Undergraduate symposium

The Harvard Undergraduate Symposium in Premodern Studies
Monday, 4 May 2026
Barker Center 110 (the Thompson Room)

PROGRAM

Welcome and opening remarks (9:30-9:45 am)

Lauren Kaminsky, Assistant Dean for Arts & Humanities Education
Irene Peraino Garrison, Co-chair, Ancient Studies at Harvard

Session 1: Body and Soul (9:45-11:00 am)

Lauren Zhang, “Diagramming Pain: Structure, Excess, and the Limits of Visual Knowledge from Wound Man to Early Modern Systems”
Felix Chen, “Learned Magic and the Liberal Arts in the Twelfth Century: The Thought World of Petrus Alfonsi”
Laura Martens, “Medievalism Without God: Work, Faith, and Secular Meaning in His Dark Materials”

Coffee break (11:00-11:15 am)

Session 2: Performances (11:15am-12:30 pm)
Chair: Anna Wilson, Department of English

India Jayanti, “A Spectacle of Memory: Theatrical Presentation and Methods of Preservation in Thucydides’ History”
Sophia Moraczewski, “The Power of Vernacular Poetry: Teachings from the form of Morpheüs and ‘la complainte’ in The Fountain of Love"
Niyathi Chagantipati, “'Die, Die, Lavinia, and Thy Shame With Thee': Disability and Sexual Assault in Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus”

Lunch (12:30-1:30 pm)

Session 3: Political Imaginations (1:30-2:45 pm)
Chair: Sean Gilsdorf, Committee on Medieval Studies

Jericho Hendershot, “Between Pagan Past and Monotheistic Present in Umayyad and Byzantine Praise Poetry”
Richard Rodgers, “The Once and Future Empire: Arthur and the Invention of English Kingship”
Finn Tondro, “Similitudo Temporum: Grotius’ De Antiquitate and the Construction of the Batavian Myth in the Sixteenth Century Dutch Humanist Tradition”

Coffee break (2:45-3:00pm)

Session 4: Identities and Encounters (3:00-4:15 pm)
Chair: Alan Niles, Department of English

Christine Corcoran, “A Sicilian Identity: Jewish Identity under Norman Rule”
Peter Chen, “Hybridity in the Context of a Yuan Dynasty Export Blue and White Charger”
Sheridan Liew, “Classical Shadows and the Western Gaze: Greek Identity Formation through the Parthenon and Nelly’s Photographs”

Closing remarks (4:15-4:30 pm)
Elizabeth Papp Kamali, Chair of the Standing Committee on Medieval Studies

Symposium speakers and guests are encouraged to join us at 5:00 pm for the Committee on Medieval Studies' End-of-Year Barbeque, taking place in the Thompson Room and the Barker Center Lawn!