Funded by the UCLA Asia Institute and in collaboration with the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, this workshop gives presentations by junior scholars who wish to share their research and collaborate on comparative approaches to understanding empire and religion in the Greco-Roman imperial era and in Early China. These presentations ask how empire changes religion and how religion changes empire, and explore the texts, practices, institutions, and laws by which religion was embodied, codified and disseminated throughout the vast expanses of these ancient empires. The presentations will focus on topics such as how the communicative aspects of media reflected the formulations of religious identity and the legitimation or de-legitimation of political authority, how religious texts engage, negotiate or subvert political authority, and how they reflect their role in long-distance dissemination or ascertain a locative frame.
This conference is made possible with funding from the UCLA-HKUST joint program.