REALC News
February, 2019
November, 2018
Chinese Assistant Professor Jia-Chen Fu has published her first book, The Other Milk: Reinventing Soy in Republican China. According to the University of Washington Press description, The Other Milk explores the curious paths that led to the notion of the deficient Chinese diet and to soybean milk as the way to guarantee food security for the masses.
September, 2018
REALC welcomed two new Korean faculty members this fall!
Hwisang Cho joins us from Columbia University, where he earned his Ph.D. in premodern Korean history. He specializes in the interactions between written culture and sociopolitical changes. He will offer classes in Korean history and culture such as his newly created Introduction to Korean Culture and Choson: Last Dynasty of Korea.
Jenny Wang Medina also hails from Columbia, where she earned her Ph.D. in East Asian languages and cultures with an emphasis on modern Korean literature and culture. She is currently serving as a Post-doctoral Fellow in the Bill and Carol Fox Center for Humanistic Inquiry, working on her book manuscript, Brand Conscience: Global Korea and the Reinvention of National Cultures.
May, 2018
Congratulations REALC Graduates!
April, 2018
Russian Professor Nikolay Koposov's New Book Receives High Praise
Visiting Professor of Russian Nikolay Koposov’s recent book, Memory Laws, Memory Wars: The Politics of the Past in Europe and Russia received an enthusiastic review in the Los Angeles Review of Books this month. Published by Cambridge University Press in October of 2017, the book examines the increase in memory laws passed in the later decades of the twentieth century, the first of which were enacted to legislate against denials of the Holocaust. Koposov studies the proliferation of such laws and their subsequent manipulation by powerful states to suppress speech. Reviewer Douglas Smith writes, “Koposov shows in great detail how as memory laws spread from West to East they became ever less democratic and ever more despotic, weapons not of the weak, but of the strong, used to silence competing narratives about the past and to foster a mythical national history.”
Student Research Shines at REALC Symposium
The Department of REALC was thrilled to host its fourth annual Undergraduate Student Research Symposium in the spring of 2018. Students from all disciplines were invited to submit proposals in the areas of the languages, cultures, societies, or politics of Russia, Eastern Europe, and East Asia. Some students presented work associated with honors theses, while others chose papers written as class assignments. Not only is the symposium an excellent opportunity for undergraduate students to hone their research and presentation skills, it also provides a platform to showcase the innovative and provocative work being done throughout Emory College in REALC’s global areas.
The presenters were as follows:
Christina Morgan, “How Love Challenges the Soviet Regime”
Mallory Carnes (below), “Creating New Spaces: Constructing and Performing Gender in Mandarin-Language Popular Music of the People’s Republic of China, Post-1997”
Kim de Guzman, “Creating Prostitutes as Abnormal Bodies during the Soviet Era”
Daniel Gursoy, “Total War: A Historiographical Comparison of Red Army and Wehrmacht Permission Structures”
Bradyn Schiffman (above), “Examining NATO’s Impact on Russian-speaking Identity through Media Coverage of Latvia”
Min Jae Choi, “The Motivations for North Korea’s Provocations”
Oscar Escobar and Alex Labaziewicz, “Parental Influence on Japanese Language Learners’ Motivation and Language Acquisition”
Yu Yang and Doris Zhou, “Understanding the Cultural and Familial Motivations of Chinese Heritage Learners”
March, 2018
Emory Students Take Top Honors at Japanese Speech Contest
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Emory students performed brilliantly at this year's Japanese Academic Challenge and Speech Contest. This was the 26th year of the event which was jointly organized by the Georgia Association of Teachers of Japanese, the Japan-America Society of Georgia, the Japanese Chamber of Commerce of Georgia and the Consulate-General of Japan in Atlanta. Congratulations to all of Emory's students who participated!
Top Right: Chloe Lee claimed the 2nd Prize in Catagory I (JPN 101/102/Japanese Proficiency Test 4-5)
Top Left: Ju Mi Ha won the 2nd Prize in Category II (JPN 301-402/Japanese Proficiency Test Level 3)
Below: Yani Emma Li received an honorable mention for her performance in Category II.
February, 2018
The Department of REALC hosts its fifth annual Silk Road Cafe
As part of Emory's annual Love Your Majors Week, the Department of REALC invited students from each of its global areas of study to celebrate the food, art, and culture of Russia and East Asia. Above, students sample green tea and practice the ancient art of Chinese paper cutting. Below, students try their hands at origami.
January, 2018
Bumyong Choi is a recipient of the Winship Award for Senior Lecturers! He will be on leave during the Spring 2019 semester.
April, 2017
CONGRATULATIONS REALC GRADUATES!
Congratulations to our ECLC Excellence in Language Studies Awards Winners!
The winners of the 2017 Emory College Language Center award winners are:
Chinese: Busniess and Chinese Major Stephen Weiner
Japanese: Human Health Major and Japanese Minor Michael Flores
Korean: English Major and Korean minor Haley Van Petten
Russian: Interdisciplinary Studies and Russian Major Katy Mayerson
March, 2017
REALC Hosts its Third Annual Student Research Symposium
Above: Computer Science and Linguistics major Hang Jiang presents, "Adding Word Boundaries to the Chinese Script Will Benefit Chinese Language Users."
Friday, March 31, 2017, students representing programs from across Emory College and the Laney Graduate School presented their work in the areas of Russian and East Asian studies. Students answered a call for papers requesting submissions on the subjects of Russian or East Asian linguistics, art, history, politics, religion, or culture. The selectees, seven undergraduates and one graduate student, presented on topics ranging from Russian literature to Chinese entrepreneurship. The complete schedule of presenters is below.
Korea Week Schedule Announced
3/27 Monday: Opening event (Asbury Circle)
3/28 Tuesday: Panel Discussion – “The "Comfort Women" Statue Installation in Atlanta
as a Transnational Peace Movement”
* 5:45-7:00 Rita Anne Rollins Building (RARB) 102
* Participants
a) Facilitator: Dr. Ellen Ott Marshall (Associate Professor of Christian Ethics and Conflict Transformation)
b) Panels: Won Chul Shin (PhD Student in Ethics and Society, Graduate Division of Religion) and Helen Kim-Ho, Special Advisor of The Atlanta Comfort Women Memorial Taskforce.
* Sponsors:
a) Candler Coordinating Council, Candler School of Theology
b) Religion, Conflict, Peacebuilding Program, Graduate Division of Religion
c) The Ethics and Servant Leadership Program, Center for Ethics
d) Korean Program, REALC
3/29 Wednesday: Korean Culture Fair
* 11:00 AM – 2:00 PM, Cox Hall Bridge
* The Korean Culture Fair is an opportunity to immerse in Korean cultural activities. Take a picture wearing the beautiful traditional Korean garb, hanbok. Or try some of the traditional Korean games. Collect certificates for participating in each cultural activity and exchange them for a small gift!
3/30 Thursday: "South Korean Popular Culture before and after Democracy" –
Celebrating the 30th anniversary of Democratization in South Korea
* 5:30-7:00 White Hall 103
* Guest speakers
a) Charles Kim (History, University of Wisconsin): “Culture and Protest in Cold War South Korea.”
b) Jenny Wang Medina (Korean Literature and Cultural Studies, Columbia University): “As the K-World Turns: The Politics of Culture in Millennial South Korea.”
* Sponsors: Hightower Fund, REALC Korean Program, Halle Institute, East Asian Studies Program.
3/31 Friday: Hangeul Party – A Korean Calligraphy Event
* 4:00-7:00 PM, Brooks Common, Cannon Chapel
* Enjoy an afternoon/evening of modern Korean calligraphy with one of the most prominent calligraphers from Korea. Learn about the Korean alphabet and fall in
love with Korean calligraphy and culture by doing it yourself! The event is children-friendly and a delicious Korean dinner will be provided.
* Sponsors: REALC Korean Program, Halle Institute, East Asian Studies Program, Emory College Language Center (ECLC).
4/2 Sunday: Korea Culture Night
* 3:00 – 5:30 PM, WHSCAB Auditorium
* Emory’s Korean Undergraduate Student Association (KUSA) and Korean International Students at Emory (KISEM) will be hosting their 14th annual Korean Culture Night (KCN) on Sunday, April 2 at 3 p.m., which will highlight various aspects of Korean culture through both modern and traditional performances. The event will be held in the Woodruff Health Sciences Center administration building auditorium and will feature Emory student groups and Atlanta community groups.
* Sponsors: REALC Korean Program, Halle Institute.
Emory Japanese Students Awarded Highest Honors at Speech Contest
Above: Junzhou Qui and Siqi Zheng
Emory students demonstrated their skills once again at the state-wide, annual Japaenese Speech Contest, taking home awards in both beginning and advanced levels. The winners were as follows:
Level 1 (1st and 2nd year)
1st: Zinuo Sun (日本史を愛する理由)
2nd: Andrew Jeong（旅行したい日本の都市）
3rd: Ju Mi Ha （言葉の響き）
Level 2 (3rd and 4th year)
1st: Junzhou Qui (Katakana and Samurai) – got a round trip air ticket to Japan!
Ganbatta award (honorable mention): Siqi Zheng 言葉が人の魂
This year's Japanese Speech Contest took place March 4, 2017 at the Atlanta campus of Mercer University. The event was sponsored by the Japanese Consulate in Atlanta, the Georgia Association of Teachers of Japanese, the Japan-American Society of Georgia, and the Japanese Chamber of Commerce of Georgia.
Above: Zinou Sun, Andrew Jeong, and Ju Mi Ha
May, 2016
Beloved Lecturer Wan-Li Ho Retires
REALC and East Asian Studies faculty and staff bid farewell this semester to Chinese Senior Lecturer Wan-Li Ho. She was honored with memorial speeches and letters from former students and colleagues at a REALC faculty luncheon, but it remains difficult to put her legacy into words. As an instructor of Chinese language, as well as courses focusing on Chinese women and religion, Wan-Li earned the reputation as a passionate, dedicated teacher and a mentor to her students. During her fifteen years at Emory, she inspired generations of undergraduates to pursue studies, and eventually careers, in Chinese language or related fields. In 2014, Wan-Li received the Emory College Language Center Excellence in Teaching Award for her outstanding teaching record, evidence of innovation in teaching, and evidence of appreciation by peers and students as a model teacher. Wan-Li ended her career at Emory on an especially high note with the publication of her first book, Ecofamilism: Women, Religion, and Environmental Protection in Taiwan.
In addition to her many professional successes, Wan-Li will be remembered by her colleagues and students at Emory for her kindness, her sincerity, and her selflessness. We wish her much happiness in her richly deserved retirement!
CONGRATULATIONS REALC GRADUATES, SPRING 2016!
