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January 22, 2020

Max Brandstadt | TCSRS Fellow

Max BrandstadtThe Dunhuang Seminar in London and Paris allowed me to access invaluable artifacts and documents crucial to my research. Archival access at the British Library, in particular, allowed me to view 1500 year old documents available nowhere else. These documents provided crucial clues for my research on the history of medieval Chinese Buddhism.

Meghan Howard | TCSRS Fellow

Meghan HowardThis trip was my first chance to see Dunhuang manuscripts in person. I have been working with Dunhuang materials for over ten years using images available online. Compared with the grainy black-and-white reproductions that scholars of an earlier era relied upon, we are positively spoiled by today’s high resolution color images.

The Washington Post
"What Taiwan's Election says about Beijing's Taiwan Policy," The Washington Post, Shelley Rigger

A week ago, Taiwanese voters reelected President Tsai Ing-wen with 57 percent of the vote and renewed her Democratic Progressive Party’s legislative majority. PRC leaders have refused to interact with the DPP-led government for the past 3½ years, so it’s safe to assume this wasn’t the outcome Beijing was hoping for. But that doesn’t mean its Taiwan policy is failing...(read more)

January 15, 2020

USC US-China Institute
Video: Shelley Rigger joins USC panel for discussion on Taiwan's 2020 election

The USC U.S.-China Institute hosted a video conference looking at what the key issues were in the election and what the election means for Taiwan domestic policies, for cross-strait relations, and for U.S.-Taiwan relations.

The discussion was moderated by Clayton Dube, the director of the USC U.S.-China Institute. Panelists included:

January 13, 2020

Kira Donnell | CKS Travel Grantee

Kira DonnellMy involvement in the CKS community over the course of my graduate career has been integral to my success as a doctoral student. The collegiality and camaraderie gave me a place to meet, collaborate with, and learn from other Korean studies scholars. The generosity and support from CKS has enabled me to travel to Korea and beyond for fieldwork, research, and symposia, helping reach my goals as an emerging scholar.

Allegra J Midgette | CKS Fellow

Allegra MidgetteThe CKS fellowship made my fieldwork in Seoul, South Korea on individuals' moral reasoning regarding the gendered distribution of housework possible.

Andrea Jung-An Liu | CJS Fellow

Andrea LiuThanks to the support of the Center for Japanese Studies graduate fellowship, I was able to begin my Ph.D. studies in modern Japanese art starting from the Fall of 2018.

Deirdre Martin | CJS Fellow

Deirdre MartinI study Japanese security policy and military acquisition, which is complex and constantly changing. There is simply no substitute for interviews with the actual people who make policy; no matter how opaque policy decisions may appear from the outside, they are constructed by people with different constraints and goals, and there is no better way to understand outcomes than to talk to the people who created them.

Katherine Bruhn | CSEAS Travel Grant Recipient

Katherine BruhnThanks to the support of the CSEAS travel grant I was able to travel to Indonesia for five weeks this past summer to conduct follow-up research critical to my dissertation that is focused on the work of visual artists from the region of West Sumatra, Indonesia….

Kara Zamora | CSEAS Travel Grant Recipient

Kara ZamoraMy academic plan explores illness narratives among Filipino U.S. military veterans who return to live in the Philippines and seek health care there after completing military service. This past summer, thanks to the CSEAS summer travel award, I was able to travel to Manila as part of my pre-dissertation summer research. While there, I was able to visit key health care spaces that serve veteran populations.

Daniel Friedman | CCS Fellow

Daniel FriedmanThe Center for Chinese Studies has been immensely generous with its fellowship support over my five years as a Berkeley student, most recently financing a return trip to Taipei, where I spent every day last summer in 3 hours of one-on-one sessions with experts in Chinese literature and history, reading the works that are foundational to my area of study in early imperial law.

Ettore Santi | CCS Fellow

Ettore SantiI am so grateful for the CCS Fellowship I received this year. This source of funding enabled me to carry on my fieldwork during Fall 2019 and to collect a wide array of archival and ethnographic material to complete my Ph.D. dissertation. I used the CCS funding to study China's ongoing agrarian transformation and its spaces.

Linda Zhang | CCS Fellow

Linda ZhangThanks to CCS support throughout my entire graduate student career, I have been able to present papers at conferences and make critical research trips within the United States and also to China. Without CCS funding, I would not have had the chance to visit museums, libraries, and archives to access rare literature and film material for my dissertation work on early socialist Chinese animation and science education film.

Shinjo Ito Postdoctoral Fellowship Announcement

Shinjo Ito Postdoc Scholar

With the generous support of the Shinnyo-en Foundation, the Center for Japanese Studies at UC Berkeley is pleased to invite applications for a full-time postdoctoral research fellowship with the possibility of teaching. The term of the appointment is August 1, 2020, to July 31, 2022.

January 12, 2020

Center for Strategic & International Studies
Taiwan's Close Watch on Hong Kong Protests: A Conversation with Jude Blanchette and Bonnie Glaser

This episode of the ChinaPower Podcast is a crossover episode with “Hong Kong on the Brink,” hosted by Jude Blanchette. Mr. Blanchette interviews Bonnie Glaser about the protests in Hong Kong and their impact on Taiwan’s own relations with mainland China. Ms. Glaser explains how the continued unrest might affect Taiwan’s upcoming January 2020 presidential election. She also expands on how views in Taiwan have evolved since the November 2018 local elections and the start of the Hong Kong protests in summer 2019. Ms.

Bloomberg
How Would Tsai's Election Win Affect Taiwan-China Relations? Shelley Rigger talks about the Outcome of Taiwan's elections.

Shelley Rigger, professor of political science at Davidson College, talks about the outcome of Taiwan's elections. President Tsai Ing-wen of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party won a landslide victory over China-friendly opposition challenger Han Kuo-yu to clinch a second term in elections Saturday. Rigger speaks with Bloomberg's Stephen Engle on "Bloomberg Daybreak: Asia."

January 7, 2020

Over Mountains and Steppes: Tracing ancient tracks of Asia’s Silk

For over a century, the Silk Road was depicted by camel caravans crossing barren deserts, transporting exotic commodities to oasis cities across Central Asia and beyond. The harsh grasslands of the Eurasian steppe and the soaring peaks of Inner Asia were seen as barriers to this flow of Asian commerce — risky regions to be crossed quickly or avoided altogether.

January 1, 2020

CKS Spring 2020 Events
View the Spring 2020 Event List. Topics include Peace on the Korean Peninsula, Kim Jong Un's Grand Strategy, South Korea's Nuclear Energy, Comfort Women, and Korean Queerness in the Newspaper Weekly.
2020 IEAS Events

December 31, 2019

Center for Strategic and International Studies
Results and Ramifications of Taiwan’s Elections: A Conversation with Shelley Rigger

This podcast episode explores the major defeat of the ruling DPP in Taiwan’s recent nine-in-one local elections and what these results mean for the future of cross-Strait relations. Our guest, Dr. Shelley Rigger, explains the current economic and political climate in Taiwan and provides insights into the economic drivers that helped KMT candidates win 15 of Taiwan’s 22 mayoral and county magistrate seats. She also examines Beijing’s response to the election results and how it may use the DPP’s loss to its advantage.