Lecture

Following the South Korean government’s drive in the 1990s for globalization and deregulation of higher education, Korean universities aggressively recruited Chinese students as both symbolic and economic resources. The number of Chinese students studying at Korean universities consequently increased 57-fold between 2000 and 2019 (from 1,200 to 68,537).

Thinking toward a media archaeology of global popular music, this presentation will trace the contemporary circulation of “golden era” 1960s and 1970s "Cambodian Rock." The lecture seeks to contextualize and historicize revivals of pre-Khmer Rouge pop recordings through the mediated movements, dubs, and remixes of cassette tapes among North American independent labels and the activities of online archivists and heritage centers in present-day Cambodia, which helped to generate the documentary film Don’t Think I’ve Forgotten, the play Cambodian Rock Band, and the Los Angeles based group Deng

This lecture is about a little-studied embassy to the Qing court, a Dutch mission of 1794–95. Drawing on Dutch, French, Spanish, Qing, and Korean sources, it explores not just the mission itself but also the question of why it has been neglected and misunderstood. It also reflects on long-standing metanarratives about the history of Sino-Western interaction.

No other industry had more profound impact on the environment and communities of northern Vietnam than coal mining. Since the French discovery of the Quang Yen coal basin in the 1880s, Tonkin, a French protectorate in northern Vietnam, had risen to become one of the world’s largest coal exporters. However, as in many other parts of the world, coal mining also denuded forests, fashioned massive open-pit wastelands, polluted the air and water, and created some of Vietnam’s most troubling and enduring environmental problems.

Join us for a virtual discussion about current issues and US, China and Taiwan Relations with Pitt Global Professor Michael Liu along with a national webcast with CNN journalist Fareed Zakaria.
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Now more than ever students and faculty are asked to be proficient in the latest digital tools and technologies while considering how these materials may be useful to their teaching and research. In this talk, Dr. Curtis will survey the current state of the field in Digital Japanese Studies, including recent projects, perennial changes, and sites of community building. Dr.

In the summer of 2019, Hong Kong-- former British colony, current special administrative region of the People's Republic of China-- was swept up by a large, sustained protest movement. The spark that lit this "revolution of our time" as protestors have deemed it was an extradition treaty with China, but quickly evolved into a broader movement for a more democratically representative government and autonomy from the People's Republic of China.

This paper pushes back against the pervasive masculinist gendering of mobility in the emerging field of “InterAsian” studies. Existing research has focused on the movements of mobile men, a framework that risks naturalizing gendered notions of female stasis. In contrast the paper argues for the need to reconceptualize the concept of mobility, and the archives where we look for its traces, to capture the modes through which women travelled InterAsian spaces.

This talk presents the multifaceted story of China’s soft power campaigns in Africa, with a special focus on Ethiopia—one of China’s closest economic and political partners on the continent. Countering the claims of China’s authoritarian export, the analysis of China’s engagement with Ethiopian elites, youth and media audiences, showcases what I describe as a “fragmented spectacle” — a grand, but disjointed display of China’s prowess. In particular, China’s soft power appeal is rooted in generosity of scale or the large-scale access to its initiatives.

My presentation will offer a historical perspective on secularism in South Asia through a discussion of a history of religious reform movements from the early twentieth century through the end of colonial India, as a way of historicizing the creation of a constitutional secular state in India in the mid-twentieth century. Though Indian history will comprise the base of the presentation, it will address the issue of religious freedom in contemporary South Asia, drawing on cases from India and Bangladesh primarily.