News & Notes

Celebrate Chuseok, Korean Thansgiving, with folk artist In Sun Cho

Friday, October 4, 5-7pm in Higgins 310

The acclaimed minhwa painter In Sun Cho will speak on "Understanding Korean Culture through its Folk Art" followed by a demonstration, workshop, and a reception celebrating Chuseok, Korean Thanksgiving

The workshop with the artist requires pre-registration. Everyone is welcome to the reception (6:30-7:30) with popular Korean dishes.

Photography in early postwar Japan

Dr. Emily Cole presents: "Landscape with Life in Early Postwar Japanese Photography" on Friday, Sep. 27, 12-1pm, Stokes Hall 346S as part of the History Department lecture series

Human Rights and Transitional Justice in Korea

Prof. Tae-ung Baik, former Chair-Rapporteur of the UN Human Rights Council Working Group on Enforced Disappearances, speaks on Thursday, October 3, 5-7pm, Andover Room, Connolly House (300 Hammond St.) as part of the Global Korea Project

Prof. Ling Zhang leaves BC

Prof. Ling Zhang (History) has followed a call to the University of Cambridge, England, where she will teach in the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies. The author of the acclaimed book The River, the Plain, and the State (2016), Prof. Zhang taught fascinating courses on early imperial China, environmental history, and the material and cultural history of food in China. It is hard to see her leave, and we wish her continued success at Cambridge.

Prof. Fang Lu new director of EALC

Prof. Fang Lu (Eastern, Slavic, and German Studies) has taken on the directorship of the East Asian Languages and Civilization program (EALC). Many thanks to Prof. Sing-Cheng Chiang for her many years of dedicated service as head of EALC!

Prof. Franziska Seraphim back as director

After a year on leave at the Suzy Newhouse Center for the Humanities at Wellesley College, Prof. Seraphim (History) is back as director of the Asian Studies Program. Many heartfelt thanks to Prof. Johnson (Philosophy) for his great work as Interim Director last year!

She can be reached at asian.studies@bc.edu or seraphim@bc.edu

Lowell Humanities lecture: “Stranger in the Shogun’s City”

Prof. Amy Stanley, a social historian of early modern and modern Japan at Northwestern University, will be the first speaker this year in the Lowell Humanities Series with her talk “Stranger in the Shogun’s City: From the Archive to the Page” on Wednesday, Sep 11 at 7pm in Gasson 100.

You must register for this event.

JET info session this week

Our annual information session about the JET Program will be held on Wednesday, Sep 11 at 1pm in Lyons 202 in collaboration with the Consulate General of Japan Boston. Everyone interested in living and teaching in Japan after graduation is invited to attend. Contact: Prof. Sullivan at sulliadq@bc.edu

Aurelia Campbell at Seattle Museum

Prof. Aurelia Campbell (Art History) spoke at the Seattle Art Museum in April on the rarity and artistry of Chinese Buddhist burial shrouds that were excavated from the graves of high-ranking men and women from China’s Ming and Qing dynasties.

Prof. Klein enlightens the Boston public on Hallyu

Prof. Christina Klein (English) lent her expertise on contemporary Korean film to enrich the Boston public by speaking last fall on "The Films of Han Hyung-mo" as part of the Harvard Film Archive's series "Out of the Ashes: The US-ROK Alliance and South Korean Cinema," and on May 24 at the Museum of Fine Arts as part of its programming around the exhibition Hallyu! The Korean Wave. She spoke on "Hallyu Cinema: Korean Film Since 1999, covering popular film, art cinema, and indie productions, including those directed by women, and considered the impact that streaming services such as Netflix are having on the film industry in South Korea.

Morrissey Distinguished Lecture: Prof. Raquel Bouso

Prof. Bouso, Associate Professor of Philosophy and Vice-rector for Culture and Communication at Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, Spain, delivers her lecture on "Flying White: On Zen Imageless Images" on Thursday, March 14th, 2024, at 5pm in Fulton 511

For more information, please contact David Johnson at david.johnson8@bc.edu

Sparks: China’s Underground Historians and Their Battle for the Future

A public lecture by Ian Johnson, Senior Fellow for China Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations

Tuesday, November 21st, 2023 / 6:00pm @Devlin Hall 101

For more information: Prof. Yajun Mo (yajun.mo@bc.edu)

Palagummi Sainath, “Mass Media vs. Mass Reality” Telling the Stories of Climate, Inequality and Corporate Control in India

The Asian Studies Program at Boston College presents The Daniel C. Morrissey ‘88 and Chanannait Paisansathan MD Distinguished Lecture in Asian Studies, Palagummi Sainath

Monday, November 6th, 2023 / 5:00pm @Gasson 300

For more information: Prof. David Johnson (david.johnson.8@bc.edu)

Global Korea’s Past and Future: A Puzzle of Peculiarity vs. Generality

The Boston College Global Korea Project presents the Fall 2023 Distinguished Lecture Series
 “Global Korea’s Past and Future: A Puzzle of Peculiarity vs. Generality” Prof. Myung-Lim Park (Yonsei University)

5:00 p.m., Thursday, September 21st, 2023 at Connolly House, Andover Room



For more information: Prof. Ingu Hwang ingu.hwang@bc.edu
Please find more about the Global Korea Project

“Tonic, Power and Culinary Knowledge in East Asia” by Chunghao Pio Kuo,

“Tonic, Power and Culinary Knowledge in East Asia” by Chunghao Pio Kuo, Assistant Professor at Taipei
Medical University.

10:30 AM, Thursday, October 10 th @ Mcguinn 121, Chestnut Hill Campus.

The lecture stresses four sorts of specific aquatic foodstuffs (Shad, Pufferfish, Soft-shelled Turtle and Milkfish) in East Asia to understand their culinary significance. The significance of Shad is closely associated with Shad tributary system and the gastronomic enjoyment in early Modern China. The examination of pufferfish in modern Japan brings students to realize the close culinary connection between traditional China and modern Japan. The discussion of soft-shelled turtle investigates four main factors – TCM principles, Taiwan’s evolving turtle-breeding system, colonial Japan’s aquatic policy, and the Team Ma phenomenon – shaped the significance of turtles in modern China. The discussion of milkfish explores the culinary relationship between Taiwan and the Dutch.

Welcoming Professor Thibaud Marcesse

Prof. Thibaud Marcesse (Ph.D. Cornell) joins the Political Science Department as its South Asia specialist. His research investigates the impact of institutional change in the field of poverty alleviation on the strategies pursued by political parties in rural India. More broadly, he teaches and publishes on the political economy of development, institutions, political parties, ethnicity and the politics of foreign aid.

Prof. Trais Pearson contributed a chapter to Global Forensic Cultures: Making Facts and Justice in the Modern Era

Prof. Trais Pearson contributed a chapter to a new edited volume on the global history of forensic science and medicine. The volume, titled Global Forensic Cultures: Making Facts and Justice in the Modern Era, was edited by Ian Burney and Christopher Hamlin and published by Johns Hopkins University Press this month. Professor Pearson's chapter, "'DNA Evidence Cannot Lie': Forensic Science, Truth Regimes, and Civic Epistemology in Thai History" (chapter 8), uses the controversial case of two Burmese migrant workers convicted of a double-murder in 2015 as an opportunity to explore the history of forensic expertise in relation to broader claims about truth and authority in Thai society. 

Congrats to Kijun Song (2020, Biology) for winning the third place at the annual Japanese Language Contest

Kijun Song (2020, Biology) won the third place at the annual Japanese Language Contest sponsored by the Consulate General of Japan in Boston. The contest was held on April 6, 2019 and Kijun entered the division of College Intermediate Speech. As a “regular award-winning college”, BC sent several students to enter this year’s contest, which was extremely competitive.

Among the students from prestigious universities, including Boston University, Brown University, Middlebury College, Tufts University and Bowdoin College, Kijun talked about Japanese boxed lunches filled with a lot of mother’s love.  We are so proud of Kijun’s achievement. Congratulations!

Asian Studies and the Korean Consulate in Boston Present "Movie and Talk"

'1987: When the Day Comes' is a film based on the true story of how the January 1987 torture death of a university student at the hands of the South Korean police touched off months of demonstrations by students, Christian and other pro-democracy activists. 

A discussion about the movie will be held at 5pm on March 27 in Devlin 101 by a panel of former activist, scholar, and college and high school students. 

Prof. Fang Lu Invited to be a Discussant for Harvard East Asian Society's Annual Graduate Conference

Fang Lu of the Department of Slavic &Eastern Languages and Literatures was invited to be a discussant for Harvard East Asian Society (HEAS) 22^nd Annual Graduate Conference “Voice and Silence: Memory in East Asia” at Harvard University, on February 9^th, 2019.

Prof. Christina Klein Spoke at the University of Huston

Prof. Christina Klein presented in a public leacture on "Cold War Cosmopolitanism" on Feburary 12th at the University of Huston. Christina Klein is an English professor at Boston College and the author of Cold War Orientalism: Asia in the Middlebrow Imagination, 1945-1963. 

Prof. Shelly Chan Talked about Chinese Women Stayed Behind in the Age of Emigration

Prof. Shelly Chan is associate professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She gave a talk at Boston College entittled "The Women Who Stayed Behind" on Feburary 12th, discussing  how the Chinese Communist state in the 1950s sought to reform marriage in rural south China, after a century of mass emigration had thoroughly transformed the lives of women who stayed behind.

Prof. Suzy Kim Gave a Speech on North Korean Feminism

Boston College Asian Studies program presented the Daniel C. Morrissey '88 and Chanannait Paisansathan, MD Distinguished Lecture, Behind the Iron Curtain: Cold War Women in North Korea. 

Prof. Suzy Kim, professor of Korean History at Rutgers University gave a presentation at Boston College on September 17th, exploring how alternative feminism became markers of ideal citizens in the name of state feminsm that professed equality for the sexes. 

Distinguished lecture by Prof. Suzy Kim Cold War women in North Korea

Boston College Asian Studies program presents the Daniel C. Morrissey '88 and Chanannait Paisansathan, MD Distinguished Lecture, Behind the Iron Curtain: Cold War Women in North Korea. 

Prof. Suzy Kim, professor of Korean History at Rutgers University will give the presentation at Boston College on September 17th, exploring how alternative feminism became markers of ideal citizens in the name of state feminsm that professed equality for the sexes. 

4 BC women win Fulbright scholarships to Asia!

Lori Niehaus (Biology & International Studies) will teach English in Malaysia

Lauren Lin (Political Science & International Studies) will teach English in South Korea

Layla Aboukhater (Biology) will do research in Malaysia

Anna Ringheiser (History & Islamic Civilizations minor) will teach English in Indonesia

Read their stories on Facebook.

15 Fung Scholars study in Asia

An inaugural group of 15 students are studying in Asia as Fung Scholars, 5 in Hong Kong, 4 in Seoul, 3 in Tokyo, 2 in Nanjing, and 1 in Kathmandu. Established in 2017 with a generous gift by the Victor and William Fung Foundation, the Fung Scholars program at Boston College provides opportunities to support international experiences in Asia.

Asian Studies alumna wins Pickering Fellowship to study security on the Korean Peninsula

Congratulations to Jennifer Shin, who won a highly prestigious scholarship to prepare for entering the U.S. Foreign Service. She graduated with an International Studies major and Asian Studies and Economics minors in 2013 and is a graduate student at Johns Hopkins's Nitze School of Advanced International Studies. Read more on BC News.

Prof. David Johnson inaugurates Erasmus+ Faculty Exchange Program

In May, Assistant Professor David Johnson (Philosophy) heads to Latvia to offer a series of 8 lectures on comparative philosophy at the University of Latvia. In return, Prof. Agnese Haijima, head of Japanese Studies there, will come to Boston College in the fall to hold a 2-week lecture series on Japanese art history.

Heading to Korea on a Fulbright grant

Congratulations to Lauren Lin, an International Studies and Political Science major, who won a Fulbright grant to teach English in Korea next year! Her Taiwanese family background got her interested in East Asia. "I saw how interconnected the various countries in East Asia were, and my interest expanded to include the broader East and Southeast Asian region. The Fulbright seemed liked a perfect opportunity to better understand a culture that comprises this region, and I thought Korea was a great place to start.

President of the Asia Society Policy Institute Kevin Rudd speaks at BC

For a unique Australian perspective on international relations in the age of a rising China, it is a rare honor to welcome the former Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd, to the BC campus. Mr. Rudd is an authority on Asian politics and now heads the Asia Society Policy Institute in New York.

BC seniors selected to work in Japan

Congratulations to Kafilat Obasala, Eileen Kao, Rachel Griffith, Alec Frazer, and Cedric Charles on having been offered positions in Japan through the JET Program starting this fall. Eileen, Rachel, and Asian Studies minors Kafilat and Alec will be Assistant Language Teachers (ALT); Cedric, also an Asian Studies minor, will be a Coordinator for International Relations (CIR), which requires a high level of Japanese language competency. "From the JET information session at the beginning of the Fall semester to advising me on my personal statement, I felt assured in the support system the Asian Studies faculty have provided for students," says Kafilat. Read their statements on the Asian Studies Facebook page.

Human Welfare & Global Citizenship, Former UN General Secretary Ban Ki-Moon

Former UN Secretary Ban Ki-Moon, the eighth Secretary-General of the United Nations, to address the University. His priorities have been to mobilize world leaders around a set of new global challenges, from climate change and economic upheaval to pandemics and increasing pressures involving food, energy and water. He has sought to be a bridge-builder, to give voice to the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people, and to strengthen the Organization itself.

This is a ticketed event. Ticket are free but need to be picked up at Robsham starting Monday, Feb 26 at 9am. THIS EVENT WILL SELL OUT QUICKLY SO GET THERE EARLY!

Fung Scholars Program

Boston College has been awarded a grant of $1 million by the Victor and William Fung Foundation in Hong Kong to establish the Fung Scholars Program.  The grant will provide opportunities for students with academic gifts and leadership potential to study abroad at leading universities in Asia.   Read More