Benkyokai – First Meeting

We are very pleased to announce that we are going to kick off the first Benkyokai meeting of the 2019-2020 academic year on September 27 (Friday) at 1:30 PM in IAB 918 (420 W 118th St, New York, NY 10027).

Benkyokai is a study group that seeks to foster collaboration and conversation across fields, and to address a range of topics relevant to our work on Japan. This semester, and hopefully for the next semester as well, we will bring back the widely expected Primary Source Reading Workshop, which focuses on enhancing our skills to identify Hentaigana (変体仮名) and to read Kuzushiji (崩し字), the cursive writing, in both print and manuscript materials.

Not sure if you will ever need to read Kuzushiji for your research? Want to brainstorm ideas and have other activities also organized? No worries! The first Benkyokai meeting is divided into to two sections for your convenience.

The first section of our meeting serves as a general orientation/information session, which begins at 1:30 PM and lasts for approximately half an hour. After wrapping up this orientation/information section at 2:00 PM, we will move on to the next section, which specifically serves as an introductory session on the Primary Source Reading Workshop, where we will offer all participants a taste of actually reading Kuzushiji (崩し字)! Moreover, we are also very glad to announce that a faculty member, Professor Gregory Pflugfelder, will also join us for the second section of the first Benkyokai meeting!

To recap:

First Benkyokai Meeting Schedule:  September 27 (Friday) at 1:30 PM in IAB 918

Breakdown of Meeting:                     1:30 PM – 2:00 PM: Orientation/Information (students only)

                                                          2:00 PM – 3:00 PM: Introductory Session on the Primary Source Reading Workshop (Professor Gregory Pflugfelder will also join us)

Last but not least, Benkyokai is open to all graduate students at Columbia with interests in Japan or East Asia from across the disciplines. If you know anyone who is not on the mailing list but might be interested, please let them know about the upcoming event and/or send us a message, so that we can include them in the mailing list.

Your Benkyokai Committee:

Tianyuan Huang (th2750@columbia.edu)

Alex N. Carlson (anc2165@columbia.edu)

Marina I. Pate (mip2120@columbia.edu)