EASC Events & News

EASC Executive Committee election and role

Many in the EASC community may not be aware that there is an EASC Executive Committee made up of EASC faculty. The role of the EASC Executive Committee is to “advise the EASC Director, serve as conduits to convey faculty suggestions and concerns, and help ensure that Center programs grow in ways that reflect basic program priorities” (from the EASC Constitution).

This fall Sara Friedman (ANTH/GNDR) was elected to serve a two-year term on the Committee. The other members are Tom Keirstead (EALC/HIST) and Heidi Ross (EDUC) who each have one more year to serve, as well as the Director of EASC, Jeff Wasserstrom, the Chair of EALC, Bob Eno, and the Associate Director of EASC, Margaret Key (non-voting member).

IL/IN East Asia Initiative

As mentioned by Jeff Wasserstrom in his Notes from the Director, the EASC has entered into an exciting new relationship with the Center for East Asian and Pacific Studies (EAPS) at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). This partnership, called the IL/IN East Asia Initiative, will dramatically raise the profile of East Asian studies at both universities as faculty share resources, engage in cross-campus teaching, and find new opportunities to interact with and guide graduate students on both campuses. The synergies created by this partnership will result in the largest Korean studies program in the Midwest, as well as remarkable national strengths in East Asian ethnography, East Asian education, and East Asian sexuality and gender, and will multiply the impact of each university's individual offerings.

Cross-campus scholarly exchanges have already begun. In September, Sheena Choi, Sara Friedman, Heidi Ross and Dick Rubinger of IU participated in a UIUC panel, Educational Transformation in East Asia. Nancy Abelmann and Poshek Fu of UIUC participated in the Japanese Empire: Gone, But Not Forgotten workshop at IU. And on November 4, IU's Michicko Suzuki will present the paper “Female Same-Sex Love in Prewar Japan: Yoshiya Nobuko and Sexology Discourse” at UIUC's Asia Pacific Queer Workshop.

Follow these links to the UIUC webpage on the IL/IN East Asia Initiative and to UIUC's East Asian Faculty roster.

Japanese Empire: Gone, But Not Forgotten workshop

This two-day workshop was a project of the IU Committee on Asian Security and was coordinated through the IL/IN East Asia Initiative. The event was made possible by major support from IU's Office of the Vice President for Research and the Freeman Foundation, with additional support from the departments of EALC, History, Studio Arts, and Art History, the College of Arts and Sciences, and Butler University.

Day One focused on regional security issues and nationalism. The keynote speaker was Mark Selden of Cornell University, whose talk was titled “The Asia-Pacific in an Age of Global Insecurity.” Day Two dealt with memory issues and the process of coming to terms, or not, with old and new wounds. The second day included a talk by Takashi Yoshida (University of Western Michigan) on film and teaching about the Japanese empire. He showed a video with very interesting footage of propaganda from Japan and the U.S., a copy of which is available in the EASC video library. The workshop concluded with EASC's first Colloquium speaker, Julia Adeney-Thomas, whose talk, “Landscape's Mediation between History and Memory: A Visual Turn in Japan's Approach to its Wartime Past,” focused on the successful way that the Yokohama Museum of Art circumnavigated the current tensions between history and memory in its recent exhibition of paintings and photographs.

Visiting scholar presents lecture on “cell phone poetry”

On September 6, Mutsumi Kato, visiting from Rikkyo University in Tokyo, delivered the lecture “Cell Phone Poetry and Internet Culture in Japan.” Kato analyzed some examples of contemporary tanka, a genre of Japanese poetry composed of 5-7-5-7-7 syllable phrases, that were winning entries in a weekly radio contest in which poets submit their tanka as text messages via cell phone. After introducing tanka as a poetic form, Kato showed several television commercials for cell phone service and discussed how cell phone companies sentimentalize cell phone use by marketing it as a means of expressing feelings to loved ones. He then discussed classical elements in the contest-winning tanka as well as the ways in which they subvert traditional poetic conventions.

Study tour to Korea and Japan

Nineteen middle-school and high-school teachers from Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana, and Alabama who completed the National Consortium for Teaching about Asia's (NCTA) Teaching about Asia seminar traveled to Korea and Japan for twenty days this summer. They were accompanied by tour leader Anne Prescott (EASC Outreach Coordinator), tour assistant Mayumi Hoshino (graduate student in History), faculty expert Mike Robinson (Professor, EALC), and curriculum coordinator John Frank (U.S. History, Center Grove High School, Greenwood, Indiana).

EASC's study tours are designed to give teachers the opportunity to visit historical and cultural sites as well as local schools. Among the most popular stops were the Confucian Institute at Sungkyunkwan University in Seoul, the Middle School and High School for Traditional Performing Arts in Seoul, the DMZ, Himeji Castle, Hiroshima Peace Museum, a baseball game in Osaka, the Kofu Minami High School koto club rehearsal in Kofu, and Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo.

Prior to departure the teachers completed a lengthy reading list and came to the IU Bloomington campus for a two-day orientation. Upon their return to the United States, the teachers developed lesson plans to implement in their classrooms as well as outreach strategies for their local communities. In October the group will gather again in Bloomington to discuss their experiences and how to strengthen teaching about East Asia in their schools.

National Clearinghouse for U.S.-Japan Studies publications

The National Clearinghouse for U.S.-Japan Studies announces its publications for 2005. Two new Japan Digests ("Japan in the U.S. Press: Bias and Stereotypes" and "Japan and World War II: The Legacy Six Decades Later") join a thoroughly revised and updated "Japanese Education" by Lucien Ellington. The four new Internet Guides for the year are: "Pacific War: Lessons and Sources," "Japan's Territorial Disputes," "Japanese Remembrances of World War II," and a guide on the environment. The four new Japan Bibliographies are: "Resources for Teaching about Japanese Art," "Manga and Anime: Focus on Youth Audiences," "U.S. Stereotypes of Japan," and "Geisha."

All these publications will be available for free and in a variety of formats by October 1 at the Clearinghouse website.The website is updated frequently with news headlines, announcements, and links to interesting sites and sources about Japan. You can sign up for a monthly e-newsletter by sending an email to japan@indiana.edu.

Lecture and concert

Anne Prescott (EASC Outreach Coordinator) gave a koto lecture and concert at the University of Kentucky on March 7. On September 23, she presented the paper “Music Curriculum Reforms in Japan: Traditional Music in the Schools and Society” at the Midwest Conference on Asian Affairs. On October 27, at Lyon College in Batesville, Arkansas, Prescott will give a concert and lecture, “Koto Music of Japan: Traditional to Modern.”

EASC staff changes

The East Asian Studies Center has undergone a number of staffing changes in the past few months. We would like to thank those who served and moved on, and welcome those now working with us. Thanks go to Melissa Gross, Francis Tan, Jeremy Mixell, Susan Furukawa, Brian Flaherty, Ian Robertson, and W. Clarke Hudson for their great work here at the Center.

Our new staff includes Nancy Alexander who is our Database and Office Coordinator, replacing Melissa Gross. Alexander will begin a Masters in Library Science in the spring. Paul Amato has taken over for Brian Flaherty as Grants and Financial Assistant. Amato is finishing his Masters in early Chinese religion in EALC. Flaherty has left to study for a year at Tianjin University in China. Graham Bauerle replaces Stephan Kory as Subscriptions Manager for the Journal of Chinese Religions. Bauerle is working on his Masters in EALC. Nikhil Gupta is our new computer assistant, replacing Ian Robertson. Gupta is pursuing a Masters in Information Systems at the Kelley School of Business and will be graduating next year. Margaret Key is the Center's new Associate Director, having taken over for Jacques Fuqua who is now Director of International Engagement and Protocol at the University of Illinois. Key is finishing her Ph.D. in Japanese in EALC. Stephan Kory moves from Subscription Manager to Journal Editorial Assistant for the Journal of Chinese Religions. He is finishing his Ph.D. work on medieval Chinese religions and literature in EALC. Kory replaces Hudson who is a Visiting Lecturer for EALC and is completing his Religious Studies dissertation on inner alchemy this year. Patsy Rahn joins us as the Newsletter Editor, replacing Susan Furukawa. Rahn also acts as Colloquium Coordinator and Outreach Assistant. She is finishing her Masters in East Asian Studies in EALC. Akira Ulmer is helping with EASC outreach as part of the work-study program. He is completing a B.A. in Language and Culture in EALC. We also welcome two new Office Assistants through the work-study program: Zuri Phelps, who is working on a B.A. in the department of AMID, and Lena Stouppe, who is pursuing a B.A.in Journalism.

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