Speaker: Ding Xiang Warner, Professor of Chinese Literature, Cornell University

Abstract: The usual procedures of the scholar of Chinese poetry, when asking the question “What is the meaning of this Chinese poem?,” are familiar and generally reliable. Whether we ask the question about a poem’s “original meaning,” a meaning intended by its author, or about the meanings that accrued to the poem in its reception by readers over time, the meanings for which the poem earned a “place” in Chinese literary tradition, there are rich scholarly resources and time-tested methodological tools that help us to work out answers, even if tentatively. How, though, is the task of the literary historian complicated, how are the meanings of a Chinese poem affected, when it and its Chinese readers are “uprooted” from their native land, transported out of their cultural milieu into another? This presentation takes up these questions by way of examining engraved Chinese poems found on WWI trench art made by Chinese volunteer workers on the Western Front in Europe as opportunities for expanding study of classical Chinese poetry outside its expected contexts.

About East Asia Program

As Cornell’s hub for research, teaching, and engagement with East Asia, the East Asia Program (EAP) serves as a forum for the interdisciplinary study of historical and contemporary East Asia. The program draws its membership of over 45 core faculty and numerous affiliated faculty, graduate, and undergraduate students from eight of Cornell’s 12 schools and colleges.

Are you curious about how mental health, culture, and global health connect to real-world policy challenges? Do you want to learn through hands-on field research and community engagement in one of the most beautiful and biodiverse regions of South India? The Cornell-Keystone NFLP Summer Program in India offers an interdisciplinary experience in global health and policy, where students explore how culture, environment, and community shape wellbeing in the Nilgiris Biosphere Reserve.

Recent U.S. military actions in Venezuela—including strikes on civilian boats, the seizure of oil tankers, and the abduction of President Nicolas Maduro—have raised questions about U.S. ambitions in Latin America and their implications for peace and international order. This panel brings together five prominent experts on Venezuelan history and politics, with the aim of deepening understanding of Venezuelan perspectives on recent events and their broader implications.

How are Venezuela’s political parties responding to shifting U.S. foreign policies? What are the likely effects of recent military actions on prospects for peace and stability in Venezuela and Latin America? Can the U.S. play a meaningful and legitimate role in helping Venezuelans restore democratic governance, and if so what policies might contribute to that goal?

Panelists

Irina Troconis, Professor, Cornell University (moderator)David Smilde, Professor, Tulane UniversityVeronica Zubillaga, Professor, Universidad Simón Bolívar, Caracas; Visiting Scholar, University of Illinois, ChicagoMargarita López Maya, Professor, Universidad Central de Venezuela
Register

Register here to join the virtual conversation.

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Event Hosts

This virtual event is hosted by the Reppy Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies and cosponsored by the Latin American and Caribbean Studies Program. Both are part of the Einaudi Center for International Studies.

Adam Tooze, Shelby Cullom Davis Chair of History at Columbia University

Additional details are forthcoming.

2026 International Interdisciplinary Conference on Myanmar's Borderlands (2026 IICMB)

A virtual conference hosted by the Inya Institute (Yangon), Cornell University's Southeast Asia Program (SEAP), and their Southeast Asia-based partners.

Myanmar’s multilayered crisis is profoundly reshaping the socio-economic and geo-political dynamics of the country’s borderlands—regions that have evolved into spaces of exchange, negotiation, and collaboration across geographical, cultural, and linguistic boundaries. The emergence of these spaces has been uneven, unfolding under stringent administrative control and persistent insecurity and marked by fluctuating intensity and periodic pushback from central authorities. Yet, the potential of borderlands to provide local and trans-local communities and networks with opportunities to shape the country’s future remains tremendous.

The conference’s focus on interconnectedness will highlight how inclusive learning and dialogue, local and trans-local community engagement, and recognition of our interdependence with the natural environment can further strengthen borderland dynamics across all markers. It will broaden the conversation on borderland issues that may only be addressed through the prism of ethnicity or framed as issues specific to group identities. It will also encourage dialogue across communities, inviting them to discuss the challenges they face and the aspirations they hold.

invite scholars and students to submit original research papers and/or panels covering any area of Myanmar borders with China, Laos, Thailand, Bangladesh, and India and addressing any of the following topics:

• borderland dynamics and their local and trans-local communities

• networks and partnerships emerging across ethnic, religious, cultural and linguistic boundaries

• communities, networks, and trade across borders

• natural resources and challenges to environmental protection in borderlands

• legal and illegal border migration

• humanitarian relief to refugees and public health in borderlands

• border regimes and governance

• infrastructure(s) and illicit economies and activities

• non-human mobility in borderlands

• formal and non-formal education in borderlands

• other themes related to Myanmar’s borderlands.

In order to preserve the confidentiality of presenters, the conference program will not be available for circulation beyond the group of conference presenters. Conference presenters will also be expected to follow the Chatham House Rule.

The conference will be held entirely online. Due to the time difference between Myanmar and the U.S., panels will be held in the evening for presenters based in Myanmar, Thailand, and elsewhere in Southeast Asia, and the morning for those located in the U.S.

The Fulbright U.S. Student Program supports U.S. citizens to study, conduct research in any field, or teach English in more than 150 countries. The program is open to graduate students, recent graduates, and young professionals. Undergraduate students who wish to begin the program immediately after graduation are encouraged to start the process in their junior year. Recent graduates are welcome to apply through Cornell.

The Fulbright program at Cornell is administered by the Mario Einaudi Center for International studies. Applicants are supported through all stages of the application and are encouraged to start early by contacting fulbright@einaudi.cornell.edu.

Register for the virtual session.

Can’t attend? Contact fulbright@einaudi.cornell.edu.

Speaker: Wu Hung, Harrie A. Vanderstappen Distinguished Service Professor of Art History and the College Chinese Art, University of Chicago

Title: How to Read Chinese Handscroll Paintings

About Cornell Classical Chinese Colloquium
The group meets monthly during the semester to explore a variety of classical Chinese texts and styles. Other premodern texts linked to classical Chinese in Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese have also been explored. Presentations include works from the earliest times to the 20th century. Workshop sessions are led by local, national, and international scholars. Participants with any level of classical Chinese experience are welcome to attend.
o At each session, a presenter guides the group in a reading of a classical Chinese text. Attendees discuss historical, literary, linguistic, and other aspects of the text, working together to resolve difficulties in comprehension and translation.
o No preparation is required; all texts will be distributed at the meeting.
o Refreshments will be served.

Gatty Lecture Series

Join us for a talk by Thuy Linh Nguyen, Associate Professor of History from Mount Saint Mary College.

This Gatty Lecture will take place at The Kahin Center, 640 Stewart Ave. Lunch will be served. For questions, contact seapgatty@cornell.edu.

Abstract
My presentation explores the environmental history of the French introduction and mass planting of exotic timber species, such as Casuarina equisetifolia—commonly known as filao—and eucalyptus, to reforest and stabilize the vast moving sand dunes covering the majority of Vietnam’s 2000-mile coast, highlighting their effects on the coastal environment and indigenous communities. This research questions the colonial stereotype that portrayed coastal sand dunes as empty and barren landscapes devoid of vegetation. In contrast, as my presentation demonstrates, the ecological multiplicity of the dunes offers a new lens for examining various topics, including traditional knowledge, local economies, resources, property, land reclamation, and colonial state power.

About the Speaker
Thuy Linh Nguyen is an Associate Professor of History at Mount Saint Mary College in Newburgh, NY. Dr. Nguyen is a historian of modern Vietnam. A native of Vietnam, she received her PhD in History from the University of Pennsylvania. She is currently working as Associate professor of History at Mount Saint Mary College. Newburgh, NY. Her first book, Childbirth, Maternity and Medical Pluralism in French Colonial Vietnam, 1880–1945 (University of Rochester Press, 2016), examines the interactions between French colonial medicine and Vietnamese childbirth practices and their impact on maternal and infant health care. Her second book, Vietnam’s Coal Frontier: Mining, Environment and Empire (Cambridge University Press, November 2025), explores the environmental, economic, and social history of large-scale coal mining in French colonial Vietnam. She has also published peer-reviewed articles on other topics of modern Vietnamese history.