Conference Papers & Presentations

PAPERS & PRESENTATIONS (since 2010)

“The Matriarch, the Duchess, the Queen, and the Countess. Aristocratic Patronesses of the Chinese Catholic Mission and their Role in Early Modern Chinese-European Relations,” Confucius Institute, Leipzig (Germany), June 25, 2024; and Conference “The Translation of Gender Roles in Early Modern Christian Missionary Context,” Research Group “Early Modern Translation Cultures (1450–1800),” Bielefeld University, June 21-22, 2024.

Invited Lectures (four) on recent research, Department of Humanistic Studies (Chinese Program) and Confucius Institute, University of Macerata, Italy, June 5-13, 2024.

“An Introduction to the Archivum Romanum Societatis Iesu (Central General Archives in Rome),” in Third Summer School “The Archives of the Religious Orders: New Perspectives for a Global Catholicism,” Istituto Sangalli per la Storia e le Culture Religiose (Firenze), Convent of San Carlo ai Catinari, Rome, June 3, 2024.

“Chinese Assistants in the Old China Mission: The Roles of the Xianggong (相公 Catechist-Secretaries) in Primary Sources and Recent Scholarship,” Workshop BU-Ca’ Foscari “Christian Missions in China: the Role of Chinese Assistants and Converts,” Department of Asian, African and Mediterranean Studies, Ca’ Foscari University, Venice (Italy), May 30, 2024.

“Whose Empire Were the Missionaries Serving? The Last Portuguese Embassy at the Qing Court (1753),” Conference “Gods, Guns, and Gardens: China and The West, from the Manchu Conquest to the Opium Wars,” Huntington Library, San Marino, California, April 12-13, 2024.

“Center and Periphery: Propaganda Fide’s Accounting Practices in the Eighteenth-Century China Mission,” Conference “Accounting Practices and Religious Orders in Missionary Territories,” Istituto Svizzero & Dipartimento di Scienze Politiche, Università Roma Tre, Rome, January 24-25, 2024; and Workshop BU-CCCM “Managing the Missions in East Asia,” Centro Científico e Cultural de Macau, Lisbon (Portugal), 23 May 2024.

“Connecting the Dots. The Pearl River Delta and the Court Missionaries in Ming-Qing Beijing,” Conference “Lingnan Region and Sino-Western Cultural Exchanges before and during the Early Republic 岭南与民初前的中西文化交流,” Study Center on Canton and Foreign Cultural Relations and Philosophy Department, Sun Yat-sen (Zhongshan) University 中山大学, Guangzhou (Canton), China, November 18-19, 2023.

“Missionary Canon Law: The Propaganda Fide Congregation and the Challenge of Daily Life Moral Cases in China, 17^th-20^th centuries,” Online Series Rites Controversy: An Entangled History of Normativity Between the East and the West co-hosted by Max Planck Partner Groups in Beijing and Trento and Historical Regimes of Normativity at MPI, Institute for Legal History, Law School, China University of Political Science and Law中国政法大学Beijing & Max Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory, Frankfurt am Main, September 27, 2023.

“Center and Periphery: Propaganda Fide’s Accounting Practices in the Eighteenth-Century China Mission,” Workshop BU-CCCM “Managing the Missions in East Asia,” Centro Científico e Cultural de Macau, Lisbon (Portugal), 23 May 2024.

“Global Microhistory in European-Asian Relations,” Summer School, Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History, Boston College, August 22, 2023.

“The attitude of the Qing government to Christianity,” in conference “The Lone Guardian: Politics, Culture and Society in China under the Yongzheng Emperor (1723-1735),” University “L’Orientale,” Naples (Italy), July 7, 2023.

“Empire of Paper. The Astonishing Story of an 18th-Century Manuscript Vocabulary of the Chinese Language,” Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica, Taipei (Taiwan), June 21, 2023.

“European Networks at the Qing Court, 1601-1838” and “The Propaganda Fide 傳信部 Mission in Beijing, 1711-1811,” Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica, Taipei (Taiwan), June 20 and 26, 2023.

“Continuities and Discontinuities: Using the China Historical Christian Database (CHCD) for an Analysis of the Old and New China Jesuit Missions (1550-1950) and their Sources,” in symposium “Circa Missiones: Jesuit Understandings of Mission through the Centuries”. Brotéria and Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies (BC), Lisbon, June 13, 2023.

“The Propaganda Fide Eighteenth-Century China Mission in the Manuscript Account Books of San Lorenzo in Lucìna (Rome)” in workshop “All Kinds of Goods: Missionaries and Materialities” Centro Cientifico e Cultural de Macau, Lisbon (Portugal), June 7, 2023.

“The Role of Women in the Chinese Missions of the Society of Jesus in the Early Modern Period,” Faculty of Theology, Goethe University in Frankfurt (Germany), June 1, 2023.

“La microstoria globale della prima età moderna: il caso della Cina,” AGeS – Centro di Ricerche Antropologiche, Geografiche e Storiche dal Medioevo all’Età Contemporanea, Università Ca’ Foscari, Venezia (Italy), June 6, 2023.

Presentation of the newly published Catalogue of Chinese Documents of the Propaganda Fide Historical Archives (1622-1830), Italian National Research Council (CNR), Istituto di Studi Romani, Rome (Italy), May 25, 2023.

“Carlo Orazi da Castorano e il suo soggiorno pechinese, 1724-1733,” at conference “Carlo Orazi da Castorano Kang Hezi 康和子 (1673-2023) a 350 anni dalla nascita,” Castorano (Ascoli Piceno, Marche, Italy), May 20, 2023.

“Gli Europei (Xiyangren 西洋人) alla corte imperiale cinese, 1601-1838,” in conference “Le Vie della Seta tra vicino ed estremo Oriente – Convegno Internazionale del progetto SERICA – Silk Roads: New Ways to Understand the relationships between East and West,” University of Turin (Italy), May 17, 2023.

“Europei alla corte Qing, 1644-1838,” in panel “Storia mancese e storia dei Qing: nuove prospettive di ricerca. Due conferenze in ricordo di Giovanni Stary,” Office of the Rector, Università Ca’ Foscari, Venezia (Italy), May 11, 2023.

“La città invisibile: Europei a Pechino nel XVIII secolo,” Dipartimento di Studi Asia e Africa Mediterranea, Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, (Italy), May 10, 2023.

“Global Microhistory in European-Asian Relations,” Summer School, Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History, Boston College, August 22, 2023.

“Empire of Paper. The Astonishing Story of an 18th-Century Manuscript Vocabulary of the Chinese Language,” Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica, Taipei (Taiwan), June 21, 2023.

“The Role of Women in the Chinese Missions of the Society of Jesus in the Early Modern Period,” Faculty of Theology, Goethe University in Frankfurt (Germany), June 1, 2023.

“La città invisibile: Europei a Pechino nel XVIII secolo,” Dipartimento di Studi Asia e Africa Mediterranea, Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, (Italy), May 10, 2023.

Zoom online presentation of: Ad Dudink, comp., Catalogue of Chinese Documents in the “Propaganda Fide” Historical Archives (1622-1830). With an Introductory Essay by Eugenio Menegon, edited by Emanuele Raini and Giuseppe Zhao Hongtao, Rome: Urbaniana University Press (Pontificia Università Urbaniana), 2022. ‘China Historical Christian Database’ Speaker Series, Boston University, March 28, 2023.

Discussant, panel “Engaging with the Other: Catholic Missions and Epistemic Encounters in Early Modern Asian Cities,” Annual Meeting of the Association for Asian Studies, Boston, Mass. USA, March 17, 2023.

Presentation of China Historical Christian Database CHCD, Harvard DH Conference “Tools of the Trade: The Way Forward” (International conference on the transition from print to digital tools, databases, and platforms in Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese and Buddhist studies), Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass., USA, March 14-16, 2023.

Zoom Mini-Workshop “The China Historical Christian Database,” with Daryl Ireland and Zhang Yiyi, in “A Digital Humanities Approach to Asian Catholic Culture” Workshop, International Christian University 国際基督教大学, Tokyo, Japan, February 15, 2023.

“ ‘Canons and Artillerie’: The Ming-Qing War Seen through Schall’s Essentials of Gunnery (火攻挈要 Huogong qieyao , 1643/1847) and Martini’s Tartar War (Bellum Tartaricum, London 1654).” Zoom presentation, “Bringing Together China and the West: A Symposium to Celebrate the 60th Anniversary of The Chinese University of Hong Kong,” The Chinese University of Hong Kong, February 10, 2023.

“ ‘A Moribund Waiting for a Medicine from Rome.’ Documents in the Historical Archives of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples as a Reflection of Propaganda’s Missionary Organization in China from 1622 to 1830,” (Zoom presentation), International Symposium “The Doors that Propaganda Fide has Opened since 1622,” Centre for Catholic Studies, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, & Macau Ricci Institute, August 24, 2022.

“Empire of Paper. Missionaries, Diplomats, and Early Sinologists as Social Carriers of Translingual Practices and Worldviews,” Lecture series “Conceptions of World Order and Their Social Carrier Groups,” Program “Worldmaking form a Global Perspective: A Dialogue with China,” University of Göttingen, Germany, July 7, 2022.

“The Story of a Vocabulary between Beijing and Rome, 1760s-1820s,” Oxford University Seminar “Early Modern Italian World, 1400-1800,” Exeter and St. Edmund Hall Colleges, University of Oxford, UK, June 7, 2022.

“Pedrini and the Other Missionaries,” Conference “Teodorico Pedrini (1671-1746), missione e musica nella Cina del Settecento,” Centro Studi Teodorico Pedrini & Città di Fermo, Fermo, Marche (Italy), June 4, 2022.

“Historia dos Principes Christãos”: The Converted Manchu Princes of the Sunu Clan and the Portuguese and Latin Record of their Lives during the Yongzheng Reign (1723-1735),” International conference “Res Sinicae. ‘Cousas da China’. 16th to 18th century,” Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Lisboa, Palácio Nacional da Ajuda, and Brotéria Cultural Center, Lisbon (Portugal), May 19-21, 2022.

“Carletti and Religion: Christianity and Asian Traditions in the Ragionamenti,” in Conference “Carletti’s World: An Early Modern Global Voyage,” (in person), Harvard Center for Renaissance Studies, Villa “I Tatti,” Florence (Italy), in collaboration with European University Institute (Italy), Stanford University, Syracuse University, USA) and Warwick University (UK), April 27-28, 2022.

“On Interpreting at the Qing Court,” International Conference “Chinese Culture in Translation: Sinologists as Translators,” Italian Institute of Oriental Studies, Sapienza University of Rome (Italy), April 21-23, 2022.

“Carletti and Religion,” in preparatory Zoom workshop “Francesco Carletti’s My Voyage around the World (1594-1606),” (Zoom presentation), Harvard Center for Renaissance Studies, Villa “I Tatti,” Florence (Italy), in collaboration with European University Institute (Italy), Stanford University, Syracuse University, USA) and Warwick University (UK), May 14, 2021.

“Toleration in Chinese History,” in workshop “Toleration in Comparative Perspective: Concepts, Practices and Documents.” (Zoom presentation). ResetDOC (Reset Dialogues on Civilizations) in collaboration with the Center for Democracy, Toleration and Religion (CDTR) at the University of California, Berkeley, January 18-22, 2021.

“Invisible City: Europeans and their Networks in Late Imperial Beijing,” online presentation, Centro Científico e Cultural de Macau, Lisbon (Portugal) & Shanghai University, Shanghai (China), December 19, 2020.

“The Invisible City: A Global Microhistory of Europeans and their Social Networks in Eighteenth Century Beijing,” online presentation, China Centre, University of Oxford, October 29, 2020.

WEBINAR: Mission Records as Method: Towards a Microhistory of Global China. A Virtual Workshop with Dr. Eugenio Menegon, July 30, 2020, hosted by the Humanities Unbounded MicroWorlds Lab at Duke University. Click here for VIDEO.Click here for PowerPoint.

“The Matriarch, the Duchess, the Queen, and the Countess: Aristocratic Patronesses of the Chinese Catholic Mission and their Role in Early Modern Chinese-European Relations,” AnnMary Brown Memorial Hall, Brown University, Providence, November 13, 2019. [Brown University website here]; & Boston University Travel Literature Workshop “Through Women’s Eyes: Travel and Gender,” Boston, November 1, 2019. Program & Abstracts.

“Early Modern Chinese-European Relations: Translating ‘Christian’ Culture in a Multi-Religious Context”, in Workshop “Entangled Knowledges: Education and Culture in Judaism, Christianity and Islam,” International Workshop, Sangalli Institute, Florence (Italy), October 2-4, 2019.

“Westerners in Canton and Macao, 1700-1823,” presentation at Study Center on Canton and Foreign Cultural Relations, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou (P.R. China), June 21, 2019.

“Beijing as a Missionary Translation Center in the Eighteenth Century,” paper presented at conference “Crossing Borders: Sinology in Translation Studies,” Department of Translation & Research Centre for Translation, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, June 13-15, 2019.

“Healing and Converting: The Power of Sacred Objects in the China Jesuit Mission,” in Roundtable Discussion Material Cultures of Devotion in Early Modern Jesuit Missions, Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies and Burns Library, Boston College, Boston, April 26, 2019.

“Tra Locale e Globale.” Virtual presentation of volume Il mondo di Sigismondo: Un druentino nella Cina del XVIII secolo. Lettere dell’agostiniano scalzo Padre Sigismondo Meinardi da San Nicola, Centro Culturale San Sebastiano, Druento (Torino, Italy), April 11, 2019. Click here for VIDEO PRESENTATION.

“Jouissez du temps présent: Religion and the State in Late Imperial China, 1500-1800,” in Conference “Questions de religion à l’époque moderne,” Collège de France (Paris), Chaire d’histoire globale de la première modernité (Prof. Sanjay Subrahmanyam), Paris (France), April 9, 2019.

“Communicating on board and on shore: European testimonies on varieties of lingua franca in maritime China, 1550-1850,” International Conference “Maritime knowledge for Asian seas. An interdisciplinary dialogue between maritime historians and archaeologists,” organized by the SeaFaring Research Programme, and hosted by the École française d’Extrême Orient, the Institut d’études avancées de Paris and the École des hautes études en sciences sociales, Paris (France), November 21-23, 2018.

“The China Christian Database: A Digital Tool for the Cartography and Prosopography of Christianity in China,” presentation with Daryl Ireland and Alex Mayfield at “Book Launch for Atlas on Religion in China: Social and Geographical Contexts (by Fenggang Yang, Brill, 2018) and Roundtable Discussion on Mapping Chinese Religions,” Center on Religion and Chinese Society, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, November 9, 2018.

“Bishop Bai’s Cave: The Fujian Martyrs and the Politics of Martyrdom between China, the Philippines, and Europe, 18th century to the present,” in International Symposium “Life & Death in the Missions of New France and East Asia: Narratives of Faith & Martyrdom,” co-sponsored by The Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History, University of San Francisco & Martyrs’ Shrine, Midland, Ontario in collaboration with Sainte-Marie among the Hurons (Ontario Huronia Historical Parks), Midland, Ontario (Canada), October 18-21, 2018.

“The Tragic Jesuit Embassy of the Kangxi Emperor to Pope Clement XI,” in conference, “Italy and East Asia: Exchanges and Parallels,” Stony Brook University, Stony Brook (NY), October 11-13, 2018.

“Invisible City: European Missionaries and Catholic Community in Qing Beijing,” in Conference “Global Empires, Global Courts? Explorations in Politics and Religion,” co-sponsored by Department of History & Civilization – EUI, Global History and Culture Centre at the University of Warwick, and Oxford Centre for Global History. European University Institute, Florence (Italy), 13-14 September 2018.

“Foreign Agents at the Qing Court and Franco-British Maritime Rivalry: The French Mission to China in 1787” in Workshop “Maritime Asia: Securitization of the China Seas,” organized by the Institute of East Asian Studies at the University of California at Berkeley, in collaboration with the Centre for Rising Powers at the University of Cambridge (UK), Berkeley (CA), May 14, 2018.

“Revisiting the Four Churches: Urban and Suburban Life and Networks of European Missionaries and Christian Converts in Qing Beijing” in “From Rome to Beijing: Sacred Spaces in Dialogue. A symposium on the history of art, science, and religion in Jesuit China,” Columbia University, New York, May 4, 2018.

“The Tragic Jesuit Embassy of the Kangxi Emperor to Pope Clement XI”, Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies Colloquium, “Calamity from Within? Jesuits, Papal Legates, and Chinese Imperial Envoys in the Eighteenth Century,” presented in collaboration with The Boston College Libraries, Boston College, Boston, April 12, 2018.

“Sailing to China: The Maritime Journey of Catholic Missionaries,” Symposium “China / Macau: Rotas, Estreitos Marítimos e Oceanos Globais – China / Macau: Sailing Routes, Sea Straits, Global Oceans,” Centro Científico e Cultural de Macau, Lisbon, October 9-11, 2017.

“The Habit that Hides the Monk: Missionary Fashion Strategies at the Imperial Court in Early Modern China,” International Workshop “Going Native or Remaining Foreign? Catholic Missionaries as Local Agents in Asia (17th to 18th Centuries),” jointly organized by Deutsches Historisches Institut in Rom, École Française de Rome, Istituto Svizzero di Roma, Abteilung für Neuere Geschichte des Historischen Instituts der Universität Bern; Rome, May 30 –June 1, 2017.

“Court Missionaries as Imperial Informants in Early Modern China and Europe”, in panel Information, Texts, and Intermediaries in the Making of Global Knowledge about Late Imperial China, Association for Asian Studies Annual Conference, Toronto, Canada, March 18, 2017.

“Amicitia Palatina: The Europeans’ Networking at the Qing Court in the Long 18th Century.” Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton NJ, December 7, 2015.

“Whose Empire Were They Serving? The Political and Diplomatic Role of European Missionaries at the Qing Court in the Eighteenth Century.” Workshop “Early Modern China in the Late Imperial World,” Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, October 15-16, 2015.

“Nissuno fu inteso come Dio volesse: Interpreting, Translating, and the Multilingual Environment of the China Mission in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries,” International Symposium “China/Macau: Translation and Interpretation – Past and Present,” Lisbon, Centro Cientifico e Cultural de Macau (CCCM), Lisbon, October 12-14, 2015.

“Interlopers at the Fringes of Empire: The East Asia Procurators of the Propaganda Fide Papal Congregation in Canton and Macao, and their Maritime Network (1700-1850),” Conference “Binding Maritime China: Control, Evasion, and Interloping” (16th-20th century), co-sponsored by Boston University, Brandeis University, and Northeastern University, Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies, Boston University, Boston, May 29-30, 2015.

“China, Italy, and Milan: Global Connections in the Early Modern Era,” International Conference Milan, the Ambrosiana Library and Knowledge of New Worlds, 1600-1800, Veneranda Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Dies Academicus 2014, Milan (Italy), November 26-28, 2014.

“Christians as ‘Evil’ in Late Imperial China: Qing State Control, Foreign Presence, and Native Agency during the Yongzheng Reign” Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies and BU Center for the Study of Asia workshop on “Evil in Chinese Religion”, Harvard University, November 17, 2014.

“From Europe to Beijing: long-distance travel in the eighteenth-century China mission,” International Symposium China/Macau: Travels, Pilgrimages, Tourism, Centro Cientifico e Cultural de Macau (CCCM), Lisbon, October 13-15, 2014.

“Sotto questa coperta, facciamo il fatto nostro: Court Missionaries and the Politics of Luxury Consumption during the Qianlong Reign,” Leuven University and Boston University workshop “The Materiality of Chinese-Western Relations in the Ming-Qing periods: Methodological Approaches, Empirical Cases,” Leuven (Belgium), May 26-27, 2014.

“Who was using whom? Europeans, Leisurely Pursuits, and the Politics of Gift-Giving in Qing Beijing.” Paper presented at the conference “Leisure and Social Change across Asia,” Cluster of Excellence Europe and Asia in Global Context, University of Heidelberg (Germany), January 10-11, 2014.

“Robbe d’Europa: global connections and the mailing of letters, money, and merchandise in eighteenth-century China.” Paper presented at the conference “China/Macau e globalizações: passado e presente,” Centro Científico e Cultural de Macau, Lisbon (Portugal), October 14-16, 2013.

“Europeans, Western Commodities, and the Politics of Gift-Giving in Qing Beijing.” Paper presented at the Association for Asian Studies Annual Conference, San Diego, March 22, 2013. Panel on “Luxury Commodities and Imperial Politics in the High Qing Era (1660-1795).”

“Daily Life and Courtly Networks: Europeans in Eighteenth-Century Beijing.” Paper presented at The New England China Seminar, Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, Harvard University, October 24, 2012.

“Culture di corte a confronto: legati pontifici e burocrazia Qing nella Pechino del Settecento [Court cultures in comparison: papal legates and Qing bureaucracy in 18^th-century Beijing].” Paper presented at the Conference “La politica internazionale del papato nella prima età moderna. Spazi e uomini [The international policy of the papacy in the early modern era: spaces and individuals],” University of Rome “La Sapienza,” Rome (Italy), June 11-13, 2012.

“Qing Court Culture through European Eyes: Kangxi’s Imperial Hunts and the Jesuits as Courtiers.” Paper presented at the Modern China Seminar, Weatherhead East Asian Studies Institute, Columbia University, New York, March 10, 2011.

“Underground Christians in Late Imperial China: Qing State Control, Foreign Presence, and Native Agency, 1724-1840.” Paper presented at the 125th Annual Meeting of the American Historical Association, Boston, January 9, 2011. Panel “Christianity under Asian and African Dominance in the Early Modern Period.”

“Amicitia Palatina: Portuguese Jesuits, Manchu aristocrats, and the politics of gift-giving at the Kangxi court.” Paper presented at the BU-Heidelberg Workshop “Leisure and the State in Eurasia,” Boston University, November 5-6, 2010.

“Courtiers and Careers: Jesuits, papal envoys, and Qing imperial officials in eighteenth century Beijing.” Paper presented at the International Symposium “Intercultural Encounters Europe-China, Sixteenth- Eighteenth Centuries,” Centro Cientifico e Cultural de Macau, Lisbon, Portugal October 11-13, 2010.

“I cibi dall’oriente ai tempi di Giorgione: le strategie e le alleanze della Serenissima” (Food from the East at the time of Giorgione: the strategies and alliances of the Republic of Venice). Paper presented at the International Conference “Cibo, cucina e tavola nel Rinascimento italiano, con un omaggio a Giorgione” (Food, cuisine, and conviviality in the Italian Renaissance: Homage to Giorgione), University of Padua, Departments of Visual Arts and Music, and Program in Gastronomy, Castelfranco Veneto (Treviso), Italy, March 12-13, 2010.

“Memento Mori: Prepararsi alla morte in Cina ed in Europa, 1500-1700” (Memento Mori: Preparing for Death in China and Europe, 1500-1700). Paper presented at the International Conference “Scienza, ragione e fede: il genio di padre Matteo Ricci S.J.” (Science, reason and faith: the genius of Matteo Ricci S.J.) Macerata (Italy), March 4-6, 2010.

Eugenio Menegon

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