Tag: History

Podcasts

Shifting Stories: An Interview

Sarah M. Allen’s new book looks at the literature of tales in eighth- and ninth-century China. Shifting Stories: History, Gossip, and Lore in Narratives from Tang Dynasty China (Harvard University Asia Center, 2014) situates Tang tales in the context of social story exchange among elite men. Allen’s work not only contributes significantly to how we understand and frame concepts like fiction and fact, authorship, gossip, and collection, … Continue reading Shifting Stories: An Interview

Unknown's avatarCarla Nappi
Stories

Translating Recipes Part 10 & 11: Recipes, Time, Space, and “After”

The most recent parts of a multi-part series exploring time and space in (Manchu) recipe literature and in translation were just posted at The Recipes Project. You can find them here and here. This one focuses on exploring the work of “after”-ness in recipe literature, and it includes a relevant translation of our multiply-translated Manchu recipe. Links to the entire Translating Recipes series (so far) can be found on the … Continue reading Translating Recipes Part 10 & 11: Recipes, Time, Space, and “After”

Unknown's avatarCarla Nappi
News

What History Could Have Been: A Symposium

On May 21, a handful of historically-minded people will gather at Princeton to participate in an experiment in “conjectural historiography”: imagining and memorializing historians who never existed, but should have. It will be fabulous, it will be the beginning of something, it will be an experiment, and anyone who is in the area is warmly invited to join us. I’ll be sharing some reflections on a group … Continue reading What History Could Have Been: A Symposium

Unknown's avatarCarla Nappi
Essays, News

Working Paper – “Magical History, A Lion’s Tail, and A Lock of Hair”

Last week, I was fortunate to be part of a truly magical gathering at the Smart Museum of the University of Chicago: a colloquium devoted to the theme of “Repurposing Magic.” It was an incredibly inspiring day, and I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to learn in such wonderful company. Here’s a prosed-out version of the 20-minute talk I gave at the colloquium, offered … Continue reading Working Paper – “Magical History, A Lion’s Tail, and A Lock of Hair”

Unknown's avatarCarla Nappi
Podcasts

Savage Exchange: An Interview

Tamara Chin’s new book is awesome: it’s a tour de force and a must-read for anyone interested in early China, the history of economy, or inter-disciplinarity in the humanities. Focusing on the reign of Han Emperor Wu (r. 141-87 BCE), Savage Exchange carefully considers how this earliest period of expansion of China’s markets and frontiers inspired scholarly debates over the relationships of frontier, market, word, and world. … Continue reading Savage Exchange: An Interview

Unknown's avatarCarla Nappi
Podcasts

The Annals of King T’aejo: An Interview

Byonghyon Choi’s new book makes a key document of Korean and world history available in English in a volume that will be tremendously useful for both scholarship and teaching. The Annals of King T’aejo translates an important excerpt from The Veritable Records of the Choson Dynasty, a historical record that documents important events and historical developments from the first 472 years of the Choson period in Korean history, … Continue reading The Annals of King T’aejo: An Interview

Unknown's avatarCarla Nappi
Stories

Translating Recipes 9: Recipes in Time and Space Part 3 – IF

The third part of a multi-part series exploring time and space in (Manchu) recipe literature and in translation has just been posted at The Recipes Project. You can find it here. This one focuses on exploring the work of “if”-ness in recipe literature, and it includes a kind of Choose Your Own Adventure translation of our multiply-translated Manchu recipe. Later posts in this series will take on other prepositional attitudes … Continue reading Translating Recipes 9: Recipes in Time and Space Part 3 – IF

Unknown's avatarCarla Nappi
Podcasts

Banking on the Body: An Interview

How did we come to think of spaces for the storage and circulation of body parts as “banks,” and what are the consequences of that history for the way we think about human bodies as property today? Kara W. Swanson’s wonderful new book traces the history of body banks in America from the nineteenth century to today, focusing especially on milk, blood, and sperm. We had … Continue reading Banking on the Body: An Interview

Unknown's avatarCarla Nappi
Podcasts

Life on Display: An Interview

In lucid prose that’s a real pleasure to read, Karen Rader and Victoria Cain’s new book chronicles a revolution in modern American science education and culture. Life on Display: Revolutionizing U. S. Museums of Science & Natural History in the Twentieth Century guides readers through a transformation in American science and nature museums as museums moved from a nineteenth-century focus on research and specimen collections to a twentieth-century emphasis on … Continue reading Life on Display: An Interview

Unknown's avatarCarla Nappi
Podcasts

Chromatic Algorithms: An Interview

Carolyn L. Kane’s new book traces the modern history of digital color, focusing on the role of electronic color in computer art and media aesthetics since 1960. Chromatic Algorithms: Synthetic Color, Computer Art, and Aesthetics after Code places color at the center of media studies, exploring some amazing works of art and technology to understand the changing history of the relationship between color as embodied in machine … Continue reading Chromatic Algorithms: An Interview

Unknown's avatarCarla Nappi