20th Annual Midwest Conference on Chinese Thought Conference Program

20th Annual Midwest Conference on Chinese Thought
Gettysburg College, April 3-5, 2026
All events held at the Lyceum (third floor on Pennsylvania Hall)
Open to the public, no registration required
Abstracts found here

Friday, April 3

12:00-2:00

Midday Panel

Chair: Ellie Hua Wang

1. Tim Connolly, “Confucianism and Transformative Education”

2. Hagop Sarkissian, “Reciprocity’s Only Appearance in the Mengzi

3. Polly Chou, “On Ordinary Anger in the Mencius: Moral Cultivation, and the Resources of yi (義)”

4. Naiyi Hsu, “Moral Perfectionism and Political Agency in Early Confucian Philosophy”

2:00-2:15 – Break  
2:15-3:45

Afternoon Panel 

Chair: Tim Connolly

5. Zhang Borong, “Rethinking ‘Hard to Nurture’: Gender, Class, and Ritual Constraints in Analects 17:25”

6. Ori Tavor, “Eschatological Optimism in Contemporary Daoist Utopian Thought”

7. Yuanfang Dai, “Disquiet in the House of Chinese Philosophy: On the State of the Field of Comparative Feminist Philosophy”

3:45-4:00 – Break
4:00-5:30

Keynote Address

Chair: Mercedes Valmisa

8. Brook Ziporyn, “Paeans and Polemics in the Mirror Ball: A Late Ming Case-Study in Ambivalent Tiantai and Tiantai Ambivalence”

  

Saturday, April 4

 

9:00 -10:30

Morning Panel

Chair: Yuanfang Dai

9. Li Kang, “Performative Metaphysics: A Chinese Chan Buddhist Approach”

10. Samuel Cocks, “According with Things: Volition, Freedom, and Enlightened Activity in Chan Buddhism”

11. Ewa Rzanna, “The Pric(z)e of Adaptability: Qu Yuan’s Fisherman and the Challenge of the Social”

10:30-10:45 – Break  
10:45-12:15

Midday Panel

Chair: Julianne Chung

12. Ellie Hua Wang, “From Feeling to Fitting: A Fivefold Model of Ethical Understanding in Mencius, Zhuangzi, and Xunzi”

13. Stephen Walker, “How to Be Caring and Careful: Ren 仁 and Yi 義 in Context”

14. Thomas Clark Jackson, “Notes on Tao Yuanming’s Orchestration of Ethical and Existential Life”

12:15-1:45 – Lunch  
1:45-3:15

Afternoon Panel 

Chair: Stephen Walker

15. Julianne Chung, “That’s Entertainment? Flexible Absorption in the Qiwulun and Beyond”

16. Ren Songyao, “Open-mindedness: Insights from the Zhuangzi

17. Rose Novick, “Three Ways of Looking at a Big Bird”

3:15-3:30 – Break  
3:30-5:00

Afternoon Panel

Chair: Rose Novick

18. Rachel Zhou, “Deep into the Depth of the Misty Rain”

19. Frankie Chik, “Thinking with Beasts: Animal Set-Phrases and Argumentation in Classical Chinese Philosophy”

20. Jane Bennett, “The Style of Becoming: On Dao, Nature, and Sweeping”

Sunday, April 5

 

11:00-12:30

Midday Panel

Chair: Samuel Cocks

21. Season Blake, “Mohist Dialectics on Communication”

22. Brian Hoffert, “The Butterfly’s Dream: Early Daoist Mysticism and Zhuangzi’s ‘Transformation of Things’”

23. Olivia Lee, “Saying or Not Saying? The Sage and Language in Wang Bi’s Philosophy”

12:30-1:30 – Lunch  
1:30-3:00

Afternoon Panel 

Chair: Hagop Sarkissian

24. Yi Ching Tam, “Embracing Western Music through Confucian Logics: The Case of Kang Youwei’s ‘Travelogue of Denmark’”

25. Sara Rubio, “Are Human Lifespans Fated? Revisiting the Mengzi 孟子 in Light of Warring States and Han Sources”

26. Wenwen Li and Brian Bruya, “The Origin of Mencius’s View of Qi

3:00-3:30

Closing Remarks/

Business Meeting

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