Join Our Mailing List

Give to CCS

2026 Berkeley-Stanford Graduate Student Conference in Modern Chinese Humanities

Dates: Friday - Saturday, April 10-11, 2026
Location: UC Berkeley
Sponsor(s): Center for Chinese Studies, UC Berkeley; Center for East Asian Studies, Stanford University

Call for Proposals

Introduction

Initiated in 2010, the annual Berkeley-Stanford Graduate Student Conference in Modern Chinese Humanities brings together current graduate students from across the U.S. and around the world to present innovative research on any aspect of modern Chinese cultural production in the humanistic disciplines.

The conference provides a window into current research in Chinese studies, and serves as a platform for fostering interaction among budding scholars of geographically disparate institutions, facilitating their exchange of ideas and interests. Specifically, the organizing committee hopes that this conference will encourage interdisciplinary scholarship within and between literary and cultural studies, cultural history, art history, film and media studies, musicology and sound studies, as well as the interpretative social sciences.

Applications are due in the fall of each year for the conference taking place the following spring. Currently-enrolled graduate students at any institution are encouraged to apply. Accepted presenters will generally not be allowed to present a second time at subsequent conferences.  Papers will be selected by a joint faculty-student committee of China specialists at the two institutions. Local faculty and graduate students will serve as discussants for the selected papers. Applicants are encouraged to present papers associated with ongoing or projected dissertation research.
Conference registration is free. Presenters will be provided with shared lodging, Friday dinner, and Saturday lunch. Partial travel assistance available for students who cannot find other funding.

Each year the conference also features a keynote address from a prominent Chinese studies scholar and alumni scholar, chosen by the student organizing committee.

Keynote Speaker:

Ying Qian, Associate Professor, Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, Columbia University

Alumni Keynote:

Julia Keblinska, Assistant Professor, Modern and Medieval Languages and Linguistics, University of Cambridge

Organizing Committee:

Weihong Bao, Associate Professor, Film and Media & East Asian Languages and Cultures, UC Berkeley
Ziwei Chen, Graduate Student, Film and Media Studies, UC Berkeley
Andrew Jones, Louis B. Agassiz Professor of Chinese, Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, University of California, U.C. Berkeley
Haiyan Lee, Professor, East Asian Languages and Cultures & Comparative Literature, Stanford
Ban Wang, Professor, East Asian Languages and Cultures, Stanford
Shuwen Yang, Graduate Student, East Asian Languages and Cultures, Stanford
Mayshu (Meixu) Zhan, Graduate Student, Modern Thought and Literature
Tianyue Zhang, Graduate Student, East Asian Languages and Cultures, UC Berkeley

Conference Schedule

Conference schedule will be available in March 2026.

Directions

The Center for Chinese Studies is located on the fifth floor of 2111 Bancroft Way. The building is one block from BART and also has a public parking garage which is accessed off Bancroft Way.

Parking

There are various public parking lots and facilities near campus and in downtown Berkeley. More information is available on the UC Berkeley Parking and Transportation page.