Sigur Center for Asian Studies
At the Elliott School of International Affairs
Professor David Shinn, Adjunct Professor at the Elliot School of International Affairs, published an article in the East Asia Forum titled “Forum on China-Africa Cooperation meets the Belt and Road” on October 18, 2018.
Read the article here!
Professor Jisoo Kim, the Director of GW Institute for Korean Studies and Korea Foundation Associate Professor of History, International Affairs, and East Asian Languages and Literature, is set to give two lectures. On October 22, Professor Kim will give a lecture at the Foreign Service Institute entitled, “Historical Disputes in East Asia: Focusing on Korea.” On October 26, she will present a paper entitled, “The Practice of Forensic Medicine and Criminal Justice in Choson Korea” at a workshop on “Law and Religion in Asia” at Rutgers University.
Thursday, November 29, 2018 5:00 PM
Chung-wen Shih Conference Room
Suite 503 | 1957 E Street, NW
Washington, DC 20052
The Sigur Center for Asian Studies, and the Institute for Middle East Studies cordially invite you to a book launch of Mughal Occidentalism and a discussion with the author.
This event is free and open to the public.
About the Book:
In Mughal Occidentalism, Mika Natif elucidates the meaningful and complex ways in which Mughal artists engaged with European art and techniques from the 1580s-1630s. Using visual and textual sources, this book argues that artists repurposed Christian and Renaissance visual idioms to embody themes from classical Persian literature and represent Mughal policy, ideology and dynastic history. A reevaluation of illustrated manuscripts and album paintings incorporating landscape scenery, portraiture, and European objects demonstrates that the appropriation of European elements was highly motivated by Mughal concerns. This book aims to establish a better understanding of cross-cultural exchange from the Mughal perspective by emphasizing the agency of local artists active in the workshops of Emperors Akbar and Jahangir.
About the Speaker:
Dr. Mika Natif (Ph.D., New York University – Institute of Fine Arts, 2006) is a historian of Medieval art focusing on the intercultural exchanges and global connections that Muslim societies forged with the European sphere in the pre-Modern era. Her primary field of research is Islamic painting, with special interest in Central Asia, Iran, India, and the Mediterranean. She had held teaching positions at Princeton University and at the College of the Holy Cross (MA), and curatorial positions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and most recently at the Harvard Art Museums (as Assistant Curator of Islamic and Later Indian Art). She has conducted research in archives, galleries and museums all over Europe, as well as Turkey, Israel, and India.
Monday, November 19, 2018 6:00 PM – 8:40 PM
Lindner Family Commons Suite 602
The Elliott School of International Affairs
1957 E Street, NW Washington, DC 20052
The American University School of Communications Departments of Literature, of Anthropology, and of Sociology, the George Washington University Sigur Center for Asian Studies, and the Departments of East Asian Languages and Literatures, and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies cordially invite you to a film screening and discussion of Lesbian Factory and Rainbow Popcorn, with featuring panelists Jingru Wu and Teri Silvio who worked on the production of the film as well as Assistant Professors Li (Lily) Wong of American University and Assistant Professor Liana Chen of the George Washington University.
This event is free and open to the public.
About the Event:
The documentary couplet Lesbian Factory and Rainbow Popcorn shot by migrant worker activists in Taiwan, follows a group of Filipina migrant worker organizers and their tumultuous same-sex love relationships. The films bring together migrant labor activism with queer love to unpack the multi-layered texture of our globalized moment.
The screening will be followed by a panel discussion featuring the directors of the movie, Jingru Wu and Teri Silvio.
About the Speakers:
Jingru Wu is a long-time labor activist and a researcher at the Taiwan International Workers’ Association. Together with Susan Chen she has shot the two documentaries.
Teri Silvio is an Associate Research Fellow at the Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica, Taiwan. She has served as interviewer, translator, and member of the production team for the documentary films, Lesbian Factory and Rainbow Popcorn.
Li (Lily) Wong received her PhD in Comparative Literature at University of California, Santa Barbara. Her research focuses on the politics of affect/emotion, gender/sexuality, comparative race, as well as media formations of transpacific Chinese, Sinophone, and Asian American communities. Her work can be found in journals including American Quarterly, Journal of Chinese Cinemas, Asian Cinema, Asian American Literary Review, Pacific Affairs and China Review International, among others. She has published book chapters in World Cinema and the Visual Arts (Anthem Press, 2012), Queer Sinophone Cultures (Routledge, 2013), and Divided Lenses: War and Film Memory in Asia (University of Hawai’i Press, 2016). She is the author of the book “Transpacific Attachments: Sex Work, Media Networks, and Affective Histories of Chineseness” (Columbia University Press, 2018).
Liana Chen is an assistant professor in the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures and director of the Chinese Program at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., where she is affiliated with the Sigur Center for Asian Studies and teaches courses on traditional and modern Chinese fiction and drama, film, and women writers.
Wednesday, November 14, 2018 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM
Lindner Family Commons Suite 602
The Elliott School of International Affairs
1957 E Street, NW Washington, DC 20052
The Sigur Center for Asian Studies, and the Elliott School Book Launch Series cordially invite you to a book launch and discussion of Professor Robert Sutter’s book Foreign Relations of the PRC: The Legacies and Constraints of China International Politics since 1949, Second Edition.
This event is free and open to the public.
About the Event:
The United States is carrying out the most substantial reevaluation of policy toward China in 50 years, anticipating intensive competition and challenges in the period ahead. Against that background, realistic assessments of China’s power and influence and their implications for the United States provide the basis for sound judgments as Americans and others assess China’s rise. Based on work in his newly published, Foreign Relations of the PRC: The Legacies and Constraints of China International Politics since 1949, Second Edition, Sutter will offer a balanced assessment of the strengths and limitations of Xi Jinping’s foreign policy achievements and ambitions in his second term. The findings show that despite enormous publicity in China hailing the confidence and foreign policy successes of its authoritarian leader, serious constraints confound Beijing’s ambitions, with broad ranging, unexpected pushback from the Trump administration heading the list of major impediments for which China has no easy answer.
About the Speaker:
Robert Sutter is Professor of Practice of International Affairs at the Elliott School of George Washington University beginning in 2011. He also serves as the school’s Director, Program of Bachelor of Arts in International Affairs.
A Ph.D. graduate in History and East Asian Languages from Harvard University, Sutter taught full time for ten years at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and part-time for thirty years at Georgetown, George Washington, Johns Hopkins Universities, or the University of Virginia. He has published 21 books, over 200 articles and several hundred government reports dealing with contemporary East Asian and Pacific countries and their relations with the United States. His most recent books are: Foreign Relations of the PRC: The Legacies and Constraints of China’s International Politics since 1949 (Rowman & Littlefield 2018); US-China Relations: Perilous Past, Uncertain Present (Rowman & Littlefield 2018); Chinese Foreign Relations: Power and Policy Since the Cold War (Rowman & Littlefield 2016); The United States and Asia; Regional Dynamics and 21st Century Relations (Rowman & Littlefield 2015).
Sutter’s government career (1968-2001) focused on Asian and Pacific affairs and US foreign policy. He was the Director of the Foreign Affairs and National Defense Division of the Congressional Research Service, the National Intelligence Officer for East Asia at the US National Intelligence Council, the China Division Director at the Department of State’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research, and professional staff member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Professor Jisoo Kim, the Director of GW Institute for Korean Studies and Korea Foundation Associate Professor of History, International Affairs, and East Asian Languages and Literature, gave two talks last week. On October 5, Professor Kim presented a paper titled “Gender, Sexuality, and the Law in Chosŏn Korea” at the University of Pennsylvania. Then on October 8, she traveled to Salisbury University to give a talk titled “The Emotions of Justice: Legal Equality in Early Modern Korea and Today.”
Friday, October 26, 2018
8:15 a.m. – 5 p.m.
The Commons, 6th Floor
Elliott School of International Affairs
1957 E Street, NW
Washington, DC 20052
We are delighted to invite you to the 11th annual conference on China’s Economic Development and U.S.-China Economic Relations at George Washington University. The importance of understanding China’s economic development has only become more important over the last decade. Understanding the structural building blocks of domestic Chinese economic activity is as necessary as understanding China’s foreign economic activity, whether regionally across the globe or in its interactions with the United States. Amid a trade war between the U.S. and China, it is vital that we have a shared understanding of what is taking place within the Chinese economy, how that affects relations with the U.S., and what it means for China’s global ambitions. We look forward to hosting you on October 26th to continue studying these important questions.
8:15 – 8:50 a.m. Coffee and Registration
8:50 – 9 a.m. Welcoming Remarks: Maggie Chen (IIEP Director, George Washington University)
9 – 9:45 a.m. Keynote
9:45 – 10:45 a.m. Trends in China’s Macro Economy
10:45 – 11 a.m. Coffee Break
11 a.m. – 12 p.m. Institutional and Firm Growth
12 – 1 p.m. Lunch
1 – 1:45 p.m. Keynote
1:45 – 2:45 p.m. The Myths of U.S.-China Trade War
2:45 – 3 p.m. Coffee Break
3 – 4 p.m. Going Out: China’s Aid, Investment, and Finance to Developing Countries
4 – 5 p.m. Gender, Migration, and Labor Markets in China
Professor David Shambaugh, Gaston Sigur Professor of Asian Studies, Political Science & International Affairs and the Director of the China Policy Program, was quoted in an article by the South China Morning Post about the Trump Administration being the first American administration explicitly labeling China as a “strategic competitor” in national security documentation. He also noted that the areas of competition between the United States and China “now far outweigh the areas of cooperation,” but that the United States would cooperate when it can on select issues. His comments were included in the article originally published on October 10th, titled “FBI chief tells US Congress that China poses bigger security threat than Russia.”
Thursday, October 25, 2018
12:30 PM – 1:45 PM
Chung-wen Shih Conference Room
Suite 503
The Elliott School of International Affairs
1957 E Street, NW
Washington, DC 20052
The Sigur Center for Asian Studies would like to invite you to a roundtable discussion with the 2018 Sigur Center summer language fellows to talk about their study abroad experiences in Asia! This event is open to the public and media.
Topics for Discussion:
Language Study in Taiwan
Language Study in Indonesia
Speakers:
Alexander Bierman is a M.A. candidate in Security Policy Studies focusing on East Asian security and cyber security. His interests include U.S. policy towards East Asia, Cross-Strait policy, and Chinese politics.
Amoz JY Hor is a PhD student in Political Science at the George Washington University. His research explores how emotions affect the way the subaltern is understood in practices of humanitarianism.
Chloe King is a rising senior in the Elliot School, majoring in international affairs with minors in sustainability and geographic information systems. She spent seven months in Indonesia in 2017 as a Boren Scholar, researching NGO conservation initiatives in marine ecotourism destinations around the country. A PADI Divemaster, her passion for protecting the ocean keeps pulling her back to Indonesia and some of the most diverse—and threatened—marine ecosystems in the world.
Alexandra Wong was a Sigur Center 2018 Asian Language Fellow who studied Mandarin in Taipei, Taiwan at National Taiwan Normal University’s Mandarin Training Center. Lexi is currently a second-year graduate student at The George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs where she is studying International Affairs with a regional concentration on Asia.
Professor Mike Mochizuki, Japan-U.S. Relations Chair in Memory of Gaston Sigur at the Elliott School of International Affairs, was quoted in an article by the South China Morning Post about the possible implications that the latest Okinawan gubernatorial race may have on Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s administration. His comments were included in the article published on October 1, titled “Why the Okinawa election outcome may weaken PM Abe’s grip on power.”
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