WELCOME TO CEAS

The Center for East Asian Studies at the University of Chicago (CEAS) serves as an interdisciplinary nexus and clearinghouse for East Asian studies and an important resource for faculty and students across the University.  CEAS supports academic activities, research, outreach, and public events to promote greater understanding of China, Japan and Korea.  CEAS has been designated a Title VI National Resource Center by the U.S. Department of Education.

Featured Video

"When Reading Morphs into Play: Early Modern Japan and Ludic Literature"

Laura Moretti, Professor of Early Modern Japanese and Culture at the University of Cambridge

Play occupied a significant place in the publishing industry of early modern Japan, across books and ephemera. Board games, riddles, rebuses, brainteasers, magic tricks and much more inhabited a wealth of printed matter. Fictional prose joined in, by appropriating and re-envisioning such materials. How were books occupied by play meant to be perused? What happens when materials designed primarily for play are recast in narrative prose? How do we make sense of texts that are replete with what we might readily dismiss as unnecessary, cognitive obstacles? This talk interrogates these questions among others by engaging with a wealth of early modern materials that invite what Professor Moretti tentatively call playful reading. In the process, she investigates texts that are designed as play spaces and she explores how their potential is fully unleashed by readers who are eager to become comrades in play. Altogether this paper reflects broadly on how early modern Japanese prose confronts us with texts that complicate our understanding of the act of reading.

News

Former Numata Visiting Professor of Buddhist Studies at the Divinity School, and CEAS affiliate, Matthew T Kapstein's recently edited volumes of Tibetan Manuscripts and Early Printed Books

The November 10-11, 2023 workshop Squid Game: Streaming TV in the Platform Era, sponsored by the Center for East Asian Studies at the University of Chicago and organized by scholars from t

*JOIN THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO CENTER FOR EAST ASIAN STUDIES RECEPTION ON FRIDAY, MARCH 15TH AT 7:30 PM IN THE WILLOW A ROOM AT THE SHERATON GRAND SEATTLE.

The University of Chicago's Center for International Social Science Research (CISSR) recently announced is 2024-25 Faculty Research Fellos which supports international, transnational, and global re

Upcoming Events

CEAS by the Numbers

63
Years - CEAS was Founded in 1959
73
Affiliated Faculty - Across the University
85
Events in 2021-2022 - Lectures, Conferences, Film Screenings and More
327
East Asian-Related Courses 2021-2022 - Offered Across Disciplines