Dear Colleagues,

In collaboration with Professors Lai Xisan, Lin Mingzhao, and Mark McConaghy the 四海為學 project will host a series of roundtables on the Zhuangzi this coming April and May. With Brook Ziporyn’s Wild Card, Lai Xisan’s Gongsheng 共生, and Hans-Georg Moeller and Paul J. D’Ambrosio’s Genuine Pretending as a general background, this series of roundtables will explore humor, irony, paradox, incongruity, absurdity, and related topics in the Zhuangzi.

We are inviting interested scholars to submit short abstractions (100-250 words) for consideration by April 1st.

Note: Scholars are not, by any means, required to directly engage with, or even reference, the abovementioned works or scholars. They are mentioned to provide the background the organizers have used, which is also in reference to a larger ongoing project which this roundtable series is part of. Feel free to develop your ideas independent in communication with other scholars and works.

The roundtables will be scheduled between mid-April and late May, and the exact date and time for them will depend on the availability of those involved.

Each roundtable will be either in English or Mandarin Chinese. When submitting your abstract please indicate which language you would like to speak in.

Roundtable will be two hours, and follow our normal 四海為學 format:

Each participant will present for 15 minutes, followed by 15-20 minutes of comments/questions from the other two participants and responses from the presenter. It is up to you as to whether you want to share a powerpoint. After the presentations and responses (about 1.5 hours), the remaining 20-30 minutes of the event will open to the general audience.

We are also looking for chairs for these events, and we welcome students or scholars at any level to join in this capacity. Please email and let us know.

Lastly, as with all 四海為學 events, all these roundtables are free and open to everyone. We will be posting event pages and the Zoom links on our calendar as soon as they are scheduled. There is no need to pre-register or ask for a passcode.

Emails should be sent to this Hotmail address: pauljdambrosio

Sincerely,

Paul J. D’Ambrosio