Eighth Annual Workshop:
Lives and Afterlives of Inscriptions
Friday, May 15 – Saturday, May 16, 2026, 9 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.
Academic Building-West, Room 6051, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ
This workshop is co-organized by Jessey Choo and Alexei Ditter. It is generously supported the Tang Research Foundation, Rutgers Center for Chinese Studies, and Department of Asian Languages and Cultures at Rutgers University.
This eighth meeting will focus on commemorative inscriptions produced in Middle Period China. This workshop will continue to explore the interrelationship of textuality and materiality emphasized in recent workshops, but will further consider questions of authorship, circulation, and the afterlives of inscriptions. Key issues to be discussed include:
- Which people and/or institutions were involved in the production of commemorative inscriptions?
- How were inscriptions preserved or commodified?
- How were inscriptions appropriated to serve purposes unanticipated by original producers
- How are the contemporary interpretations of inscriptions shaped by the medium bearing them and the physical locations in which they are found?
In addressing these questions, the symposium will spotlight a range of approaches to the study of epigraphy and illustrates how evolving methods have shaped—and continue to reshape—disciplinary frameworks.