# Seminars ## A core activity of the Center since its inception, the seminar program extends across disciplines, methodologies, and time periods, and serves a broad constituency of faculty and graduate students at Harvard and beyond. [ View all upcoming seminars arrow\_circle\_right ](/calendar?f%5B0%5D=event_hwp_c_eventtype12345678910%3A171379) ## Find a Seminar [### American Literature and Culture ](/american-literature-and-culture)**Chairs: Sari Edelstein, Joseph Rezek** Showcases new work by scholars engaging with well-established and emergent methodologies in the history of American culture, politics, and aesthetics.... ![painting of several men in a small boat](/sites/g/files/omnuum4936/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/mahindra/files/americanlit.jpg?h=0f6b91a3&itok=NfKyHaAJ) [### Art, Political Culture, and Civic Life ](/art-political-culture-and-civic-life)**Chairs: Kiku Adatto, Michael Sandel** Explores the interplay of the arts, political culture, and civic life. Our goal is to provide a vibrant, international forum for the exchange of ideas and ongoing projects.... ![Crowd of people in a painting](/sites/g/files/omnuum4936/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/mahindra/files/artculture.jpg?h=98bad6e6&itok=KHLXPmk3) [### Buddhist Studies Forum ](/buddhist-studies-forum)**Chairs: Janet Gyatso, James Robson** Provides an opportunity for faculty, students, and participants to discuss approaches to Buddhist Studies that are as diverse as philology, philosophy, intellectual history, anthropology, art history, literary studies... ![Buddha Statue](/sites/g/files/omnuum4936/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/mahindra/files/buddhism.jpg?h=7e193a7a&itok=SgfFbKu6) [### Celestial Spheres ](/celestial-spheres)**Chair: Jennifer Roberts** A forum for research that engages with the physics, aesthetics, poetics, and/or politics of outer space.... ![Stars on parchment](/sites/g/files/omnuum4936/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/2025-07/Celestial%20Spheres%20Banner.png?itok=lP7sWgRt) [### Celtic Literature and Culture ](/celtic-literature-and-culture)**Chairs: Joseph F. Nagy, Paul Russell, Natasha Sumner** Topics include aspects of Celtic literatures and cultures from ancient to modern times, with an emphasis on new approaches to these topics.... ![Celtic Literature and Culture](/sites/g/files/omnuum4936/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/mahindra/files/celtic.jpg?itok=7t5_vJSB) [### China Humanities ](/china-humanities)**Chairs: Thomas Kelly, James Robson, Xiaofei Tian** A forum for exploring the whole span of Chinese experience before the modern era.... ![An old Chinese painting](/sites/g/files/omnuum4936/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/mahindra/files/china.jpg?h=aaaa4cd1&itok=laobpac5) [### Civilizations of Ancient Greece and Rome ](/civilizations-ancient-greece)**Chairs: Irene Peirano Garrison, Naomi Weiss** Through consideration of topics reflecting the entire range of Classical studies, the seminar examines Greek and Roman literature, philology, history, religion, archaeology, and philosophy... ![Ruined ancient facade](/sites/g/files/omnuum4936/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/mahindra/files/ancientciv.jpg?h=e0ee1bf5&itok=otbPbQxp) [### Classical Traditions and Receptions ](/classical-traditions)**Chairs: Emily Greenwood, John Hamilton, Adrian Staehli, Richard F. Thomas** Investigates the reception, elaboration, and revaluation of ancient and classical traditions from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance to modernity and postmodernity.... ![corner of building](/sites/g/files/omnuum4936/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/mahindra/files/classical_billboard_900x324.jpg?itok=UHR11f1I) [### Critical Health Humanities ](/critical-health-humanities)**Chairs: Sari Altschuler, Amy Boesky, David Jones** Provides a space for vibrant interdisciplinary conversation about health-related topics from a humanities perspective.... ![medical drawings](/sites/g/files/omnuum4936/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/mahindra/files/criticalhealth.jpg?itok=bbru5cE0) [### Dialectical Thinking in the Humanities ](/dialectical-thinking-humanities)**Chairs: Jess Keiser, Robert Lehman, Samantha Matherne** Every academic year, the Dialectical Thinking in the Humanities seminar hosts a weekly reading group on a work relevant to our theme.... ![Hegel](/sites/g/files/omnuum4936/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/mahindra/files/dialectical.jpg?h=98bad6e6&itok=e9Z_kqVs) [### Eighteenth-Century Studies ](/eighteenth-century-studies)**Chairs: Nicole Aljoe, Susan Lanser, Jennifer Reed** A forum for new research and perspectives on the many cultures of the "long" eighteenth century (1660-1820).... ![eighteenth century landscape](/sites/g/files/omnuum4936/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/mahindra/files/eighteenthcentury.jpg?h=7201a622&itok=m9Z3EQze) [### France and the World ](/france-and-world)**Chairs: Hannah Frydman, Usha Reena Rungoo** The sense of a globe that is interconnected within and beyond the nation has a long history in literature and culture.... ![battle painting](/sites/g/files/omnuum4936/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/mahindra/files/france.jpg?h=98bad6e6&itok=edB9PsrC) [### German Studies: New Perspectives ](/german-studies-new-perspectives)**Chairs: Peter Burgard, John Hamilton** Through a comparative study of German conceptions of the Kulturwissenschaften and American versions of “German studies,” the seminar aims to initiate a new phase in the debate on the function and scope of... ![abstract painting](/sites/g/files/omnuum4936/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/mahindra/files/german_studies.jpg?itok=WaQOojRn) [### History of the Book ](/history-book)**Chairs: Ann Blair, Alex Csiszar, Stephanie Frampton, Hannah Marcus** Considers the production, circulation, and reception of texts.... ![book](/sites/g/files/omnuum4936/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/mahindra/files/hisbook.jpg?itok=lQ8u6t3x) [### Jewish Cultures and Societies ](/jewish-cultures-and-societies)**Chair: David Stern** Highlights diverse approaches to the study of Jewish cultures and societies throughout the entire span of Jewish history, bringing together for discussion scholars and scholarship from a wide variety of disciplines and across... ![abstract image with hebrew writing, silhouette, and camera](/sites/g/files/omnuum4936/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/mahindra/files/jewishculture.jpg?itok=u9vnUqCJ) [### Ludics ](/ludics)**Chairs: Vassiliki Rapti, Eric Gordon** The Ludics Seminar is animated by the concept of play as humanistic inquiry and beyond. It constitutes an open forum where scholars and practitioners from a variety of humanistic and scientific disciplines, ranging from... ![drawing of a giant child playing in the ocean](/sites/g/files/omnuum4936/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/mahindra/files/ludics_book.jpg?itok=5_9satTj) [### Medieval Studies ](/medieval-studies)**Chairs: Sean Gilsdorf, Alexander Riehle** A forum for the presentation and discussion of scholarly work in Medieval Studies, emphasizing comparative and interdisciplinary approaches.... ![complex mechanical timepiece](/sites/g/files/omnuum4936/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/mahindra/files/medievalstudies.jpg?h=8dba3750&itok=CceOqspF) [### Modern Greek Studies ](/modern-greek-studies)**Chair: Panagiotis Roilos** Performs transhistorical and cross-disciplinary explorations of aspects of Greek literature, societies, politics, and culture from the twelfth century to postmodernity.... ![modern suspension bridge](/sites/g/files/omnuum4936/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/mahindra/files/moderngreek.jpg?itok=MmDWA8ds) [### Musics Abroad ](/music-abroad)**Chairs: Charrise Barron, Alejandro L. Madrid** "Musics Abroad" will take a global and comparative approach to music and mobility in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, with particular attention to music and musicians within new diaspora... ![Abstract image of stereo](/sites/g/files/omnuum4936/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/mahindra/files/musics_abroad.jpg?h=f64401c3&itok=tEWEF0bO) [### Native Cultures of the Americas ](/native-cultures-americas)**Chair: Philip Deloria** A forum for the interdisciplinary study of the indigenous peoples and cultures of the Americas.... ![bowls of berries, leaves, and petals](/sites/g/files/omnuum4936/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/mahindra/files/nativecultures.jpg?h=b8e1920c&itok=-YVMc-Az) [### New Directions in Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality ](/new-directions-in-women-gender-sexuality)**On Hiatus AY25-26** **Chair: Jocelyn Viterna** A forum for discussing new interdisciplinary scholarship in the field of women, gender, and sexuality studies.... ![Multicolored circles](/sites/g/files/omnuum4936/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/mahindra/files/wgs_billboard_900x324.jpg?itok=kVm16Kbg) - Previous page chevron\_left - [1](?page=0 "Current page") - [2](?page=1 "Go to page 2") - [ Next page chevron\_right ](?page=1 "Go to next page")