Events

14E-304

  1. Events
  2. Venues
  3. 14E-304
default feature2
160 MEMORIAL DR
CAMBRIDGE, MA 02139 United States Get Directions
https://whereis.mit.edu/?go=14

Building 14, Third Floor: 14E-304

Events at this venue
Today

Event Series HumaniTea

HumaniTea

14E-304 160 MEMORIAL DR, CAMBRIDGE, MA, United States

Stop by for snacks and tea with the SHASS community, students, and instructors! HumaniTea is a program partnering with other units in SHASS to gather, share some food and thought, and enrich our shared MIT experience in the process. Once a month, SHASS community members, instructors, and students from diverse fields of studies, backgrounds, and interests can stop in and enjoy a cup of tea or snack. Monday, February 24 Monday, March 17 Monday, April 7 Monday, May 5 @ 4:15 - 5:45PM Building 14E-304* *Directions: Third floor of Building 14 from the Lewis Music Library stairs, through the CMS/W doors. Alternatively, take the elevator to the 3rd floor and navigate to the opposite end of the hallway, through third floor and CMS/W doors! Sign up for HumaniTea info: bit.ly/mithumanitea

Ancient and Medieval Studies Colloquium presents, Sasha Rickard “Hedonism, Ancient and Modern: A Discussion of Plato’s Philebus”

14E-304 160 MEMORIAL DR, CAMBRIDGE, MA, United States

Presented by Sasha Rickard PhD candidate in Political Science at Boston College and Assistant Director of Concourse, MIT Abstract: Despite Socrates’ reputation as a moral gadfly, there is much disagreement about his position on the role of pleasure in the good life. In the ancient world, schools of thought as opposed as Epicureanism and Stoicism grew out of interpretations of Socratic teachings. Neither is this disagreement resolved by modern scholars. In Plato’s Philebus, Socrates interrogates a young interlocutor about the nature and goodness of pleasure. In the course of this interrogation, Socrates walks us through a phenomenological account of pleasure in its many forms, helping us to clarify our own experiences as well as the Socratic perspective on the role of pleasure in the good life. At the same time, through the arguments and decisions of Socrates’ interlocutors, Plato shows us something about the allure of hedonism. I will suggest that a careful reading of the Philebus helps to resolve the long-standing disagreement about Socrates’ perspective on pleasure, and to point to forces which incline us in the modern world, and especially intellectually ambitious young people, toward the belief that pleasure is the greatest good. Sasha Rickard is a PhD candidate in Political Science at Boston College, […]

Ancient & Medieval Studies Colloquium presents, Johann Noh “How East Asia Transformed Chinese Classical Literature and Book Culture: The Case of Korea”

14E-304 160 MEMORIAL DR, CAMBRIDGE, MA, United States

Presented by Johann Noh Research Professor at the Institute for Sinographic Literatures and Philology, Korea University and Research Associate and Program Coordinator of the Global Humanities Initiative, MIT Abstract: In premodern East Asia, the countries of the Sinographic cultural sphere sustained a long-standing community of knowledge and culture by constructing and engaging with a shared corpus of texts. However, this community was never a monolithic entity. Each country within the Sinographic sphere selectively imported, published, and disseminated Sinitic texts according to its unique historical and cultural context, as well as its contemporary needs. Through these texts, literati across East Asia participated in a common intellectual tradition, while also reinterpreting and localizing its meanings—thus cultivating a dynamic interplay between cultural unity and diversity. Furthermore, the practical functions of the Sinographic script in everyday language and writing practices varied considerably across regions. In Korea, for instance, Korean-style and idu-style Sinitic coexisted; in China, classical vernacular and early modern vernacular Sinitic coexisted; and in Japan, Japanese-style Sinitic developed. While the elite may have shared a common literary medium, the broader linguistic landscape was marked by rich regional variation. This presentation focuses on the Korean case, examining the role of textual circulation—arguably the most significant mechanism for cultural transmission […]

Event Series HumaniTea

HumaniTea

14E-304 160 MEMORIAL DR, CAMBRIDGE, MA, United States

Stop by for snacks and tea with the SHASS community, students, and instructors! HumaniTea is a program partnering with other units in SHASS to gather, share some food and thought, and enrich our shared MIT experience in the process. Once a month, SHASS community members, instructors, and students from diverse fields of studies, backgrounds, and interests can stop in and enjoy a cup of tea or snack. Monday, February 24 Monday, March 17 Monday, April 7 Monday, May 5 @ 4:15 - 5:45PM Building 14E-304* *Directions: Third floor of Building 14 from the Lewis Music Library stairs, through the CMS/W doors. Alternatively, take the elevator to the 3rd floor and navigate to the opposite end of the hallway, through third floor and CMS/W doors! Sign up for HumaniTea info: bit.ly/mithumanitea

Global France Seminar presents, Jacqueline Mpii Ngo: Paris through the lens of Little Africa: A contemporary perspective on cultures, economies, and places

14E-304 160 MEMORIAL DR, CAMBRIDGE, MA, United States

Presented by: Jacqueline Ngo Mpii CEO & Founder of Little Africa, Cultural Tourism expert, DEI advisor, and Cultural Ambassador Little Africa as a neighborhood, a concept, a city guide, a cultural space, and a company that maps and amplifies Black presence in Paris and beyond Abstract: Over a century ago African art profoundly influenced the Parisian avant-garde shaping the works of Picasso, Matisse, Derain and many others. It was also during this period that as Daniel Maximin notes in La France Noire “Africans Antilleans and African Americans met for the first time in Paris.” Today the traces of these cultural intersections are still visible—whether in art and gastronomy design and fashion music and literature—manifesting as infinite hybridizations.Yet beyond this historical legacy Black communities continue to actively shape Parisian identity not just as subjects of the past but as entrepreneurs, artists, and cultural innovators defining the city’s present and future. In this talk Jacqueline Ngo Mpii founder and CEO of Little Africa offers an insider’s perspective on how Black life is lived represented and transformed in contemporary Paris. Jacqueline Ngo Mpii is a dynamic leader and the founder of Little Africa, a transformative platform dedicated to promoting the rich cultural heritage of […]

Ancient & Medieval Studies Colloquium presents, Christopher Foster “Fall of the Scribes, and the Rise of Literati in Han China”

14E-304 160 MEMORIAL DR, CAMBRIDGE, MA, United States

Presented by Christopher Foster Independent Scholar, Library of Congress   Abstract: This talk takes unheralded scribes from early China as its tragic protagonists. Aided by the analysis of newly unearthed manuscripts, I argue that the spread of literacy at sub- and non-elite levels came to alter the course of Chinese history, ultimately leading to the canonization of the (now) Confucian classics. The story goes as follows: China’s first enduring empire, the Han dynasty (206 BCE-220 CE), was run initially by hereditary scribal families. Scribes enjoyed a privileged status and earned positions in the Han bureaucracy based on their literacy. This literacy was guarded through government-sanctioned examinations, which tested knowledge of primers called the “scribal volumes.” Yet the scribes were victims of their own bureaucratic success. As the Han empire grew ever larger and more cumbersome, controlling access to these primers wavered. Informal education networks sprouted at the fringes of the Han empire, transmitting the scribal volumes extralegally to unintended audiences, even conscripted peasant soldiers. Competition ensued over mastery of the written word, as a criterion for judging who was best suited to run the empire. A space opened for a new form of classicism during the Han, one championing the “moral […]

Event Series HumaniTea

HumaniTea

14E-304 160 MEMORIAL DR, CAMBRIDGE, MA, United States

Stop by for snacks and tea with the SHASS community, students, and instructors! HumaniTea is a program partnering with other units in SHASS to gather, share some food and thought, and enrich our shared MIT experience in the process. Once a month, SHASS community members, instructors, and students from diverse fields of studies, backgrounds, and interests can stop in and enjoy a cup of tea or snack. Monday, February 24 Monday, March 17 Monday, April 7 Monday, May 5 @ 4:15 - 5:45PM Building 14E-304* *Directions: Third floor of Building 14 from the Lewis Music Library stairs, through the CMS/W doors. Alternatively, take the elevator to the 3rd floor and navigate to the opposite end of the hallway, through third floor and CMS/W doors! Sign up for HumaniTea info: bit.ly/mithumanitea

Ancient & Medieval Studies Colloquium presents, Bridget Brasher “What Aristotle Thinks Void Is”

14E-304 160 MEMORIAL DR, CAMBRIDGE, MA, United States

Presented by Bridget Brasher Postdoctoral Associate in the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy, MIT   Abstract: Prior to arguing against the existence of void in Physics IV.6–9, Aristotle offers an answer to what void is: place deprived of body. His refutations then target two different sorts of void, separated and inseparable voids. It is unsolved in Aristotelian scholarship what these two sorts of void are. This paper offers an interpretation. I find that the distinction between voids is philosophically rich and bears explanatory potential in a way unrecognized by studies on ancient void theory. Indeed, if my interpretation is correct, the distinction may be prescient, anticipating Newton’s own distinction between relative and absolute inertial frames two millennia later.   Bio: Bridget Brasher is a Postdoctoral Associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy. She completed my PhD at Princeton University in 2023. Her research concerns ancient Greek, Latin, and Indian physics and metaphysics. She is interested in how thinkers in these ancient traditions understood the physical world. Many of her current projects examine their perspectives on space and motion. She is also interested in to what extent these ancient traditions saw metaphysics and ethics as interconnected. […]

Event Series HumaniTea

HumaniTea

14E-304 160 MEMORIAL DR, CAMBRIDGE, MA, United States

Stop by for snacks and tea with the SHASS community, students, and instructors! HumaniTea is a program partnering with other units in SHASS to gather, share some food and thought, and enrich our shared MIT experience in the process. Once a month, SHASS community members, instructors, and students from diverse fields of studies, backgrounds, and interests can stop in and enjoy a cup of tea or snack. Monday, February 24 Monday, March 17 Monday, April 7 Monday, May 5 @ 4:15 - 5:45PM Building 14E-304* *Directions: Third floor of Building 14 from the Lewis Music Library stairs, through the CMS/W doors. Alternatively, take the elevator to the 3rd floor and navigate to the opposite end of the hallway, through third floor and CMS/W doors! Sign up for HumaniTea info: bit.ly/mithumanitea

Global Mediations Lab presents, Rosario Hubert “Disoriented Disciplines China, Latin America, and the Shape of World Literature”

14E-304 160 MEMORIAL DR, CAMBRIDGE, MA, United States

An invitation to think on the edges, surfaces, and turns of the literary artifact when it crosses cultural boundaries. Presented by Rosario Hubert, Associate Professor of Spanish and Portuguese at Trinity College In Discussion with Koichi Hagimoto, Professor of Spanish and Chair of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at Wellesley College When: February 10th @ 5:15PM Where: Building 14, 14E-304 (map) ABSTRACT: In the absence of specialized programs of study, intellectual discussions of China in Latin America took shape in contingent critical infrastructures built at the crossroads of the literary market, cultural diplomacy, and commerce. In Disoriented Disciplines: China, Latin America, and the Shape of World Literature Rosario Hubert decenters the authority of the text by connecting seemingly untranslatable cultural traditions. In this book, chinoiserie, “coolie” testimonies, Maoist prints, visual poetry, and Cold War memoirs compose a massive archive of primary sources that cannot be read or deciphered with the conventional tools of literary criticism. As Hubert demonstrates, even canonical authors, including Jorge Luis Borges, Octavio Paz, and Haroldo de Campos, write about China from the edges of philology, mediating the concrete as well as the sensorial. Advocating for indiscipline as a method, Disoriented Disciplines challenges us to interrogate the traditional contours of the archives and approaches of comparative […]

Event Series Pleasures of Poetry 2025

Pleasures of Poetry 2025

14E-304 160 MEMORIAL DR, CAMBRIDGE, MA, United States

Celebrating our 30th year running! Pleasures of Poetry meets this IAP 2025 in 14E-304 from 1-2 p.m. every weekday from January 6-24th, with the exception of MLK Jr. Day (Jan. 20). This popular activity – which aims to reach all those with an interest in poetry, regardless of experience level – has been offered every IAP for several decades. Each one-hour session is devoted to a poet or two, often a single poem, chosen by session leaders who volunteer to facilitate conversation for that day. Collaborative close reading is the aim and ideal of each hour. Some participants attend every session, but many others may drop in only once or twice during the series to discuss a favorite poet or poem, or to discover new favorites. The roster of poets is typically diverse — from classic Chinese poets to American poets laureate, and from such canonical figures as Shakespeare, Keats, Dickinson, and Bishop to contemporary poets including Louise Glück, Joy Harjo, Terrence Hayes, and many more. Free and open to the public; as well as staff, alumni, and students. Pleasures of Poetry 2025 poetry booklet   Jan 6 Peter Perdue, Tao Qian: "After Drinking Wine: I, IV, V" & "In Praise […]

Event Series Pleasures of Poetry 2025

Pleasures of Poetry 2025

14E-304 160 MEMORIAL DR, CAMBRIDGE, MA, United States

Celebrating our 30th year running! Pleasures of Poetry meets this IAP 2025 in 14E-304 from 1-2 p.m. every weekday from January 6-24th, with the exception of MLK Jr. Day (Jan. 20). This popular activity – which aims to reach all those with an interest in poetry, regardless of experience level – has been offered every IAP for several decades. Each one-hour session is devoted to a poet or two, often a single poem, chosen by session leaders who volunteer to facilitate conversation for that day. Collaborative close reading is the aim and ideal of each hour. Some participants attend every session, but many others may drop in only once or twice during the series to discuss a favorite poet or poem, or to discover new favorites. The roster of poets is typically diverse — from classic Chinese poets to American poets laureate, and from such canonical figures as Shakespeare, Keats, Dickinson, and Bishop to contemporary poets including Louise Glück, Joy Harjo, Terrence Hayes, and many more. Free and open to the public; as well as staff, alumni, and students. Pleasures of Poetry 2025 poetry booklet   Jan 6 Peter Perdue, Tao Qian: "After Drinking Wine: I, IV, V" & "In Praise […]

Literature Section
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
77 Massachusetts Avenue 14N-407
Cambridge, MA 02139
tel: (617) 253-3581

About LIT
Academics
People
News
Events
Research

Contact Us
Join our Mailing List
Donate to LIT@MIT
Humanities Film Office

Accessibility