Round 2: Humanities and Social Sciences Faculty Lightning Talks
On Feb. 6, students, faculty, and staff filled the Burling Library Lounge for the second installment of New Faculty/Staff Lightning Talks. The event is a collaboration between Rebecca Marcum ’12, the Grinnell College Libraries, and the Office of Corporate, Foundation, and Government Relations.
For last week’s event, four faculty members in the humanities and social sciences departments gave 10-minute presentations of their research. Their brief overviews serve to introduce themselves and their knowledge and expertise to the campus community. The second round of lightning talks featured the following faculty members:
Xiao Chen, an assistant professor in history. For his lightning talk, he introduced the historiography of the Qing empire (1636–1912) and discussed the categorization of China Proper and Inner Asia. In his presentation, Chen focused on answering, “Was the Qing a colonial empire?” and provided his own interpretation of the complex labor regime. He currently teaches Imperial Collisions in Asia-Pacific and Gender and Power in Chinese History (Qing to Present).
Julian Rios Acuña is an assistant professor in philosophy. He shared research on colonial/postcolonial elites in societies seemingly structured to legal practices and discourses. In his presentation, he drew from the past to show how these elites move and act in ways to contradict and undermine the same legal structures that configure and sustain the society. His research attempts to describe and understand the tensions between the law and the non-law phenomenon and how the undermining of legal structures lacks consequences, if any at all. He teaches Introduction to Philosophy, Philosophy and Colonialism, and Philosophy of Race and Gender.
Wendy (Xiaoxue) Sun, an assistant professor in German studies, investigates the crisis of cosmopolitanism, which refers to an ideology or perspective that emphasizes global citizenship and the moral, political, and cultural ties that binds humanity across national and cultural divides. Her research explores interactions between the historical Jewish migration to Shanghai, contemporary refugee crises, and environmental issues. She teaches first- and second-year German, 300- and 400-level German seminars, and Stateless in Shanghai: Jewish Exile in Shanghai, a special topic course.
Putu Hiranmayena is a music assistant professor. His research presentation included a carefully crafted video and music performance, which he described as a small segment of a larger creative ethnography of Bali, Indonesia. His performance surrounds ideas of neo-settler colonialism in Indonesia and the neo-new age colonies that have emerged specifically in Bali. He directs the Balinese Sound Ensemble and teaches courses on Heavy Metal Music, Electronic Music, and Noise and Activism.
“What we found is,” Marcum said in her address to the attendees, “everybody is already interested in each other’s research and sit down and learn about what other people are doing, especially if you are in a different department or division.”
Future New Faculty/Staff Lightning Talks will be promoted on the Campus Calendar.
