East Asia Program
EAP Congratulates Fellowship Recipients for 2021-2022
Highlighting the new Diverse Knowledge East Asia Fellowship
EAP is proud to announce the 2021-2022 Fellowship Recipients which support graduate and undergraduate student research. It was a competitive year and twelve fellowships were awarded.
This year we’re especially pleased to announce the first recipient of the Diverse Knowledge East Asia Fellowship, Zifeng Liu, PhD student in Africana Studies.
Zifung Liu writes: This dissertation is the first and only study of Black left feminists’ efforts to enlist Afro-Chinese political cooperation in a global struggle against overlapping forms of structural domination, including racism, sexism, classism, capitalism, and imperialism. It contributes to Africana studies, East Asian studies, and transnational feminism by building on a growing body of scholarship on Afro-Asian revolutionary connections.
We congratulate him and all the rest of the recipients and look forward to their exciting contributions and scholarship.
Graduate Area Studies Fellowships
Zifeng Liu, Africana Studies and Research Center, Diverse Knowledge East Asia
Liu will explore the interactions of Black leftist feminists with Chinese individuals and organizations from 1949 through 1978.
CV Star Fellowships
- Li Guan, Human Development: Guan will use this semester fellowship to examine cultural influences on Planning Fallacy.
- Hyuk-soo Kwon, Economics: Kwon’s study will evaluate the two most widely-used policies to promote electric vehicle (EV) industries - subsidy and tradable credit system - in the context of the Chinese EV market. ·
- Yexin Qu, Linguistics: Qu will use this fellowship to examine the Mandarin Rhyme System with Chinese, Korean and Japanese Sources.
- Yiying Xiong, Government: Xiong’s project will examine the strategies of China’s economic coercion and sheds light on the debates around how democratic countries could more effectively respond to such manipulation of economic dependence.
This year's Hu Shih Fellowship goes to Yunfei Du, Asian Studies. Using this field work fellowship for archival research with organizations in several cities in China, Du’s project will concentrate on contemporary migrant workers’ culture and literature in mainland China.
This year's RJ Smith Fellowship goes to Meita Estiningsih, History of Art and Visual Studies. Estiningsih will examine the legacy of the Japanese occupation (1942-1945) on the development of Indonesian national cinema, and narrate the historiography of the Japanese occupation from the lens of visual culture, which is still overlooked by many scholars.
The Lee Teng-hui Fellowship goes this year to Kevin Kwong, Linguistics. Kwong will conduct field research to further investigate Cantonese di-transitives as a key to several major syntactic puzzles in the language.
East Asian Language Study Grants
Three undergraduates will use their language grants to help them complete their thesis projects.Wesley Kang, History, Undergraduate will study Mandarin at the summer Princeton in Beijing program. David Sheng, History, Undergraduate will use the award to advance his Japanese in order to carry out archival research for his senior thesis on 19th-century Japanese travelogues of China. Anthony Sheehi, Computer Science/Asian Studies will study Japanese at the Kyoto Consortium for Japanese Studies program in the fall. He is a first generation, Latinx, LGBTQ undergrad who will be studying in Osaka, Japan.
Graduate student Eric Lee, History will study Japanese at the summer Princeton in Ishikawa program as part of completing his thesis research.
Additional Information
Program
He Tried to Organize Workets in China's Gig Economy. Now He Faces 5 Years in Jail
Eli Friedman, EAP
“Anything that coheres collective power for workers is seen as a threat to state power,” says Eli Friedman, associate professor in the ILR School. “[The authorities] cannot accept an independent trade union or anything that looks a little bit like an independent trade union. That is a red line for the Chinese government.”
Additional Information
Stop Anti-Asian Violence
Supporting AAPI and combating anti-Asian hate
As a Cornell unit devoted to all students, faculty, and staff, the East Asia Program shares these resources for support, education, awareness, and advocacy.
The effort to confront racism is collaborative so we encourage sharing these resources widely.
- Presidential statement on anti-Asian racism
- Confronting Anti-Asian Bias - a statement from Avery August and Wendy Wolford, and invitation to a May 7 Teach-in, Global Cornell
- Anti-racism resources for the AAPI community (compiled by the Asian American Studies Program)
- Asian American Discrimination and Substance Abuse is a resource created by Drug Rehab Services to help individuals better understand how systemic racism is prevalent in substance abuse and addiction recovery.
- WE ARE NOT COVID anti-Asian incident reporting spreadsheet created by artist Kenneth Tam and sustained by Stopdiscriminasian.org
- A recent Cornell Daily Sun article, “Professors and students demand institutional change against anti-Asian racism(link is external),” with specific calls from Asian American faculty and students in the wake of rising anti-Asian racism. *
- Asian American Artists Push Back Against Hate (NYT article)
- Poetry: Women Warriors Solidarity Reading from the Asian American Women's Writers Workshop
- I Still Believe in Our City series of posters designed by Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya created in partnership with the NYC Commission on Human Rights. We include her art on this page. Anti-Asian racism happens through the United States, not just NYC, and certainly in Ithaca. We need to confront it together.
- *Select op-eds by Asian American scholars:
- “The ‘bad day’ defense after the Atlanta shooting reinforced the idea of White victimhood(link is external)” (Rick Baldoz, Washington Post op-ed on anti-Asian sentiments' deep roots in American history)
- “Anti-Asian violence and U.S. imperialism(link is external)” (Simeon Man, Institute of Race Relations)
- “It’s time to reckon with the history of Asian women in America(link is external)” (Durba Mitra, Sara Kang and Genevieve Clutario, Harper’s Bazaar)
- “How the history of spas & sex work fits into the conversation about the Atlanta shootings(link is external)”(Kimberly Kay Hoang, Vox)
*From a letter sent by Avery August, Vice Provost for Academic Affairs and Presidential Advisor on Diversity and Equity and Wendy Wolford, Vice Provost for International Affairs. Their complete letter is linked above titled, 'Confronting Anti-Asian Bias'.
Additional Information
Program
“Southern Effects: Kaiju, Cultural Intimacy, and the Production of Distribution” by Joshua Neves
April 29, 2021
4:30 pm
Joshua Neves, Associate Professor and Director of the Global Emergent Media (GEM) Lab at Concordia University (Montréal).
Dr. Neves writes: This talk examines the relationship between special effects and Asia or the South—what I am calling southern effects. It has two major lines of inquiry. The first focuses on cultural circulation. It begins with monstrous and magical cinematic histories before tracing the recent effects of these southern trajectories. Secondly, it explores the role of technological-economic distribution as a form of production. Special effects are now central to Asian media, shaping not only their relationship to global markets but emergent popular geographies. The link between these two global modalities—one obtaining from imperial legacies, the other, from the economic-cultural “rise” of Asia, focuses our attention on special effects as a key node of the global-popular. Tracing a particular genealogy of special effects in Asia, the talk will move from King Kong (1933) and Godzilla (1954) to the 2013 Chinese-Korean blockbuster Mr. Go (Kim Yong-hwa, 2013) and the 2021 release of King Kong vs. Godzilla, among others.
Bio: Joshua Nevesis Associate Professor and Director of the Global Emergent Media (GEM) Lab at Concordia University (Montréal). His research centers on digital media, cultural and political theory, and problems of development and legitimacy. He is the co-author of TechnoPharmacology(forthcoming), and author of Underglobalization: Beijing’s Media Urbanism and the Chimera of Legitimacy(Duke 2020), and co-editor of Asian Video Cultures: In the Penumbra of the Global (Duke 2017).
Presented by the Cornell EastAsia+ Initiative, a collective of scholars, publishing professionals, curators, and graduate students dedicated to exploring new possibilities for academic publishing, networking, and collaboration in East Asia media studies and digital humanities research.
EastAsia+ is generously supported by funding from Cornell University’s Society for the Humanities.
Additional Information
Program
Einaudi Center for International Studies
East Asia Program
Amartya Sen: Attacks on Democracy (Bartels World Affairs Lecture)
May 5, 2021
4:30 pm
Nobel prize–winning economist Amartya Sen joins Cornell’s Kaushik Basu for the 2021 Bartels World Affairs Lecture, hosted by the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies.
At the turn of the millennium, many would have said that understanding the need for democracy was the most important change in the world over the preceding century. Yet in the past 20 years, democracy has been treated with contempt and hostility in many parts of the world—including countries in the West (such as Hungary, Poland, and others), but also elsewhere.
It is important to ask why this is happening and how we should deal with it, Sen advises.
“Some countries seem to be undergoing a big transition in this respect, and my own country, India, may be a significant example—despite its being often described as the largest democracy in the world, which in some sense it still is,” Sen said. “As someone who is dismayed by recent developments, I would like to discuss the nature of the problems we may be facing and what can be done about them.”
Sen’s talk, “Attacks on Democracy,” will kick off a discussion with Cornell faculty and students moderated by Basu. Three faculty commentators and audience members, including several students, will join Sen for conversation and Q&A on democratic challenges—and ways forward. The event is part of the Einaudi Center’s democratic resilience global research theme.
Amartya Sen is Thomas W. Lamont University Professor and professor of economics and philosophy at Harvard University. He has served as president of the Econometric Society, American Economic Association, Indian Economic Association, and International Economic Association. Translated into more than 40 languages, Sen’s books include Collective Choice and Social Welfare (1970, 2017), Development as Freedom (1999), Identity and Violence (2006), and The Idea of Justice (2009). Sen’s awards include the Bharat Ratna (India); Commandeur de la Legion d'Honneur (France); National Humanities Medal, George Marshall Award, and Eisenhower Medal (USA); Bodley Medal and Edinburgh Medal (UK); Ordem do Merito Cientifico (Brazil); Aztec Eagle (Mexico); and the Nobel Prize in Economics.
Moderator:
Kaushik Basu is the Carl Marks Professor of International Studies, professor of economics in the College of Arts and Sciences, and former senior vice president and chief economist of the World Bank.
Faculty Commentators:
Robert Hockett, Edward Cornell Professor of Law, Cornell University
Marco Battaglini, Edward H. Meyer Professor of Economics, Cornell University
Rachana Kamtekar, Professor of Philosophy, Cornell University
The Bartels World Affairs Lecture was established in 1984 to foster a broadened worldview among Cornell students, especially undergraduates. The lecture and related events are made possible by the generosity of Henry E. Bartels ’48 and Nancy Horton Bartels ’48.
***
Our hearts are with Cornellians currently in India and South Asia, or with family or friends in the region, during the COVID-19 tragedy. Consider supporting this aid effort led by South Asian students, including Cornellians.
Additional Information
Program
Einaudi Center for International Studies
Southeast Asia Program
Reppy Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies
East Asia Program
Latin American and Caribbean Studies
Institute for African Development
Institute for European Studies
South Asia Program
Global PhD Research Awards
Details
Conduct your international field research with a $10,000 award to support fieldwork expenses.
The Einaudi Center’s Amit Bhatia ’01 Global PhD Research Awards fund international fieldwork to help Cornell students complete their dissertations. Through a generous gift from Amit Bhatia, this funding opportunity annually supports at least six PhD students who have passed the A exam. Recipients hold the title of Amit Bhatia ’01 Global PhD Research Scholars. Meet the scholars.
All disciplines and research topics are welcome. Please indicate in your application if your project aligns with one of the Einaudi Center's global research priorities or one of our regional and thematic programs.
Eligibility
Cornell graduate students who have passed the A exam and been admitted to candidacy are eligible to apply. International fieldwork must be a critical component of your dissertation research. You must commit to travel abroad to conduct fieldwork for 9–12 months.
Please note that this award is meant to be supplementary to your primary funding source. This award does not provide tuition credit and requires students to be in absentia. A report is required upon completion.
Amount
$10,000, to be used before the end of the sixth PhD year. The award can cover the following expenses:
- International travel (economy airfare, visa fees)
- Domestic travel within the fieldwork country
- Accommodation and living expenses
- Research expenses (permits, translation costs, internet, archive access, survey costs, lab fees, etc.)
We encourage you to apply for other Cornell and external funding to complement this award, but please note that you are not eligible to apply for Einaudi’s travel grants. If you have already received a travel grant and wish to apply for a Global PhD Research Award, you may return your travel grant if you receive this award.
Please note that you may only bill for a research expense once. If an expense is already covered by this award or a Graduate School research travel grant, you may not use other Cornell or external grants to pay the same expense.
International Travel Approval
All international travel must be registered with the Cornell International Travel Registry. In line with Cornell’s international travel policy, selected students who plan to travel to a country flagged by the US Department of State as a "Level 4: Do not travel," or by the CDC as Level 4 "Special Circumstances," must get their travel plans reviewed and approved via a petition process by the International Travel Advisory & Response Team (ITART). ITART petitions are triggered by rules built into the Travel Registry, so if selected students’ travel requires a petition, the Travel Registry will prompt them for additional information about, and a rationale for, their elevated risk travel plans.
Please be aware that regardless of your destination, approval may be withdrawn if there is a change in the risk level of your destination or if we find that you have violated any contingencies of approval given. In such instances, you will be required to refund the award.
To receive the award, selected students must follow the university’s guidelines to petition for permission to travel internationally, to be submitted no earlier than six weeks and at least two weeks before the scheduled travel. In addition, students must participate in a short, online international travel predeparture orientation course designed by the university’s International Health & Safety team in order to receive travel approval.
Deadline
Applications, recommendation letters, and transcripts are due Friday, March 7, 2025 (11:59 p.m. ET).
How to Apply
Please order your official electronic transcript through the Office of the Registrar (see below); do not send your transcript directly. In the application, you will be asked to provide the following:
- Official electronic transcript (send to programs@einaudi.cornell.edu)
- Abstract of your dissertation project (maximum 150 words)
- Introduction to your dissertation project (maximum 400 words)
- Statement explaining the contribution of your research to existing literature and its relevance to advancing the human condition, planetary sustainability, or other impacts (maximum 400 words)
- Statement about publications that have most significantly informed your research (maximum 100 words)
- Statement explaining your plans for international field research (maximum 600 words)
- International field research budget information
- NetID email address of your recommender (your graduate thesis advisor)
FAQ
More Questions?
Join us for an upcoming information session.
Please email our academic programming staff if you have additional questions about the program or your application.
Additional Information
Protecting China's Interests Overseas: Securitization and Foreign Policy
April 15, 2021
8:30 pm
Guest Lecture and Discussion with Andrea Ghiselli
Based on his book Protecting China's Interests Overseas: Securitization and Foreign Policy, Dr. Andrea Ghiselli's talk will revolve around China's approach to protect its interests overseas with the goal of providing new insights into the dynamics of contemporary Chinese foreign policy making, and prompting new considerations regarding how we understand China's rise. Instead of looking at this issue through the lens of great power competition, the key argument is that the securitization of non-traditional security issues played a crucial role in the development of China’s strategy to defend its interests overseas, especially after 2011.
The first part of the talk will focus on how Chinese economic and human presence grew so much in unstable regions like the Middle East and North Africa. Dr. Ghiselli will discuss the tensions between the policies aimed at promoting Chinese businesses abroad and the government’s attempts to make Chinese companies responsible for the success and safety of their projects overseas. The second part of the talk will take into consideration how the civilian and military elites’ approach to the protection of Chinese nationals and assets overseas evolved over time. In particular, the focus of the analysis will be on the institutional developments and policy initiatives that were launched as a new consensus emerged clearly in the aftermath of the evacuation of 36,000 Chinese citizens from Libya in 2011. The third and final part of the talk will revolve around how we should understand China’s expanding security footprint abroad and its potential evolution in the future. https://global.oup.com/academic/product/protect-chinas-interests-overse…
A live Q&A will follow the talk. The audience is encouraged to write their questions into the Chat field for inclusion during this session.
Additional Information
Program
East Asia Program
Cornell Student China Research Symposium 2021
April 16, 2021
8:00 pm
All Cornell graduate students, undergraduates, and postdocs conducting research on China, in China, or with China collaborators are invited to register and join the virtual 2021 Cornell Student China Research Symposium on 15 April 2021 from 8:00-9:30 pm EDT via Zoom. This symposium is an opportunity to share a short summary of your work and to network with other attendees. Come give a lightning presentation on your China-related research on any topic, in any discipline, at any stage. This event is co-sponsored by the Cornell China Center, the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies’ East Asia Program (EAP), and the Brittany and Adam J. Levinson China and Asia-Pacific Studies Program (CAPS).
student research lightning presentations (1 PPT slide and 2 min each)moderated small group discussions: research experiences and next stepsInterested participants are invited to sign up to participate and indicate their research topic by April 11, 2021: https://cornell.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_ehBPA0i6LYstlrg
Registrants will be emailed the Zoom meeting link before the symposium date.
Please share this invitation with any Cornell undergraduates, graduate students, and postdocs who may be interested in participating.
Additional Information
Program
East Asia Program
Rough Work: A New Look at Chinese Paper-making Communities on April 7
Yiyun Peng, Ph.D. Candidate, Cornell, History
Beyond Workshops: Spatial Distribution of Paper-making Communities and Properties in Upland Southeast China, 1700-1950
April 7 11:30 AM-1:15 PM
Yiying Peng, a Ph.D. student in History discusses a new way of looking at the industry. This provides a new perspective on the interactions of production and environment and of different groups of producers. It further demonstrates the heterogeneity of utilizing the highlands and the ways in which people across space stretched their influence to the remote uplands to make the most of their living environment. (Please read her paper in advance - you will receive a link to it once you register.)
Register: https://cornell.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJAocuutrj0rGdBHLEjGKGJDP2PP_vksAKaA
Additional Information
Project HEAL: Student emotional support in Mandarin (and more)
by Amala Lane
“When the pandemic began and Cornell went into lock-down, I and my friends felt so isolated,” undergraduate psychology major Lin Lin explained. “We were anxious and our parents were so worried. Domestic students could leave and go home but many of us were stuck. Flights to China went from twice daily to once a week and the prices jacked up to over $5000 one way.” This was the impetus for project HEAL – a free emotional support service through peer chatting and texting for Mandarin speakers on WeChat that Lin helped to found last summer.
The approach is adapted from the Cornell EARS (Empathy Assistance & Referral Service) model, with a focus on problem-solving and the method is finely attuned to the issues experienced by Chinese international students and responsive to the nuances of Chinese culture. With only four trained peer counselors, all Chinese international students, they still have managed to provide 80 students with over 100 30-minute emotional support sessions. They plan to recruit another 15 counseling volunteers and train them over the summer.
Combining Mandarin Chinese with the practical problem-solving approach on WeChat hit the sweet spot for Chinese international students. There’s stigmatization connected with mental health issues in the community and therefore, many tended to shy away from Cornell’s traditional counseling services. But another reason was language. “We learned English for academics and rational thinking – but our mother tongue, Mandarin was how we spoke about things of the heart,” Lin explained.
Project HEAL publishes a weekly mental health education article as well as hosts ‘Emotional Dumpster’ sessions throughout the week for group WeChat emotional support. Lin states, “We started HEAL with Mandarin and Chinese international students in mind, but we do not want to exclude other international students who speak different languages. In fact, there is a group of Korean international students who heard about us, and are involved in EARS, who reached out to us, expressing the interest of having a subsection of HEAL doing Korean student emotional support.” They’re working with them currently to determine the needs of the Korean student community. Please feel free to visit their website and check out their video to learn more.