Ceramicist and Physicist Hideo Mabuchi to Deliver Lecture on Ceramics and Cultural Belonging The Stanford University professor’s talk will be held on March 6 at 5:30 p.m. on W&L’s campus.

By Emily Innes
February 21, 2025

Hideo Mabuchi, professor of physics at Stanford University and the Denning Family Director of the Stanford Arts Institute, will deliver a lecture titled “Embodied Narratives: Surface and Depth, Abstraction and Presence” at Washington and Lee University on March 6 at 5:30 p.m. in Stackhouse Theater in Elrod Commons. The lecture is hosted by the Museums at W&L and sponsored by the Department of Physics and Engineering and the Asian, Asian American, and Pacific Islander Employee Resource Group.

This event is free and open to the public and registration is encouraged: https://tiny.cc/embodied-narratives. The lecture will also be streamed online at https://go.wlu.edu/livestream.

A ceramicist and physicist, Mabuchi will explore how everyday objects, like Chinese and Japanese export porcelain, tell stories that resonate differently with scholars, scientists and artists. He will share insights on Stephanie Shih’s “LONG TIME NO SEE (好久不見),” currently on view in the Reeves Museum of Ceramics, examining how the physical characteristics of ceramics carry deeper meanings that shed light on issues of identity, immigration and cultural belonging within the Asian diaspora and Asian-American experience.

The Museums at W&L are open to the public Wednesday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. To learn more about the 2024-2025 exhibitions, visit the Museums at W&L’s website.