海角社区

About

Global Pasts investigates how past societies experimented, often concurrently, with similar ideas, political strategies, relations of power, and technologies and draws attention to the complexities of global connections that developed between them. 鈥楶asts鈥� seeks to bypass terms such as 鈥渁ncient鈥� or 鈥渕edieval鈥� that, unwittingly, transfer conceptual categories between areas, eras, and disciplines and avoids negative formulations such as 鈥減re-modern.鈥� 鈥淕lobal鈥� signals our continued mission to think comparatively and capaciously across a broad geographical scope. The group will present novel and innovative scholarship with a cross-disciplinary focus as it explores a variety of diachronic and synchronic themes. Drawing on the potential of broad collaborative work that extends across a range of temporal and spatial contexts, the research group aims to be an important voice on campus to showcase the importance of studying distant pasts synoptically and from a variety of disciplinary angles.

History

In March 2023, Global Pasts emerged out of the Global Antiquities research group, in an effort to broaden the group鈥檚 geographical and temporal scope. Global Antiquities itself developed in two distinct phases, a first one where the focus was on juxtaposing the foundations of the Mediterranean world and ancient China, and a second one in which the widening in temporal and geographical scope that eventually would yield Global Pasts had already begun.

Global Antiquities, Phase 1

Globalization has changed the organization of research and teaching in the Humanities. The composition of the faculty and of the student body at our universities has diversified, and this process is accompanied by a transformation of research portfolios and teaching curricula. At many universities, Western Civilization courses have already given way to offerings that apply a more multi-faceted approach to history, society and culture. While these developments are well under way, it is only gradually that we have come to realize that the current re-negotiation of concepts and contents requires a new approach towards the cultural foundations of human society.

Global Antiquities is designed as an academic engine that helps us to pioneer through the junctures of cultural reflection today. Our network explores the history and social impact of cultural paradigms and practices from a distinctly global perspective. We call for a sustained study of some of the most basic cultural foundations of the world. While aiming at the production of new academic knowledge, our team also seeks to employ the knowledge of past cultures, and make the scholarly dialogue between them relevant to the intellectual and ethical reflections that accompany the forces of globalization.

Global Antiquities explores the creative potential of juxtaposing the cultural foundations of the Mediterranean World (鈥榯he West鈥�) and ancient China (鈥榯he East鈥�). The research group embarks from the observation that ancient Greek, Roman, and Chinese societies were governed by similar features that were also characteristic of other civilized pre-modern societies. In order to provide for a meaningful comparative methodology, we examine three topical clusters that are central to their political cultures in a series of workshops: people (2014), places (2017), performances (2020).

From our experience in the classroom we have learned how fascinated students are by cultural legacies other than their own. Global Antiquities attempts to transform their, and our, academic curiosity into new intellectual discoveries. It is hoped that the comparative knowledge fostered by our network will also contribute to the generation of a new type of cultural meaning in globalized societies.

Global Antiquities, Phase 2

Globalization has changed the organization of research and teaching in the Humanities. The composition of the faculty and of the student body at our universities has diversified, and this process is accompanied by a transformation of research portfolios and teaching curricula. While these developments are well under way, it is only gradually that we have come to realize that the current re-negotiation of concepts and contents requires a new approach toward the cultural foundations of human society.

Global Antiquities is designed as an academic engine that explores the history and social impact of cultural paradigms and practices from a distinctly global perspective. We call for a sustained study of some of the most basic cultural foundations of the world. While aiming at the production of new academic knowledge, our team also seeks to employ existing understandings of past societies, cultural logics, and practices, and make the scholarly dialogue between them relevant to the intellectual and ethical reflections that accompany the forces of globalization.

In its first cycle of investigation, under the directorship of Hans Beck and Griet Vankeerberghen, Global Antiquities focused on juxtaposing the cultural foundations of the Mediterranean World and ancient China via three topical clusters that are central to the political culture of ancient Greece, Rome, and China: people, places, and performances. This research program has already resulted in three workshops (2014: people; 2017: places; 2020: performances), and a co-edited volume鈥疪ulers and Ruled in Ancient Greece, Rome, and China鈥�(Cambridge University Press in 2021) based on the 鈥榩eople鈥� cluster. Another volume,鈥�Place and Performance in Ancient Greece, Rome, and China鈥痠s in preparation.

Currently, Global Antiquities is broadening the geographical and temporal scope of its investigations. Ancient societies (e.g., Mediterranean, East or South Asian, South American) were often experimenting with similar ideas, political strategies, and relations of power. The investigation of these transhistorical regularities have a legacy of engaging problematic conceptual categories that universalize diverse social and political practices into ideal types. Yet, the similarities between these ancient societies remain as interesting as their differences and warrant fresh analytic attention. In addition, we also explore the complexities of global connections that developed between these ancient societies throughout the first millennia BCE and CE.

From our experience in the classroom, we have learned how fascinated students are by cultural legacies other than their own. Global Antiquities transforms their, and our, academic curiosity into new intellectual discoveries. It is hoped that the comparative knowledge fostered by our network will also contribute to the generation of new types of engagement and meaning in our globalized societies.

During this phase, Global Antiquities, had an Advisory Board [Anthony Barbieri-Low (UC Santa Barbara), Josiah Ober (Stanford), Kurt Raaflaub (Brown), and Lothar von Falkenhausen (UC Los Angeles)], Members at 海角社区, Graduate Student Members and Associate Members [David Engels (Universit茅 libre de Bruxelles), Luke Habberstad (University of Oregon), Hyun Jin Kim (University of Melbourne), Carlos Nore帽a (UC Berkeley),鈥疓arret Olberding (Oklahoma),鈥痑nd Laura Vigo (Montreal Museum of Fine Arts]

People

Coordinators

Cecily Hilsdale听

darian.totten [at] mcgill.ca (Darian Totten)

Members at 海角社区

(Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Arts),听

Peter Johansen (Anthropology),听

heidi.wendt [at] mcgill.ca (Heidi Wendt) (Religious Studies, History & Classical Studies)

Travis Bruce (History & Classical Studies)

Michael Van Dussen (English)

Jeehee Hong (Art History and Communication)

griet.vankeerberghen [at] mcgill.ca (Griet Vankeerberghen)听(History and Classical Studies)

听

Global Pasts Works-in-Progress Workshop Graduate Student Participants

Briar Bennett-Flammer (History, supervisor Heidi Wendt)

The Vindolanda Chalice and 鈥減ost-Roman鈥� Britain (5^th听century CE)

Davin Luce (Art History, supervisor Jeehee Hong)

Connecting Distant Pasts and Places: Itinerant Monks and Arhats in Middle-Period China听(9-14^th centuries CE)

Madison Clybourn (Art History, supervisor Chriscinda Henry)

Phoenix-Like Female Bodies and Perfumed Uterine Fumigation: Medical Influences across the Artificial Classical, Medieval and Early Modern Divide

听

听

First Workshop Series

In its first cycle of investigation,听Global Antiquities听conducted a grounded comparison of Greece, Rome, and China through three thematic clusters:听People,听Places, and听Performances. Each of these were听studied in workshops that assembled the leading scholarly voices in the field. Proceedings from听the first workshop have been published in a book entitled "Rulers and Ruled in Ancient Greece, Rome, and China"听 (Cambridge University Press, 2021)听

Another volume,鈥疨lace and Performance in Ancient Greece, Rome, and China鈥痠s in preparation.

The time period under investigation is from the Late-Warring States through the Eastern Han Period (4th century BCE to the 1st century CE). In the Mediterranean world, we were aiming at an equivalent from the late Archaic period to the early Roman empire (6th century BCE to the 1st century CE).

2020 Workshop:听Performance

Place and Performance in Ancient Greece, Rome, and China

October 15-16, Online

Place and Performance program

The third Global Antiquities concludes the series with the cluster of Performance. The workshop will feature presentations on ancient Greek, Roman, and Chinese performances conducted in places such as tombs, palaces and temples, but also those involving more spaces of production, for instance, agricultural fields or a capital city鈥檚 hydrological network. Given the close connection between place and performance, attendees from the 2017 workshop will be invited back for short reflections.

2017 Workshop:听Places

Place and Political Culture in ancient Greece, Rome, and China

October 25-27, 海角社区, Thomson House, and The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts

2017 Workshop Program

The second workshop in the series is dedicated to the cluster of听Places. Contributions will be grouped in four thematic rubrics: places of power, including the comparative analysis of palatial centres and monumental expressions of state authority; places of public, everyday interaction, with a discursive analysis of concepts of public and publicity; the ontology of place and the impact of the local;听and places of memory.

2014 Workshop:听People

Citizens and Commoners in ancient Greece, Rome, and China

October 22-24, 海角社区, Thomson House, and The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts听

2014 Workshop Program

The first workshop in the series was dedicated to the cluster of听People. We explored the following key themes: the people as a citizen body and institution;听their participation in political life of the community; the collective identity of people and their conceived ethnic origins; people and gender; elites vs. commoners; the public discourse; the public discourse on the people and rhetoric as well as free speech.

Outreach Lectures

2022

Professor Michael Gomez, NYU

鈥淭he Concept of 鈥楻ace鈥� and Medieval Africa

2019

Professor Lynn Meskell, Stanford University

Engineering Internationalism: Colonialism, The Cold War and UNESCO鈥檚 Victory in Nubia

View Gallery

2018

Professor Kimberly Bowes, University of Pennsylvania
The Roman 90%: Poor People in the Roman World
View Gallery

2017

Professor Anthony Barbieri-Low, University of California Santa Barbara
Imagining the Tomb of the First Emperor of China
View Gallery

2016

Professor Irad Malkin, Tel Aviv
It's a Small World:听Networks in Ancient Greece
View Gallery

2015

Professor Lothar von Falkenhausen, UCLA
China and the West -听before the Silk Routes
View Gallery

2014

Professor Josiah Ober, Stanford
The Rise, Fall, and Immortality of Ancient Greece
View Gallery

Research Events

March 2018

Dr. Armin Selbitschka, Munich
Global Players? Revisiting the First Emperor's Acrobat Figurines

January 2018

Prof. Silvia Ferrara, Rome
The Invention of Writing
Co-sponsored with the Department of English

February 2017

Prof. Tamara Chin, Brown
Conceptual History and the Cosmopolitan

November 2016

Prof. Federico De Romanis, Rome
Aspects of ancient globalization: The Impact of Indo-Roman trade
Co-sponsored with the Italian Cultural Institute in Montreal

September 2016

Prof. Peter Fibiger Bang, Copenhagen
Rome: Universal Empire and the Challenge of World History

February 2016

Prof. Carlos Nore帽a, Berkeley
Provincial Spaces and Layered Monarchies in the Han and Roman Empires
View Gallery

October 2015

Prof. Kurt Raaflaub, Brown
Globalizing ancient political thought:听Early Greece and China

February 2015

Prof. David Engels, Brussels
Parallel Lives? Caesar and Qin Shi Huang Di, Augustus and Han Gaozu

Reading Group

听

A reading group meets regularly to translate and discuss transmitted and excavated texts from Early China. 听

Works-in-Progress Workshop

听

As a means of enhancing our scholarly community on campus, the Lin Centre鈥檚 Research Group on Global Pasts will organize an annual workshop to showcase ongoing research aligned with the core agenda of our research group. The workshop will consist of a series of short presentations on individual case studies (texts, events, objects, monuments, etc.) followed by group discussion. We are especially eager to involve graduate students in this workshop and to that end the RGGP will offer a series of Global Pasts student stipends to support graduate research.

Global Pasts Works-in-Progress Student Stipends

The Lin Centre鈥檚 research group on Global Pasts is pleased to offer, on a competitive basis, a limited number of stipends to support graduate student research that intersects with the core mission of the research group, as described on our website. Without delimiting a chronological scope strictly, we privilege projects with a focus pre-1500 and encourage innovative thinking between areas, eras, and disciplines. The stipends, set at $1,000 each, are intended for current MA or PhD students whose research aligns with the intellectual investments of the Global Pasts research group and who will be enrolled in the fall 2024 semester and on campus to participate in programming, including the works in progress workshop. Acceptance of the stipend represents a commitment to participate in Global Pasts Works-in-Progress Workshop, the date of which will be determined in consultation with the awards recipients.

Application Guidelines:

The application consists of a short research proposal of 500 words maximum and a copy of your CV. Proposals should include: (1) a brief description of the case study that you would like to share in the Works-in-Progress Workshop; (2) an explanation of how that case study fits within your broader graduate research agenda (and please specify your primary thesis supervisor); and (3) how that proposed case study fits the mandate of the Global Pasts research group. Priority will be given to proposals that articulate clear engagement with the intellectual investments of the Global Pasts research group.

Application materials should be addressed and sent to the co-directors of the research group, Professors Hilsdale (cecily.hilsdale [at] mcgill.ca) and Vankeerberghen (griet.vankeerberghen [at] mcgill.ca), by May 15, 2024.

Bibliography

听