Speaker: Sungik Yang, Assistant Professor, School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies (SHPRS), Arizona State University Moderator: Ruth Barraclough, Korea Foundation Associate Professor of Modern Korean History, History Department; Director, Center for Korean Research, WEAI Sungik Yang is a political and intellectual historian of modern Korea, focusing on nationalism, historical memory, the history of democracy, and the content and dissemination of political ideology in Korea. His current book project examines the discursive hegemony of fascistic nationalism, anti-Westernism, and collectivism in Korea during the…

Speaker: Peter Banseok Kwon, Associate Professor of Korean Studies, Department of History, Department of East Asian Studies, University of Albany Moderator: Jungwon Kim, King Sejong Associate Professor of Korean Studies, EALAC, Columbia University Professor Kwon is the author of Cornerstone of the Nation: The Defense Industry and the Building of Modern Korea under Park Chung Hee (Harvard University Asia Center, 2024), which examines the origins and development of South Korea’s defense industry during Park Chung Hee’s rule and its impact on the nation’s socio-economic and…

Speaker: Janet E. Poole, Distinguished Professor of the Humanities and Chair, Department of East Asian Studies, University of Toronto Moderator: Ruth Barraclough, Korea Foundation Associate Professor of Modern Korean History, History Department; Director, Center for Korean Research, WEAI Prof. Janet Poole will speak about her new translations of Ch'oe Ch’oe Myŏngik's work, Patterns of the Heart and Other Stories, on Thursday, October 16, 2025. Korean writer Ch’oe Myŏngik was a lifelong resident of Pyongyang, a city his short stories masterfully evoke in exquisite modernist…

Speaker: Anthony J. Spires, Associate Professor, Centre for Contemporary Chinese Studies, the University of Melbourne Moderator: Yao Lu, Professor of Sociology, Columbia University Profesor Spires is a sociologist and leading scholar on civil society in China. He is the author of two books: Global Civil Society and China (Cambridge), and Everyday Democracy (Columbia University Press). His talk will be based on his most recent book, Everyday Democracy. This book shows that even in an authoritarian state, bottom-up organizations nurture the…

Speaker: T.V. Paul, Distinguished James McGill Professor, Department of Political Science, McGill University, Montreal, Canada Moderator: Qin Gao, Maurice V. Russell Professor of Social Policy and Social Work Practice, Associate Dean for Doctoral Education, Director of China Center for Social Policy, Columbia School of Social Work The violent conflict in Ukraine triggered by Russia, China’s drift away from a “peaceful rise” strategy, and America’s near abandonment of liberal leadership have created deep uncertainty. This book project asks: Under what conditions…

Speaker: Michael Pettid, Professor of Korean Studies, Department of Asian and Asian American Studies, Binghamton University Moderator: Jungwon Kim, the King Sejong Assistant Professor of Korean Studies, Columbia University This talk examines the life of an upper-status woman, Lady Yi (1759–1824), and her household in the late Chosŏn period. Through her writings, we see a world shaped by resourcefulness and autonomy within the constraints of her time. Her guidebook, an encyclopedia of domestic practice compiled for her daughters and daughters-in-law, offers a…

Speakers:  Samuele Collu, Assistant Professor, Medical and Psychological Anthropologist, McGill University Nick Bartlett, Assistant Professor of Contemporary Chinse Culture and Society, AMEC/EALAC, Columbia University Moderator:  Ying Qian, Associate Professor of East Asian Languages and Cultures, East Asian Languages & Cultures, Columbia University Samuele Collu will discuss his ongoing research on the phenomenology of scrolling through TikTok, which reveals algorithmic feeds functioning as externalized dream sequences that modulate the user’s unconscious life. Nick Bartlett will then speak about his work in…