East Asian Studies Speaker Series – Frank Mondelli (University of Delaware)

Gilman 300

Gotta Read 'Em All - Decoding Braille in the Pokémon Series. To obtain a trio of legendary monsters in Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire (2002), players can embark on an elaborate side quest where they must decode two-dimensional representations of Braille. Removed from its original context as a tactile language, this visual “Pokémon Braille” is at […]

The Depths of the State: Energy and Power in Modern East Asia – Victor Seow (Harvard University)

Gilman 300

What is the relationship between energy and power in the industrial age?In this talk, historian Victor Seow explores this question through his recently published book, Carbon Technocracy: Energy Regimes in Modern East Asia (Chicago, 2021). This book uses the history of China’s onetime coal capital, Fushun, to examine how the Chinese and Japanese states that […]

Paper presentation: “Neoliberal Technocracy in 1980s’ Japan” – Yize Hu (History of Science and Technology) 

Gilman 300

Yize Hu will be presenting “Neoliberal Technocracy in 1980s’ Japan'' in which he will discuss how conservative intellectuals and systems engineers used the systems approach as the epistemological tool to envision a neo-liberal society in Japan and created a new technocracy in the 1980s. Different from the old technocracy characterized by a strong belief in […]

Paper Presentation: “Surgical Miracle: South Korea as a Developmentalist State” – Ga Eun Cho (Political Science) 

Gilman 300

In “Surgical Miracle: South Korea as a Developmentalist State,” Ga Eun Cho will discuss post-Korean War South Korea’s emergence as a developmentalist state. The South Korean military junta used economic development as a justification for its coup d’état and the postponed transition to democracy. As such, the state defined those unconforming to the goal as […]

Paper Presentation: “Removing Houses and Relocating Graves: the Death-Scape in a Chinese Urban Village” – Yushuang Zheng (History)

Gilman 300

The paper is extracted from Yushuang’s thesis for the degree of M.Phil. in anthropology from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. It presents a later version of the grave-relative relationships that she wrote for her first-year paper at Hopkins. Her FYP mainly dealt with practices related to grave-tending and the interpersonal interactions around these practices […]

History of Science and Technology Speaker: Prakash Kumar (Pennsylvania State University)

Gilman 300

Granary of the Province": Science and Subjects in Colonial and Post-Colonial India. India embraced a “new strategy” in agriculture to raise yield around high-yielding variety seeds of wheat and paddy between 1964 and 1966. This adoption of a package program involving credit facilities, government’s support price and subsidies and infrastructures led to the beginning of […]