The Bernhard Karlgren Seminar Series
‘Geographically’, the seminars revolve around China and Chinese traditions, but with a pronounced interest in the larger methodological and theoretical questions that Sinology shares with the Humanities. The invited scholars present their works-in-progess: cutting-edge research in the intersections of Sinology and Anthropology, Archaeology, Comparative Literature, Linguistics, Religious Studies, and Translation Theory.
The Karlgren Seminar Series is part of the current expansion of the Chinese Programme at the University of Gothenburg, and is headed by Fredrik Fällman, Elena Pollacchi and Martin Svensson Ekström, Associate Professors of Sinology and specialized in Religious Studies, Film Studies and Comparative Literature, respectively.
Thus far the seminar series have seen lectures from, among others, Wolfgang Behr (Zurich), Carine Defoort (Leuven), Anna Gustafsson Chen (well-known translator), Göran Aijmer (Gothenburg), Eric Hayot (Penn State) and Lothar von Falkenhausen (UCLA).
Most seminars are recorded and made available here.
Who was Bernhard Karlgren?
Bernhard Karlgren (1889-1978) was Professor of East Asian Languages at the University of Gothenburg, and served as the University’s Vice Chancellor between 1931 and 1936. Karlgren—one of the most important and influential sinologists of the past century—is foremost known as a linguist, but was also the author of many works in which rigorous philology is paired with a keen interest in questions of methodology.