Book cover: Expanding Verse

Poets in Japan experiment at the edge of media

During the past century, experimental poets in Japan have been stretching the conventional definition of the genre by creating poems in unexpected places, according to a Cornell researcher.

Person standing in front of a large glowing neon circle outline with Chinese characters in the center

Exploring games’ influence at archives in Beijing

Cornell’s graduate students may be based in Ithaca, but every summer they make discoveries in unique study sites around the globe. Asian literature, religion and culture Ph.D. student Yuanxue Jing did research at the Youyan Archives in Beijing.

Peter Loewen

Peter Loewen named dean of Arts and Sciences

Coming from the University of Toronto, where he was the director of the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, Loewen began his five-year appointment as the Harold Tanner Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Aug. 1.

Durba Ghosh talks with students

Ghosh to lead Cornell’s Society for the Humanities

Recently the faculty director of the Humanities Scholars Program, Ghosh brings to the Society scholarly background in the history of British colonialism on the Indian subcontinent; academic focuses on gender and sexuality and South Asia; and broad experience with interdisciplinary collaborations.

three people standing in Klarman Atrium

Finding your calling at Cornell

Three members of the A&S Class of 2024 share wisdom for incoming students about taking advantage of all of Cornell's resources.

McGraw Clock Tower

Faculty essay: An Everyday Miracle at Cornell

Professor Law routinely works and travels with her very diverse classes. Her article, “An Everyday Miracle at Cornell” describes the way her students embraced one another in a difficult time.
https://theuniversityfaculty.cornell.edu/communication/an-everyday-miracle-at-cornell/

Pink blossoms on a tree near McGraw Tower at night, in spring.jpg

Students Lead Independent, International Projects Through Travel Grants

This summer, Cornellians will venture across continents as they pursue a wide variety of international projects funded by the Department of Asian Studies and the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies.

“We not only aim at giving our students scholarly knowledge and understanding of the region, but we are also committed to creating opportunities for in-country learning,” wrote Chiara Formichi, director of undergraduate studies for Asian studies, in an email to The Sun about travel grants. “Our grants are quite capacious, allowing students to travel for research, service learning and study in any country across Asia.”

Rockefeller Hall

The Tina Han Su Cooper ’66 Award

Cornell’s Department of Asian Studies is delighted and honored to inaugurate the Tina Han Su Cooper ’66 Award. This undergraduate summer funding opportunity recognizes an outstanding Cornell undergraduate engaged in the study of Chinese cultural areas.

Chiara Formichi

Prof. Chiara Formichi Explores Islam, Asian Cultures Through Research

Throughout her time in academia, Prof. Chiara Formichi, Asian Studies, has researched the relationship between Asian cultures and Islam, primarily focusing on Indonesia.

Formichi began studying the topic as an undergraduate student, earning a B.A. in Islamic Studies from Sapienza University of Rome. Though she said she partly entered the field by chance, her ties to Indonesia made studying the role of Islam in the country an obvious choice. Formichi has visited Indonesia in the past, and as a Malay speaker, she mostly uses sources that are written in the Indonesian language.

Check out more of this article from the Daily Sun.

Kyoko Selden

Selden Translation Prize Announcement 2022

The Asian Studies Department of Cornell University is pleased to announce the Kyoko Selden Translation Prize for 2022 in this, our final year of the prize. As always, we were both educated and inspired by the range of work we received: texts that spanned Japanese writings produced from the 13th to the 21st century in a variety of modes---from individually to collectively written works, and from canonical, marginal, and even anonymous sources. We were gratified by the way this year’s submissions once again resonated with the literary passions and impressive textual competencies of our esteemed former colleague, Kyoko Selden. We would also like, on this occasion, to thank the friends, colleagues, and former students of Kyoko’s who contributed to the prize funds, as well as to the Selden family and the Asia Pacific Journal’s Japan Focus for their generosity and support.

In the category of previously published translators, the 2022 award went to Matthew Fraleigh for his translation of Hayashi Kakuryō’s “Record of a Journey that Was More than Mere Diversion” (Kishikairoku), an early Meiji chronicle of the author’s 1871 trip along the Tama River and through the mountains of present-day Okutama, with plentiful allusions to Chinese poetry and literary landscapes. Honorable Mention in this category was awarded to Lin-shih Loh for her translation of Letters from Iwaki (Iwaki Tsūshin 2012-2014), by Yoshida Hiromi. The letters record Yoshida’s observations in the coastal city of Iwaki, 54 miles south of Fukushima, as she assisted evacuees living for long periods of time displaced from their homes in the areas worst hit by the disasters of 3.11.

The award in the previously unpublished category was given to Yi Deng, for her translation of chapters from Santō Kyōden ’s profusely illustrated 1806 prose fiction, Faithful Birds of Sorrow (Utō yasukata chūgiden). The tale narrates fantastic exploits attributed to a daughter and son of Taira Masakado in their quixotic pursuit to avenge their father’s death after the failure of his rebellion in 940.

In this concluding year of our work we would finally like to express our appreciation for all who have participated in the Selden Translation Prize competition, as it has honored and evoked our memories of the deeply intertwined relations between scholarship and translation in Kyoko Selden’s own work. Below we have listed the names of the fifteen works and translators awarded the prize between 2014 and 2022. Although not all could be published in APJ’s Japan Focus due to foreign rights complications, we were pleased to recognize each as a significant contribution to world understanding and appreciation of Japanese literature and thought across the centuries.
2022

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