Stories of the Silk Routes: an RASBJ Online Conversation with Historian Professor Valerie Hansen moderated by Jeremiah Jenne followed by Q&A
WHAT: an RASBJ Online Conversation with Historian Professor Valerie Hansen moderated by Jeremiah Jenne followed by Q&A
WHEN: Wednesday 28th April 8pm-9pm China Standard Time
MORE ABOUT THIS EVENT:
For centuries, scholars and travelers have been fascinated by the Silk Road. But what if the Silk Road wasn’t about silk? Or long-distance trade? Or was much of a road at all? Valerie Hansen, Stanley Woodward Professor of History at Yale University, joins the RASBJ for a Zoom conversation in which Professor Hansen asks us to reimagine our mental maps of Asia’s past. What was the Silk Road? Who lived and traveled along it and why? What did these connections mean for the communication of goods, ideas, and religions across Asia? Which routes closed around the year 1000 and which opened up? Why was the year 1000 CE the “big bang” of globalization? What does our growing understanding of historical maritime trade routes tell us about China’s connection to the sea?
MORE ABOUT THE SPEAKER:
Valerie Hansen teaches Chinese and world history at Yale, where she is Professor of History. In the course of writing The Year 1000, she traveled to some twenty different countries and was a visiting scholar at Xiamen University in China, University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom, and the Collège de France in Paris. Having lived in China for six plus years, Valerie has visited at least 300 temples, climbed the Great Wall multiple times (once during a lightning storm), and posed next to the Terracotta Warriors eleven times. (All this in the company of her husband and three children) Her books include The Silk Road: A New History, The Open Empire: A History of China to 1800, Negotiating Daily Life in Traditional China, Changing Gods in Medieval China, 1127-1279, and Voyages in World History (co-authored with Kenneth R. Curtis).
HOW TO JOIN:
This event is free and exclusively for members and associates of RASBJ, and other branches of RAS. If you know someone who wants to join the RASBJ, please ask them to sign up at least 48 hours before the event via our website at: https://rasbj.org/membership/
HOW TO JOIN THE EVENT ON ZOOM:
Members can see content on this page, if you are a member please login. If you aren’t a member, you can become one within a minute by filling out our membership form, here.
