On January 24-25, 2025, the Nicholson Center for British Studies hosted our inaugural Chicago British Studies Symposium in the Social Science Tea Room. The aim of the symposium was to build intellectual community across the UChicago campus and stimulate conversations on new directions in the field of British Studies. The two-day event featured flash talks from twelve professors and six PhD candidates and recent Nicholson Graduate Fellows across nine departments and five divisions and schools. Presentations covered topics as diverse as comparative approaches to the politics of taxation in Ming-Qing China and Stuart England, the relationship between tempo perception and legacies of colonization in Kittitian-Nevisian popular music, and the process of modernizing without translating Middle English to create accessible texts for beginner students. The event was a great success with enthusiastic participation from across disciplines, and we can’t wait to see everyone back next year for our second annual Chicago British Studies Symposium.
Nicholson Faculty Affiliate Tim Harrison moderates a panel featuring Nicholson Graduate Student Research Grant recipients Elaine Wang (Committee on Social Thought), Eduardo Terra Romero (History) and Kiki Lerer (English).
Nicholson Faculty Affiliate Sankar Muthu (Political Science) moderates a panel featuring Nicholson Faculty Affiliate Alison Lacroix (Law), Nicholson Faculty Board Member Julie Orlemanski (English) and Nicholson Faculty Affiliate Ulrike Stark (South Asian Languages and Civilizations).