The East Asian Studies Center’s Colloquium Series at Indiana University Bloomington brings together faculty from IU and other institutions to share current research with colleagues, students, and the general public in a relaxed environment. Light refreshments are generally provided at these noon talks, and guests are welcome to bring their own snacks or lunch.
*Also included below are the lectures from the Institute for Korean Studies Lecture Series (IKS).
A semester of East Asian Perspectives
This semester, EASC sought the input of faculty and graduate colleagues to select the wide range of topics presented throughout the colloquium series. From modern orthography and sociolinguistic identity construction to excavated early Chinese texts to music and social movements, our colleagues have invited expert scholars to share their research.
*Taiwan Studies Initiative
Vanessa Baker (Indiana University)*
Title: Soil and Sericulture: Symbiotic Relationships in Yi Kiyŏng’s 1930s Farm Village Novels
Wataru Yoshida (National Institute of Population and Social Security Research, Japan)
Title: Uneven Playing Field - Gender Inequality in Japanese business
Kun You (Macalester College)
Title: Titles and Emerging Book Culture in Early China: Decoding Ancient Paratexts
Younei Soe (Indiana University)*
Title: Examining the Evolving Digital Divide in South Korea: Disparities Among Socially Disadvantaged Groups
Hayana Kim (Ohio State University)*
Title: Performing Democracy in the Graveyard: The Kwangju Uprising, the May Mothers, and Mangwŏldong Cemetery
Wen-shing Chou (Hunter College, City University of New York)
Title: Reborn in Beijing: The Indo-Tibetan Genealogy of a Qing Emperor
* Institute for Korean Studies
Theme: Art and Performance
To balance our fall semester’s theme of the Meanings of Violence, East Asian Studies scholars and makers will explore perspectives on art and performance, music and human evocation through a creative lens. Much like violence, art in its many forms has shaped human culture, driven innovation and communication advancements, and influenced the ways in which we connect with one another across doctrines, cultures, and philosophies. Taking a wholistic look at East Asian music and performance art forms, the program examines how art has shaped perspectives today.
Dong-no Kim (Yonsei University)*
Benjamin R. Young (Virginia Commonwealth University)*
Hippocrates Cheng (Indiana University)
Judith Zeitlin (University of Chicago)
Christine Choy (New York University's Tisch School of the Arts)
Meimei Zhang (Occidental College)
* Institute for Korean Studies
Theme: Meanings of Violence
With an expansive and multi-faceted program throughout Fall 2023, East Asian Studies faculty will explore the history of physical violence in China, Japan, and Korea. In East Asia as everywhere, violence – or the threat thereof – has determined the fates of nations, driven advancements in technology and administration, and spurred doctrinal developments in philosophy and religion. Drawing on sources ranging from ancient myths over medieval war tales to contemporary images of violence, the program examines the forms that violence took in the lives and minds of the people of East Asia.
Don J. Wyatt (Middlebury College)
David Spafford (University of Pennsylvania)
Akiko Takeyama (University of Kansas)
George Kallander (Syracuse University)
Travis Workman (University of Minnesota)*
Joowon Park (Skidmore College)*
Charles Lin (Indiana University)
Nick Vogt (Indiana University)
* Institute for Korean Studies
Theme: Maritime East Asia
The seas separating Japan, the Korean Peninsula, and China have mostly been seen as dividers separating peoples and cultures. This series will focus on the maritime world of East Asia as a connector (for better or worse) through history and as a place of autonomy and alternative social structures.
* Institute for Korean Studies
Theme: Cities!
In this series we will explore different cities throughout East Asia, some solely historical and some thriving in the present day. Speakers from different regions will talk about how cities were shaped by politics and government while in turn shaping the inhabitants that called the city home and how these cities and their memory have shaped their future and the future of other urban centers in their country.
From ancient to contemporary times, urban centers have been widely seen as the connecting nodes of human civilization. With this speaker series, we hope to cast light on how cities and concepts of the urban have been perceived through East Asian history: How has the city been conceptualized over time? What did it represent? What does it mean to be urban? Are there particular East Asian urban modalities? How have destructions of cities (urbicide) been imagined and perceived?
* Institute for Korean Studies
Theme: Social Protest In East Asia
How are social protests organized, and what are the historical, political, and cultural conditions that shape counter-hegemonic practices? How can we characterize the dialectic between representation and participation in social movements? And what are the cultural vehicles of protest that animate expressions of dissent and facilitate the mobilization of people? Although constituents such as “the masses/crowd” or “the people” have time and again been construed as privileged categories of resistance, social protests also happen outside the domain of the collective. Are mass protests a type of “weapons of the weak” or does such a characterization run the risk of ignoring or minimizing the hierarchies and pressures within that are also exerting control over the individuals? And what are the social dynamics that prevent practices of dissent from devolving into mob justice and uncontrolled vandalism? In this series we will explore different types of social protests in East Asia, some historical and some in the present day. Speakers from different regions and diverse disciplines will talk about how social movements gave voices to the marginalized, and how political legacies of the past are appropriated, reconfigured, and contested in protest practices of the present—both locally and cross-regionally.
+ On Altars of Soil series
* Institute for Korean Studies
Theme: Indigenous East Asia
In traditional textbooks, we rarely hear about the history, languages and cultures of the many indigenous people and other ethnic minorities who live or have lived in East Asia. From the Ainu in Northern Japan to the Truku and Sediq in the highlands of Taiwan and the large Uighur and Tibetan minorities in China and many others, ethnic minorities and indigenous people have strived to protect their rich heritages and linguistic characteristics against colonial powers, expanding nation states, as well as the homogenization of globalization. EASC’s speaker series “Indigenous East Asia” this fall aims at giving voice to these people and placing them back on the map of East Asian civilizations. The series features scholars from various fields of linguistics, anthropology, history, and social science who all in different ways discuss the challenges and possibilities that face East Asian indigenous people in the twenty-first century and place them in their deep historical and cultural contexts. The series thereby addresses larger issues of identity formation, social agency, cultural resilience, and ethnicity in global and national policies.
+ On Altars of Soil series
* Institute for Korean Studies
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