Critical Silk Road Studies

About Critical Silk Road Studies Critical Silk Road Studies is a year-long series of workshops funded by the John  E. Sawyer Seminarsprogram of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.  These  workshops are focused upon a critical examination of the Silk Road. Our goal is  to investigate the invention and development of the concept of the Silk Road as  well as its on-going impact—its potential as well as its limitations for framing  fields of academic inquiry and even policy-making.  Today, the term "Silk Road"  serves as a rubric in contexts ranging from the undergraduate curriculum to  institutional funding and international symposia, and has become a household  word through educational television and other popular media.   Yet seldom has  its definition been examined, and it remains a challenge to overcome the  chronological, regional, linguistic, and disciplinary compartmentalization of  specialists to consider the workings and effects of the trans-Eurasian Silk Road  as a broader phenomenon. Critical Silk Road Studies will expose our seminar members to a range of  empirical expertise while considering collectively the macro-level issues from  a perspective that is interdisciplinary, interregional and longue durée.  We will  bring together scholars of ancient and modern history, art history, religious  studies, literature, musicology, anthropology, archaeology, as well as foreign  policy academics and practitioners in an interrogation and exploration of the  notion of the Silk Road and its usefulness towards understanding both past  and present.  General Information Participation in the seminars of Critical Silk Road Studies is free and restricted to  current faculty, academic staff, and graduate and undergraduate students.  The  seminars are scheduled for 5:00-7:30pm in Intercultural Center (ICC) 662, which  is located on Georgetown’s main campus.  Further information is available  regarding transportation and visitor parking.  The format of each seminar consists of moderated discussion of the presenters’  pre-circulated papers. For this reason, pre-registration for individual seminars is  required, as papers will be circulated only to registered participants of the seminar. Please visit the main Schedule of Events page for information regarding the time  and location of each seminar. A Demise Greatly Exaggerated: the Silk Road in the Early Modern Era January 8, 2015  Presenters: Matthew Romaniello Associate Professor, Department of History, University of Hawai'i at Manoa “The Eurasian Drug Trade: Commodities and Medical Knowledge between East  and West” Scott Levi Associate Professor, Department of History, Ohio State University “Networks of Trade in Early Modern Central Asia” Discussant: Carol Benedict Professor, Department of History, Georgetown University Science on the Silk Road January 29, 2015  Presenters: Carla Nappi Canada Research Chair of Early Modern Studies and Associate Professor,  Department of History, University of British Columbia “Paper Dolls: An Architectonics of Translation in Early Modern Eurasia” C. Pierce Salguero Assistant Professor, Department of History, Pennsylvania State University-Abington "Are Buddhist Scriptures the 'Missing Link' in the Global History of Medicine?" Discussant: Kathryn M. Olesko  Associate Professor, Department of History, Georgetown University Islamic Encounters with Sinic and Buddhistic Realms February 19, 2015  Presenters: Johan Elverskog Professor, Department of Religious Studies, Southern Methodist University “‘Ala’ ad-dawla as-Simnani and the Buddhists of Iran, 1258-1328” David Roxburgh Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Professor of Islamic Art History, Department of History  of Art and Architecture, Harvard University “Ghiyath al-Din Naqqash and His Visit to Beijing, 1419-22” Discussant: Mika Natif Assistant Professor, Department of Art History, George Washington University Performance and Performativity March 19, 2015  Presenters: Theodore Levin Arthur R. Virgin Professor of Music, Department of Music, Dartmouth College “The Silk Road as Jam Session, Then and Now” Ingrid Furniss Assistant Professor, Department of Art, Lafayette College “Strumming Strings along the Ancient Silk Road: Archaeological Evidence for  Lutes and their Performance in the First Centuries CE” Discussant: J. Lawrence Witzleben Professor, Department of Ethnomusicology, University of Maryland School of Music Institutional Settings April 9, 2015  Presenters: Roland Lin Chih-Hung Programme Specialist, Asia and Pacific Unit, UNESCO “Heritage Conservation, International Cooperation, and Capacity Development:  UNESCO’s Recent Projects for the Silk Roads Serial and Transnational World  Heritage Nomination in Central Asia” Susan Whitfield Director, International Dunhuang Project, British Library “Defining a Cultural Silk Road for Today: IDP and Negotiating the Landscape of  International Collaboration” Discussant: J. Keith Wilson Curator of Ancient Chinese Art, Freer and Sackler Galleries, Smithsonian Institution On-Site Session at the Freer Gallery of Art April 24, 2015 (2:30-4:30pm) Presenter: Stephen Allee Associate Curator for Chinese Painting and Calligraphy, Freer and Sackler  Galleries, Smithsonian Institution "Two Dunhuang Paintings in the Freer Gallery of Art: History, Content, and  Materials" Discussant: Miki Morita Sawyer Seminar Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Art and Art History,  Georgetown University Silk Road Politics and Policies: Security, Energy and Eurasian Land  Bridges April 30, 2015  Presenters: Marlene Laruelle Research Professor, Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington  University “Envisioning a Region: China's Silk Road and Russia's Eurasia” Li Lifan Associate Professor and Assistant Director of the Institute of International  Relations, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences “Building an Interest Community: New Development of the Energy Club in the Silk  Road Economic Belt” Discussant: Robert Sutter Professor of Practice of International Affairs, Elliott School, George Washington  University