Greetings from the DirectorWelcome to the first newsletter of the East Asian Studies Program

In March a reporter from our undergraduate student newspaper, The Johns Hopkins News-Letter, interviewed me to learn about how the economic crisis is affecting the East Asian Studies Program. I believe the implicit assumption behind his assignment was that all departments, programs, and centers must be curbing their operations in light of budgetary constraints. To be sure, the East Asian Studies Program is affected by available financial resources. Yet the program is thriving.

We launched an exciting academic year with a freshmen open house where faculty, staff, upper classmen, graduate

students, and even alumni came together to welcome the newest members of our community. Students learned that we now have a host of new activities, including travel grants, new course offerings, and social activities. We also have new ways of communicating: a Facebook page, a new brochure, and even customized fortune cookies. Moreover, despite the economic downturn, the program was able to raise funds to bring in visiting faculty for the next academic year, and we are actively working with donors who may be interested in endowing professorships, student fellowships, and most ambitiously, an eventual Center

for East Asian Studies. In short, the program is active and expanding – and the March 26, 2009 article in the News-Letter was entitled, quite appropriately, “East Asian Studies Grows Despite Lagging Economy.” I am pleased to welcome you to this inaugural newsletter of East Asian Studies, and look forward to hearing from you.

Kellee S. Tsai

Photo: Sam Chester (BA/MA 2010),Entering the Gates of the Forbidden City

EAST ASIANSTUDIESat Johns Hopkins University

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Honors OptionThis year EAS introduced an honors option for majors who have a 3.7 GPA in the major and complete a senior thesis in EAS. In order for students to write senior theses in EAS, we are strengthening our East Asian language training so that senior majors are able to use primary language sources in their research.

New Classes 2008-2009EAS offered the following eight new courses this academic year by encouraging existing faculty to offer new classes, identifying classes cross-listed with other departments/centers, and hiring adjunct professors to cover core teaching needs.

EAS Curricular DevelopmentsHonors Option & New Classes

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010.146 East Asian Art: From Pottery to PropagandaDr. Rebecca Brown is an art historian who specializes in South Asian and Islamic art, and has experience teaching East Asian art. She will offer the class again in fall 2009 due to high demand for this course.

100.203 Modern Japanese History (Fall 08)Dr. Tomoko Steen is a research scientist in the Science, Technology, and Business Division of the Library of Congress. Because of high student demand and a long wait list, Dr. Steen increased the cap on her class from 25 to nearly 80 students.

140.375 The History of Modern Science and Technology in East Asia (Spr 09)Dr. Min-Suh Son is an assistant professor in the Department of History of Science.

300.348 Korean Modernism (Spr 09)Dr. Sharlyn Rhee is a visiting assistant professor associated with the Humanities Center. Next year

she will be teaching at the Maryland Institute College of Art.

190.330 Japanese Politics (Fall 08)Dr. Erin Chung introduced this class this year.

190.341 Korean Politics (Spr 09)Dr. Erin Chung introduced this class this year.

190.436 China and the Global Political Economy (Spr 09)Dr. Kellee Tsai introduced this class this year.

230.360 Globalization, Labor and State in Northeast Asia (Spr 09)Ms. Lu Zhang, an advanced graduate student in sociology, offered this class on a Dean’s Teaching Fellowship.

We are very fortunate that a number of visiting faculty will be teaching for the program during the next academic year.

Dr. Rebecca Brown will teach East Asian Art in fall 2009 , and offer a seminar on Art & Politics in Modern East Asia in spring 2010.

Mr. Bavo Lievens will teach Buddhism in fall 2009 and Chinese Thought in spring 2010.

Mr. Nobutaka Otobe will teach Politics and Thought in Modern Japan in fall 2009. He is an advanced graduate student who will be on a political science graduate fellowship.

Dr. Jong Sun Ryu, a visiting scholar from Ulsan University in Korea, will teach US Foreign Policy in East Asia in spring 2010. He received his PhD in political science at JHU in 1993.

Ms. Joanna Juan Wang, a graduate student who is scheduled to defend her dissertation this summer, will teach Contentious Politics in East Asia in fall 2009.

Mr. Frank Wu will teach Asian Americans and the Law in fall 2009. He graduated from JHU as a Writing Seminars major in 1988 and is a tenured law professor at Howard University.

EAS Courses 2009-2010

We are grateful to Peggy and Richard Danziger (‘60), and Susan Ginkel and Chris Lee (‘74) who are supporting visiting faculty for EAS.

Utagawa Kunitera, Nihonbashi in Tokyo, woodblock print, 1870, bequeathed by Paul Shelving, Victoria & Albert

Museum, London.

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Professor Ching Kwan Lee, Dept. of Sociology, University of California-BerkeleyRaw Encounters: Politics of Casualization in Africa’s China EnclavesOctober 20, 2008 (with Sociology)

Professor Deborah Brautigam, School of International Service, American UniversityChina and the Foreign Aid Regime in AfricaNovember 17, 2008 (with Political Science)

Professor Nicola di Cosmo, Institute for Advanced StudyBefore the Conquest: Opportunity and Choice in the Construction of Manchu PowerNovember 17, 2008 (with History)

Ms. Yoko Tawada, Japanese-German poetWriting the Web of WordsDecember 1, 2008 (with GRLL)

Professor Dorothy Ko, Dept. of History, Barnard CollegeThe Body of the Artisan; The Body of the Connoisseur: The Qing Inkstone Carver Gu Erniang and Her PatronsJanuary 26, 2009 (with History)

Professor Gary Gereffi, Dept. of Sociology, Duke UniversityNew Trends and Challenges for Latin American Development: A Global Perspective March 4, 2009 (with PLAS and Sociology)

Professor Victor Nee, Dept. of Sociology, Cornell UniversityPolitical Connections in China's Market Economy March 9, 2009 (with Sociology)

Professor Daniel Slater, Dept. of Political Science, University of ChicagoDemocracy Without Accountability: Party Cartels and Presidential Power in Indonesia, March 24, 2009 (with Political Science)

Dr. Dong-Won Kim, Visiting Associate Professor, Dept. of History of Science and Technology, Johns Hopkins UniversityTwo Different Images of the Nuclear Bomb in Japan and Korea, 1945-1960, March 25, 2009

Professor Shang-Jin Wei, Columbia Business SchoolFrom Sex Ratio Imbalance to Global Economic Imbalances: Some Unintended Consequences of China’s Family Planning PolicyMarch 31, 2009 (with Economics)

Mr. Henry Levine, Stonebridge International; Foreign Service Institute, US Dept. of StateUS-China Trade:  The Threat of Economic Mutually Assured Destruction, April 14, 2009

EAS Speaker Series, 2008-2009This year, EAS introduced a speaker series, and hosted or co-sponsored the following 11 seminars.

Exchange Program with Japanese UniversitiesWe are exploring the possibility of establishing an exchange program with Nanzan University in Nagoya, Japan, such that one or two of our students would study Japanese language and area studies each year, while one or two of their students would come over here. Next year, we will explore possibilities for partnering with a university based in Tokyo.

Specialized Chinese Program at Hopkins-NanjingThe Provost’s Framework for the Future Discovery Grant awarded $50,000 for interdivisional collaboration relating to East Asia. The funds are being spent on a feasibility study on the establishment of a specialized Chinese language program at the Hopkins-Nanjing Center (e.g., Chinese for Social Science, Engineering Chinese, Chinese for Health Researchers and Practitioners). Unlike conventional Chinese immersion programs, this program would be distinctly Hopkins in two ways: First, the language training would be geared towards the technical vocabulary and methodology involved in specialized fields of study; second, the program would include a substantial research component (e.g., working in labs, collaborating with Chinese counterparts, participating in workshops, using archives, etc.). The program would be open to both Hopkins and non-Hopkins students.

Plans for EAS in East Asia

Photo: Sam Chester (BA/MA 2010) giving toys to children affected by the 2008 Sichuan earthquake.

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EAS Extracurricular ActivitiesEAS Student Advisory CommitteeIn fall 2008, the East Asian Studies Program established a Student Advisory Committee made up of one student representative from each class. The purpose of the Committee is to provide students with a formal institutional channel to convey their thoughts about both the curricular and extra-curricular aspects of the program. You do not have to be a member of the Committee to write us at eastasian@jhu.edu or meet with the Program Director, but if you would prefer to offer anonymous feedback—or if there are issues that you would feel more comfortable discussing with a classmate—then please contact a member of the Committee. The following representatives were selected based on an application process that included writing a short essay explaining why they wished to serve on the EAS Student Advisory Committee.

Social NetworkingThe EAS at Hopkins Group on Facebook now has 104 members, which includes undergraduates, alumni (24), graduate students (14), and faculty (5). We use it to announce activities, fellowship and research/employment opportunities, and share information relating to East Asia, including blogs and photos from students who are studying abroad.

EAS Weekly Language CornersThis year, EAS introduced weekly language corners led by native-speaking graduate students. Offering the language corner leaders $500 per semester proved effective in attracting a competitive pool of potential leaders. The Chinese and Japanese groups have been quite successful, but the Korean one never attracted enough participants, so we cancelled it for the year. Next year, we will introduce separate Beginners and Advanced language corners for Chinese to better serve the different levels of fluency. We will also increase our efforts to cultivate interest among Korean language students to participate in the Korean language corner.

FreshmanRepresentative

SophomoreRepresentative

JuniorRepresentative

SeniorRepresentative

AlumniRepresentative

George YangGeorgeyang89@gmail.com

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Brandon StuartBstuart2@jhu.edu

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Veronica ChiuVchiu1@jhu.edu

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Ian MellerTheshadow0710@mac.com

Seung Ho JungSjung14@jhu.edu

Studying Abroad26 undergraduates studied abroad in east

and southeast Asia during 2009.

Where?

When?

Who?

China: 16Japan: 5Korea: 3Singapore: 1Thailand: 1

Intersession: 2Spring: 8Summer: 8Fall: 6Full-year: 2

Class of 2010: 7Class of 2011: 10Class of 2012: 9

Freshmen Orientation, Open Houses, Lunches, and End-of-the-Year EventEAS held several open houses and social events throughout the year. We marked the end of the academic year with a luncheon to welcome newly declared majors and to send off our seniors.

How Big is EAS?6 tenure-line faculty

9 language instructors36 undergraduate majors

24 graduate students

In fall 2008, there were 523 students enrolled in EAS classes, of which 327 or 62.5 percent were enrolled in language classes.

In spring 2009, there were 517 students enrolled in EAS classes, of which 293 or 56.7 percent were enrolled in language classes.

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EAS Travel GrantsThis year, EAS introduced travel grants for students to attend conferences, conduct research, and receive training for conducting Asia-related research. Conference grants were awarded on a rolling basis throughout the year, and the research grants were extended based on application deadlines in October and March.

Name Department Paper Title/Research Topic Conference/Travel Location

Zhang, Lu Sociology Market Reform, Labor Unrest, and Changing State-Labor Relations in China, 1980 to the Present

AAS (Association for Asian Studies)

Wang, Juan Political Science Playing Along: Local Survival of Central Fiscal Reforms in China; Statistics, Census Data, RS & GIS for China Studies

MPSA (Midwest Political Science Association) & Univ. of Michigan China Learning Workshop

Chen, Ling Political Science Export Upgrading in an Era of Globalization: Cases from China’s Export Zones

MPSA (Midwest Political Science Association)

Ren, Ke History Painting China with a French Brush: Chen Jitong and the Dual Authenticity of a Late Qing Cultural Mediator

Association of Chinese & Comparative Literature, Tsinghua Univ.

Core, Rachel Sociology Tuberculosis in Post-Work Unit China Shanghai

Gurel, Burak Sociology Development of Agrarian Capitalism in China and the Current Debate over Privatizing Land

Beijing, Wuhan, Chengdu

Li, Yao Sociology Dynamics of the Countermovement in China Beijing, Qinhuangdao

Selby, Don Anthropology Human Trafficking in Thailand Thailand

Zhan, Shaohua Sociology Social Leveling and Industrious Revolution in China: From the Early Qing to the Present

Beijing

Harry Black, BA expected 2011, studied Chinese at Middlebury College in summer 2008.

Emily Boitel, BA expected 2010, spent the spring semester studying Chinese at the Associated Colleges in China program in Beijing and will continue her studies in China this summer through Columbia University's Shanghai Summer Internship and Mandarin Language program.

Sam Chester, BA/MA expected 2010, will spend the summer researching China's engagement in the Levant, while studying Arabic in Damascus. He is pursuing a dual concentration in China and Middle East Studies at SAIS.

Eric Goodman, BA expected 2011, studied Chinese at Middlebury College in summer 2008.

James Pearse, BA expected 2010, was awarded a Charles Robins Summer Internship Grant to serve as an intern with the US-China Business Council in Shanghai, where he will conduct an independent project on China’s new health care initiatives.

C. Pierce Salguero, a PhD candidate in History of Medicine was offered a predoctoral fellowship at Le Moyne University, Syracuse, NY, and two dissertation fellowships, the Mellon ACLS and the Woodrow Wilson Center’s Charlotte Newcombe Fellowship for Religion and Ethics. He also published, "The Buddhist Medicine King in Literary Context: Reconsidering an early medieval example of Indian influence on Chinese medicine and surgery," History of Religions (2009).

Tony Tsai, BA/MA expected 2012, spent the spring semester as an Aitchison Fellow in Washington, D.C., will study Chinese at Peking University through the Council on International Educational Exchange this summer, and was recently accepted into the BA/MA program at SAIS.

Alexandra Zenoff, BA expected 2010, spent the spring semester studying in Shanghai through the Council on International Educational Exchange and will serve as an intern at the National-Committee on US-China Relations in New York.

Lu Zhang, PhD expected 2009, received two postdoctoral fellowships at Indiana University and University of Southern California, respectively. She has accepted the postdoc at Indiana.

EAS Student News

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Joel Andreas published his first book, Rise of the Red Engineers: The Cultural Revolution and the Origins of China’s New Class (Stanford University Press, 2009).

Erin Chung was awarded an Abe/Social Science Research Council Fellowship to conduct research in Japan and Korea on immigrant incorporation in ethnic democracies.

Marta Hanson organized and hosted the 12th International Conference of the History of Science in East Asia at JHU. The American Council of Learned Societies/Chiang Ching-Kuo Foundation also awarded her a fellowship to run a workshop “Body Wholes, Body Parts: A Cultural History of the Body in Chinese Medicine,” in collaboration with Chang Chia-Feng of National Taiwan University.

Lieman Lievens (at right), lecturer of Chinese in the Language Programs, won the 2008 George E. Owen Teaching Award. This is the third time that she has won this award.

Tobie Meyer-Fong launched a Chinese language and culture program at Brent Elementary School in Washington D.C., and

was selected to participate in the National Committee on US-China Relations’ Public Intellectuals Program for China scholars under the age of 45.

William Rowe was appointed chair of the Department of History after successfully directing the East Asian Studies Program for over a dozen years.

Kellee Tsai was appointed Director of the East Asian Studies Program and joined the Board of Directors of the National-Committee on US-China Relations, and the Editorial Board of Pacific Affairs.

EAS Faculty News

EAS Alumni NewsAaron Back, BA 2003, Hopkins-Nanjing Center 2006, has been a financial reporter with Dow Jones Newswires in Singapore and Beijing since 2006.

Natalie Baer, BA 2008, is a Business Capture Specialist at SRA International in Fairfax, VA and was recently accepted into the Johns Hopkins Applied Economics Program.

Jessica Beaton, BA 2006, is the Shanghai Senior Editor for City Weekend Magazine, a weekly entertainment magazine in Shanghai.

Genesis Sy-Shyan Chen, PhD 1988, is Professor of Political Science at National Taiwan University.

Ning Chia, PhD 1991, is Professor of History at Central College, Pella, IA.

Ashley Ferranti, BA/MA, EAS and Humanities Center, 2007 is a PhD candidate in the Department of Sociology at the University of Hong Kong, and is currently teaching English and Chinese at a school in Bangkok. She has also taught English and Social Studies in Burma.

Darryl Flaherty, BA 1991, PhD Columbia 2001, is Assistant Professor of History (Japanese) at the University of Delaware.

Mark Goldberg, BA 2008, is working in Beijing as an analyst at Taishan Capital, an investment bank that targets China-based small and medium enterprises.

Jie Guo, PhD Humanities Center 2008, is Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of South Carolina.

Melissa Hanham, BA 2002, graduated with a master’s in International Affairs from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs in 2006 and has since been a Research Analyst at the International Crisis Group in Beijing.

Cathleen Hamel, BA 2005, MA Sciences-Po 2007, works at the Department of Business and Economic Development in Maryland and will start studying for her JD at Stanford Law School in fall 2010.

Sha Hua, BA 2003, graduated with a JD from Northwestern University School of Law in 2007.

Ho-fung Hung, PhD 2004, is an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology at Indiana University—Bloomington and recently published an edited volume, China and the Transformation of Global Capitalism (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press 2009).

Janice C.H. Kim (York University), BA/MA 1996, published To Live to Work: Factory Women in Colonial Korea, 1910-1945 (Stanford University Press, 2009), and is Assistant Professor of 20th century East Asian History at York University in Toronto.

Dennis Kitt, BA 2003, SAIS 2004, will graduate with a JD from Columbia University School of Law in May 2009.

Lieman Lievens

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Heather Li, BA 2008, will start working as a Financial Analyst in equity capital markets at Morgan Stanley in Hong Kong this summer.

Jack Li, BA 2003, earned a master's degree in finance and economics from Cambridge University in 2004; worked in investment banking at N M Rothschild & Sons in London from 2004-2007; and will graduate from Harvard Business School with an MBA in June 2009.

Joseph Lin, BA 2006, is a Research Fellow specializing in Chinese security policy and the development of military doctrine among irregular militaries at Detica's Strategy and Innovation Group.  In fall 2009 he will commence a Ph.D. program in the Department of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania.

Rui Lu, BA 2006, is working on her doctorate in economics at Oxford University.

Sophie Lu, BA 2008, works at White & Case, LLP, in Washington DC.

Zhao Ma (State University of New York—Fredonia), PhD 2007, was awarded a two-year postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of History at the University of Washington in St. Louis.

Thomas S. Mullaney, BA 1999, MA in Humanities Honors Program 2000, received his PhD from Columbia University in 2006 and is Assistant Professor of History at Stanford.

Erik Mueggler, PhD 1996, is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Michigan.

Jason Park, BA 2006, served as part of the first group of Peace Corps Volunteers to Cambodia from 2006-2009. His work focused on rural education.

Juanjuan Peng, PhD 2007, is an Assistant Professor of History at Georgia Southern University.

Mu-chou Poo, PhD 1985, is a Research Fellow at the Academia Sinica’s Institute of History and Philology in Taiwan.

Jong Sun Ryu (Ulsan University), PhD, Political Science, 1993, will be a visiting scholar during 2009-10 and teach US Foreign Policy in East Asia in spring 2010.

Motoe Sasaki-Gayle, PhD, History, 2008 joined the faculty at Hosei University in Tokyo.

Robin Schilling, BA/MA SAIS 2004, is a Staff Analyst at the US Department of Defense based in Germany.

Jomo Smith, BA 2001, is a PhD candidate in the Department of History at University of California – San Diego.

Yan Sun, PhD 1993, is Professor of Political Science at City University of New York - Queens College.

Di Wang (Texas A&M University), PhD 1999, published The Teahouse: Small Business, Everyday Culture, and Public Politics in Chengdu, 1900-1950 (Stanford University Press, 2008).

Justine Wiesinger, BA 2008, spent the last year in Japan, and in fall 2009 will start a master’s program in East Asian Studies at Yale University, which awarded her a graduate student fellowship.

Frank Wu (Howard University), BA, Writing Seminars, 1988 will teach Asian Americans and the Law in fall 2009.

Jack Y. Yeung, BA 2005, SAIS 2007, is an Equity Analyst at BNP Paribas in Hong Kong. He covers the Chinese automotive and auto components sectors.

Julie Jin Zeng, PhD 2007, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of International Relations at the Florida International University. 

Gang Zhao, PhD 2006, is an Assistant Professor of History at the University of Akron.

Alumni News (continued)

Our StaffJoanna Juan Wang (Left), Program Assistant: Ms. Wang is a PhD candidate in political science who will be defending her dissertation later this summer.Jennifer Lin, also a PhD candidate in political science, will serve as the EAS Program Assistant starting on July 1. Formithia Hurte (Right), Financial Administrator.

We thank William Rowe and Megan Zeller for ensuring a smooth transition in EAS administration from the history to the political science department. Jane Bennett, Mark Blyth, Steven David, Mary Otterbein, Lisa Williams, and Barbara Hall in political science have assisted the program in various ways. We are also grateful to Rebecca Brown for designing our newsletter.

Contact East Asian Studies

Kellee S. Tsai, DirectorProfessor of Political ScienceMergenthaler 3373400 North Charles StreetBaltimore, MD 21218ktsai@jhu.eduVoice: 410-516-7972Fax: 410-516-5515

General emaileastasian@jhu.edu

Please email with your questions, suggestions, and any news that you would like to share.

EAST ASIANSTUDIESMergenthaler 3373400 N. Charles StreetBaltimore, MD 21218

ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED

Please RecycleThis newsletter is printed on recycled-content paper.

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If you would like to make a donation to EAS, please contact Sylvia Eggleston Wehr, Associate Dean for External Affairs, Krieger School of Arts and Scienes, at SEW@jhu.edu. A list of gift opportunities is available at http://sites.jhu.edu/east-asian/Gift_Opportunities.html. Visit us on-line

http://sites.jhu.edu/east-asian/