Conference program
Conference venue: Harris Hall 108 (Leopold Room), 1881 Sheridan Rd., Evanston, IL
Faculty CONFERENCE convened by Professors Jonathan BRACK, Sean HANRETTA, and Akin OGUNDIRAN on “Caring for the Dead: Ancestor Veneration, Religious Encounters, and the State in the Mongol Empire and Africa”—Friday and Saturday, April 4-5, 2025.
Friday, APRIL 4
9 a.m. Welcome by CCHS Director Amy Stanley and opening remarks by conference conveners
9:30-11 a.m. Panel 1
Moderator: Amanda Logan (Northwestern—NU)
Paper 1: Stephen Dueppen (University of Oregon), “Autonomy, States, and Ancestors: The Role of Ancestor Veneration in the Political History of Central West Africa.”
Paper 2: Christopher Atwood (University of Pennsylvania), “Landscapes and Ancestors: Sacred Mountains and Numbered Rivers in the Mongol Empire.”
11-11:30 a.m. Break 1
11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Panel 2
Moderator: Peter Carroll (NU)
Paper 3: Dagmar Schäfer (MPIWG), “Torn from Life: Rethinking Knowledge and Skills in 12th-14th Century East Asia.”
Paper 4: Alicia R. Ventresca-Miller (University of Michigan), “Death and Ritual in the Northern Realms of the Mongol Empire.”
1-2:30 p.m. LUNCH (light lunch will be provided)
2:30 p.m. Panel 3
Moderator: Akin Ogundiran
Paper 5: Chapurukha M. Kusimba & Sibel B. Kusimba (University of South Florida), “Caring and Memorializing Ancestors in Medieval East Africa.”
Paper 6: Isabelle Charleux (CNRS, Paris), “Managing the Dead: Practices Surrounding the Deceased in Mongolia from the Late 16th to Early 20th Century.”
4 p.m. Break 2
4:30-6 p.m. KEYNOTE lecture
Moderator/presenter: Sean Hanretta (NU)
Florence Bernault (Sciences Po), “The postmortem life of objects: two cases of succession and murder in colonial Africa.”
Saturday, APRIL 5
9:30 a.m.-12 p.m. Panel 1
Moderator: Jonathan Brack (NU)
Paper 7: Aurelia Campbell (Boston College), “The Body in the Tomb: On the Treatment of the Corpse in Yuan Burials.”
Paper 8: Dil Singh Basanti (NU), “Building Belief on Histories of Care in Medieval Ethiopia (1000-1400 AD).”
~10 minutes break~
Paper 9: Bryan K. Miller (University of Michigan), “Materializing syncretic practices in the far reaches of the Mongol Empire.”
12-1 p.m. Lunch break
1-2:30 p.m. Panel 2
Moderator: Esther Ginestet (NU)
Paper 10: Dotno Pount (University of Pennsylvania), “Charisma Maintenance: honoring the ancestors in the Mongol Yuan court and the Cult of Chinggis Khan.”
Paper 11: Jonathan Brack (NU), “Ancestorial Anxieties and Islamic Iconoclasm: Buddhist Temples, Muslim Converts, and the Fate of the Cult in Mongol Iran.”
2:30-2:45 p.m. Break
2:45-3:15 p.m. Concluding discussion: Akin Ogundiran and Sean Hanretta