This Friday, October 16th, I’ve organized a symposium on world literature and secularism with myself, Colin Jager, Justin Neuman, and Yi-Ping Ong. Should be a great event! Please join if you’re in the area. Event details: World literature was not always so worldly. In Goethe’s early theorization, after all, religious texts were central. And recent critiques of secularism are once again challenging the meaning of “world” in literary studies today. This panel will bring together young scholars who are investigating both the potentials and limits of the secular model. How do young scholars intervene in a debate of such depth and magnitude? How do those in literary studies, frequently trained in just one or two national traditions, begun to take on such complex, interdisciplinary issues? Is there too much or too little “world” in literature so constituted? 2-4pm in Murray Hall 302, reception to follow. Here’s the event poster, with a nice background image of the work of Gonkar Gyatso, whom I will discuss in my talk.