CEAS Announces Winners of the 2024 M.A. Thesis Prizes in Japan Studies

The University of Chicago Center for East Asian Studies (CEAS) is pleased to announce that Sherry Huang (MAPH) and Xiuyu Li (MAPSS) are the winners of the 2024 CEAS M.A. Thesis Prize in Japan Studies.

Sherry Huang's thesis, Pleasure in Pain: Sadomasochism and the Aestheticizing Gaze in Tanizaki Jun’ichirō’s "Shisei" and "Shōnen,” was described by the review committee as "being ambitious, taking up the fiction of one of modern Japan's most important writers and exploring connections between Tanizaki's depictions of sadomasochistic desire and the structures of aesthetic appreciation in general.  Grounded in analysis of both Tanizaki's writings and pre-existing scholarship in both English and Japanese, her thesis productively opens Tanizaki's typically ambiguous and ironic literary writings to questions of broad importance across the Humanities."  In 2024-2025, Sherry will be a second-year student in the Master of Arts Program in the Humanities (MAPH) and is interested in pursuing a Ph.D. program in East Asian languages and civilizations after graduation.

Xiuyu Li’s thesis, The Uncensored Kokka Gakkai Zasshi: Nambara Shigeru, Maruyama Masao, and the Tōdai Law Faculty in Wartime Japan, was described as "well-researched, well-crafted, and compelling.  Building on extensive archival research in both Japanese and English-language sources, he builds an original and important argument that challenges our understanding of wartime censorship and intellectual discourse in Japan.  Taking up previously neglected wartime publications, Xiuyu shows how institutional and contextual factors made it possible for Nambara Shigeru and Maruyama Masao, two giants of postwar liberal thought in Japan, to publish work critical of fascism and its understanding of the state and nation even at the height of wartime restrictions on critical thought."  After graduation, Xiuyu plans to continue to explore his interests in Japanese history and will pursue a Ph.D. in history or East Asian languages and civilizations.

CEAS sponsors an annual prize of $250 awarded for the best University of Chicago M.A. thesis dealing with topics related to Japan. University of Chicago students in 1-year, 2-year, and 3-year terminal M.A. programs with a final thesis requirement are eligible to apply.  Starting in 2020, up to two prizes can be awarded each year.  The selection committee considers the specific content, regional focus, and methodologies of annual submissions.  Preference is provided to papers utilizing original source materials in an East Asian language. 

For more information, please visit the graduate student funding section: CEAS M.A. Thesis Prize in Japan Studies.