University of Wisconsin–Madison

WISLI 2017 Student Conference

On Saturday, July 22, the Wisconsin Intensive Summer Language Institutes (WISLI) hosted its 2017 student conference to showcase the original research of undergraduate students, graduate students and independent scholars.  The conference is held in conjunction with its summer language institutes: APTLII (Arabic, Persian, and Turkish Language Immersion Institute), CESSI (Central Eurasian Studies Summer Institute), SASLI (South Asia Summer Language Institute) and SEASSI (Southeast Asian Studies Summer Institute). There were a total of 39 presentations in 13 different panels exploring topics related to:
  • Art and Identity in Vietnam
  • Arts, Crafts and Commerce
  • Arts: Culture, Ethnomusicology, Performance
  • Arts: Film, Performance & Literature
  • Human Rights and International Relations in the Post War Era
  • Language and Ethnicity
  • Language and Literacy Criticism
  • Linguistics and Literature
  • Migration
  • Monarchy, Nation and Empire
  • Nutrition, Health and Environment
  • Religion: Buddhism, Gender and Politics
  • Women: Imagery and Public Spaces
The keynote presentation for the conference was given by Dr. Christi-Anne Castro, Associate Professor of Ethnomusicology and Director of the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at the University of Michigan.  Dr. Castro’s talk, “Music, Language and the Aesthetics of Virtuosity” used three case studies to examine virtuosity as a language of access via performance aesthetics. WISLI would like to thank Dr. Christi-Anne Castro for the wonderful keynote presentation, the Institute coordinators and assistants for their hard work in organizing and facilitating the event, and the moderators, presenters and attendees for the dynamic sessions and discussions.