Japanese pavilion at the World’s Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893

Welcome to the 2014-15 Art and Politics of East Asia
Workshop at the University of Chicago!

Art and Politics of East Asia is a long-standing workshop that provides a unique space for graduate students working on the political exigencies of cultural production in China, Korea, and Japan. Our workshop is a hub that brings together students from a wide range of disciplines, including anthropology, comparative literature, history, East Asian studies, art history, cinema, and media studies. We provide a collaborative space for attending to the specific methodological and theoretical problems posed by the study of East Asian texts, media, and performances. At the same time, we continue to examine the pressing issue of what it means to study East Asian artistic forms and media in the wake of area studies and beyond the boundaries of national cultural histories. To these ends we hold bimonthly meetings in which graduate students, postdoctoral scholars, and outside faculty present and discuss their academic work; we also hold roundtable discussions on issues of particular interest to graduate students studying East Asia and help to sponsor graduate student conferences.

For those of you who have participated in Art and Politics events in the past, we anticipate many new developments in the coming year. The administration of the Council on Advanced Studies is undergoing a transition, and will now be streamlined through Graduate Student Affairs. Our friends at the Center for East Asian Studies will also be moving to their new home at 60th and Woodlawn in early September, directly across the Midway from Rockefeller Chapel. CEAS will be headquartered in Room 310 of the building that houses the Harris School of Public Policy, and their location is conveniently served by CTA buses 170, 171, and 172 as well as by the 53rd Street Express Shuttle. CEAS has graciously agreed to allow us to use Room 319 of their updated and upgraded space for our workshop. Further details on this will follow.

The workshop will continue to meet on alternate Fridays from 3:00-5:00pm.

If you are interested in presenting or have questions about the workshop, please contact the student coordinator, Nicholas Lambrecht, at: lambrecht at uchicago.edu.

We hope to see you at many events in the coming year!