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Congratuations to Dr. Dagmar Schwerk on her new book publication!
Dr. Dagmar Schwerk recently released A Timely Message from the Cave: The Mahāmudrā and Intellectual Agenda of dGe-bshes Brag-phug-pa dGe-’dun-rin-chen (1926–1997), the Sixty-Ninth rJe-mkhan-po of Bhutan, which was developed out of her dissertation.
Her book addresses the long-lasting debate about the Mahāmudrā doctrine and meditative system that was first elicited through Sakya Paṇḍita (1182–1252)’s systematic critique in the thirteenth century. Not only has Dr. Schwerk made the positions of eminent Bhutanese Drukpa Kagyü masters between the eighteenth and twentieth centuries from the Drukpa Kagyü school accessible to English-speaking readers; she has also provided an in-depth analysis of the Mahāmudrā interpretation by the Sixty-ninth Chief Abbot of Bhutan Geshe Drapukpa Gendün Rinchen (1926–97). Furthermore, she documented and discussed the life of this renowned Buddhist master from the Drukpa Kagyü school on the basis of Tibetan autobiographical and biographical sources and his collected works in ten volumes.
Click below to read some additional information about the book-writing process, download the media kit, and read a detailed Q&A interview with Dagmar by the UBC Himalaya Program, in which she shares her favourite verse translation from the book and the meaning behind the title.
Read more
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Event Recap - My Generation, My Love: A Multimedia Contest
Love comes in all sorts of shapes and forms – students from both the UBC Cantonese Language Program and Chinese Language Program showed just how varied something as universal as love can be in this year’s “My Generation, My Love: A Multimedia Contest.”
Through hand picked monologues, essays, and short films, every single comedic, tragic, and profound facet of love and romance was explored.
Read more about the event and what participants had to say about what love is to them here!
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How Bruce Lee Became a Legend: Connections between Chinese Culture and Black Culture
In recognition and celebration of Black History Month last month, Dr. Chris Rea created a pair of video essays about how African-Americans shaped the legend of Bruce Lee, based on his presentation at the Vancouver Public Library in December 2020.
Part 1 talks about Bruce Lee: the man, the actor, the films, the icon and the legend. What made him so different from those preceding him and even those who came after?
Watch Part 1 here!
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Ten Years after Fukushima: Commemoration and Lessons for the Future - Wednesday, Mar 17, 5:30pm PT/8:30pm ET
A two-part online panel discussions on lessons (un)learned from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in 2011.
As we commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant disaster in 2011, the University of Tokyo and UBC invite you to online panel discussions featuring various panelists.
Find out more and register here!
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Job Opportunity: Lecturer in Korean Language and Culture deadline by March 31
Applications are open for one Lecturer position in Korean Language and Culture, commencing September 1, 2021.This is a full-time without review (i.e., non-tenure track) position for a term of up to three years, renewable for successive terms.
Requirements include native or near-native fluency in both Korean and English; a Ph.D or equivalent degree in Korean Linguistics or Teaching Korean as a Second/Foreign Language, or a closely related field; and evidence of excellent and extensive teaching experience in all levels of Korean courses at the post-secondary level in North America.
The deadline to apply is March 31.
For more information, click here or apply here!
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Participate in the University-wide Gender Diversity Audit
UBC's Trans, Two-Spirit, and Gender Diversity Task Force, which was established last March, is currently conducting an external audit of gender diversity inclusion to build a more inclusive university community.
As part of the audit, all UBC students, faculty and staff are encouraged to participate in an online survey to share their experiences and ideas related to gender diversity across several themes.
The deadline for participating is March 15. All responses are confidential and will help inform recommendations for greater inclusion of transgender, Two-Spirit and gender diverse (T2SGD) students, faculty and staff at UBC.
Access the survey here
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MURC 2021 - Saturday, Mar 20, 9am PT/12pm ET and Sunday, Mar 21, 7am PT/10am ET
The Multidisciplinary Undergraduate Research Conference (MURC) is UBC’s largest undergraduate research conference and, with over 500 presenters, research panels and workshops, is a great opportunity for UBC undergraduate students to explore research from all disciplines.
From March 1-18, register to attend MURC 2021 for a day of presentations, panels and workshops. Explore the diverse research of 500+ undergraduate researchers from multiple disciplines. MURC is online, free to attend, and open to all!
For more information, visit their website or register here.
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| UPCOMING VIRTUAL EVENTS |
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2021 Asian Studies Careers Night
Friday, March 12th, 5:30pm PT / 8:30pm ET
Our annual Asian Studies Career Night is just around the corner. This year it will be presented virtually over Zoom.
Navigating life after graduation can be hard, so as always we will have a panel of alumni with diverse experiences – at home and in Asia – to inform and inspire current students. We will also have a special keynote speaker, Ambassador Sarah Taylor, who is currently Canada's Ambassador to Thailand, Cambodia and Laos.
Careers Night is the perfect opportunity to make connections, ask questions, and feel more confident in taking the next steps on your career path. You won't want to miss it!
For more details and to register, click here
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Language and Literature Learning Talk: Visualizing your Chinese Language and Literature Journey
Friday, March 12th, 7pm PT / 10pm ET
How can I keep on learning Chinese language and literature? Are you searching for some good learning strategies when it comes to mastering the language? Whether you are new to learning Chinese, or you are a seasoned speaker enrolled in an advanced literature course, come join us at our talk!
Guest speaker, Dr. Chris Rea 雷勤风 教授, started learning Chinese at his first-year college year, and his Chinese surprises even native speakers! He will share his inspiring Chinese language learning journey, most effective learning strategies and provide some useful ideas on staying motivated when learning Chinese.
For more information or to register, click here.
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Degenerate, Popular, and Forgotten? Politicization and Monetization of Urban Entertainment in Pahlavi Iran
Saturday, March 13th, 4pm PT / 7pm ET
Relatively understudied and prevalently deployed in the cultural discourse of contemporary Iran, the term “degenerate” (mubtazal) has historically been used to devalue and dismiss a range of arts, most of which belong to the realm of urban popular culture.
Focusing on the gendered and corporeal aspects of the term “degeneration” (ibtizal) and its binary oppositions “committed” and/or “artistic,” Professor Ida Meftahi (Boise State University) aims to historicize and unpack these terms in the Tudeh Party’s discourse on arts and public performative politics.
For more information or to register, click here.
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Ainu: 150 years of resilience
Monday, March 15th, 12pm PT / 3pm ET
The Ainu people of northern Japan were officially recognized as Indigenous peoples by the Japanese government in 2008. Ainu means human being in the Ainu language.
Despite assimilationist government policies resulting in cultural and linguistic loss among Ainu—a history shared with many other Indigenous peoples—today Ainu political movements and Ainu Studies continue to expand and reposition Ainu voices within a framework of public and academic discourse.
Dr. Kanako Uzawa will demonstrate how Ainu issues can be discussed in relation to global Indigenous politics and highlight its complexity.
Learn more and register here.
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Mid-Century Modern: Jōdo Shinshū and the Making of American Buddhism
Monday, March 22nd, 6pm PT / 9pm ET
Jōdo Shinshū Young Buddhist Associations before, during, and long after the illegal war-time incarceration of Japanese Americans actively promoted Buddhism as part of their contribution to American culture.
Despite practicing American Buddhism for fifty years before Kerouac’s Dharma Bums, it is the Beat poets and D.T. Suzuki who are regularly credited with popularizing Buddhism in the United States.
In this presentation, guest speaker Scott Mitchell explores how the narrative of American Buddhist history is altered when we center the invisiblized labor of marginalized persons who made possible the conditions for Buddhism’s dissemination and popularization in the later half of the twentieth century.
For more information and to register, click here
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Epistemology of the Violets: Heuristics toward a Sensorium of Afro-Japanese Co-creativity
Tuesday, April 13th, 4pm PT / 7pm ET
This talk is interested in the formation of what we might call an epistemology of the violets, or a way of seeing and being in the world at the intersection of the blues and the reds.
The “blues” here refers to that musical form born in the freedom found in the wake of American slavery. “Red” here serves as a chromatic stand in for the epistemological and sensorial insights embedded in Japanese creative works.
Professor Will Bridges (University of Rochester) will aim to provide general heuristics for those interested in the study of the epistemological possibilities of purple, or a way of seeing and creating possible worlds that is neither red nor blue—neither African American nor Japanese—but both red and blue, the emergence upon their coalescence.
Learn more and register here.
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| SUSTAINABILITY NEWS |
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Workplace Sustainability Funding Awarded!
Back in January our members, Maija and Vicky, compiled an application for the Workplace Sustainability Fund. To our delight, the application was successful, and our committee was awarded an $800 grant. We are planning to use this opportunity to create our own webpage in order to bring you more updates about the Committee’s work.
If you have any questions or suggestions about our future project, email us at asia.eco@ubc.ca any time or fill in our survey here.
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Gardening Time!
Have you always wanted to start a garden, but do not know how?
A guide from our member, Vicky, is here to help, and it is full of resources for beginning and experienced gardeners!
Find our take on another Sustainable New Year resolution here!
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Movie Discussion - ANTHROPOCENE: The Human Epoch
On February 25, the Sustainability Committee held its very first event, a discussion of ANTHROPOCENE: The Human Epoch. We express our gratitude to our member Dr. Dongchen Hou, and Dr. Nina Hewitt of the Department of Geography. Thanks to their facilitation, we were able to discuss this documentary from multiple perspectives.
We hope that for future events we will be able to attract a wider audience and enrich our discussions even further!
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| OPPORTUNITIES |
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Call for Submissions: Chinese Folk Songs and Folk Tales for UBC Research Website
A team of researchers at the University of British Columbia is creating a website to help Chinese-Canadian children learn about their heritage and are seeking volunteers aged 18+ to contribute folksongs and folktales from across greater China, to be added to their website. This website helps young Chinese-Canadian children learn about and maintain an interest in their heritage language. The team is aiming to collect submissions from as many dialects as possible. You can view existing submissions on the website here. If you are interested in participating, please contact shannon.ward@ubc.ca.
Call for Papers: “Medieval Textual Materialities” for 2022 MLA Annual Convention Pre-14th Century Chinese Forum
The Modern Language Association's Languages, Literatures, and Cultures Pre-14th-Century Chinese forum is looking for material bases of medieval textuality: any aspect of medium (including language), manuscript culture, calligraphy, and epigraphy. Ideally the paper would focus on early and medieval China, but scholars working on Japan, Korea, and comparative/global medieval studies are welcome. Please send your title, 250 word (max) abstract, and brief bio or CV to Jack W. Chen at jwchen@virginia.edu by March 15. The forum executive committee will review all abstracts and notify applicants. If accepted, participants will have to become members of MLA.
Sustainable Development Goals Youth Conference
Learn about the Sustainable Development Goals, what they actually entail and how to incorporate them into your lifestyle. This two-day conference on March 20 and 21, hosted by the Kwantlen Polytechnic University Social Enterprise Club, will give you the opportunity to receive training on the SDGs, hear from 2 speakers from the United Nations and network with them, and learn how to mobilize your knowledge to create a full-fledged action plan to tackle the SDGs. Early bird ticketing is available until March 15. Learn more about the event and RSVP here.
Call for Papers: Astronomy and Astrology in Early Text Cultures
Early Text Cultures, a project run by graduate students and early-career researchers at the University of Oxford, is looking for contributions to its online seminar series for Trinity Term 2021 (April 25 to June 19), to be held on Zoom. Astronomy and astrology were long viewed by numerous cultures—as they still are in some parts of the world—as two sides of the same coin, and the heavens long held sway over the imagination of pre-modern cultures, and their influence extended, naturally, to these cultures’ writings. Postgraduates and early career researchers working on such themes in any culture, pre-modern or even modern, are invited to submit informal expressions of interest of no more than 250 words via this Google form by March 25. For more information, click here or email earlytextcultures.ox@gmail.com.
Laura Bassi Scholarship Open for Applications
The Laura Bassi Scholarship, which awards a total of $8,000 thrice per annum, was established by Editing Press in 2018 with the aim of providing editorial assistance to postgraduates and junior academics whose research focuses on neglected topics of study, broadly construed. The scholarships are open to every discipline and all currently enrolled master’s and doctoral candidates are eligible to apply, as are academics in the first five years of full-time employment. Applicants are required to submit a completed application form along with their CV through the application portal by March 31. Further details, previous winners, and the application portal can be found here.
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