Uploaded October 2023 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
“Hidden Trajectories of Talent: Women and Music in Nineteenth-Century China,” delivered by Ellen Widmer, Mayling Soong Professor of Chinese Studies
After a distinguished career at Wesleyan University, Professor Widmer returned to Wellesley, from which she graduated in 1961, in 2007 to chair the newly created Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures (now East Asian Languages and Cultures, or EALC). Under her dedicated and expert leadership, EALC has become one of the leading liberal arts college departments in the East Asian field, building on our long traditions of excellence in Chinese and Japanese languages and literatures and adding new strength in Korean language and culture.
Trained in the history of traditional Chinese fiction, Professor Widmer’s teaching centers on the history of Chinese fiction and drama. She specializes in how women are depicted in fiction and poetry, with a focus on Chinese women writers of the 17th through 19th centuries. Her interests also include comparisons between Chinese, Japanese, and Korean literature.
Her books include Fiction’s Family: Zhan Xi, Zhan Kai, and the Business of Women in Late-Qing China (2016); The Beauty and the Book: Women and Fiction in Nineteenth-Century China (2006); and The Margins of Utopia: Shui-hu hou-chuan and the Literature of Ming Loyalism (1987).
Sponsored by the Office of the President, the Distinguished Faculty Lecture was established in 1999 to provide an opportunity for the College’s accomplished and respected faculty members to deliver a public lecture that allows the community to reflect on the meaning of a liberal arts education.
“Hidden Trajectories of Talent: Women and Music in Nineteenth-Century China,” delivered by Ellen Widmer, Mayling Soong Professor of Chinese Studies
After a distinguished career at Wesleyan University, Professor Widmer returned to Wellesley, from which she graduated in 1961, in 2007 to chair the newly created Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures (now East Asian Languages and Cultures, or EALC). Under her dedicated and expert leadership, EALC has become one of the leading liberal arts college departments in the East Asian field, building on our long traditions of excellence in Chinese and Japanese languages and literatures and adding new strength in Korean language and culture.
Trained in the history of traditional Chinese fiction, Professor Widmer’s teaching centers on the history of Chinese fiction and drama. She specializes in how women are depicted in fiction and poetry, with a focus on Chinese women writers of the 17th through 19th centuries. Her interests also include comparisons between Chinese, Japanese, and Korean literature.
Her books include Fiction’s Family: Zhan Xi, Zhan Kai, and the Business of Women in Late-Qing China (2016); The Beauty and the Book: Women and Fiction in Nineteenth-Century China (2006); and The Margins of Utopia: Shui-hu hou-chuan and the Literature of Ming Loyalism (1987).
Sponsored by the Office of the President, the Distinguished Faculty Lecture was established in 1999 to provide an opportunity for the College’s accomplished and respected faculty members to deliver a public lecture that allows the community to reflect on the meaning of a liberal arts education.
