Abstract: Innumerable types of graphic marks populated the visual environment of Mediterranean cities in the later Roman empire. Different sign systems competed over every imaginable surface, from walls to papyrus, lead or gems, objects to clothes and bodies, for attention, recognition, and power. That vast repertoire of signs interacted with viewers in a thousand different… Continue reading Guest Speaker: ” Signs of Aporrheta: Alternatives to Narrative Thinking in Late Antique Theurgy”, Renaud Gagné (University of Cambridge)

Abstract: Marco Polo and his father and uncle spent seventeen years in China, and because of his personal history there, Sinologists have long scrutinized and debated his connection to the larger history of China and his status as a historical writer of China. In response to biographical discussions about Polo in Sinology, this talk investigates… Continue reading Guest Speaker: “Kublai Khan’s Body: Marco Polo and the Making of History”, Margaret Kim (National Tsing Hua University)

Abstract: Freud famously stated that literature was the royal road to psychoanalysis. Following course, Lacan noted, in "The Signification of the Phallus", that if one wanted to understand human sexuality and desire, better read Sophocle’s Oedipus, or Longus’s Daphnis and Chloë, than rely on biological inquiry and data . Even Foucault described his project to… Continue reading Guest Speaker: “‘Sexuality’: The End of (a) Narrative”, Anne Berger (Paris VIII Vincennes Saint-Denis)