2025 Tracy Lecture and CAMS Award Ceremony, “Guilds and Religion the Early Roman Empire and Tang Dynasty China”
April 24, 2025
4:00 PM - 6:30 PM
Location
UIC Institute for the Humanities
Address
1007 W. Harrison St., Suite 153, Chicago, IL 60607
Calendar
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The UIC Department of Classics and Mediterranean Studies presents the 2025 Tracy Lecture and CAMS Award Ceremony, “Guilds and Religion the Early Roman Empire and Tang Dynasty China” with Dr. Jinyu Liu, Betty Gage Holland Professor of Roman History, Emory University.
Comparative studies of Rome and China have yielded significant insights into superstructural components such as state formation, imperial governance, and state ideologies, among others.Recently, scholarly attention has shifted down the social scale to explore the social history of the sub-elite. As a means of self-organization, resource pooling, and potential institutionalization of public roles for the non-elite, an examination of private voluntary associations can serve as an excellent entry point for these comparative studies. This lecture will discuss the interactions between “guilds” and religion inImperial Rome and Tang China, drawing on a diverse array of primary sources such as legal regulations, internal association rules, contribution lists, and records of funerary and religious activities. While some similarities exist—such as the largely hierarchical organization of these associations—this comparison also highlights significant differences, which are particularly evident in the spatial aspects and funding sources of their activities, as well as how they express ethical and moral dimensions.
Co-sponsored by the UIC Department of History and Institute for the Humanities.
Date posted
Apr 2, 2025
Date updated
Apr 2, 2025