Events
List of Events
Spring 2026 Graduate Colloquium
Carrie Jiang Deodorizing Shanghai: Stinky River and Infrastructural Risk This paper centers on the pollution treatment of Suzhou River in Shanghai from 1985 to 2010 through the lens of deodorization. Employing critical theories of media studies and infrastructure studies, I tap into the potential of smell as a medium, intertwined with environmental politics and urban planning, and critically approach the ways in which such a human sensorium functions not only as part of the urban infrastructure, but also as a…
Animating Matter: Italian Puppetry as a Technology of Wonder – Federico Pacchioni
Federico Pacchioni Italian Studies Chapman University This talk explores Italian puppetry as a technology of wonder, a set of material practices through which inanimate matter is animated with significant impact on imagination across the arts. Beginning with a philosophical reflection on puppetry as crafted animation rather than illusion, the talk introduces major traditions of Italian puppetry—burattini, Pulcinella, opera dei pupi, and marionettes—noting their material nature and their migration into literature and cinema. Pinocchio serves as a conceptual hinge within this…