Upcoming Events
Spring 2026
Spring 2026 EASC Undergrad Connect
Wednesday, March 11 | 2:00PM – 3:00PM | CAS 100 | RSVP
Please join us for the Spring 2026 EASC Undergrad Connect! Enjoy food, drink and conversation with fellow students across USC while learning about EASC’s academic programming and opportunities. Undergrad students from any field are welcome to join, so this is a great opportunity to meet fellow students with Asia-related interests!
Spring 2026 EASC Grad Student Connect
Thursday, March 26 | 12:00PM – 1:30PM | CAS 100 | RSVP
Please join us for the Spring 2026 EASC Grad Student Connect! Enjoy food, drink and conversation with fellow students across USC while learning about EASC’s academic programming and opportunities. Graduate students from any field are welcome to join, so this is a great opportunity to meet fellow students with Asia-related research topics and interests!
Joint Book Talks on South Korean Social Activism
Wednesday, April 8, 2026 | 3:00PM-4:50PM | AHN House
Professors Jennifer Chun (UCLA, Asian American Studies) and Judy Han (UCLA, Gender Studies) present a joint book talk on South Korean social activism, discussing their latest works, Against Abandonment: Repertoires of Solidarity in South Korean Protest and Queer Throughlines: Spaces of Queer Activism in South Korea and the Korean Diaspora.
Drawing on ethnographic and transnational research, the talks examine the culture of protest in South Korea, its achievements and precarity, and the development of Korean LGBTQ+ activism since the 1990s. Together, they explore how social movements form solidarities across gender, sexuality, labor, and diaspora, and how these movements intersect locally and globally.
Co-sponsored by the Consortium for Gender, Sexuality, Race and Public Culture, the Gender and Sexuality Studies Department, the East Asian Studies Center, and the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures.
Spring 2026 EASC Faculty Luncheon
Thursday, April 9 | 11:30AM-1:30PM | KSH | Invitation Only
EASC is excited to host our annual Faculty Luncheon this spring! We look forward to having the opportunity to share recent developments and reconnect with each other. We will be hosting this year’s lunch meeting at the University Club Scriptorium. We look forward to celebrating the end of the semester with you!
EASC Guest Speaker Series: Page and Stage: The Printing of Drama in the Late Ming – Talk by Yuming He
Monday, April 13 | 4:10PM-5:50PM | Zoom | RSVP
EASC Guest Speaker Series: Talk by Prof. Yuming He (UC Davis) with Faculty Moderator Prof. Mengxiao Wang (EALC 506: Selections from Classical Chinese Literature)
The late Ming was an age of print, and drama was one of its most dynamic forms. This talk discusses the characteristic strategies used by late-Ming bookmakers to organize dramatic texts in print, and explores how these editorial acts allowed such imprints to enter broader intellectual and cultural life where a critical position within the popular became possible.
EASC Guest Speaker Series: Between Export and Inheritance: Korean American Identity in the Age of K-Beauty – Talk by David Yi
Wednesday, April 15 | 3:30PM-5:00PM | AHN House | RSVP
*The event is resheduled from earlier this semester.
EASC Guest Speaker Series: Talk by David Yi with Faculty Moderator Prof. Sunyoung Park (EALC 430: Gender and Sexuality in Korean Literature and Culture)
David Yi is a USC alum and co-founder of Very Good Light and the gender inclusive beauty brand good light. He is the author of Pretty Boys, the history of men, masc-identifying folx, beauty and masculinity. In this talk, he will focus on discussing a central paradox of the present moment: as Korean culture – through K-beauty, K-pop and media, and overall Korean capitalism – achieves unprecedented global visibility, Korean Americans often remain culturally peripheral to that success. Drawing from his work as a writer and founder in the K-beauty industry, the talk explores questions of belonging, authorship and power at the intersection of diaspora, capitalism, and cultural export.
EASC Guest Speaker Series – Trump Yantra: the Material Culture of Symbiotic Provisions between Thai Monks and Laity – Talk by Susanne Kerekes
Monday, April 20 | 2:00PM-3:20PM | Zoom | RSVP
EASC Guest Speaker Series: Talk by Prof. Susanne Kerekes (Trinity College) with Faculty Moderator Prof. Jessica Zu (REL 342: Buddhist Modernism)
The Buddhist clergy depends on the lay community for material provisions and monetary donations. In return, the laity are said to gain merit (puññā), or other spiritual benefits, such as a Dhamma talk, meditation guidance, chant or a ritual. The author observes that the Thai laity also seek from the clergy material memorabilia, such as yantra, for this-worldly benefits. Through a case study of two talismanic yantra created by a Thai monk at the request of lay business owners, this talk argues that the symbiotic relationship between clergy and laity often manifests in material ways.
Reimagining Feminist Korean Studies Workshop
Friday, April 24 | 9:00AM-6:00PM | AHN | RSVP
This one-day workshop brings together emerging scholars and established voices to reimagine the epistemic foundations of Korean Studies through feminist, queer, indigenous, decolonial, and transnational frameworks. Responding to the rise of right-wing authoritarianism, intensified anti-feminist backlash in South Korea, and the persistent marginalization of feminist discourse in Anglophone Korean Studies, the workshop creates space for collaborative dialogue and methodological innovation.
Co-sponsored by the Center for Feminist Research, East Asian Studies Center, and the Korean Heritage Library
Providing leadership, coordination and support for East Asian studies at the University of Southern California.
120
Affiliated Faculty in over 44 departments
405
Students sent to East Asia on Global East Asia
$3.1 M
Awarded in Student and Faculty Funding
EASC Signature Programs
Undergraduate
Global East Asia (GEA) is a four week upper-division Maymester research course with a study abroad component for USC undergraduate students, made possible by the East Asian Studies Center and USC Dornsife. This intensive program gives students the opportunity to travel and conduct research in China or Japan. Students from all majors, schools and language backgrounds are eligible to apply and experience East Asia in a unique way.
Graduate
EASC Graduate Fellowships provide summer stipends, typically between $1,000-$3,000, depending on the proposed course of study. The purpose of the award is to advance understanding of East Asia and/or US-Asia relations. The award may be used for research, language training or area studies, and can also be used for research including Asia in a comparative context or as a case study.
Research
A centerpiece of the East Asian Studies Center’s efforts to support all forms of research that deal with East Asia at USC is the manuscript review. Any USC faculty working on a book that deals with East Asia in some way are eligible for possible support. The program is designed to provide helpful and timely feedback to faculty preparing monographs or other similarly large academic works prior to submission for publication.
Student Journal of Asian Studies @ USC
The USC Student Journal for Asian Studies (SJAS @ USC) is a student-run journal that publishes undergraduate and graduate research across various disciplines in Asian studies. In its most recent issue, the featured topics span East to Southeast Asia, diasporic communities, and the intersections of domestic and foreign cultures, establishing an overall international and transnational theme.
The Spring 2026 Issue will be coming soon! Please view the Spring 2025 Issue in the meantime.
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Contact Us
East Asian Studies Center
3454 Trousdale Parkway, CAS 100
Los Angeles, CA 90089-0154