In collaboration with BK21 Plus Education & Research Group for Chinese & Japanese Language and Culture (Korea University), The Center for Taiwan Studies will be hosting a conference on world literatures in Chinese. The conference will explore East Asian literature that has developed under the influence of the Chinese cultural sphere.

As part of a History of Art & Architecture lecture series titled “Games,” psychologist Albert “Skip” Rizzo will discuss Clinical Virtual Reality, new technology with the potential to treat clinical health conditions like cognitive, psychological, motor, and functional impairments. The talk will address the rationales for the use of VR beyond entertainment, as well as ethical concerns.

UC Irvine Art History professor Bert Winther-Tamaki will lecture about the soil, dirt, sand, and clay deposited in Japanese installation art during and after the Bubble Economy (1980s-90’s), arguing that earth did not serve as a neutral medium, but instead, the soil indicates the artwork’s journey through contemporaneous Japan.

Oberlin College classics professor Kirk Orman will be lecturing on the traditional figure of the intersex divinity Hermaphroditus. Orman will do a close examination of the figure of Hermaphroditus in Ovid’s narrative, arguing that the figure is less sexually ambiguous than sculptural and painted figures.

Tomas Sanchez (MA 1975 History) will discuss the personal and political experiences that shaped his collection, “Chicanismo!,” on exhibit at the AD&A museum until December 8, 2019. Sanchez began collecting works of art that represented the experiences of Chicanos in California while he was a graduate student at UCSB.

Professor emerita of history Jane Sherron de Hart will be speaking about her new biography, Ruth Bader Ginsburg: A Life. The book is the first full life account of the 107th Supreme Court Justice and was written with the cooperation of Ginsburg herself.