Welcome

The Center for East Asian Studies at the University of Pennsylvania is an interdisciplinary unit composed of faculty members whose teaching and research focus primarily on China, Japan, Korea, and bordering areas.

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Penn Launches Center for the Study of Contemporary China

The Center for the Study of Contemporary China (CSCC) was established in 2012 at the University of Pennsylvania to advance Penn’s leadership in programs, research, and scholarship about the political, legal, economic, and social factors shaping China and its role in the world today.   The Center will sustain and extend the University’s work on and partnerships in China, providing an institutional home for campus-wide collaboration among departments, programs, institutes, faculty and students at Penn engaged in work pertaining to contemporary China. Activities will include conferences, roundtables, and a speaker series. The Center will also provide support for faculty and graduate student research and serve as host for visiting international scholars and prominent public leaders. The new website for the CSCC can be accessed at http://cscc.sas.upenn.edu/

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Featured Program for Educators: Phila-Nipponica 2012: Application Deadline Extended until February 10, 2012

Phila-Nipponica is intended to educate “beginners” about Japan, offering a broad base of history and culture in preparation for a study-tour of Japan, with a focus on: Recovering Japan: Preparing Philadelphia Area Educators to Teach about Japan as It Responds to the Disasters of 2011.

We are currently seeking applications from social studies, science, and humanities teachers in middle and high schools who have a strong interest in developing or enhancing a Japan studies program.

Project activities include:

• Three intensive all-day Saturday seminars (March 3, April 14, and May 12) with scholars on the University of Pennsylvania campus. Attendance is mandatory.
• A 17-day study tour of Japan in June–July 2012. Tentative dates are June 22–July 9. You must be available all of this period.
• Three mandatory curriculum implementation sessions in Fall 2012, with a final presentation of your Japan teaching plan.

Click here for the application.

The application deadline has been extended until February 10, 2012

Please send or fax your application to:
Melissa DiFrancesco
Center for East Asian Studies
Williams Hall 642, University of Pennsylvania
255 S. 36th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305
Fax: 215.573.2561

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Starting on January 30, 2012 Mondays at 4:30 pm Silverman Hall, Room 240B in the Penn Law School

This spring semester, the University of Pennsylvania offers a lecture series and seminar on China and human rights.  China’s human rights record and China’s approach to international human rights law and norms are issues of major and growing international concern as China becomes more powerful and influential.  Human rights are also a perennial point of friction in relations between the United States and China.  Led by Jacques deLisle (Stephen A. Cozen Professor of Law, Professor of Political Science and Director of the Center for East Asian Studies at Penn), this program will bring to Penn leading experts from academia, the public sector and NGOs in China and the United States to address selected aspects of human rights in China.  Topics include the role of law—and its limits—in protecting human rights and providing redress, China’s engagement with international human rights regimes, the role of “rights protection” lawyers, religious liberties, media freedom, treatment of political dissidents, elections and democratic rights, discrimination against people with communicable diseases, the effect of international human rights law in China, and other issues.

Speakers include:
- Bob Fu, China Aid Association
- Carl Minzner, Fordham University Law School
- James Zhaojie Li, Tsinghua University Law School
- Eva Pils, Chinese University of Hong Kong
- Tiancheng Wang, Penn Law School
- Sharon Hom, Human Rights in China
- Harry Wu, Laogai Research Foundation
- Jerome Cohen, NYU Law School
- Amy Gadsden, Penn Law School
- A panel of Chinese judges, and others

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East Asian Area Studies Major and Minor

For additional information about the East Asian Area Studies Major and Minor please visit our Degree, Programs and Requirements page or contact Dr. Frank L. Chance.
For the most recent list of courses, please visit our Academics page.