Vassar College Chinese and Japanese Department

04/13/2026

We are pleased to announce that Vassar will host NYCAS, the regional conference of the Association for Asian Studies this October!🎉

The Call for Papers is open through the end of May, and we warmly encourage submissions, whether individual papers or organized panels: https://pages.vassar.edu/nycas2026/

With the Hudson Valley at peak foliage, this will be an excellent opportunity to visit campus and explore the surrounding area. We look forward to welcoming you in this fall!🍁

The conference is co-organized by our own Prof. Tsuchiya-Dollase👏

Vassar College, in association with the New York Conference on Asian Studies (NYCAS), will host the 2026 NYCAS focusing on the theme Asia and Environment across Time and Space. Environment as physical surroundings reminds us of our primordial and corporeal embeddedness in nature. Environment as a me...

04/08/2026

Come join the department today for a talk by Prof. Jeffrey Niedermaier (Brown University). The lecture will be held in the Sanders Classroom Auditorium at 5:00 pm. We hope to see you there!

04/01/2026

Congratulations to Professor Natalie Doan '10 on her new book Civil War Samurai: The 1860 Japanese Embassy and Tateishi Onojirō in Antebellum America! Professor Doan graduated with a double major in Japanese and English from Vassar and is an assistant professor of History at the University of Tennessee. We are so proud of our alums! Check out the link to see the trailer for her book!

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03/28/2026

Earlier this month, students in our Japanese program had several exciting experiences, first at Vassar's Loeb Art Center, and then on a field trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC.

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From the classroom to the museum. Students in JAPA375 exploring the newly installed Japanese Galleries at the Metropolitan Museum of Art with curator Dr. John Carpenter. Object-based learning at its best!

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What stories do objects carry? In JAPA335, students interacted with works from the Loeb collection and imagined their "(after)lives" through a creative exercise in object-based storytelling. Drawing inspiration from Japanese tea culture, we explored how everyday objects can become vessels of memory and meaning, and even take on names of their own.

01/22/2026

As we kick off the new semester, we're happy to celebrate the accomplishments of our students! 🎉

The latest issue of Vassar Quarterly features two of them. Alex Graber ’27, a Japanese correlate, shares his study-abroad experience in Okayama, while Aryon Turner ’28, a Chinese major, writes about his experience in Qingdao.

We're especially proud to note that Alex was a recipient of the U.S. Department of State Critical Language Scholarship (CLS), and that Aryon received the prestigious Ann Cornelisen Fellowship to support his summer program. These are wonderful recognitions of their hard work and commitment!

Congratulations to Alex and Aryon! We're very proud of them both and delighted to see their global learning journeys shared with the broader Vassar community. 🌏✨

🔗 Read the full article here:

Nestled nearly 5,000 feet above sea level in the Swiss Alps, Verbier is a small village best known as a winter ski area. But it is also home to the Verbier 3-D Foundation Sculpture Park, founded 15 years ago by Madeleine Paternot ’95 and her partner, Kiki Thompson.

11/11/2025

We were delighted to virtually welcome Nayuta Gambe (PhD student, Tohoku University), who shared his experience as a survivor of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami and his research on disaster memory and community resilience.

We were all moved by his talk, which also served as a gateway to our upcoming joint Spring class with Ochanomizu University on environmental disaster and recovery.

More information on Mr. Gambe's work and scholarship can be found here: https://www2.sal.tohoku.ac.jp/soc/english/cgi-bin/wiki.cgi?page=GAMBE+Nayuta

11/10/2025

We're excited to share that Prof. Bryan Van Norden (Philosophy / Chinese & Japanese Department) has just released the English version of the documentary “Wisdom of China: Laozi,” which he hosted! 🎥

This beautifully produced video introduces viewers to the philosophy and historical legacy of Laozi. You can watch it here: https://youtu.be/lvglQJDrgJI?si=cp0SeCy7UmK-bZoJ

Congratulations, Prof. Van Norden, on this inspiring contribution to bringing Chinese philosophy to a wider audience! 🌏👏

This is the pilot for a documentary series, "The Wisdom of China." Please like and comment if you would like to see more episodes in this series.中国智慧：老子（双语版）

11/04/2025

Come hear Professor Tommasi discuss his research on autobiographical writings in medieval Japan!
The talk will also offer a sneak peek at his upcoming spring course, JAPA/ASIA 335: Life-Writing & Autofiction in Japan.

10/31/2025

We were delighted to welcome Dr. Mimi Okabe (Baruch College) to Vassar yesterday for an engaging talk on youth and gender in Japanese detective manga. Drawing on her first book "Manga, Murder, and Mystery," Dr. Okabe led a lively discussion on how male and female young detectives are portrayed, sparking many questions about the genre. Thank you again, Okabe-sensei! 🕵️‍♀️📚✨

For more information about her book, see: https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/manga-murder-and-mystery-9781350325098/

09/26/2025

Secrets, Schoolgirls and Sleuths: Rethinking Youth and Gender in Japanese Detective Manga 🕵️🫆

Interested in Japanese literature, manga, and/or gender? Come see Baruch College’s Dr. Mimi Okabe give a talk on youth and gender in Japanese detective manga! Dr. Okabe will discuss the nuances of recent changes in the genre, building on her research as a visiting professor at Ritsumeikan University this past summer. The talk will be held on Thursday, October 30th from 3:10-4:25 in CCMPR 223.

09/23/2025

Happy to report that Prof. Hiromi Tsuchiya-Dollase recently joined a conversation about women's leadership with a delegation of Japanese faculty and administrators on our campus! 🌍👩‍🎓

Read more here:

Stories Vassar Hosts Delegation of Japanese Faculty and Administrators for Discussions on Women’s Leadership By Larry Hertz Photos by Kelly Marsh Embrace all the opportunities you are given to engage in leadership tasks at your institutions. That was the message that women in leadership roles at V...