#  Undergraduate symposium 

 



 ##  

  expand\_more  

 
  

 

**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!