Speaker: Xiao Hai

Title: Adrift in the South

Abstract: Forthcoming

Title: Strange Marriages, Painted Skins, and Ghost Writers: Japanese Responses to Pu Songling from the Eighteenth to the Twentieth Century

Speaker: William Fleming, UC Santa Barbara

Abstract: Through an examination of Japanese translations, adaptations, and imitations of Pu Songling from four distinct historical eras spanning three centuries, this talk traces shifting attitudes not only toward this major author and his work, but toward fiction and translation more broadly.

Speaker's Bio: William Fleming specializes in early modern Japanese literature. His primary research interests include eighteenth- and nineteenth-century fiction, popular theater, book history, and literary and cultural exchange with China and the West; his recent monograph examines aspects of the importation, circulation, reading, and adaptation of Chinese fiction in early modern Japan. He completed his undergraduate and graduate studies at Harvard University and has spent time as a visiting researcher at Kyoto University, Waseda University, and the National Institute of Japanese Literature in Tokyo. Before joining the faculty at UCSB, he taught in the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures and the Theater Studies Program at Yale University.

About East Asia Program

As Cornell’s hub for research, teaching, and engagement with East Asia, the East Asia Program (EAP) serves as a forum for the interdisciplinary study of historical and contemporary East Asia. The program draws its membership of over 45 core faculty and numerous affiliated faculty, graduate, and undergraduate students from eight of Cornell’s 12 schools and colleges.

Kickstart your international career at Global Careers Week!

This week of events is an opportunity for Cornell students of all levels and nationalities to meet employers from around the globe, hear from alumni working abroad, and learn about the process of finding job and internship opportunities outside of the U.S.

View the full schedule, and register for sessions through Handshake.

Hosted by the Cornell Career Network and co-sponsored by Global Cornell.

Todo Cuba: Public Lecture, Community Dialogue and Dance Workshop

In collaboration with The Committee on U.S. Latin American Relations (CUSLAR), the Latin American and Caribbean Studies (LACS) program is sponsoring this three-part event series on the contemporary crisis in Cuba. The series seeks to analyze and encourage dialogue about Cuba's multidimensional crisis, its relationship to a newly-assertive U.S. hegemonic stance in the Western Hemisphere, and potential responses from domestic civil society networks that work on human rights and social justice issues in Latin America. The conversations, guided by the expertise of Professor Eric Hershberg from American University, will take place both on campus and in the downtown Ithaca area, bridging the gap between university and local community audiences. With the goal of uplifting Cuba's rich cultural tradition, the series will also feature a dance workshop led by Lisnay López Luna and Adolfo Castillo Duvergel. This fun and interactive class will explore the evolution of Cuban musical and dance traditions and their influence on popular, contemporary rhythms such as salsa.

Eric Hershberg is Professor Emeritus of Latin American Studies and Political Science at American University in Washington, where he was inaugural director of the Center for Latin American and Latino Studies. Previously, he has been a visiting professor or researcher at Simon Fraser University, Columbia University, NYU, New School, Princeton University, and Southern Illinois University. Between 1990 and 2006 he was Director for Latin America at the Social Science Research Council, in New York, and was president of the Latin American Studies Association between 2007 and 2009. His most recent publications include "North American Regionalism: Stagnation, Decline or Renewal?" (co-edited with Tom Long; University of New Mexico Press), translated and published by the Colegio de México under the title "“El regionalismo en America del Norte: ¿estancamiento, declive, o renovación?,” and “Cuba: Regime Resilience Amidst Economic Collapse,” co-authored with William M. LeoGrande, Revista de Ciencia Politica. Vol. 45, No. 22, pp. 229-256 (2025).

Workshop:

From Changüí to Son Cubano: The Roots of Salsa, a dance workshop.

Dancers and Educators - Lisbet Lisnay López Luna and Adolfo Castillo Duvergel

Adolfo Castillo Duvergel began his professional career in 2008 as a dancer in the company of musical shows of the Provincial Music Center of Guantánamo. He was a member of the Babul Folkloric Ballet company in the province of Guantánamo and served as a dance specialist in the Provincial Music Center. In 2019, he began to work as a dancer in the Soldance Company in the province of Matanzas and as a teacher of Folkloric and General Dances at the Professional School of Dance of that province. In 2021, he created the DanSaril project that brought together dancers with the aim of exchanging experience and experimenting with dance creation and artistic expression on stage while cultivating the value of cultural traditions and respect for Cuban cultural identity. In 2022, he was selected by the International Dance Council (CID) to be an active member of this prestigious institution that belongs to the UN, representing traditional Cuban and Caribbean popular culture. Since February 2024, he has been residing in Ithaca and working as part of the Salsa Ithaca team, teaching Master Classes and workshops on Latin, Afro-Cuban, and percussion Dances to contribute to the development and preservation of Latin, Afro-Cuban, and Caribbean cultures.

Lisbet Lisnay López Luna is a professional dancer who graduated from the Alfredo Velázquez Carcases Professional School of Dance in the province of Guantánamo (2018). Professor of modern dance technique at the Professional School of Art of Matanzas, Lisbet began her professional dance career in 2018 in the Babul Folkloric Ballet Company as part of its Social Service. Here, she participated in different events, shows, cultural and artistic galas, and national tours, gaining vast experience and raising her technical-artistic level. In 2020, she began working as a teacher of modern dance technique at the Alfonzo Pérez Isaac Professional School of Art in the province of Matanzas. She stood out for her excellent results in the training and preparation of elementary school students. That same year, she performed as a professional dancer in the Somos Latinos company. From 2021 to 2024, she has worked with the DanSaril Project as a dancer, teacher, and choreographer, and as a dancer in the Soldance Company in the tourist center of Varadero. Since February 2024, she has lived in Ithaca, New York, working with Salsa Ithaca in its cultural events, classes, workshops, and performances.

The on-campus events will take place in Willard Straight Hall on September 11th. Professor Hershberg's lecture, "Cuba’s multidimensional crisis and Donald Trump’s (Marco Rubio’s…) revival of the Monroe Doctrine," will run from 4:30 pm to 5:45. The lecture and discussion will be immediately followed by the dance workshop, "From Changüí to Son Cubano: The Roots of Salsa," and will run from 6:00 pm to 7:15 pm. This fun and interactive class will explore the evolution of Cuban musical and dance traditions and their influence on popular, contemporary rhythms such as salsa.

Co sponsored by Government Department, MeCha and ACAU, Salsa Palante

A moving and humane portrait of the abolitionist revolutionary Jean-Jacques Dessalines, who led Haiti’s fight for independence from French colonial rule

“My name has become a horror to all those who want slavery,” declared Jean‑Jacques Dessalines as he announced the independence of Haiti, the most radical nation‑state during the Age of Revolution and the first country ever to permanently outlaw slavery. Enslaved for the first thirty years of his life, Dessalines (c. 1758–1806) joined the revolution that abolished slavery within the French colony. Then he became a general in the colonial army of the new French Republic. When it was discovered that France once again supported slavery, Dessalines declared war on his former allies. Fighting under the slogan “Liberty or Death,” his army forced the French to evacuate in late 1803. At the start of the new year, Dessalines declared independence from France and became the leader of a free Haiti.

A hero to Haitians for centuries, Dessalines is portrayed abroad as barbarous and violent. Yet this caricature derives not from facts―as Julia Gaffield demonstrates with extensive new research―but from the fears of contemporary enslavers. Showcasing the man behind the myths, Gaffield reveals Dessalines’s deep suffering, warm friendships, and unwavering commitment to destroying slavery, racism, and colonialism, and his bold insistence on his people’s right to liberty and equality.

Julia Gaffield is a Professor of History at William & Mary. She is the author of Haitian Connections in the Atlantic World: Recognition after Revolution (UNC Press, 2015), winner of the Boucher Book Prize from the French Colonial Historical Society, and I Have Avenged America: Jean-Jacques Dessalines and Haiti's Fight for Freedom (Yale UP, 2025).

Speaker: Ben Read, Professor of Politics, UC Santa Cruz

Title: The Struggle for Oversight in Local Government: Mayors vs. Councils in the Heart of Taiwan’s Democracy

Abstract: Having held its eighth straight round of direct elections for the presidency in 2024, Taiwan is widely praised as a model case of democratization. Beneath the central level, though, politics are prone to abuses like those found in many countries, including the amassing of unfettered power by local bosses. This talk draws on a fieldwork-based project that carefully examines the relatively little-studied topic of horizontal accountability in Taiwan’s cities and counties. As in most democracies, local councils there have the duty of checking and balancing the executive. Yet in practice, mayors and magistrates often develop many means of thwarting such scrutiny. The ability or inability of councils to fulfill these responsibilities provides a window on the overall health of democracy. We examine councils’ struggles with formidable and controversial executives such as Ko Wen-je of Taipei (柯文哲, 2014–2022), Fu Kun-chi and Hsu Chen-wei of Hualien (傅崐萁、徐榛蔚, 2009–present), and others. The framework developed for this study reveals new aspects of Taiwan’s politics and also promises to help make sense of problems that are widespread in local governments in the United States, Latin America, and elsewhere.

Speaker's Bio: Ben Read ‘93 is a professor of politics at the University of California, Santa Cruz. His research has focused on local politics in mainland China and Taiwan, and he also writes about issues in field research and comparison. His books include Roots of the State: Neighborhood Organization and Social Networks in Beijing and Taipei (2012), and Field Research in Political Science: Practices and Principles (2015). He co-edits the Cambridge Elements series in Politics and Society in East Asia. As an undergraduate he majored in Asian Studies, minored in International Relations, and wrote for the Cornell Daily Sun. His personal website is https://benread.net.

About East Asia Program

As Cornell’s hub for research, teaching, and engagement with East Asia, the East Asia Program (EAP) serves as a forum for the interdisciplinary study of historical and contemporary East Asia. The program draws its membership of over 45 core faculty and numerous affiliated faculty, graduate, and undergraduate students from eight of Cornell’s 12 schools and colleges.

Speaker: Sandra So Hee Chi Kim, Assistant Professor of Asian and Asian American Studies, Stony Brook University

Title: The Ante-Colonial: A Grassroots Discourse of Korean Diasporic Trans-indigenous Relationality

Abstract: This presentation explores a Korean diasporic social media discourse that reimagines indigeneity as a relational framework for anti-imperial critique, transnational solidarity, and decolonial worldmaking. Through close readings of posts by Korean American community organizations, collectives, cultural workers, and movement practitioners, it traces how grassroots creators situate U.S. militarism on the Korean peninsula within interconnected histories of settler colonialism, global capitalism, and indigenous dispossession. Kim develops the concept of the ante-colonial, a trans-indigenous analytic oriented toward precolonial epistemologies and anticolonial futures that denaturalizes the nation-state, foregrounds indigenous relationality, and enables a planetary critique of empire rooted in care, kinship, collective liberation, and decolonial possibility.

Speaker's bio: Sandra So Hee Chi Kim is an Assistant Professor of Asian and Asian American Studies at Stony Brook University. A transnational cultural studies scholar of Asian American studies, critical Korean studies, and the study of modern empire, her work appears and is forthcoming in Positions: Asia Critique, Korean Studies, Verge: Studies in Global Asias, and Diaspora: A Journal of Transnational Studies, among other journals. Dr. Kim is also the founder and chair of the grassroots community organization, Asian American Justice + Innovation Lab.

This presentation examines poetic representations of the city of Lima over the last fifty years, with a particular focus on the city’s transformation under Peru’s neoliberal project since the 1990s. Beginning in the 1970s, Peruvian poetry embraced the city and explored the possibilities of colloquial language to represent the experiences and aspirations of a rapidly expanding urban population. During the economic and political crises of the 1980s and 1990s, these representations became increasingly marked by violence, instability, and social fragmentation. In the neoliberal era, Lima emerges as a city shaped by market logic and its contradictions. Drawing on Walter Benjamin’s concept of the flâneur, this presentation argues that contemporary poetry reimagines Lima as a space where political critique and poetic resistance converge.

Carlos Villacorta Gonzáles is a writer and Professor of Latin American Literature at the University of Maine. His research focuses on contemporary Peruvian and Latin American poetry, urban representations in literature, and cultural studies. His publications include Poéticas de la ciudad: Lima en la poesía peruana (2018) and the anthology Lima escrita: Arquitectura poética de la ciudad, 1970–2020 (2021). He also co-edited Vivir la violencia en el Perú del nuevo milenio (2023). He is editor in chief of the digital magazine Polis Poesía (https://www.polispoesia.com/)