CEAS Announces the 2025 Asada Eiji B.A. Thesis Prize Winners

The University of Chicago Center for East Asian Studies sponsors an annual prize of $250 awarded for the best University of Chicago B.A. thesis dealing with topics related to East Asia (China, Japan and Korea).  Since its inception in 2009, one prize has been awarded to a paper in the area of humanities and one in the area of social sciences.  Preference is provided to papers utilizing original source materials in an East Asian language.  This prize is name in honor of Asada Eiji, the recipient of the first Ph.D. degree awarded by the University of Chicago in 1893.  Professor Asada went on to enjoy an illustrious career at the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies.

The Center for East Asian Studies is pleased to announce the winners of the 2025 Asada Eiji B.A. Thesis Prize:

ARTS & HUMANITIES

• Haemin Kim, Art History; East Asian Languages and Civilizations
  "Traversing Boundaries: The Metamorphosing Self in One Hundred Fans and Butterflies"

The next chapter for Haemin includes working as an exhibition eductor at Wrightwood 659 while doing provenance research on the Korean and Japanese art collections at the Art Institute of Chicago.

SOCIAL SCIENCES

• Sonia Chang, Global Studies; Comparative Human Development
  "Aging Out of Place? How Aging Chinese Migrants in Chicago's Chinatown (Re)Construct Successful Aging in the Context of Transnational Migration

After graduation, Sonia plans to apply to graduate school while continuing to engage in research related to the well-being of Asian communities.

HONORABLE MENTION - Social Sciences

• Bingjie Hsieh, Sociology
  "Global Babies, Local Science: Transnational Reproductive Migration for Lesbian Families in Taiwan"

For more information, please review the resources available at CEAS Undergraduate Student Funding Opportunities