HUMAN

With the word HUMAN, the opening session on Wednesday 29 October 2025, 5-6pm, FAB4.78 is led by Dr Curie Virág, Associate Professor in World Philosophies, who will introduce a short pre-circulated textLink opens in a new window to open the conversation. Here’s a brief description of the text chosen by Dr Virág for the session:

In her Afterword to the Catalogue of Inscriptions of Metal and Stone, Li Qingzhao (1084-1155), one of the most celebrated women poets of imperial China, presents an autobiographical account of her life before and after the Jurchen invasions of 1125–26, a cataclysmic event that forced her to flee south with whatever possessions she could take with her, and that effectively ended her life as she knew it. It is a shattering document of the trauma of displacement caused by invasion and war – but also a testimony to Li’s resistance to the dehumanising forces of her predicament, achieved through her remarkable act of writing. The selection of texts includes two of Li’s poems about her yearning for the homeland that she had left behind.

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