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April 2026
The Textual Townsman: Writing Urban Identity in Early Modern Japan
In 17th-century Japan, the rapid urbanization of Tokugawa society and the formation of a market economy led to the rise of a new social class of merchants and artisans: the "townsman" (chonin). The emergence of the towsnman was catalyzed by the rise of a commercial woodblock printing industry, which aided in the articulation, circulation, and standardization of norms of townsman identity. Popular fiction played important roles in these processes of textual self-formation, orienting the diversity of urban society around the…
Find out more »Ghosts of the Present: Nationalism and the Sinitic Cosmopolitan in the Medieval South
PLEASE NOTE: For non-Columbia guests, registration is required to access the Morningside campus 24 hours prior to the event. After registering you will receive an email with a QR code that must be presented along with a government-issued ID (your name must match exactly the name registered for the event) at either the 116th Street & Broadway or 116th Street & Amsterdam gates. Please register using a unique email address (one email address per registrant) by 1:00 PM on Thursday,…
Find out more »Everyday Economies of Survival: Gender in Cold War South Korea
PLEASE NOTE: For non-Columbia guests, registration is required to access the Morningside campus 24 hours prior to the event. After registering you will receive an email with a QR code that must be presented along with a government-issued ID (your name must match exactly the name registered for the event) at either the 116th Street & Broadway or 116th Street & Amsterdam gates for entry. Please register using a unique email address (one email address per registrant) by 12:00 PM…
Find out more »In the Shadow of Empire: Art in Occupied Japan
This talk unearths an immensely creative yet almost entirely overlooked body of Japanese art. Drawn from Volk's recently published In the Shadow of Empire: Art in Occupied Japan, and introducing charismatic but little-known paitnings, prints, and sculpture made during the US occupation (1945-1952). It will show how the forgotten art of a country in the shadows of American empire both accommodated and resisted the Cold War global realignment that followed on the heels of World War II. Volk will reveal the transnational…
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