Coinciding with the exhibition\, “Treasures Rediscovered\: Chinese Stone Sculptures from the Sackler Collections at Columbia University\,” to be held at the University of Virginia Art Museum (January 15–March 14\, 2010)\, “Cultural Crossings\: China and Beyond in the Medieval Period” combines an international conference with a workshop on digital projects to investigate exchanges between China and neighboring cultures during the medieval period (third–tenth centuries) from cross-cultural and interdisciplinary perspectives.

Since its establishment in the first century of the common era\, the Silk Road was a channel for the transmission of ideas\, technologies\, and artistic forms\, with far-reaching impact that stretched from the Pacific to the Atlantic. In Asia\, the transmission of religious faiths along the Silk Road—most notably Buddhism—had a profound impact on the ideas\, material culture\, and languages of the region. During this period\, Buddhism spread eastward from India via both land and maritime routes. By the end of the seventh century\, the center of the Buddhist world had shifted to China\, where Indian and Central Asian Buddhist monks gathered at the capitals of the Tang (618–907) dynasty. Diplomatic missions and pilgrim-monks from the kingdoms of Korea and Japan brought this religion and other aspects of Chinese civilization back to their own countries. The fruits of these exchanges were manifested in an increasingly uniform and international Buddhist idiom\, along with other cultural elements that still remain to be explored in depth. p>\;The “Cultural Crossings” conference intends to open new avenues for research into these complex and far-reaching exchanges by breaking down traditional national and disciplinary boundaries. By bringing together specialists of the period who are engaged in research in such diverse areas as Silk Road studies\, history\, literature\, gender\, art\, and religion of the region—and putting them into productive dialogue with one another—we hope to identify areas of common interest that can foster new approaches. Understanding of transnational exchanges in such historical contexts\, moreover\, deepens our appreciation of the modern world from a global perspective.

Taking advantage of the gathering of scholars from a wide range of disciplines at the conference\, the Institute for Advanced Technology in Humanities (IATH) at the University of Virginia will also host a half-day workshop (March 13) to focus on collaborative scholarship that has the potential to enhance existing related digital projects in Asian art and humanities.

Within the University of Virginia\, funding for the conference and workshop has been provided by\: Buckner W. Clay Endowment for the Humanities Grant\, East Asia Center\, Medieval Studies Program\, Page-Barbour Interdisciplinary Initiative Grant\, University of Virginia Art Museum\, and Ellen Bayard Weedon Foundation Grant. Additional generous support has been provided by the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange\, Taiwan\, and the Dharma Drum Buddhist College\, Taipei.

Conference Organizer\: Dorothy Wong\, Chinese Art History\; Co-Organizers\: Gustav Heldt\, Japanese Literature\, and Eric Ramìrez-Weaver\, Medieval Art History\; Coordinator\: Anna Kim\, PhD Candidate in Renaissance Art History\; Web-site maintenance\: Daniel Weiss\, PhD candidate in Classical Art and Archaeology\; additional administrative assistance is provided by\: Graham Odell and Margaret Bierwirth\, the East Asia Center\, and student volunteers
Contact information\: culturalcrossings [at] email [dot] virginia [dot] edu

The History DMP is a four semester program that begins in the fall of the third year with an intensive colloquium on historical methods and theory. The program culminates in the fourth year with the writing of a substantial research thesis. The topics of DMP theses are as diverse as our student’s historical interests. DMP students receive a B.A. in History with one of several levels of distinction. The department bestows special honors upon several of the top DMP theses during the graduation ceremony.

Students apply for the History DMP during the spring of their second year\, regardless of whether or not they have already declared history as their major. Applications to the program are due on Monday March 29 no later than 4\:00 pm. There are sixteen spaces available in the program\; decisions on acceptance will be announced approximately two weeks after the application deadline. Students accepted into the DMP will enroll in the DMP Colloquium (HIST 4890) for fall semester.

There will be an information meeting about the DMP on Wednesday\, March 17 at 4\:00 pm in Maury 115. Students interested in the DMP are encouraged to attend. If you still have unanswered questions\, please contact the DMP director\, Prof. Bradly Reed at bwr4k [at] virginia [dot] edu.

June Carolyn Erlick\, author of A Gringa in Bogota\, returns to a bustling metropolis and the echo of a distant rural war to talk at VFH's Festival of the Book. Talk Moderated by Tico Braun.

June Carolyn Erlick\, editor-in-chief of ReVista\, the Harvard Review of Latin America\, is the author of A Gringa in Bogota\, Living in Colombia's Invisible War and Disappeared\, A Journalist Silenced. A Fulbright Fellow in Colombia and Guatemala\, Erlick was a foreign correspondent in Latin America for 14 years.

Temma Kaplan (Department of History\, Rutgers University)
Title to be announced\: Talk on women\, water\, and environmental activism

Lecture\, Thursday\, March 18\, 3\:30-5\:00PM (Claude Moore Nursing Education Building G010)
Workshop\, Friday\, March 19\, 10-11\:30AM (Nau Hall 441 )

Professor Kaplan is the author of Anarchists of Andalusia 1868-1903 (Princeton University Press\, 1977)\; Red City\, Blue Period\: Social Movements in Picasso's Barcelona (University of California Press\, 1992\; pb 1993)\; Crazy for Democracy\: Women's Grassroots Movements (Routledge\, 1997)\; Taking Back the Streets\: Women\, Youth\, and Direct Democracy (University of California Press\, 2004).

Social Justice\: The Power of Individuals
Bob Zellner (The Wrong Side of Murder Creek) and Paul Gaston (Coming of Age in Utopia) discuss how they came to challenge racial injustice as white southerners during the civil rights movement.

Location\:
City Council Chambers
605 E. Main Street
(434)970-3113
Venue Details

Many of you are in the throes of comps season\, and we of the GHSA would like to offer you respite\, if only for a moment. Join us tomorrow (Friday\, 19 March) in Nau 396 from 1\:00 to 3\:00 for a Spring Luncheon for sandwiches (both meat and veggie options from Take It Away)\, drinks and refreshments.

The Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies at Monticello and the American Academy of Diplomacy are pleased to invite you to a panel discussion on\:

Stability &\; Reconstruction - The Jeffersonian Diplomatic Tradition and Contemporary Security\:
Lessons Learned from Afghanistan

Saturday\, March 20\, 2010
8\:30 a.m. - 12\:30 p.m.
Free and open to the public\, pre-registration required

Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies at Monticello
Charlottesville\, VA

James Sofka
Strategy\, Diplomacy &\; Power in the Foreign Policy of Thomas Jefferson
Lecturer\, Federal Executive Institute &\; American Military University

Ambassador Thomas Boyatt
former Ambassador to Colombia and Burkina Faso\,
Chair of the American Academy of Diplomacy's Foreign Affairs Budget Project

Ambassador James Dobbins
Director\, International Security and Defense Policy Center\, RAND Corporation

Ambassador Robert Hunter
former Ambassador to NATO and Senior Advisor\, RAND Corporation

Andrew O'Shaughnessy
Saunders Director\, Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies

James Sofka
Lecturer\, Federal Executive Institute &\; American Military University

Ambassador Ronald Neumann
President\, American Academy of Diplomacy\,
former Ambassador to Afghanistan\, Bahrain and Algeria

Where\:
Jefferson Library\, Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies
Directions to the Jefferson Library

From Granada through Afghanistan to Iraq\, the U.S. has repeatedly entered countries militarily only to find that getting out required substantial civilian effort on the ground and in international diplomacy. Each time\, the United States had to \\"reinvent the wheel\,\\" and after each event\, lessons were lost rather than learned. The American Academy of Diplomacy (AAD) and the Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies will host a panel discussion by experienced diplomats and scholars to present the recommendations of two significant reports\: \\"Integrating Instruments of Power and Influence\: Lessons Learned and Best Practices\,\\" which focuses on improving interagency coordination\, and \\"Foreign Affairs Budget of the Future\: Fixing the Crisis in Diplomatic Readiness\,\\" (FAB) which focuses on the need for a more robust diplomatic corps. Those recommendations have immense implications for reconstruction and stabilization efforts\, in light of the recent focus on military involvement in Afghanistan. The panelists in this discussion will discuss the historic and critical role diplomacy plays in reconstruction and stabilization and in promoting America's national security.

About the Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies\:
The dual purpose of the Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies is research and education -- to foster Jefferson scholarship and to disseminate its findings. The activities of the Center are diverse and multidisciplinary. It is a residential site for individual Jefferson scholars and teachers\, as well as a venue for lectures\, seminars\, and conferences. The Center seeks a central role in the ongoing study of Thomas Jefferson internationally by supporting a wide range of inquiry\; by building a network of scholars\, teachers\, and resources\; by helping to define new areas of investigation\; and by promoting the application of new technologies to Jefferson scholarship. An Advisory Board of acclaimed scholars and statesmen helps guide the Center's activities.

About the American Academy of Diplomacy\:
The Academy was founded in 1983 by Ambassadors Ellsworth Bunker\, U. Alexis Johnson\, and John J. McCloy to explore ways in which persons who had served in positions of major responsibility could cooperate to promote the highest standards in the practice of American diplomacy. Today\, the Academy is dedicated to strengthening the resources and tools America brings to managing its diplomatic challenges\, and accomplishes this through targeted outreach programs\, distinguished awards\, scholarships and writing competitions\, and robust\, practical\, research-based publications. Through these activities\, the Academy promotes an understanding of the importance of diplomacy to serving our nation and enhancing America's standing in the world.

Laurent Dubois (Departments of French and History\, Duke University)
The Aftershocks of History in Haiti
Rescheduled from Friday\, February 5

Workshop\, 10\:00-11\:30AM (Nau Hall 441)
Lecture\, 2-3\:30PM (Claude Moore Nursing Education Building\, G-120)

Attached is a text by Laurent Dubois for the workshop with graduate students next week. It is drawn from his new project on the history of the banjo from Africa to the Caribbean. Please note that the topic of Dubois's lecture has been changed. he will now place the earthquake in the context of the history Haiti (with promise of mention of US Policy and Jefferson). Following the talk there will be an informal roundtable for all students and faculty about organizing aid for Haiti. This will be at 4PM or 4\:30 PM and will be organized by Yari Bonilla of Religious Studies. Details forthcoming.

Professor Dubois is the author of Soccer Empire\: The World Cup and the Future of France (University of California Press\, forthcoming)\, with John Garrigus. Slave Revolution in the Caribbean\, 1789-1804\: A Brief History With Documents ( Bedford Press)\, Avengers of the New World\: The Story of the Haitian Revolution (The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press\, 2004). A Colony of Citizens\: Revolution and Slave Emancipation in the French Caribbean\, 1787-1804.

Please mark your calendars for William Hitchcock's talk\, \\"Human Rights\, The Geneva Conventions\, and the Challenge of Transnational History.\\" \;We will meet in Clark 107 at 3\:30-5\:00 this Wednesday\, March 31. \;A reception will follow.

On April 2-3\, UVa\, in conjunction with the ARTFL project at the University of Chicago\, is hosting an international conference on Diderot and D'Alembert's Encyclopedia. The program is available at http\://pages.shanti.virginia.edu/encyclopedie

Among the events will be a keynote address by the great French historian Roger Chartier (U. of Pennsylvania/EHESS/College de France) entitled \\"Censorship of the Encyclopedie\: Diderot\, Malesherbes\, and Le Breton.\\" The lecture will take place in the Auditorium of Small Library\, 1-2\:30\, on Friday\, April 2. The subject will be the mysterious 18th volume of the Encyclopedie\, which shows the censors' work on this famous text. (The only edition in the world to contain this 18th volume is in the Gordon Collection in Small Library.)

Also\, the day before the conference (Thurs.\, April 1\, from 4-6 in Nau 341)\, the History Dept. will be co-sponsoring a seminar--open to faculty and graduate students--on a precirculated paper by Prof. Chartier. The paper\, entitled \\"The Author's Hand\,\\" is attached.

\;I hope many of you\, including grad students\, will take the opportunity to come hear Roger Chartier on one or both of these occasions.

You can find the form and more information here. The form must be completed electronically\, no long hand will be accepted. The form must be submitted by April 1st to Mr Dimberg.

The History Dept. will be co-sponsoring a seminar--open to faculty and graduate students--on a precirculated paper by Prof. Chartier. The paper\, entitled \\"The Author's Hand\,\\" is attached.

ENCYCLOPEDIE CONFERENCE

April 2 – 3\, 2010

University of Virginia

Harrison Institute / Small Special Collections Library

Friday\, April 2\:

9\:30 – 11\:30

Byrd Seminar Room (3^rd Floor)

Lighting the Labyrinth\:- This panel will discuss the current state of the ARTFL Encyclopédie as well as detail several new research and development efforts that explore the Digital Encyclopédie using various machine learning and text mining techniques.

\;Chair\: Bethany Nowviskie (UVa Digital Humanities)

Robert Morrissey\, ARTFL/University of Chicago

Mark Olsen\, ARTFL/University of Chicago

Clovis Gladstone\, ARTFL/University of Chicago

Glenn Roe\, ARTFL/University of Chicago

11\:30 – noon

Informal tutorial on how to use the ARTFL database

1\:30-2\:30

Auditorium (1^st Floor)

Keynote Address\: ROGER CHARTIER\, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales\, Paris

“Censorship of the Encyclopédie\: Diderot\, Malesherbes and Le Breton”

2\:30 – 4\:00

The Encyclopédie across time and space\, Part 1

Chair\: Bradley Pasanek\, UVa English

Chad Wellmon\, UVa German\: “Organizing Enlightenment.”

Daniel Brewer\, University of Minnesota French\: “L’Encyclopédie and Cultural Transfer.”

Lucien Nouis\, NYU French\: “Sur la non-place de saint Augustin dans l’Encyclopédie“

4\:30 – 6\:00

Round table\: Things you can do with the Encyclopédie

In this panel\, we will discuss how we use the Encyclopédie in the classroom and in the decorative arts.

Chair\: Jennifer Tsien\, UVa French

Jay Gaynor\, Colonial Williamsburg

Bonnie Gordon\, UVa Music

J.B. Shank\, University of Minnesota History

Saturday\, April 3\:

Byrd Seminar Room (3^rd Floor)

10\:30 – noon \;

The Encyclopédie across time and space\, Part 2

Chair\: Sophia Rosenfeld\, UVa History

Siva Vaidhyanathan\, UVa Media Studies\: “The Googlization of Knowledge.”

Martine Groult\, CNRS\: “Espace et temporalité de l’Encyclopédie\: le Journal encyclopédique et l’esprit philosophique”

Pierre Caye\, CNRS\: “Universalité spatiale\, universalité temporelle dans la définition de l’encyclopédie”

Jennifer Tamas\, Stanford French\, “La déclaration\, un mot en mutation au 18e siècle\: dépasser et réinventer les sens donnés par l‘Encyclopédie“

noon — 1\:00

Student workshop

Nancy Langston\, the immediate past president of the American Society for Environmental History\, will be talking at UVa tomorrow\, Tuesday. \; All are welcome.

Modern Meat\: Synthetic Hormones\, Livestock\, and Consumers in the Post-War Era

Soon after World War II\, the first synthetic estrogen\, diethylstilbestrol (DES)\, was approved as a growth-promoter in poultry\, hogs\, and cattle\, soon after it had been approved as a medical technology to treat menopausal women. DES soon became critical in the development of industrialized feedlot system in America. At the peak of its use in the 1960s\, DES was given nearly 95% of feedlot cattle in America. After high levels of hormones were detected in treated chickens\, concern over DES effects began to grow in various lay groups\, including farmers who handled treated livestock\, workers who manufactured the material\, consumers who were eating meat from treated livestock\, and women who were receiving the hormone. The metabolic byproducts of DES-wastes with potent estrogenic activity--from feedlots and from people made their way into broader ecosystems\, exposing a wide range of wildlife to the hormone. This talk explores the ways scientists\, industry\, consumers\, and regulators n
egotiated growing controversies over synthetic estrogens\, and examines the ways that endocrine disruptors in the post-war era changed the internal ecosystems of human\, livestock\, and wildlife bodies\, interconnecting our bodies with our environments in increasingly complex ways.

Nancy Langston is a Professor in the Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology with a joint appointment in the Nelson Institute of Environmental Studies\, University of Wisconsin-Madison. She serves on the Executive Committee of the Center for Culture\, History\, and Environment and has an affiliate appointment in the History Department. In March 2009\, she finished her term as President of the American Society for Environmental History. Her current project is Changing Lake Superior\: Forest\, Fisheries\, Global Warming\, and Environmental Health