Skip to main content
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • ’Cuse Conversations Podcast
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
Arts & Culture
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • University Statements
  • Syracuse University Impact
  • |
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
Sections
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • University Statements
  • Syracuse University Impact
  • |
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • ’Cuse Conversations Podcast
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
Arts & Culture

Syracuse Symposium continues Sept. 19 with David Eng

Tuesday, September 13, 2011, By Kelly Homan Rodoski
Share
speakers

David L. Eng, professor of comparative literature and Asian American Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, will explore the “Reparations of the Human” in the East Asian context in a Syracuse Symposium™ presentation on Monday, Sept. 19.

engEng’s lecture will begin at 4 p.m. in the Kilian Room, Room 500 of the Hall of Languages, and is free and open to the public. Reduced-rate parking is available in the Irving or University Avenue parking garages. The lecture is co-sponsored by the Department of English and LGBT Studies in The College of Arts and Sciences.

Syracuse Symposium™ is a semester-long exploration of the public humanities presented by the Syracuse University Humanities Center for The College of Arts and Sciences and the entire Syracuse community.“Identity” is the theme of this year’s symposium.

The lecture will be preceded by a HC-Mini Seminar from 9:30-11:30 a.m. in 304 Tolley Humanities Building. Call 443-7192 to enroll in the seminar or for more information on the lecture.

Reparation is a key term in political theory, but it is also a central concept in psychoanalysis (in particular object relations theory), yet the two are rarely discussed in relation to one another. In this presentation, Eng will explore how political and psychic genealogies of reparation might supplement one another in theories of the human, while helping us to understand better the social and psychic limits of repairing war, violence, colonialism and genocide.

Specifically, he will trace a global genealogy of reparations from John Locke to Melanie Klein to 20th-century Asia in order to rethink the concept’s transnational significance and the possibility of “racial reparation” in the context of the trans-Pacific: the internment of Japanese Americans by the U.S. government during World War II; the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki ending that war; and contemporary legal claims by “comfort women,” young girls and women from Japan’s colonial empire conscripted by the imperial army into sexual slavery.

Eng received his Ph.D. in comparative literature from the University of California at Berkeley and his B.A. in English from Columbia University. His areas of specialization include American literature, Asian American studies, Asian diaspora, psychoanalysis, critical race theory, queer studies and visual culture. He is author of “The Feeling of Kinship: Queer Diasporas and the Racialization of Intimacy” (Duke, forthcoming) and “Racial Castration: Managing Masculinity in Asian America” (Duke, 2001). In addition, he is co-editor with David Kazanjian of “Loss: The Politics of Mourning” (California, 2003), with Alice Y. Hom of “Q & A: Queer in Asian America” (Temple, 1998), and with Judith Halberstam and Jose Muñoz of a special issue of the journal Social Text (2005), “What’s Queer about Queer Studies Now?”

He is currently at work on two new projects: an analysis of the relationship between political and psychic genealogies of reparation, and a forthcoming special issue of Social Text, co-edited with Teemu Ruskola and Shuang Shen, “China and the Human.” Eng is on the governing council of the American Council of Learned Societies and is a member of several editorial boards. He serves on the board of directors of the Asian American Writers’ Workshop and is former board president of the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies in New York City.

The Syracuse University Humanities Center, founded in 2008, fosters public engagement in the humanities, and is home to the Syracuse Symposium™, the Central New York Humanities Corridor, the Jeanette K. Watson Distinguished Visiting Professorship and Visiting Collaborator programs, the HC Mini-Seminar and Symposium Seminar series, the Perpetual Peace Project, and other major initiatives, fellowships and public programming.

  • Author

Kelly Rodoski

  • Recent
  • Communication Sciences and Disorders Scholars Earn Grants and National Honors
    Wednesday, August 6, 2025, By News Staff
  • New Award Recognizes Faculty Volunteers for Academic Integrity Service, Impact
    Wednesday, August 6, 2025, By Diane Stirling
  • Meet Michael Bunker, the New Leader of Campus Safety and Emergency Management Services
    Tuesday, August 5, 2025, By Kiana Racha
  • Rethinking Research Through Visual Storytelling
    Tuesday, August 5, 2025, By Dan Bernardi
  • A Legacy of Caring: Robin Berkowitz-Smith’s 38-Year Journey at Syracuse University
    Tuesday, August 5, 2025, By Kelly Homan Rodoski

More In Arts & Culture

Communication Sciences and Disorders Scholars Earn Grants and National Honors

Three researchers in the College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders have recently gained new funding or professional recognition. Yalian Pei, assistant professor, has received support from the University’s Lerner Center Faculty Fellows Grant Program. This…

New Award Recognizes Faculty Volunteers for Academic Integrity Service, Impact

Two faculty volunteers with the Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence (CTLE)’s academic integrity program  received a new internal award recognizing their achievements in maintaining academic integrity standards and policies across the University. Academic Integrity Outstanding Service Awards were presented…

Meet Michael Bunker, the New Leader of Campus Safety and Emergency Management Services

Michael Bunker has officially started his new role as associate vice president and chief of Campus Safety and Emergency Management Services. With a strong background in public safety leadership and a passion for community engagement, Bunker brings a clear vision for…

Rethinking Research Through Visual Storytelling

The Department of English in the College of Arts and Sciences (A&S) is embracing innovative approaches to media engagement. One such method is called videographic criticism, a growing scholarly practice that uses sound and moving images (video) to explore and…

A Legacy of Caring: Robin Berkowitz-Smith’s 38-Year Journey at Syracuse University

In 1988, alumna Robin Berkowitz-Smith ’83 returned to Syracuse University as a newlywed and a professional ready to work with students. What began as a dual job offer for her and her husband, Jeff, turned into Robin’s 38-year legacy of…

Subscribe to SU Today

If you need help with your subscription, contact sunews@syr.edu.

Connect With Us

  • X
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
Social Media Directory

For the Media

Find an Expert Follow @SyracuseUNews
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
  • @SyracuseU
  • @SyracuseUNews
  • Social Media Directory
  • Accessibility
  • Privacy
  • Campus Status
  • Syracuse.edu
© 2025 Syracuse University News. All Rights Reserved.