Tagged with "Center for Asian and Pacific Studies"

Join the UI Japanese Program for two evenings (November 4 & 5) of bilingual readings with author Aria Takako

Do you want to learn more about traditional Japanese culture? Join the University of Iowa Japanese Program for a Japanese culture festival (文化祭 bunkasai) on Friday, November 1, from 4:30-7:30 p.m. at the Iowa City Public Library. This event is free and open to the public. All ages are welcome.

The Korea Foundation, International Programs, and the Center for Asian and Pacific Studies will present a lecture by Gi-Wook Shin and Andray Abrahamian entitled "Kim and Trump: North Korea and the United States in an Era of Change" on Monday, April 22, from 4:30-6 p.m. in 1117 University Capitol Centre.

In April, the University of Iowa Japanese Program will host more than twenty scholars from around the world as part of an international conference, "Travel is Home," exploring travel and landscape in Japanese literature, art, and culture.

In late July and early August of 2017, we took a 10-day trip to Japan, sponsored by the Japan Foundation. Our group consisted of 6 faculty members from the University of Iowa. The purpose of the trip was to make us more aware of Japanese culture so we can include Japanese elements in our future teaching and research. My expectation wasn’t high. Until the trip ended, I didn’t expect to learn anything to fundamentally change my view of Japan in 10 days.

I was part of the 2017 Japan Foundation faculty tour, “Regional Japan: Culture from the Margins” between July 26 and August 8, 2017. The two-week trip from Tokyo to the town of Sakaiminato in Tottori, to southern Shikoku, and to Kyoto—and many other cities and villages en route—offered me an invaluable experience of being immersed in Japan’s historical and contemporary culture and experiencing both its cosmopolitan and rural regions.

It took me a fair amount of reading, but just a few minutes in Tokyo’s Nakano arcade, to realize that, aside from the U.S., Japan is the country whose visual artists have the greatest influence on global youth today.

With the generous support of the Japan Foundation Institutional Support Grant to the University of Iowa, and with additional support from International Programs, I was able to accompany a small group of my faculty colleagues on my first trip to Japan in late July and early August of 2017.

Two of my areas of specialization are World War II in Europe and post-war memory - so a trip to Japan was a natural for me. One of my ambitions is to develop a course on World War II as a global event, which is a deviation from the more typical courses which focus on either Asia or Europe, and append the other theater as a footnote (while neglecting North Africa and Europe's overseas colonies entirely). I have also spoken to an academic press about writing a global history of sexuality in World War II; this trip provided fodder for thought for that project.

The Japan Foundation, International Programs, the Center for Asian and Pacific Studies, and the Division of World Languages, Literatures, and Cultures are pleased to invite master woodcarver Kitazawa Hideta and noh performer and playwright David Crandall to the University of Iowa campus for a three-day event of workshops, and performances (November 12-14). ​​​​​​