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Congratulations!
Congratulations to Prof. Jinhua Chen

Congratulations to Professor Jinhua Chen (Asian Studies) for his nomination as a Royal Society of Canada (RSC) Fellow!

The Department of Asian Studies held a virtual celebration on Wednesday. All congratulatory videos and letters received for Professor Chen, along with the recording of the event itself, will be available soon at https://asia.ubc.ca/news/jinhua-chen-celebration/
Call for Papers
Call for Papers
The 6th Annual Hasekura International
Japanese Studies Symposium
Yonaoshi: Envisioning a Better World
March 5-6, 12-13 2021 [Online]

The drive to improve life and society has been and continues to be one of the great engines powering human civilization. Born of equal parts frustration with an imperfect world filled with human suffering and abiding faith in the possibility of an improved existence, visions of a better world are fundamentally creative in nature and can arise in and be articulated by means of every type of human endeavor. Work can be piecemeal, progressing toward a brighter future one problem at a time, or all-compassing, generating ideas of fundamental and revolutionary transformation and laying out plans to build a new world from the ground up. Common to all, though, is a belief in the rightness and possibility of better ways of life and better forms of human society.
 
Yonaoshi (世直し、よなおし, world renewal/repair/remaking) is a Japanese term that first appeared in the context of millenarian peasant movements in the mid-nineteenth century and signified the restoration and/or recreation of the world in an ideal form. In the years since, it has retained its original sense through idiosyncratic applications, evoked in connection with a variety of ideas for fixing, redirecting, or recreating all or part of human society and the world that hosts it. Formed and evolving within a specifically Japanese context, the term nonetheless resonates with experiences and thought among people and in settings around the world. Yonaoshi has the potential to illuminate connections in philosophy, history, politics, culture, and the arts from otherwise disparate times and places.
 
Interpreted in the broadest sense possible and providing a framework to include the widest range of topics connected with visions of a better world and scholarly approaches to their study, yonaoshi forms the theme of the 6th annual Hasekura International Japanese Studies Symposium, hosted jointly by Sapienza - University of Rome and Tohoku University. We invite scholars of the arts and sciences from across the world - both those whose research concerns Japan and those whose does not - to present their work and help to map out new connections and start new conversations about efforts to imagine and to realize a better world. Quests to cure disease and prevent disaster; reimaginings of language, family, and other aspects of human society; and utopian dreams of justice, equality, and freedom, both as works of art and literature and as movements for real-world change -  these are just a small sample of subject areas that might find a place at the symposium.
 
Alongside two days of research presentations, this year's symposium will also feature a special panel on the 'long 1960s' in Japan and Italy. Bringing together researchers from both countries approaching the period from a variety of fields, the panel is intended to lay the groundwork for future collaborative work on the subject and will feature presentations broadcast in multiple languages. While the presenters' list has been set in advance, we invite all symposium participants and audience members to attend the panel and participate in what we hope to be a robust and ranging discussion to follow.
 
Owing to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, the symposium and special panel will be held online in two consecutive weekends in March, 2021. Session times and lengths will be arranged in accordance with both the Italian and Japanese time zones. Additional provision will be made for recorded presentations for participants located in incompatible time zones.

Researchers interested in presenting their work at the symposium should send a title and presentation abstract of approximately 350 words to craig.christopher@gmail.com by January 10, 2021

Upcoming Events
Online book talk on The Iconoclast_ Shinzo Abe and the New Japan with the author Tobias Harris
*Change of Event Time
Book Talk - The Iconoclast: Shinzō Abe and the New Japan 
with the Author Tobias Harris

Description
Join UBC Centre for Japanese Research in the book talk - The Iconoclast: Shinzō Abe and the New Japan with the author Tobias Harris, in conversation with the CJR Co-Director Yves Tiberghien (Professor at UBC Political Science). We will take a deeper look at the life and career of Shinzō Abe, the former Prime Minister of Japan.

Featuring
  • Tobias Harris (the book author)
  • Professor Yves Tiberghien (moderator) 

Date & Time
Tuesday, December 8, 2020 | 5:00 - 6:30PM(PST)
Tuesday, December 8, 2020 | 8:00 - 9:30PM (EST)
Wednesday, December 9, 2020 | 10:00 - 11:30AM (JST)

*Please note the time of the event has been changed as of November 24. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Book Information
Visit the publisher website for more information on The Iconoclast.

Registration 
Click here to register.

More Information
For more information on the event, please visit CJR Website

Greening East Asia_ The Rise of the Eco-developmental state
Register Today!
Book Talk with Authors and Contributors  
Greening East Asia: The Rise of the Eco-developmental State

Description
On December 10 at 5PM (PST), join the online book talk hosted collaboratively by UBC's Centre for Chinese ResearchCentre for Japanese Research, and Centre for Korean Research. The event will feature the authors and contributors of a newly published book - Greening East Asia: The Rise of the Eco-developmental State, edited by Ashley Esarey, Mary Alice Haddad, Joanna I. Lewis and Stevan Harrell. We will take a look into the regional shift in East Asia from development to "Eco-Development." Opening remarks by CCR and IAR director Tim Cheek and CJR Co-director Yves Tiberghien.
 
Date & Time
Thursday, December 10 | 5:00 - 6:30PM (PST)
Thursday, December 10 | 8:00 - 9:30PM (EST)
Friday, December 11 | 9:00 - 10:30AM (CST)
Friday, December 11 | 10:00 - 11:30AM (JST/KST)

Registration 
Click here to register.

Book Information
Visit the publisher website for more information on Greening East Asia: The Rise of the Eco-Developmental State.

More Information
For more information on the event, please visit the CJR Website

Virtual Roundtable
Narrating Women:
Historical Imagination and the Writing of History


Description
The Centre for Japanese Research (CJR) at the University of British Columbia is delighted to announce a roundtable on the role of the historical imagination in historiography, focusing on approaches to writing women's history. Our three roundtable members, Professors Gaye Rowley, Amy Stanley, and Marcia Yonemoto, will draw from their scholarship and respond to Prof. Stanley's new book, Stranger in the Shogun's City, in considering how we reconstruct the past, particularly when faced with scanty documentary evidence.

Featuring
  • Amy Stanley (Northwestern University)
  • (Interlocutor) Gaye Rowley (Waseda University)
  • (Interlocutor) Marcia Yonemoto (University of Colorado, Boulder)
 
Date & Time
Thursday, December 17 | 5:00 - 6:15PM (PST)
Thursday, December 17 | 8:00 - 9:15PM (EST)
Friday, December 18 | 10:00 - 11:15 AM (JST)

Registration 
Click here to register.

Book Information
Visit the publisher website for more information on Stranger in the Shogun's City: A Japanese Woman and Her World.

More Information
For more information on the event, please visit the CJR Website


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