UC Berkeley Institute of East Asian Studies

10/16/2026

Expanded English edition of Joseon classic 'The Chingbirok' unveiled in Korea

IEAS launched its new book ”Reprimands and Admonitions” in Korea this Friday. The book offered a deeper, more human lens into Imjin War.

As reported in the Korean Times, the event was hosted by Ryu Jin, chairman of Poongsan Group, chairman of the Federation of Korean Industries and a 13th-generation direct descendant of Ryu Seong-ryong (1542–1607), the Joseon-era prime minister who authored "The Chingbirok." The newest book is an expanded version of ”The Chingbirok.”

Read the entire article at
https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/lifestyle/books/20261016/expanded-english-edition-of-joseon-classic-the-chingbirok-unveiled.

Leading international scholars and cultural historians gathered in Seoul on Friday for a high-profile publication ceremony and book talk celebratin...

10/16/2026

October 23, 2026 at 4pm in 370 Dwilnelle Hall, UC Berkeley.
Lecture by Li Chen (University of Toronto) on "Indispensable but Invisible: Legal Expertise and Juridical Capital in the Governance of Late Imperial China"

During the Qing period (1644–1912), late imperial China was in theory governed by approximately two thousand local administrators who were appointed for their mastery of the Confucian classics rather than for their administrative or legal expertise. How did these scholar-officials actually carry out the daily tasks of local governance, including judicial administration?

Learn more about the speaker and his talk at https://tinyurl.com/2wrkm9zm.

10/15/2026

Job Opening for
Assistant or Associate Professor in East Asian Buddhism
for the Department of East Asian Languages & Cultures

Learn more about the position and how to apply at https://aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF05539.

University of California, Berkeley is hiring. Apply now!

10/09/2026

Oct 15 at 4pm in 370 Dwinelle Hall, UC Berkeley
Translation in the Qing Poetic Imaginary
A lecture by NATHAN VEDAL (Univ of Toronto)

This talk, introducing a forthcoming monograph (Translation, Emulation, and Manchu Literary Culture), will consider the institution of a Manchu translation program in the elite Hanlin Academy.

Learn more at https://tinyurl.com/2e495tzu.

10/09/2026

Next Thur (10/15) at 5pm with speakerJoseph Jeon (University of California, Irvine).

Romantic Anticolonialism in the Korean Neo-colonial Imaginary: Mr. Sunshine (2018) and Harbin (2024) in the IEAS Conference Room, 2111 Bancroft Way, 5th Floor, Berkeley.

This talk examines the spike in Korean media productions after 2015 about the Japanese colonial period in the context of the emergence of the Korean New Right in the same period.

Learn more and RSVP at https://tinyurl.com/5c8jyuj9.

10/08/2026

Congrats to I. JONATHAN KIEF, the 2026 Winner of the UC Berkeley Hong Yung Lee Book Award in Korean Studies!

The Center for Korean Studies (CKS) at UC Berkeley is honored to announce the 2026 winner of the UC Berkeley Hong Yung Lee Book Award in Korean Studies: Triangle Republics: Cross-Border Literary Transits between the Cold War Koreas and Japan (Columbia University Press, 2025) by Professor I. Jonathan Kief (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill).

The book upends the conventional view of the Korean division as one of separation and antagonism between two diametrically opposed and mutually exclusive cultural spheres; it reveals how North and South Korean literature surreptitiously formed and transformed each other through the Korean diaspora in Japan.

An award ceremony celebrating Professor Kief’s achievement will be held at UC Berkeley on Thursday, March 4, 2027.

Learn more about this book, the award and author at https://conta.cc/4yBGxcV.

10/08/2026

CSEAS Oct Newsletter.
Access our upcoming programs, jobs, grants and the latest CSEAS News at https://conta.cc/4AOfnRW.

October is Filipino American History Month, and the Center for Southeast Asia Studies would like to invite you all to join us in celebration.

Later this month, we will be holding a research symposium for our Henry Luce Foundation funded SEALIVES program. Marco Garrido of the University of Chicago will join us as the keynote speaker to discuss his research on a topic that many interested in the Philippines will find intriguing. Likewise, UC Berkeley faculty Diana Martinez and Lisandro Claudio will both be discussing their new books focused on the Philippines.

Photo below: Alfonso Ossorio, The Last Judgment, 1950, mural, ethyl silicate on cement, 645.8 sq. ft. (60 sq. m.), Victorias City, Negros Occidental, Philippines.
(Photo Credit: Marissa Pinpin Lee - SEALIVES Year 2 Grantee)