Postgraduate Studentship (HKPGS) and the Belt and Road Scholarship. Their generous support not only provided financial assistance but also opened doors for receiving quality education in Hong Kong.

As Lim embarks on this exciting academic journey at CUHK Arts and the Department of Chinese Language and Literature, her story serves as inspiration for aspiring linguists, demonstrating that with passion, determination, and the right support, one can unlock the mysteries of language and contribute to the growing field of linguistics.

Speaker
Dr. Mariachiara Gasparini, Department of the History of Art and Architecture, University of Oregon

Annual Schedule 2023-24: 

The Council of Florence in 1439 marked the beginning of almost four decades of intensive papal activity in the Balkans. This was a particularly volatile area of Europe which had been politically fragmented since the collapse of the Byzantine Empire in the late twelfth and early thirteenth century; which represented the contact zone between Catholic and Orthodox Christendom; and which now because of Ottoman expansion came into the focus of papal politics. The goal of the popes during these years was to stop the Ottomans, an initiative the papacy took over as the Hungarians, the long-standing hegemons in the region, became embroiled in internal power struggles. To stop the Ottoman expansion the papacy established contacts with the Balkan political elites who bore the brunt of the pressure, and who, to receive help, were forced to accept papal authority and the church union. The pressure exerted by the papacy on the Greeks to accept the union in Florence and the rifts this caused within the Greek communities are well studied, as are the papal contacts with the Albanians. In this talk I will present the basic outlines of the papal politics in the northwestern, predominantly Catholic and slavophone part of the Balkans, in Dalmatia, Croatia, and Bosnia — the area which key figures at the papal curia were in the classicizing humanist language increasingly calling ‘Illyria’ (after the Illyrian peoples who populated this area in antiquity). I will distinguish the most important phases of the papacy’s involvement, present its main objectives, and identify its agents in the field. As I will show, between 1439 and 1474 the papacy had a distinct project for Illyria and was a much more important factor in this area than it has been recognized in scholarship.

 

Speaker
Prof. Luka ŠPOLJARIĆ
Department of History, University of Zagreb
Luka Špoljarić is assistant professor of medieval history at the University of Zagreb’s Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. His work explores the late medieval history of Croatian and Bosnian lands, and their connections with Italy, with a particular focus on the diffusion of the humanist movement. He has held fellowships at Harvard University, the Warburg Institute and Villa I Tatti: The Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies. He has edited several volumes, including most recently The Neapolitan Horizons of the Croatian Late Middle Ages (2020). He is currently finishing his first book, a biography of Nicholas of Modruš, one of the most prominent Croat bishops of the fifteenth century.

ZOOM Meeting ID: 990 8868 4183
Meeting link: https://cuhk.zoom.us/j/99088684183

Speaker: Professor Michael Puett
Walter C. Klein Professor of Chinese History and Anthropology, Harvard University

Moderator: Prof. Puk Wing-kin, Associate Professor, Department of History, CUHK