SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
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FRIDAY, SEPT 27TH Voorhies 126

2:30-2:40 PM Welcoming Remarks

2:40-3:00 PM The Humanities, Reception, and an Example from the Bible

3:00-4:30 PM Reinventing Classical Texts in the Modern World

4:30-4:45 PM Coffee Break

4:45-5:45 PM In Conversation with Arturo Arias: Wheels Working Together: The Popol Wuj and Time Commences in Xibalbá as Markers of a Maya Cosmovision

DETAILED PROGRAM

FRIDAY, SEPT 27TH VOORHIES AND CONFERENCE CENTER

Voorhies 126

2:30-2:40 PM WELCOMING REMARKS

Brenda Schildgen, Distinguished Professor of Comparative Literature, UC Davis

2:40-3:00 PM THE HUMANITIES, RECEPTION, AND AN EXAMPLE FROM THE BIBLE

David Biale, Emanuel Ringelblum Distinguished Professor of Jewish History, Director Davis Humanities Center, UC Davis

3:00-4:30 PM REINVENTING CLASSICAL TEXTS IN THE MODERN WORLD

Chaired by Mark Halperin, Professor of East Asian Languages and Cultures, UC Davis

“Pan in the West”: California and the Mediterranean metaphor – Kevin Batton, Graduate Student in Classics, UC Irvine

A Third Antike: Hans Henny Jahnn’s “Medea” and the Introduction of the Babylonian to Modern German Literature – Adam Siegel, Bibliographer at Shields Library, UC Davis

Formal Experiments in Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad – Zina Giannopoulou, Professor of Classics, UC Irvine

The Invention of Chinese Poetry in the English-Speaking World – Michelle Yeh, Professor of East Asian Languages and Cultures, UC Davis

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4:30-4:45 PM COFFEE BREAK

4:45-5:45 PM IN CONVERSATION WITH ARTURO ARIAS

Chaired and Moderated by Emilio Bejel, Distinguished Professor of Spanish, UC Davis

“Wheels Working Together: The Popol Wuj and Time Commences in Xibalbá as Markers of a Maya Cosmovision” Arturo Arias, Tomás Rivera Professor of Spanish Language and Literature., University of Texas, Austin

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Conference Center

6:15-6:30 PM INTRODUCTION

Jessie Ann Owens, Dean of Humanities, Arts, and Cultural Studies

6:30-7:30 PM EPIC WORLDS

Ralph Hexter, Distinguished Professor of Classics & Comparative Literature, Provost & Executive Vice Chancellor UC Davis

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7:30-9:00 PM CONFERENCE DINNER, Conference Center (Open to participants and invitees only)

SATURDAY, SEPT 28TH Voorhies 126

9:00-10:30 AM RECEPTIONS OF VISUAL CULTURE

Chaired by Joseph Sorensen, Professor of East Asian Languages and Cultures, UC Davis

Re-Orientalizing Alfred Chang:” Objects and the Power of Pedigree at the Cleveland Museum of Art – Christa Adams, Lecturer in History, University of Akron, Ohio

The Apparatus that Cannot Mistake: John Thomson’s Portrait Photography of Chinese People – Menglu Gao, Graduate Student of English and Comparative Literature, Columbia University

The Notion of the Notebook: The Reception of Leonardo da Vinci’s Manuscripts at the Dawn of the Age of Photomechanical Reproduction – James Housefield, Professor of Design History, UC Davis

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10:30-10:45 AM COFFEE BREAK

10:45-12:15 PM RAMAYANA

Chaired by Brenda Schildgen, Professor of Comparative Literature, UC Davis

Assailing Kampaṉ: Civañāṉa Muṉivar and the First Verse of the Tamil Rāmāyaṇa – Blake Wentworth, Professor of South and Southeast Asian Studies, UC Berkeley

Double Reading: Literature Into Theology in Rāmāyaṇa Commentary – Ajay Rao, Professor Of Religion, University of Toronto

Dance and the Ramayana-Rumya Putcha, Professor of Music, Earlham College

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12:15-1:15 PM LUNCH

1:15-2:30 PM KEYNOTE: “RECYCLING THE EPIC: GILGAMESH ON THREE CONTINENTS”

Wai Chee Dimock, William Lampson Professor of English & American Studies Yale University
Through Yusef Komunyakaa and Joan London — American poet and Australian novelist — this talk explores the new geographical coordinates of the epic of Gilgamesh and its reworkings into three contemporary genres: drama, lyric, novel.

Introduced and moderated by Prof. Margaret Ferguson, Professor of English, UC Davis

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2:30-3:00 PM COFFEE BREAK

3:00-4:30 PM READING THOUGHT ENTIRE: THE MAHĀBHĀRATA AS LITERARY EVENT (PANEL CANCELLED!!!!)

Chaired by Archana Venkatesan, Professor of Religious Studies and Comparative Literature, UC Davis

The Goddess in the Mahābhārata and Viṣṇu on Freud’s Desk – Alf Hiltebeitel, Professor of Religion, George Washington University

The Mahābhārata: Rules of Engagement, Rules of Representation – James W. Earl, Professor Emeritus of English, University of Oregon

Rethinking the Presence of Goddess Ambā through the Narrative of Ambā in the Mahābhārata – Veena Howard, Instructor of Religion, University of Oregon

At the Crossroads of Time and Eternity: Or Why the Mahābhārata’s Narration is set in the Naimiṣa Forest – Professor of Philosophy, Vishwa Adluri, Hunter College

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4:30-6:00 PM RECEPTION AND RECONSTRUCTION OF PHILOSOPHICAL TEXTS IN LATE ANTIQUITY

Chaired by David Gundry, Professor of East Asian Languages and Cultures, UC Davis

Reception and Reconstruction: The Case of Aristotle’s Protrepticus – Monte Johnson, Professor of Philosophy, UC San Diego

“Now we must consider that some of the ancients discovered the truth”: Reception and antiquity in ancient Neoplatonism – Michael Griffin, Professor of Greek Philosophy, University of British Columbia

Meeting the Stoic Challenge: The Reception of the Aristotelian ‘Formula’ of Living Well in the Context of Late Hellenistic Philosophizing – Jan Szaif, Professor of Philosophy, UC Davis

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6:00-7:00 PM WINE AND CHEESE RECEPTION

SUNDAY, SEPT 29TH Voorhies 126

9:15-10:45 AM CLASSICAL RECEPTIONS: GEOGRAPHY AND MAPPING

Chaired by Rex Stem, Professor of Classics, UC Davis

Classical Motifs and Perceptions of Space and Time in Medieval St. Gall – Natalia Lozovsky, Office of Science and Technology, UC Berkeley

A Medieval Map of the Roman World – Emily Albu, Professor of Classics, UC Davis

The Hereford Map (c. 1300) and its Roman Credentials – Marcia Kupfer, Independent Scholar, Washington DC

Re-settling a Chinese Classic: Global Geography and Early Modern China – Yuming He, Professor of East Asian Languages and Cultures, UC Davis

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10:45-11:00 AM COFFEE BREAK

11:00-12:30 PM THE AFTERLIVES OF THE CRUSADES (NOTE: PANEL MOVED TO SATURDAY, SEPT 28th 3-430 PM SLOT!)

Chaired by Noah Guynn, Professor of French, UC Davis

“Oriental Despotism and the Reception of Romance” – John M Ganim, Professor of English, UC Riverside

Medievalisms of the Postmodern: Contemporary Fiction and the Crusades – Shirin Khanmohamadi, Professor of Comparative Literature, San Francisco State University

The Unrepentant Lancelot in the “Epic Romance” Le Haut Livre du Graal or Perlesvaus – Marisa Galvez, Professor of French, Stanford University

History Lessons: Antiquity and the Crusades – Zrinka Stahuljak, Professor of French and Francophone Studies, UCLA

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12:30-12:45 PM CLOSING REMARKS