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EALC Alumna Awarded Honorable Mention for the M.L.A. First Book Prize
December 4, 2006
Professor Zhen Zhang, received her PhD from EALC.
"The Modern Language Association is pleased to announce that Professor Zhen Zhang has received honorable mention for the Modern Language Association's First Book Prize. Dr. Zhang is being honored for her work entitled An Amorous History of the Silver Screen: Shanghai Cinema, 1896–1937, published by the University of Chicago Press.
The MLA committee's citation for Professor Zhang's book reads:
'This beautifully written and finely structured book offers a comprehensive, passionate analysis of an under-studied area, producing an exciting and challenging discussion of postcoloniality. Zhen Zhang's use of an early film about a film as her organizing eye into her topic is a brilliant conceit, one of many superb flourishes in this thoughtful and thought-provoking book. Four decades are covered in four hundred pages filled with witty and memorable insights and richly enlivened by nearly ninety illustrations. In her careful and fully documented discussion, which is perhaps inevitably as much a cultural history as a history of cinema, Zhang illuminates brilliantly the intersection between traditional film studies and a changing range of innovations in a Shanghai rediscovering itself after massive political upheaval.' "
Fudan Fellowship
December 4, 2006
The department is now accepting applications for alternates for the Fudan Research Fellowship for 2007. Students interested in studying in the Chinese literature department at Fudan University who will complete their Ph.D. qualifiying exams by the end of Summer 2007 are elligible to apply. Click here for more information.
New Department Members (2006-2007)
Professor Paul Copp, Assistant Professor in Chinese Religion, East Asian Languages and Civilizations. On leave Autumn 2006-Spring 2007.
Professor Xinying Zhang, Fudan University, Visiting Professor in Modern Chinese Literature, Fall 2006.
Matthias Richter, Creel Center for Early China Studies, Postdoctoral Fellow.
David Spafford, Statler Instructor in Pre-Modern Japanese Studies.
Recent Conferences and Events
NEW PERSPECTIVES ON DAOIST RELIGION
October 6-8, 2005
Kristofer Schipper, Professor Emeritus or Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Paris, and Leiden University, presented the opening lecture "In Praise of Daoism" at a recent symposium, New Perspectives on Daoist Religion, October 6-8, 2005, celebrating the publication of The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang (University of Chicago Press, 2004).
TRANSLATION IN COLONIAL AND ETHNIC STUDIES
February 24-25, 2006
Susan Burns and Kyeong-Hee Choi recently participated in an interdisciplinary conference Translation in Colonial and Ethnic Studies, February 24-25, 2006, sponsored by the Department of History, the Franke Institute for the Humanities, the Center for East Asian Studies, and the Center for International Studies' Norman Wait Harris Fund.
MUSIKING LATE MING CHINA
May 4-7, 2006, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor
Judith Zeitlin serves as co-coordinator with Joseph Lam for this international and interdisciplinary conference on late-Ming music. This event is sponsored by the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation and the University of Michigan.
NEW APPROACHES IN EAST ASIAN ART HISTORY
May 6, 2006
A graduate student symposium sponsored by The Center for the Art of East Asia, The Center for East Asian Studies, and the Department of Art History at the University of Chicago will take place at the Cochrane-Woods Art Center Room 157, 5540 S. Greenwood Avenue. For more information, please contact Julia Orell.
KUNQU MUSIC THEATER OF SHANGHAI
May 7, 2006, Chicago Cultural Center
The Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, the Wintergreen Kunqu Society, and the University of Chicago present special performances by the Kunqu Music Theatre of Shanghai. Award winning Chinese classical theater artists Liang Guyin, Liu Yilong, and Wen Yuhang will perform excerpts from Snatched by a Ghost and Escape by Boat. The concert takes place in the Claudia Cassidy Theater of the Chicago Cultural Center, 78 East Washington Street. Admission is free, but seats are limited. University of Chicago students are invited to meet the artists and performers at Shoreland Hall on Monday, May 8 at 7:30pm.
YASUSHI OKI WORKSHOPS
May 8-9, 2006
The Literature and Cultural History in Early Modern East Asia Workshop proudly presents Professor Yasushi Oki of Tokyo University. Professor Oki will present a talk titled "Exam Candidates' travel from Guangdong to Beijing in the 18th Century China" on May 8 from 4:00-5:30 p.m. in Cobb 206. Refreshments will be served. Please note that there is no paper precirculated for this talk. In addition, an informal discussion, "Recent Research on Ming-Qing Literature in Japan," will take place on May 9, between noon and 1:30pm, in Wieboldt 301. Lunch will be served.
HUMAN RIGHTS IN ASIA CONFERENCE
May 12-13, 2006
The Human Rights Program is holding a conference on Human Rights in Asia that will bring together an international array of scholars and activists to explore some of the most pressing human rights issues and challenges facing the region today. The conference will take place at the University of Chicago International House, 1414 East 59th Street, and is free and open to the public. For more information please contact Maureen Loughnane at 773-834-0957, email human-rights@uchicago.edu, or visit the conference website.
REINVENTING THE PAST: ANTIQUARIANISM IN EAST ASIA
May 13, 2006
A symposium organized by the Center for the Art of East Asia and the Department of Art History, will take place at the Franke Institute for the Humanities, 1100 E. 57th St., from 9 am to 5 pm. This fourth annual symposium of the Center for the Art of East Asia reexamines the phenomenon of antiquarianism by broadening the focus of study to all types of antiquarian knowledge, activities, and influences in East Asia and their impact on art and visual culture. It is the first in a series of two, the second part scheduled to take place November 3-5, 2006. For more information, please visit the Center's website.
CHINESE PALEOGRAPHY: THE PRESENT AND FUTURE
May 13-14, 2006
The Creel Center for Chinese Paleography sponsors a graduate student conference on newly excavated documents at the International House, May 13-14. Please refer to the conference website for schedules and paper downloads. For more information, please contact eshaughn@uchicago.edu.
GENDER AND LAW IN THE JAPANESE IMPERIUM, 1868-1952
May 19-20, 2006
This conference examines the multiple ways in which law, as idea, statute, and juridical practice, was implicated in the formation of new conceptions of gender in the Japanese metropole and colonies from 1868 to the 1950s. Papers to be presented explore the complex and contested role of law, in its local, national, and international deployments, in the creation of gendered national and colonial subjects, male and female social roles, familial relations, and normative notions of sexuality. The Gender and Law Conference is open to the public, but please contact Mamiko Suzuki to register in advance. For more information, paper abstracts, and updates on the conference please visit the website.
PLEASURE AND PASSION IN CHINESE LITERATURE
May 27-28, 2006
The purpose of this conference is to honor Anthony Yu's extraordinary achievements as a scholar and as a teacher across the humanities at The University of Chicago in the wake of his recent retirement. We are gathering a group of his students, friends, and colleagues in Chinese and Comparative Literature whose work has been influenced by his scholarship in various areas. The conference aims to explore the idea of "pleasure and passion in Chinese literature" from the perspectives of cultural history, religion, gender dynamics, textual production, translation, and trends in the study of fiction. The breadth and interdisciplinary nature of the papers in turn testify to Professor Yu's wide-ranging accomplishments that cross cultural, temporal, and disciplinary boundaries. This conference will take place at Swift Hall's Third Floor Lecture Hall, 1025 E 58th Street. Please refer to the conference website for more details.
Recent Faculty News
Norma Field, the Robert S. Ingersoll Professor of Japanese Studies, delivered the keynote address on the topic, How Long do We Need to Remember? Reflections on the 60th Anniversary of the Bomb and the End of the Asia-Pacific War at Humanities Open House.
The University of Chicago Press publishes Remaking Beijing: Tiananmen Square and the Creation of a Political Space by Wu Hung, Harrie A. Vanderstappen Distinguished Service Professor in Art History and East Asian Languages and Civilizations.
Visiting Faculty 2006-2006
Professor Jongyon Hwang, Visiting Professor in Korean literature, Winter 2006
Professor Yingjin Zhang, Visiting Professor in Chinese cinema, Winter 2006
Professor Hsiao-yen Peng, Visiting Professor in modern Chinese literature, Spring 2006.
