Pre-modern Chinese Views of Astronomical History and Calendrical Time

USC History Seminar Series presents Professor Henderson, who will be discussing his essay entitled "Pre-modern Chinese Views of Astronomical History and Calendrical Time."

The USC History Seminar Series is Proud to Present:

John B. Henderson
Bell Professor of History
and Coordinator of Asian Studies
Louisiana State University

Monday, 21 April 2008, 2-4 PM SOS 250
University of Southern California  

Professor Henderson will discuss his manuscript essay: “Premodern Chinese Views of Astronomical History and Calendrical Time”  For a copy:
http://www.usc.edu/schools/college/history/news_events/events.html

The USC History Seminar is a forum for substantive discussions of current work by leading historians on emerging questions of historical methods, topics, themes, and theories. During the inaugural two-year cycle of this series (2008-2010), the theme is “It’s About Time: Critical Perspectives on History’s Home Dimension.”

Participants are expected to read the pre-circulated papers, articles, or chapters.  Presenters will make brief opening remarks but will not lecture.  All participants are invited to join the critical discussion.  Light refreshments provided. Free parking is available for those arriving from off-campus.

To reserve parking if you are coming from off campus, and to assure a place in the seminar, please send an email to Lori Rogers, lrogers@usc.edu.

Biographical Sketch:
John B. Henderson received his B.A. in History from Duke University in the year 1970., and his Ph.D. in History from the University of California, Berkeley in 1977.  He is now Professor of History at Louisiana State University. His books include 'The Development and Decline of Chinese Cosmology' (Columbia UP, 1984), 'Scripture, Canon, and Commentary' (Princeton UP, 1991); 'The Construction of Orthodoxy and Heresy' (SUNY Press, 1998); and two co-edited books including 'Imagining Boundaries' (SUNY, 1999) and 'Notions of Time in Chinese Historical Thinking' (Chinese University Press, 2006).  His current project is an 'intellectual history of Chinese astronomy,' under contract with E. J. Brill. He has recently developed an interest in the history of opera, and will be teaching a new course at LSU next fall on "opera and empire" from Monteverdi to Mahoganny."  His strangest attractor article (co-authored) appears in Bulletin No. 72 (2000) of The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities (Stockholm), and is entitled 'Neurobiology, Layered Texts and Correlative Cosmologies: A Cross-Cultural Framework for Premodern History.'