The 12th Annual Meeting of the Chinese Medieval Studies Workshop was held at Rutgers University on May 5, 2018. This workshop, started by Professor Wendy Swartz and funded by the Chiang Ching-kuo (CCK) Foundation, is a major academic forum for the exchange of ideas and the advancement of scholarship. Distinguished scholars from across the United States working on medieval Chinese literature, history, religion, and visual culture, have been meeting annually in this forum since 2003 to discuss their current research. Ground-breaking research and methodology first presented at these workshops have found their way into notable and award-winning books and journal articles.
        This workshop has also served as a lively forum that encourages scholars to collaborate and exchange ideas. The most recent product resulting from this workshop is a book on cultural memory, remembrance, commemorative writings, to be published by Brill Press in 2018, entitled Memory in Medieval China: Text, Ritual, and Community, edited by Wendy Swartz and Robert Campany. This will be the first book on this subject in English and it promises to be a significant contribution to the field medieval studies.
        This workshop has also contributed to expanding the field by providing a venue for younger, up-and-coming scholars to participate in major scholarly discussions. Over the years, graduate students from Columbia, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, The University of Pennsylvania, and Rutgers have attended the meetings. This workshop hopes to build on the momentum it has gathered over the past decade and continue to be a major forum for scholarly exchange. 

​On May 3, 2018, Harvard University hosted “The Taiwan Studies Workshop,” bringing together Harvard University’s visiting scholars from Taiwan to present on their current research and discuss perspectives on the future and development of the humanities and social sciences in Taiwan. Participants included all Top Universities Strategic Alliance of Taiwan (TUSA) scholars at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as well as the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies 2017-18 Hou Family Fellows. Invited speakers included (in alphabetic order): Wen-Yang Chang (National Chengchi University, TUSA), Shun-Liang Chao (National Chengchi University, TUSA), Chung-jen Chen (National Taiwan University, TUSA), Po-An Chen (National Chiao Tung University, TUSA), Wei-Ti Chen (Northern Arizona University, Hou-Family Fellow), Yen-Lin Chung (National Chengchi University, TUSA), Chih-Cheng Meng (National Cheng Kung University, TUSA). Invited speakers presented on a wide range of topics, including English literature, the history of medicine, neo-imperialism in East Asia, information management, political science, diplomacy, and East Asia studies. The interdisciplinary nature of the event led to productive discussions across fields and laid the foundation for future collaborations.