Viewing entries tagged
East Asian Languages and Cultural Studies Department
Christina Han, an associate professor of history at Wilfrid Laurier University in Ontario, Canada, visited UCSB to present on the 17th-century Korean Sihwa ch'ongnim 詩話叢林 Compendium of Poetry Talks and the importance of collaborative, transnational scholarship in digital humanities.
Kaitlyn Ugoretz, a UCSB Ph.D. candidate, delves into the evolving practice of Shinto outside Japan, highlighting how sacred spaces are created through rituals rather than geography. Her research explores how Shinto is flourishing in the U.S. among non-Japanese practitioners, driven by global influences like anime and inclusive spiritual values.
Howard Chiang, Lai Ho and Wu Cho-liu Endowed Chair in Taiwan Studies and professor of East Asian Languages and Cultural Studies at UC Santa Barbara discusses Sinophone studies and the newly published reader he co-edited with Shu-mei Shih. “Sinophone Studies Across Disciplines: A Reader” compiles essays that showcase the interdisciplinary potential of Sinophone studies as a nexus for marginalized global topics.
“HFA Speaks: For the Love of Language” brought together Sabine Frühstück, a UCSB professor of modern Japanese cultural studies, Magda Campo, an Arabic continuing lecturer in the Department of Religious Studies, and Laura Marqués-Pascual, the language program director in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese for a panel discussion. Moderated by Jackie Jauregui, the panel had a conversation about the importance of learning languages, and the related struggles of teaching it at a time of dropping enrollment nationally.
Professor Fabio Rambelli from UCSB’s Religious Studies and East Asian Languages & Cultural Studies departments, speaks about hosting “The Transcultural Exploratorium: Neuro Music and Japanese Culture” event and how he exposed the UCSB community to traditional Japanese sounds.
Musician and composer Gene Coleman spoke to a UC Santa Barbara audience about his work in Neuro Music. With compositions inspired by the brain’s auditory pathways, Coleman studies music from a neuroaesthetic perspective for creative production.
Shu-Chuan Chen’s, Professor in UCSB’s Department of East Asian Language and Cultural Studies, Chinese class offers students an immersive experience into Chinese culture. From hands-on cooking classes, New Years tea celebrations, and honoring the Lantern Festival, Chen’s class is praised by students for her ability to craft an informative yet engaging course. In this article, Chen sits with Isabella Genovese to talk about her teaching, life, and hopes .
Suigetsu, the Japanese term for reflected moon, often appears in Medieval Japanese literature and art. However, there is no consistent understanding for how the term is used metaphorically. UCLA Professor William Bodiford visited UCSB to explore this historical context and interpretation further, where he shared his own findings to do with reflected moons and explored the variance in metaphorical significance in different traditions.
Andrew B. Liu was hosted by the East Asia Center at UC Santa Barbara, where he discussed the complex relationship between China and the US and the effects of rising hostilities. He explained why economic decoupling remains unattainable and examined the business relations between the two countries.
When a resident of Wuhan, China wrote an online diary criticizing the government’s response to Covid-19, authorities retaliated by launching a disinformation campaign and propelling online hate toward her. This weaponization of the internet for political purposes parallels the information wars that occurred in the United States during the pandemic, said UCLA Chinese culture professor Michael Berry at a recent UC Santa Barbara Center for Taiwan Studies event.
Activists in the Asian American and Pacific Islander communities, including Manjusha Kulkarni, co-founder of Stop AAPI Hate, visited UC Santa Barbara’s Multicultural Center to speak about the increase in Anti-AAPI violence and bias in America after the COVID-19 pandemic. Following a panel discussion, Kulkarni gave a keynote presentation titled “Challenging Hate: How to Stop AAPI Violence.”
Robert Weller, anthropology professor at Boston University, spoke to a UC Santa Barbara audience about how Taiwanese religious rituals use both noise and silence to mark transitions, establish rhythm, and create an emotional choreography.
Venerable Yifa, religious scholar and Buddhist leader, spotlighted Buddhist organizations and practices that help protect the environment and reduce climate change, at an event co-sponsored by the East Asian Languages and Cultural Studies department, the East Asia Center, the Center for Taiwan Studies, and the Dalai Lama Endowment.
UC Santa Barbara professor of Theater and Dance Jessica Nakamura organized a lab event on decentering Japanese performance. She recently spoke about the outcomes of her lab event in an interview.
UC Santa Barbara history professor Anthony Barbieri has published his fifth book, The Many Lives of the First Emperor of China. The book unites the past and the present day, exploring perceptions of First Emperor Ying Zheng as both hero and villain. In a recent interview, Professor Barbieri discussed his research and writing experience.
UCSB’s department of East Asian Languages and Cultural Studies organized a two-day internationally-attended symposium on Zoom titled “Translatability/Transmediality: Chinese Poetry In/And the World.” Hangping Xu of the East Asian Languages and Cultural Studies department and Yunte Huang of the English department organized the symposium to promote a special edition of a scholarly journal they wrote along with 10 scholars from around the world.
After attending protests in both Japan and New York, Noriko Manabe, a leading scholar in ethnomusicology at both Stanford and Temple University, noticed that Americans are much quieter in protests than Japanese people. Manabe, who was hosted by UC Santa Barbara’s Department of East Asian Languages and Cultural Studies, attributes this difference to increased police presence in Japan which forces protesters to split into smaller groups and use sound to find unity with one another.
The Humanities and Fine Arts division hosted a panel of three UC Santa Barbara faculty members to discuss Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month. They said the need for a designated time to pay attention to AAPI individuals’ experiences indicates a need for societal change in America.
This spring, UCSB’s Humanities and Fine Arts Division hosted a creativity contest to highlight creative student voices across the UCSB campus. Explore the first place prose entry submitted by Claudia Lee.
The Art, Design, and Architecture Museum at UC Santa Barbara has multiple art exhibitions on display year-round. Currently, it is showing a collection of instruments used for gagaku, an ancient Japanese style of orchestral music and dance.
