Student Awards
The Asada Eiji Prize
The Center for East Asian Studies sponsors an annual prize of $250.00 awarded for the best University of Chicago BA theses dealing with a topic related to East Asia. Starting in 2009, one prize is awarded in the area of Humanities and one is awarded for Social Sciences. This prize is named in honor of Asada Eiji, the recipient of the first Ph.D. degree awarded by the University of Chicago in 1893. Professor Asada went on to enjoy an illustrious career at the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies.
Asada Eiji Prize Winners
2019-20
The Center for East Asian Studies is pleased to announce that the winners of the 2020 Asada Eiji BA Thesis Prize are Mark Chen and Yufan Chen.
The University of Chicago Center for East Asian Studies (CEAS) sponsors an annual prize of $250 awarded for the best University of Chicago B.A. thesis dealing with topics related to East Asia (China, Japan and/or Korea). Starting in 2009, one prize has usually been awarded to a paper in the area of humanities and one in the area of social sciences. The selection committee also considers the specific content, regional focus, and methodologies of annual submissions. This prize is named in honor of Asada Eiji, the recipient of the first Ph.D. degree awarded by the University of Chicago in 1893. Professor Asada went on to enjoy an illustrious career at the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies.
2018-19
Alexander Hall (Global Studies): Kogai: The Disconnect Between Japanese Ontology and Environmental Policy
Peilun Hao (History): The Scramble for Rice in Wartime Shanghai, 1937-1945
2017-18
Gabrielle Dulys: How to Speak Like an Otaku: Otaku Identity through the Lens of Self-Referentiality, Commodity, and Art
Elizabeth Smith: 'We invited Shinzo Abe, but he was unable to attend.' The First Conference of Museums Addressing the 'Comfort Women' Issue
2016-2017
Aliyah Bixby-Driesen: What’s New about New Baihua? Language Change and Indirect Contact in Chinese Vernacular Literature, 1790-1924
Michelle Shang: “I Almost Forgot I Was A Girl”: Maoist Gender Politics and the Memory of Gender in the Chinese Cultural Revolution, 1966-1976
2015-2016
Shauna Moore: Sore na!: Youth Politeness Strategies on Japanese Video Blogs
Dake Kang: Not So Revolutionary: Soviet Inspirations and Military Justifications for the Planning and Construction of Beijing’s First Subway Line, 1950 - 1969
2014-2015
Zhou Fang: Navy and Nation: the Fuzhou Arsenal and China's Early Modernization
Keyao Pan: Dissecting the East Asia Reparation Movement: A Case Study of the Unit 731 Germ Warfare Reparation Class Suit
2013-2014
Alexander Hoare, "The Secret History of Manga and History Textbooks”
Jeffrey Niedermaier, "I Shall Tell Both Home and Name: The Imperial Voice and the Yamato Political Imaginary in the Man'yōshū"
2011-2012
Feiyang Sun, "Dreams within Dreams: Fiction Commentary and the Later Dream of the Red Chamber"
2010-2011
Yini Shi, "Stories of the Stone: The Multiple Voices of Honglou meng"
Arieh Smith, "Democrats or Dictators: The CCP in Western Eyes"
2009-2010
Hannah Airriess, "Suffering as Resistance: Subjectivity, Genre and the Female Body in Masamura Yasuzo's A Wife Confesses"
2008-2009
Camila Dodik, "Eros and Resistance: Politicized Portrayals of Sexual Deviance in Two Postwar Japanese Works" (Humanities Division)
Qi Stephanie Zhu, "Happy Body, Healthy Spirit: Conceptions of the Body and Wellness in Contemporary Shanghai" (Social Sciences Division)
2007-2008
Lauren Kocher, "Japanese Feminisms and the 'Gender-Free' Controversy”
2006-2007
Christopher Chhim, "New Beijing, New Olympics, New Wenming..."
2005-2006
Pendry Haines, "Korean Ancestors and National Identity"
Chinese Bridge Speech Contest
2016
Matthew Foldi, a political science major studying Chinese with EALC Language Lecturer Meng Li, placed 3rd in the Second Year Chinese group. Gyeom Kim, an Economics major and Math minor, studying Chinese with EALC Language Lecturer Shan Xiang, won 2nd place in the First Year Chinese group.
Foreign Language Acquisition Grants (FLAG)
FLAGs provide summer support from the College for continuing language study or research. These grants may be used to fund study through the Chicago in Beijing program. More information and applications for Summer International Travel Grants can be found at https://sitg.uchicago.edu/ or contact Juliana de Sousa Solis, Assistant Director for Study Abroad.
More information can be found at the following:
Number of FLAGs awarded for East Asia Studies
- 2009: 16 out of 25 awards
- 2008: 29 out of 40 awards
- 2007: 20 out of 29 awards
- 2006: 31 out of 44 awards