The Midwest Conference on Chinese Thought was created to foster dialogue and interaction between scholars and students working on Chinese thought across different disciplines and through a variety of approaches. We invite submissions on any aspect of Chinese thought, as well as comparative work that engages Chinese perspectives, from scholars at any stage of their career.
The 2027 conference will take place in person at the University of Chicago in Chicago, Illinois on April 7-9, 2027. Conference participants will be provided with two days and nights of hotel accommodations and meals.
For consideration, please submit a 1-page abstract formatted for blind review (as a Word document) to Brook Ziporyn at ziporyn@uchicago.edu with the subject line “MCCT 2027 Abstract Submission” by January 2, 2027. Please also attach a separate document containing your name, the title of your proposed presentation as it appears on the abstract, your institutional affiliation, and your contact email address. For more information, visit the conference website at https://chinesethought.iu.edu/home.php. For questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out to graduate student organizers Tyler Neenan (tjneenan@uchicago.edu) and Danica Cao (ddcao@uchicago.edu).
Our keynote speaker will be Tao Jiang, Professor of Religion and Philosophy at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, with a joint appointment in the Department of Religion and the Department of Philosophy. His areas of specializations include classical Chinese philosophy, Mahāyāna Buddhist philosophy, and cross-cultural philosophy. He is the author of Origins of Moral-Political Philosophy in Early China which received the Honorable Mention of 2023 Joseph Levenson Prize from the Association for Asian Studies, and Contexts and Dialogue: Yogācāra Buddhism and Modern Psychology on the Subliminal Mind. He is the co-editor of The Reception and Rendition of Freud in China. Jiang directs Rutgers Center for Chinese Studies and co-chairs the Neo-Confucian Studies Seminar at Columbia University.
