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Events

Intellectual collaborations thrive in environments where ideas are shared, freely and respectfully, among people representing different backgrounds and perspectives. This is why the Neubauer Collegium regularly opens its inquiries and conversations to the public.

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The One and Many Silk Roads: The Art of Imagining a Common Future

Photograph of a truck on a highway in Pakistan.
Lecture

The One and Many Silk Roads: The Art of Imagining a Common Future

At this talk, international relations scholar Marina Jose Kaneti will discuss narratives about the Silk Road in the context of collective development.

The Belt Road Initiative is often dubbed the 21st-century Silk Road, inspired by the “spirit of the ancient Silk Road” and the vision of a “shared past and common future.” Taking a cue from the ancient Silk Road in constructing an agenda for collective development has brought in a new wave of interest in the Silk Road itself. Silk Road revivals are everywhere: from archaeological digs in Kenya and Cambodia, to (re)drawings of maps of global connections; and from UNESCO Silk Road heritage applications to academic conferences and New York Times bestsellers. But “the” Silk Road was never just about China’s past connections and presence in the world. Other cultures and communities can similarly stake Silk Road claims. What are some of the other stories about the Silk Road? How do they differ and how are they accommodated into the 21st-century vision of shared past and common future?

At this talk, International Relations scholar Marina Jose Kaneti (NUS Singapore) will argue that the art of imagining a common future entails the validation and endorsement of competing and dissonant tales of the past. Kaneti will draw on the visual displays and narratives of the Silk Road staged as part of the Sharing a Common Future exhibition in Beijing in 2019 in order to interrogate the complementary and competing imaginaries of the Silk Road past. Enze Han, Associate Professor of Politics and Public Administration at the University of Hong Kong, will serve as interlocutor along with Richard Payne, Associate Professor of History, Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations.

Organized by the Silk Road Imaginaries research project at the Neubauer Collegium in partnership with the University of Chicago Campus in Hong Kong.

The University of Chicago Francis and Rose Yuen Campus in Hong Kong

At this talk, international relations scholar Marina Jose Kaneti will discuss narratives about the Silk Road in the context of collective development.

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Director’s Lecture with Drew Gilpin Faust

Director's Lecture

Director’s Lecture with Drew Gilpin Faust

Drew Gilpin Faust, President Emerita of Harvard University, is a renowned scholar of American history.

About the Speaker

Drew Gilpin Faust is the Arthur Kingsley Porter University Research Professor at Harvard, where she served as president from 2007 to 2018.

Faust previously served as founding dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study (2001-2007). Before coming to Radcliffe, she was the Annenberg Professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania.

She is the author of seven books, including, most recently, Necessary Trouble: Growing Up at Midcentury, published in August 2023. Her earlier book, This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War (2008), was a finalist for the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize and was awarded the Bancroft Prize, the New-York Historical Society’s American History Book Prize, and recognized by The New York Times as one of the “Ten Best Books of 2008.” This Republic of Suffering is the basis for a 2012 Emmy-nominated episode of the PBS American Experience documentaries titled Death and the Civil War, directed by Ric Burns.

Faust’s honors include awards in 1982 and 1996 for distinguished teaching at the University of Pennsylvania. She was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1994, the Society of American Historians in 1993, and the American Philosophical Society in 2004. In September 2018 she was awarded the John W. Kluge Prize for Achievement in the Study of Humanity by the Library of Congress. She received her bachelor’s degree from Bryn Mawr in 1968, magna cum laude with honors in history, and master’s (1971) and doctoral (1975) degrees in American civilization from the University of Pennsylvania. She and her husband live in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

About the Director's Lecture Series

The Roman Family Director’s Lecture series at the Neubauer Collegium, made possible through the generous support of University of Chicago Trustee Emmanuel Roman, MBA’87, brings distinguished speakers to the University of Chicago to share their insights with faculty, students, and the broader community. The aim of these events is to deepen public knowledge about the world and humanity’s place in it. More >

Drew Gilpin Faust, President Emerita of Harvard University, is a renowned scholar of American history.

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Opening Reception for Raqs Media Collective: Cavalcade

Photograph of the three artists of the Raqs Media Collective.
Exhibition Opening

Opening Reception for Raqs Media Collective: Cavalcade

Part of the Reimagining Cosmopolitanism research project, this exhibition will feature multimedia work by the Delhi-based Raqs Media Collective.

In the spring of 2025 the Neubauer Collegium will present Cavalcade, a new multimedia work by the Delhi-based group Raqs Media Collective. The exhibition will mine the productive friction between age-old Hindu mythology and Indian hyper-modernity. Conceived in part within the framework of the multi-year research project Reimagining Cosmopolitanism at the Neubauer Collegium, Cavalcade expands our understanding of what it means to be “cosmopolitan” beyond the traditional reach of the human.

Neubauer Collegium

Part of the Reimagining Cosmopolitanism research project, this exhibition will feature multimedia work by the Delhi-based Raqs Media Collective.

Register