East Asian Studies

Capstone

All EAS majors are required to complete a capstone project during their senior year. The topic and framing of the project rests entirely with the student, though students are encouraged to consult with their chosen capstone supervisor (faculty member). Students are expected to complete their projects with use of their target language in the major.

Below are some EAS capstones completed over the years.

Supervisor: Sachiko Kondo

  • Austin Alcancia (Winter Term 2022) “City Pop Recording Project”

Supervisor: Sharon Wang

  • Nathan Englehart (Spring Term 2022 in CHIN 500-06) “日本战国时代的一向一揆历史脉络分析”

Supervisor: Yu-chi Chang

  • James Sullivan (Spring 2022 in EAST 327): “How Maps Detail the Different Colonial Intentions of the Qing Empire and Japan in Taiwan”

Supervisor: Andrew Macomber

  • Charlotte Glessner-Fischer (Spring 2022 in EAST 335): “Mindfulness as a Solution to the Lack of Trust the Public Has in Primary Care Doctors” 

Supervisor: Ann Sherif

  • Laurel Moore (Fall 2021 in JAPN403/JAPN002) “Underground Battleship: Technology and Empire in Meiji Period Adventure Novels”

Supervisor: Bonnie Cheng

  • Amber Evans (Spring 2021 in EAST 329): “The Thefts of Kannon Bosatsu: The Complexities of Repatriation in East Asia”
  • Eric Hughett (Spring 2021 in EAST 329): “Bell from the Temple of Guanyin: Questions of Life History, Ownership and Meaning”

Supervisor: Sheila Jager 

  • Sophie Bernstein (Summer 2021 in EAST 367) “How the Sino-Japanese War Laid the Foundations for the Russo-Japanese War, 1994-1905”
  • Dewi Beer (Summer 2021 in EAST 367) “19th Century Olympic Boxing: How Western Imperialism Led to the Boxer Uprising.”

Supervisor: Mariko Takano

  • Xueyao Liu (Spring 2021 in JAPN402) “太宰治「葉桜と魔笛」について”
  • Binhong Wu (Spring 2021 in EAST326) “Purposeful Consciousness in Three Short Stories” 
  • Shuting Xie (Spring 2021 in EAST 326) “The Liminality of Women when Confronting Labor and Social Norms”

Supervisor: Marc Blecher

  • Will Cramer: “State, Science and Qigong: The Production of Miracles in 1980s China”. Earned highest honors in Religion.

Supervisor: Emer O’Dwyer 

  • J.W. Parker (Fall 2020 in EAST 332): “Zainichi Activism and Political Participation in Postwar Japan”
  • Zack Mayer-Bickel (Fall 2020 in EAST 332): “The Many Measurements of Contemporary Zainichi Conditions in Japan”

Supervisor: Andrew Macomber

  • Hannah Adler-Levine (Spring 2020 in EAST 335): “Buddhism and Abortion in Japan: Mizuko Kuyō as Public Subversion & Personal Healing” 
  • Jacky Valentine (Winter Term 2020): “The Authors of Japanese Horror”

Supervisor: Ann Sherif

  • Liam Hefta “Morishiba’s Aikido: Maki no ichi” (Winter Term, 2020)

Supervisor: Emer O’Dwyer 

  • Nicholas Gallitano (Fall 2019 in EAST 307), “A Man on the Throne: Hirohito’s Shifting Image, 1945-1959”

Supervisor: Marc Blecher

  • Sabine Gross (in Politics 313): “Soft Power, Diplomacy and Western Classical Music in Post-Cultural Revolution China”

Supervisor: Marc Blecher:

  • Rachel Coyte (in Politics 313): “Education Reform in China”
  • Emily Kelly (in Politics 313): “Effects of the One-Child Policy on Urban Chinese Women”

Supervisor: Bonnie Cheng

  • Naomi Greenspann (Winter Term/Spring 2018) “Yakimono on Display”

Supervisor: Keren He:

  • Rin Liu (Spring 2018): “Living as Individuals in China”
  • Eliza Edwards (Spring 2018): "She Is A Woman, I Am Also A Woman" (A Translation of Wong Bik-Wan’s Novella "她是女子,我也是女子")

Supervisor: Sachiko Kondo

  • Daniel Evans (Spring 2018): “Kobo Abe: Japan's Kafka? Literature and Western-Centricism”「安部公房-日本のカフカ? 文学と西洋中心主義 」
  • Nathan Nieburg (Winter Term 2018): “Remaining Japanese soldiers - Their contribution to Japan-Vietnam relationship”「『在留日本兵』- 彼らの日越関係に対する貢献 -」

Supervisor: Emer O’Dwyer 

  • Kristen Miles (Spring 2018 in EAST 332): “The Crests and Falls of The Korean Wave and Anti-Korean Wave in Japan”

Supervisor: Xin Zhang

  • Jenny Xin Luan (Spring 2018) "The Chinese Student Commencement Speech Controversy: A Discourse Analysis of Responding Microblogs"
  • Ethan Hill (Spring 2018) “金荷非人: Writing a Chengyu-Inspired Story in Modern and Literary Chinese“

Supervisor: Ann Sherif

  • Yiyin Zhong (Spring 2018) “Representations of the Tokaido Road in Text and Visual Media”

Supervisor: Marc Blecher

  • Meredith Leung (in Politics 313): “Environmental Issues and Social Injustice in China”

Supervisor: Bonnie Cheng

  • Emma Laube (Fall 2017): “Selfhood and Self-Erasure: The Digitized World of Lu Yang” 

Supervisor: Emer O’Dwyer 

  • Kayla Thomson-Mitchell (Spring 2017 in EAST 332): “The Evolution of Korean Sex Work in Japan: How filial piety and economic gains supported the continuation of sex work in Japan from 1910-1960”
  • Haru Zenda (Spring 2017 in EAST 332): “Religious freedom in postwar Japan"

Supervisor: Bonnie Cheng

  • Adina Shanholtz (Spring 2015): “A Computerized 3D Rendering of the Marquis of Yi Tomb”                                

Supervisor: Sachiko Kondo

  • Kim Chul (Spring 2015): “Kazuki Kaneshiro’s ‘Go’ and the history of discrimination towards Zainichi Koreans” 「金城一紀の「Go」と在日韓国人に向けられている差別の歴史」
  • Rachel Young (Spring 2015): “Japan and America: Relation between Dialects and Society” 「日本と米国:方言と社会の関係」

Supervisor: Ann Sherif

  • Hannah Lorber (Spring 2015 in JAPN 402): “Translating Hayao Miyazaki’s book”

Supervisor: Marc Blecher 

  • Devon Rettew (in Politics 313): “Something is Rotten in the State of China” (on corruption)
  • Rachel Coyte (in Politics 313): “China’s Sexual Revolution”
  • Anna Saltzmann (in Politics 313): "Cut Sleeves in the Peach Garden: Homosexuality and Gender Roles in China’s Global Development”
  • ZHANG Qing (in Politics 313): "Internet Censorship in China”

Supervisor: Marc Blecher

  • Terry Hsieh: “Jazz Meets East: The Jazz Scenes in Beijing and Shanghai”.
    • An honors thesis that he eventually published.

Supervisor: Bonnie Cheng

  • Jeremy Blanks (Winter Term 2012) “Japanese Ceramics - History and Practice” 

Supervisor: Bonnie Cheng

  • Amanda Tobin (Spring 2011), “A Solution to ‘The Woman Question’ Envisioning the Japanese Woman in the bijin-ga of Japan's Modern Print Designers,” High Honors in Art History
  • ​Samantha Conroy (Spring 2011), "Computerized 3D Rendering of the Cangshan Tomb"​

Supervisor: Bonnie Cheng

  • Alexandra Sterman (Spring 2009) “Official and Unofficial Chinese Art Exhibitions,” High Honors in Art History

Supervisor: Marc Blecher

  • Juliet Lu (in Politics 313): “Representations of Minority Nationalities in China”.