UBC undergraduate students are invited to submit abstracts for the UCCS 3-Minute Thesis Competition 2025, taking place at UBC from February to March 2025. This conference offers a valuable platform for students to present their research to UBC faculty and peers, fostering academic growth and collaboration. We welcome submissions from students exploring all fields of Chinese Studies. While proposals may be grounded in areas such as language, literature, theatre, cinema, art, history, and pop culture, we especially encourage interdisciplinary works that open new avenues for understanding Chinese Studies.
Theme: Weaving Memories
In an old Chinese story, a young girl sits at her loom, weaving day after day, but by nightfall, her work disappears without a trace. Her endless labor becomes a symbol of the fleeting nature of our efforts, where what we create seems to vanish as quickly as it comes into being.
Memories are much the same, woven from the threads of time, only to slip through our fingers, leaving behind incomplete traces. Whether through words or images, we seek to capture and hold onto them, though they remain ever-shifting.
Literature, like memory, is a tapestry of many threads. All literary forms—poetry, fiction, drama, cinema, and art—stretch across history, binding us together in a shared fabric of experience. But even as we create, we are always at risk of losing. What remains, and what fades? Do we truly preserve the wisdom of the past, or are we left with only fragments?
Just as the woven fabric disappears with each passing day, the texts we read seem to vanish once absorbed. Yet, in reading, we weave memories of our own, reconstructing and reinterpreting what has come before.
We invite you to join us in exploring this endless weaving: to pull apart the threads of Chinese literature and culture, to unravel its myths and texture, and to ponder the ways in which memory, tradition, and the act of reading shape one another.
Submission Guidelines
Applicants should submit a 200-character (Chinese) or 150-word (English) abstract via the Self-nomination Link by January 15, 2025.
Submissions will be reviewed for theoretical clarity, structure, contribution to the field, and alignment with the conference theme. Accepted proposals will proceed with instructions for submitting a 3-minute video presentation for the semi-finals.
Competition Format
UCCS 3MT 2025 consists of two stages:
- Virtual Competition (Semi-finals): Presenters will share their pre-recorded 3-minute video presentations on the conference’s Canvas site. The semi-finals run from February 1-28, 2025.
- In-person Competition (Final): The top 10 finalists will each deliver a 3-minute presentation based on their academic paper, without a Q&A session. The final round will be held on March 28, 2025, at UBC Nest.
You may also scan the QR code to submit your abstract via smartphone.
