U-M Nam Center for Korean Studies

10/07/2026

📚

👻 From Frightful to Delightful: East Asian Monsters in the Stacks

📅 Time: Thursday, October 15, 2026, 4:00 PM - 6:00 PM

📍 Location: Asia Library Quiet Study Room (4th floor Hatcher North)

☕ Light refreshments will be provided.

Celebrate Halloween in the Asia Library, and meet the monsters lurking in our collections! 🎃

This exhibit brings together demons, shape-shifters, and mythical beasts from across East Asia. You'll discover how those East Asian monstrous creatures have frightened, amused, and fascinated audiences across cultures and generations. 👹

Come encounter whimsical and eerie beings that defy easy categorization, and discover what they can tell us about the societies that created and reimagined them. This event offers a playful exploration of East Asian folklore, literature, art, and popular culture. Costumes and curiosity are welcome! 🧙‍♀️✨

Third Thursdays at the Library is a themed monthly open house where we share materials from our collections. While you’re here, pick up a passport and collect a stamp from each of this month's Third Thursday locations — Asia Library, Clark Library, International Studies, and the Special Collections Research Center — to win a prize! 📚🎟️🏆

Image credit: [The Night Parade of One Hundred Demons](https://search.lib.umich.edu/articles/record/cdi_jstor_oai_community_39751108), by Tachibana Gadō 橘雅堂, 1892, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

https://www.lib.umich.edu/visit-and-study/events-and-exhibits/today-and-upcoming/frightful-delightful-east-asian-monsters-stacks/

10/07/2026

2026 Perspectives on Contemporary Korea Conference
https://myumi.ch/rwbdd

The Nam Center for Korean Studies at the University of Michigan is proud to host an international conference focused on the life and work of Il Han New as part of the Center’s Perspectives on Contemporary Korea series. A national hero in Korea and the University of Michigan’s most famous Korean alumnus, Il Han New’s remarkable biography is well known. Born in Pyongyang, New came to the United States at a young age and received primary and secondary education in the Midwest. In Hastings, Nebraska, New attended the Korean youth military school established by Park Yong-man in 1909. From Hastings, New moved to Detroit and then to nearby Ann Arbor to pursue a degree in business and commerce at the University of Michigan. While studying at Michigan New met his future spouse and trailblazing partner Mary Woo. In 1922, New and a friend from the University of Michigan named Wally Smith launched the brand La Choy and turned a seemingly impossible chance encounter into one of the most spectacular examples of the American Dream at Smith’s grocery in Detroit. New returned to his homeland in 1926 at the age of 31 and established a successful pharmaceutical company named Yuhan yanghaeng. In the final years of the Pacific War, New once again demonstrated his ability to shape new forms of Asian, American, and Asian American agency as a consultant for the US Office of Strategic Services (OSS). After liberation in 1945, New made significant contributions to the rebuilding of South Korea through education, public health, and philanthropy.

Far from taking New as an extraordinary individual who led an exceptional life, the conference will approach New’s biography as a point of entry that opens onto several important avenues for thinking about Korean, American, and Asian American histories of the modern era, as well as a method for interrogating these histories’ complex imbrications with one another. Particular attention will be paid to the lesser known forces that shaped New’s trajectory and the transformative impact of New’s life on these and other historical forces. Using Il Han New not as case study but as method, this conference will examine, among other things, the global footprint of Midwestern values and religiosity, the ethnicity of global industry and global nature of ethnic industry, fighting for a nation that is both singular and plural, and Korea’s diasporic century.

#유일한

10/07/2026

10/05/2026

🇰🇷✨ Stay connected with the Nam Center for Korean Studies!

Follow us for upcoming events, Korean studies news, cultural programs, film screenings, and more!

#남센터 #한국학

10/05/2026

U-M SASS (Society of Asian Studies Students) is hosting a Hanji (한지) event this Thursday! 📄

Come make art with traditional Korean handmade paper (hanji) in a hands-on workshop, while learning about US-Korea relations through history as well as the current state of affairs. Dinner will be provided!

📅 Date: Thursday, October 8
⏰ Time: 6–8 PM
📍 Location: YK Lounge @ South Quad

✨ No registration required
✨ Free and open to the public

Come join us and learn more about the beautiful Korean tradition of hanji (한지)!

10/05/2026

An unforgettable evening of vocal artistry: captivating moments from the SeAh Korean Art Song Gala on Sunday, September 27, featuring legendary soprano Sumi Jo alongside U-M vocal students and alumnus Jack Morin, who delivered stunning performances of Korean art songs sung natively in Korean.

#조수미 #가곡 #한복

10/02/2026

> Nam Center Colloquium Lecture Series <
"Growth and Instability: New Varieties and Agricultural Production in Colonial Korea, 1910–1945" 🌾

Join us in person or online on Zoom as Professor Duol Kim (Myongji University) examines how the introduction of Japanese rice varieties impacted Korean agricultural productivity, market instability, and colonial legacy during Japanese rule.

📅 Date: Thursday, October 8, 2026
⏰ Time: 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM EDT
📍 Location: Room 555, Weiser Hall (University of Michigan) & Zoom

🔗 Register for Zoom:[https://myumi.ch/X8xre](https://myumi.ch/X8xre)
📖 Full Event Details: https://ii.umich.edu/ncks/news-events/events.detail.html/152809-21914555.html

10/02/2026

(Click the image below to start playing) Watch Dr. Rory Walsh giving a talk on 'Korean Food: Culture, Politics, and Identities.'

This presentation was programmed as part of Korea Week, in partnership with the Ann Arbor District Library and the Korean Cultural Center Washington, D.C..

#한식

Korean food is having a moment–one that's been decades in the makin...