[Moving to top — this event is this weekend, April 27-29.]

The Schedule for the 2018 Northeast Conference on Chinese Thought and Midwest Conference on Chinese Thought (being held together this year for various reasons) has been finalized. All panels will take place in McHugh Hall 205 (formerly Laurel Hall), at the University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT.

The Nathan Hale Inn on campus (http://www.nathanhaleinn.com) has reserved a block of rooms for the conference available at a discount rate. The block is reserved until March 29th. You can still get the discounted rate after this date with conference affiliation, but the block of rooms will not be saved after this date so it will be “as available.” [UPDATE: You have to call to get the conference rate, rather than book on-line. SECOND UPDATE: Panel listing revised with Chairs.]

Friday, April 27

1-2:30 Death/loss (chair- Mathew Foust, Central Connecticut State University)

• Brian Finnegan (Eastern Michigan University) “Death is Good”
• Pengbo Liu (University of Massachusetts) “Attachment, Loss, and Adaptation”
• Bin Song (Boston University) “The Transcendence Debate in the History of Christian-Ru (Confucian) Interaction and How to Tackle It Today”

2:45-4:15 Daoism (chair- Alexus McLeod, University of Connecticut)

• Frank Saunders (University of Hong Kong) “Ethics in the Zhuangzi: Sagehood Amid Diversity”
• Stephen Walker (University of Chicago) “Dao as an Unfixed Referent in the Qiwulun”
• James Beebe (State University of New York, Buffalo) “Zhuangzi, Intellectual Humility, and Skepticism”

4:30-6:00 Comparative Chinese-Western (Andrew Lambert, College of Staten Island)

• Ori Tavor (University of Pennsylvania)—”The Neurophysiology of Early Chinese Death Rituals”
• May Sim (College of the Holy Cross) “Zhuangzi and Plato on ‘Creative Resilience’ for Economic and Environmental Justice”
• Ambrose DeMarco (College of the Holy Cross) “Mencius and Aristotle: Rethinking Moral Motivation”

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Saturday, April 28

9-10:30 Comparative Chinese-Western 2 (Aaron Stalnaker, Indiana University)

• Joseph Harroff (Temple University) “A Somaesthetic Rhythmanalysis Approach to ‘Optimal Appropriateness’ (yi) in Si-Meng Confucian Role Ethics”
• Joshua Mason (West Chester University of Pennsylvania) “A Little More:
• Incorporating the Chinese Moral Vocabulary into Ricoeur’s ‘Little Ethics’”
• Susan Blake (Bard College) “Tension in Theories of Reference”

10:45-12:15 Political Phil (chair- David Elstein, State University of New York, New Paltz)

• R.A. Carleo (Chinese University of Hong Kong) “Can Mencius Support Political Liberties?”
• Shu-Shan Lee (Nazarbayev University) “What Did the Emperors Ever Say?—The Public Transcript of Imperial Confucian Political Obligation”
• Brandon King (University of Pennsylvania) “The Hidden Curriculum in the Legalist State”

1:45-3:15 Aesthetics and Ritual (chair- Michael Ing, Indiana University)

• Andrew Lambert (College of Staten Island) “From Aesthetics to Ethics: The Role of Delights and Musicality in Confucian Social Ethics”
• Julianne Chung (University of Louisville) “Moral Cultivation: Landscape Gardens, Personal Ideals, and Learning from the Arts”
• Thomas Radice (Southern Connecticut State University) “Not for the Sake of Others: Ritual and Spectatorship in the Mengzi”

3:30-5 Neo-Confucianism (chair- Stephen Angle, Wesleyan University)

• Sam Cocks (University of Wisconsin, La Crosse) “The Neo-Confucian Perspective on the Place and Content of Flourishing”
• Ann Pang-White (University of Scranton) “How to Become a Female Sage? Neo-Confucianism and Empress Renxiaowen’s Teaching for the Inner Court”
• Benjamin Huff (Randolph-Macon College) “Tian as Agent or Ground of Possibility in the Confucian Tradition”

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Sunday, April 29

9-10:30 Mengzi (chair- Yuhan Liang, University of Connecticut)

• Jing Hu and Seth Robertson (University of Oklahoma) “Constructing Morality with Mengzi: Three Lessons on Moral Discovery and Meta-ethics”
• Tim Connolly (East Stroudsburg University) “An Exemplarist Perspective on Mencius 5B3”
• Howard Curzer (Texas Tech University) “Stingy King Meets Savvy Sage: Rethinking the Dialog Between Xuan and Mengzi”

10:45-12:45 Later/Contemporary Issues (chair, Alexus McLeod, University of Connecticut)

• Alice Simoniato (Leiden University) “The Manifesto of 1958: A Statement to the World on Behalf of Chinese Culture”
• Stephen Angle (Wesleyan University) “Can Artificial Intelligence Lead Us to Genuine Virtue?  A Confucian Perspective”
• David Elstein (State University of New York, New Paltz) “Interpreting Confucian Ethics”
• Timothy Gutmann (University of Chicago) “Chinese Traditions and the Category of Religion”