📅 April 17, 2026
🕢 8:30 AM - 5:30 PM (EDT)
📍 403 Kent Hall, 1140 Amsterdam Ave, New York, NY

👉Register here: https://bit.ly/4ch5BNL

This one-day conference brings together an interdisciplinary group of archaeologists, linguists, historians, and literary scholars to explore the “vernacular realities” of the medieval far south—historically known as Lingnan (Lĩnh Nam), a region spanning present-day Southern China and Northern Vietnam.

Moving beyond modern nationalist frameworks that retrospectively divide this past into “Chinese” or “Vietnamese” histories, the conference examines a region shaped by fluid cultural, linguistic, and political exchanges. Through a keynote lecture, three thematic panels, and a concluding roundtable, participants will investigate how local communities engaged with, adapted, and resisted Sinitic imperial systems.

By foregrounding local experiences and cross-regional connections, Ghosts of the Present seeks to challenge inherited historiographies and offer new perspectives on the medieval past and its enduring influence on contemporary understandings of East and Southeast Asia.

*The event is moderated by Lu Kou and John D. Phan, and features leading scholars from institutions across North America and Asia, including Francis Allard (Indiana University of Pennsylvania), Mark Alves (Montgomery College), Erica Brindley (Pennsylvania State University), Andrew Chittick (Eckerd College), Hugh Clark (Ursinus College), Robert Hymes (Columbia University), Nguyễn Tuấn-Cường (Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences), Anna Shields (Princeton University), Nicolas Tackett (UC Berkeley), Keith Taylor (Cornell University), Yang Shao-yun (Denison University), and Yin Shoufu (University of British Columbia).