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Benjamin
Ridgway
Benjamin
Ridgway, Assistant Professor of Chinese
I teach the two core language classes in the MACS or MA in
Chinese Studies Program: Chinese Studies 607-608: "Intensive
Fourth-Year Chinese" and Chinese Studies 531-532: "Modern
Chinese in Contemporary Mass Media." In Chst 607-608 I
stress the development of students' advanced reading comprehension
and writing skills through the study of selected essays and
literary works by some of the greatest Chinese writers of the
20th and 21st centuries. While in Chst 531-532, the main goal
is to enhance student's advanced conversation skills and to
learn how to discuss and debate some of the most important economic,
political, and cultural situations of the contemporary Chinese-speaking-world
through the modern mass media of newspapers, television, and
film.
My area of specialization is Chinese poetry of the Song dynasty
(960-1279). But, more broadly I am interested in the intersections
between geography and literature. My dissertation research was
on the interaction between practices of official travel during
the Song dynasty and imagined travel through memory and the
historical past in the song lyrics of Su Shi (1037-1101). Recently,
I have begun work on a cultural history of the city of Hangzhou
during the 12th and 13th centuries, a period of massive population
displacement from North to South, examining the city through
a range of genres, including song lyrics, shi poetry, local
gazetteers, strange tales, maps, as well as painting.
I have woven my interest in the connections between geography
and literature directly into a topics class that will be offered
in the spring semester of 2008, entitled "Chst 590: A Cultural
History of China's Cities through Literature and Film."
I look forward to exploring the topic of China's iconic cities,
both ancient and new, with Valpo's students this spring!
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