Congratulations! Class of 2023

Faculty Advisor: Robin McNeal
Double major in Asian Studies and English

"Mitchell joined my course on Chinese Mythology in the spring of his junior year, having already completed most of the work for his other major, English. He immersed himself in Asian Studies courses and, along the way Asian-American Studies, as well, taking classes with several of my colleagues in the department. Mitchell was one of those advisees who could typically see the path ahead for himself, and so advising him as a major was always fairly easy. He found his way into many interesting courses by following his own instincts, and gained a broad but engaged knowledge of many areas of Asian literature, history, performance culture, and storytelling. During years and months that we all know have been unusually challenging and disruptive, Mitchell always managed to find balance and keep his head up - something I have learned to no longer take for granted from anyone, students or colleagues alike. I admire him for this steady maturity, still coupled with an intellectual and emotional curiosity to keep exploring new ideas and different cultural approaches to what it means to be human in the global, digital age. I am confident these two traits will continue to carry him forward as he enters this new, exciting phase of his life." Robin McNeal

Faculty Advisor: Andrew Campana
Double major in Asian Studies and Linguistics

"Ye Liu's endless curiosity has led him to an enormous variety of interests within the field: historical linguistics, contemporary idol culture, majhong, Japanese cross-media franchises, and more. He wrote not one but two senior theses, in Asian Studies and Linguistics, and always impressed in his dedication, thoughtfulness, and unending appetite for intellectual exploration. I'm thrilled he'll be going to Columbia this fall for a Master's degree in East Asian Languages and Cultures!" Andrew Campana

Faculty Advisor: Andrew Campana
Double major in Asian Studies and Biological Sciences
Arifa will receive a December 2023 degree

"Arifa Mim has a brilliant and capacious approach to Asian studies - following her many passions in a directed reading course and thesis with me, she applied her skillful critical eye to topics as different as premodern mythology, contemporary  media, folklore, poetry, gender, and the modern novel. Her honor's thesis looking at the mediatization of nature in Japanese animation is a fascinating project at the intersection of ecocriticsm and pop culture studies. It's really wonderful what she's achieved in her time here." Andrew Campana

Faculty Advisor: Andrew Campana
Double major in Asian Studies and Information Sciences

"Gabriella Smith has been a wonderful presence in so many classes in the department, who really shines in her unique approach at the intersection of computer science and the humanities. I still think about her using her knowledge of both programming and Japanese religious traditions to create "Omikuji Online," a digital experience meant to recreate the experience of going to a shrine and receiving a fortune, made with a kind of thoughtfulness and self-reflection that said something new about both digital media and Japanese religious culture." Andrew Campana

Faculty Advisor: Andrew Campana
Jocelyn will receive a December 2023 degree

"Jocelyn Tripoli is an incredibly thoughtful and impressive researcher, whose work has taken her to some of the most important but understudied topics within Japan studies. As the department's first Diversity Research Grant winner, she did groundbreaking work on the cultural and legal history of gender minorities. What she accomplished in her time here at the undergraduate level is genuinely significant, and I can't wait to see what she does next!" Andrew Campan

Faculty Advisor: Suyoung Son
Quadruple major in Asian Studies, History, Government, and College Scholar

"Zhiyuan was one of the best students I had in my nine years at Cornell. His sharp mind has constantly pushed him to cross the conventional boundaries between China and Southeast Asia, premodern and contemporary, and historical and social issues. His conscientious and keen intellectual curiosity have helped him grow wherever he has gone - Ithaca, Beijing (during the pandemic years), and Europe - and I am sure it will lead him down an uncharted path in the future. Congratulations on your achievement, Zhiyuan!" Suyoung Son

Faculty Advisors: Nick Admussen (chair), Andrew Campana (minor member)
Thesis Title: Temporalizing the Enclave: Desire Smuggling in Chinese Genderswap Fan Fiction
Junko will receive an August 2023 degree

“Junko has brought insight, courage, leadership, energy and advanced fashion to the graduate program in Asian Studies. Her work on ni-su fan fiction is deeply conceptual and consistently future-oriented, but never loses sight of the specificity of human desires, dreams, and conflicts; like the best contemporary scholars, she is an unstoppable learner with an infectious commitment to understanding the world around her. I am truly excited and proud to watch her share her intellect with the fields of Japanese and trans-Asian studies. She has a fascinating and very bright future ahead of her. Omedetō, Junko!” Nick Admussen

Faculty Advisors: Magnus Fiskesjo (chair), Marina Welker (minor member)
Thesis Title: Searching for Nowhere: Young Lifestyle Migrants in Rural China
Lingyu will receive an August 2023 degree

"Lingyu Dong writes about how rural China can serve as an attraction for city people, even to live there. To some extent this harks back to older ideals of a pure countryside. However, as in other countries, it's also complicated. Lingyu's work is based on fieldwork with city people opting for the countryside, painting a nuanced picture both of their dreams and the realities they face." Magnus Fiskesjo

Faculty advisors: Andrew Campana, Nick Admussen (co-chairs)
Thesis Title: Mapping "zheng nengliang": the affective circulation of positive energy on the Chinese Internet

"Ying is a brilliant thinker whose work uses affect theory and close readings of digital texts to examine the inner workings of emotion, nostalgia, and nationalism in Chinese and Japanese media. We’re thrilled that she will be joining an enormously competitive Ph.D. program this fall in UPenn’s Annenberg School of Communications.” Andrew Campana

Faculty Advisors: Lawrence McCrea (chair), Nicholas Silins (minor member)
Thesis Title: NĀGĀRJUNA AND HEGEL: A DIALECTIC DISCUSSION
Casey will receive an August 2023 degree

"Casey Robinson has been an important presence in premodern South Asian studies at Cornell for the past several years, both as an advanced undergraduate student and during his MA studies. He has committed himself intensely to Sanskrit studies, which he studied on and accelerated timetable, and has begun the study of Tibetan as well. In his MA work he has chosen to focus on the Madhyamaka Buddhist philosophy of Nāgārjuna and the movement he founded. His MA thesis centers on the comparison of Nāgārjuna's main tools of philosophical critique with Hegel's dialectic, and in it he has unearthed highly illuminating and largely unsuspected parallels between the two thinkers. Casey will be applying to PhD programs in Indian philosophy in the coming year, and we look forward to seeing how his work will develop in the future." Lawrence McCrea

Faculty Advisors: Robin McNeal (chair), Nick Admussen (minor member)
Thesis Title: Manifest the Hidden: Wen 文 and Zhi 質 as Conceptual Pair in Early Chinese Thought
Jiahui will receive an August 2023 degree

"Jiahui is a careful, reflective thinker and an articulate speaker. Her intellectual curiosity and enthusiasm make her a delight to have in class, and her research topic, centered on addressing a longstanding debate in studies of early Confucianism about the importance of ritual practice to the fundamental moral and philosophical position of early Confucianism, is ambitious, thought-provoking, and will make a real contribution to the study of early China. On top of all of this, she is a kind and caring person, whose presence has been felt dearly by many of her peers in our department, and as she goes on to continue her studies for a PhD at UC Berkeley this fall, she will be sorely missed by all for these noble traits."  Robin McNeal

Faculty Advisors: Daniel Boucher (chair), Anne Blackburn (minor member), Lawrence McCrea (minor member)
Dissertation Title: Savouring the Flavour of the Commentarial Ocean: Consistency and Diversity in the Early Buddhist Commentarial Tradition
Liyu will receive an August 2023 degree

“Liyu Hua came to us at Cornell in 2015 with a broad background, doing undergraduate work at Beijing University in fields as diverse as Hindi literature and Hebrew Bible, and then a Master’s degree at Harvard University in Buddhist studies. His work at Cornell has focused on early and medieval South Asian Buddhisms, which Liyu has approached through Sanskrit, Pali, Gandhari, Tibetan, and Chinese sources. His dissertation investigates Buddhist commentarial practices with a particular aim to contrast medieval Pali commentaries in the south with northern traditions represented in Sanskrit and Gandhari. This fall Liyu will be a visiting assistant professor of Religious Studies at Bowdoin College in Maine.” Dan Boucher