Fall 2024 Events

This presentation examines the ways that Hong Kong Chinese literature addresses the challenge of mediating Cantonese sounds through writing. In conventional Hong Kong literature in Chinese, writing entirely in Cantonese is rare. This rarity can be explained by the writing convention that demands that regional expressions, like the ones in Cantonese, are to be “translated” into the so-called “literary language” (書面語). That is to say, Cantonese, while being the vernacular in Hong Kong, has been largely muted in the writing tradition. Using Dung Kai-cheung’s (董啟章) novella Rise and Fall of Wing Shing Street (永盛街興衰史) as a case study, I bring to attention the historical inaudibility of the Cantonese sounds in literature and academic scholarship. In the story, Dung historicizes a fictive Hong Kong Cantonese soundscape with the sonic memory of a neighborhood called Wing Shing Street, which was once famous for a Cantonese singing tradition called nanyin (南音, literally “southern sound”). By creatively incorporating nanyin lyrics and Cantonese dialogues throughout the narrative, Dung sonically simulates the lost soundscapes of Cantonese singing and writing. Yet, he also highlights the paradox of mediating ephemeral sounds into texts, transforming the narrative itself into a “literary phantom” that captures the presence of these sounds while acknowledging their spectral, uncontainable nature. In this presentation, with the concept “sonic phantom”, I discuss the lingering presence of Cantonese sounds, particularly how they are constantly being erased yet resist to be fully silenced, as well as its haunting transformation in text, revealing how these spectral echoes challenge the boundaries between sound, memory, writing, and the very act of mediation.

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Commentator: Lena Scheen

Moderated by  Sangeeta Banerji

Dr Katie Aafjes-van Doorn is an associate professor in Clinical Psychology. She is the areahead of Social Sciences, and previously co-founded the mental health AI company Deliberate AI. Her interest in AI stems from a sense of frustration with the status quo of measurement in clinical practice. Patient self-report measures are biased, and often not completed at the moments it would be most informative, and clinicians are reluctant to make use of the self-reported information. Lengthy clinical interviews are not feasible outside of clinical research trials. And observer-based measures are very time-intensive and also not very reliable. So she saw the opportunity to use AI to develop automated measurements using the text, audio and video information from videorecorded therapy sessions.

She will report on 3 proof of concept studies regarding AI-based measurements of the alliance (the quality of the therapeutic relationship between patients-therapists), therapist skills, (clinical skills such as empathy and warmth) and depression severity.

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Moderated by  Yuerui Wu

Ishraki Kazi is a research based artist exploring the porous boundaries of self and other through a posthumanist research perspective. Their work questions categorical methodologies and some of its limitations in investigating inherently complex and interconnected systems. They often work collaboratively with scientific researchers and co-opt scientific technology to produce conceptual works that allude easy categorization.

Ishraki will share a series of case studies from their artistic research at MIT including collaborative projects such as Bacterial Consent - where the artist used synthetic biology and DNA data storage to encode a consent forms into bacterial cells, Sensory Augmentation - a research study and wearable device that uses electrical optic nerve stimulation to allow people to detect moving object beyond their visual periphery, Anesthesiologist - a video essay and guided experiences contemplating life and death in biological research. These case studies and more will serve as conversation starters around the topic of art/science collaboration and its nuanced challenges. 

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Moderated by  Yuerui Wu

We examine, in the context of international relations, the hypothesis from social psychology that punishment for defiance is more likely for in-group than out-group members. The United States publicly opposed the founding of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), and pressured countries not to join the Chinese-led institution. Nevertheless, 57 countries became founding members of this new development bank, viewed as a potential competitor of the US-led World Bank. To test whether the United States punished in-group rather than out-group countries for their defiance, we consider a unique dataset on the voting behavior of the US executive director at the World Bank on new project proposals. We find that the United States is more likely to oppose or abstain from supporting new projects only for AIIB founding members that are closer to the United States, with no punishment for the more distant founders. Considering that almost all proposals are approved regardless of US support, the punishment appears merely gestural, making it even more surprising that the United States imposes it so judiciously. We suspect the action serves as a signal of discontent specifically directly toward in-group countries.

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Commentator: Zhu Jiejin

Moderated by  Sangeeta Banerji

Based on Lu Xun’s The True Story of Ah Q and Heidegger's Parmenides, I reinterpret subjectivity and the political as the transformation of merely zoological life (zoe) into historical or political life (bios). I will argue that subjectivity and the political momentarily appear through this transformation, which Lu Xun’s text represents through Ah Q’s repeated encounter with stronger persons and his ability to ‘transform defeat into spiritual victory.’ The main consequence of this argument is to decenter conventional concerns of ‘politics’ such as force, domination, and hierarchy from the political, centering instead temporality and self-transformation in political being. The political occurs when past subjection is transformed into subjectivity, an eminently 'spiritual' phenomenon. Furthermore, political being is relatively infrequent and ephemeral, and cannot be celebrated or condemned a priori since its effects can be both affirming and nihilistic. A second consequence is that empire and revolution are also not political but rather limits to the political. A third one is that fantasy has an ambiguous relation to the political.

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Commentator: Yao Lin

Moderated by  Sangeeta Banerji

Rafiq’s research examines how governmental and non-governmental health programs mobilize faith-based religious intermediaries to manifest public health governance and biopolitical agendas. It explores how religion is defined by biomedical programs and the ways these programs transform religion. His research questions how religion and biopolitical programs in the post-colony are re-assembled to create new forms of authority, governance, and power.

Rafiq’s book project is an ethnography of "religious leaders" working on family planning campaigns in rural post-socialist Tanzania. Over the past three decades, there has been a growing interest in and demand for religious leaders to act as intermediaries between NGO-led public programs and the wider citizenry. NGOs and government agencies often enlist religious leaders to implement and legitimize morally sensitive programs, such as family planning. However, the category of religious leaders is contested and does not refer to a homogenous group. Individuals who claim this identity do not necessarily have the social capital that NGOs might imagine. In Islam, various religious figures, such as healers, mosque supervisors, and teachers, may not identify as religious leaders at all, viewing the term as a government-imposed secular category. Nevertheless, NGOs apply the term "religious leaders" universally to refer to individuals who have access to the masses and wield authority. The book project seeks to shed light on how a diverse group of rural Muslim figures are constructed as "religious leaders" and deployed to advance biopolitical governance and statecraft.

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Commentator: Ruiyi Zhu

Moderated by Yuerui Wu