Status: Developing a Category of Analysis for the Early Global World

This symposium will begin on Friday, May 30th and conclude on Saturday, May 31st.

Friday, May 30, 2025
3:00 PM (Pacific Time)

Royce Hall, Rm 306

This two-day symposium brings together historians and art historians of early modern East Asia, South Asia, and the Middle East to discuss the question of "status" as a socio-analytical category. It invites participants to develop status as a category of analysis for pre-and early modern world by investigating categories of social practice that were current in this past. Interested participants should be prepared to share specific, concrete case study from their area of research between the 3rd and 19th centuries (roughly 200C.C. - 1800 C.E.) that sheds light on how societies ordered individuals and communities in different contexts. Example includes, but are not limited to, knowledge and inscriptional practices, ceremonial or ritual protocols, salary lists, status categories in premodern diplomacy, bureaucracy, or law. Works that connect the cultural, social, diplomatic, economic, and political are welcome and we especially encourage those working on regions outside of western Europe and the US to participate. 

This symposium is organized through the UCLA CMRS Center for Early Global Studies (CMRS-CEGS). It is co-sponsored by UCLA's Center for Korean Studies, Center for Chinese Studies, Program of Iranian Studies, the Canadian Studies Program, and the Center for India and South Asia. This symposium is supported by the James P. Geiss and Margaret Y. Hsu Foundation. 

Please click here for Program in detail, and complete RSVP here.  

Day One (Friday, May 30th)

Opening Remarks and Introduction

3:00 PM -3:30 PM

Sixiang Wang (University of California, Los Angeles) 

Panel I: Slavery, Barbarism, Hierarchy 

3:30 PM - 5:00 PM

Ali Atabey (University of Texas at San Antonia)

Divya Cherian (Princeton University) 

Shao-yun Yang (Denison College) 

Moderated by Luke Yarbrough (University of California, Los Angeles) 

Reception 

5:00 PM - 6:00 PM

Day Two (Saturday, May 31st) 

Coffee and Pastries 

9:30 AM - 10:00 AM

Panel II: Institution

10:00 AM - 12:00 PM

David Porter (McGill University, Canada) 

Fatima Quraishi (University of California, Riverside)  

Sixiang Wang (University of California, Los Angeles)  

Choon Hwee Koh (University of California, Los Angeles)  

Moderated by Meng Zhang (University of California, Los Angeles) 

Lunch 

12:00 PM - 1:30 PM

Panel III: Material Life 

1:30 PM - 3:30 PM

Anirban Karak (University of Chicago)

 Yong Cho (University of California, Riverside)

Selin Ünlüӧnen (Wesleyan University) 

James Grehan (Portland State University)

Moderated by Kevan Harris (University of California, Los Angeles) 

Coffee Break 

3:30 PM - 4:00 PM

Roundtable Discussion

4:00 PM - 5:30 PM 

Moderated by Andrew Sartori (New York University) and Kevan Harris (University of California, Los Angeles) 

Sponsor(s): Center for Korean Studies, Center for Chinese Studies, Center for India and South Asia, Canadian Studies Program, Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Near Eastern Languages and Cultures