East Asian Studies M.A.

OUR STUDENTS

1st Year Students

 Jennifer Fagan

B.A. in World Literature and Culture/Linguistics; a minor in Transnational Korean Studies, UC San Diego
Hometown: Viejo, California

Jennifer is interested in studying South Korea's tradition and culture, particularly their cultural stories as well as how that manifests in their linguistic practices.

 Taylor Kielman

International Affairs major; minors in Chinese and Asian Studies, Transylvania University (Lexington, KY)
Hometown: Flemingsburg, KY

Taylor is interested in the relationship between Chinese culture and politics, specifically within the unique context of Hong Kong. She also plans to further her study of the Chinese language while at UCLA!

 Brandon Munoz

B.A. in Languages and Literature - Japanese, UC Riverside
Hometown: Helendale, CA

Brandon's research interest is in the influence westernization has had on gender roles and sexuality through the lens of Meiji Era and Post-war occupation literature.

 Alexander Perez

B.A. in Literature and Theater Studies, Duke University
Hometown: Tampa, FL

Alex's research interests include modern Japanese literature, film, and anime and how those works get adapted for Western audiences.

 Taylor Shaw

B.A. in Political Science B.A. and Art History, Sweet Briar College
Hometown: Virginia Beach, VA

Taylor's interest is in combining political science and art history. Through her research in her undergraduate career, she was able to delve specifically into the symbiotic nature of what is occurring politically in China through the lens of censorship in Chinese Contemporary art.

 Ziqiao Shen

B.S in Business Administration, Tongji University and ESSEC Business School
Hometown: Shanghai, China

Ziqiao is interested in gender studies including women in the workplace in contemporary China.

 Xiaozhu Yang

B.A. in Translation, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen
Hometown: Hangzhou, China

Xiaozhu’s interests lie in pre-modern Chinese literature and intellectual history with special focus on fiction of Ming and Qing dynasties.

  Rucheng Wang

B.A. in World History, Boston University
Hometown: Shenzhen, Guangdong, China

Rucheng is interested in the interconnection between Chinese historical and intellectual development. He has a special interest in Zhuangzi and Neo-Taoism which was reflected in the intellectual trend during Wei-Jin period.

 Yifan Wang

B.S. in Accounting, Purdue University
Hometown: Tianjin, China; Los Angeles, CA

Yifan is interested in Chinese Buddhism culture and history, Buddhist Canon, Buddhist texts, and translation

Continuing Students

 Ruochen Cao

B.A. in Korean language & literature, and B.A. in Sociology, B.A., Peking University
Social Science (with a concentration in sociology and history), M.A., University of Chicago
Hometown: Hometown: Beijing, China

Ruochen is interested in the intersectional dynamics of gender, class, and race in the domain of labor and works in the context of contemporary East Asian society.

 Kelly Dominguez Carmona
Undergraduate: International Relations and Asian Studies at CSU Chico
Hometown: Los Angeles, CA/ from Acapulco, Mexico
Kelly is interested in the cultural and social history of Korean women, special concentration on post-WWII; feminism in modern Korea.

  Jingjing Fan

Culture, Literature & the Arts B.A., University of Washington at Bothell
Hometown: Shenzhen, China
Jingjing is interested in Chinese contemporary literature and films (since 1919), exploring the boundaries of themes and beliefs while holding on the threads of morality and histories.

 Ishani Ghosh 

Global Studies major and Korean minor, UC Berkeley.
Hometown: Pune, Maharashtra
Ishani is interested in researching depictions of cultural misappropriation/appreciation, sexism, racism, and colorism in Korean media.

 Yali He-Schaefer

George Fox University, Organizational Communications/TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages
Yali's interests primarily lie in studying contemporary Chinese social reforms and initiatives and how different parts of society are involved in such efforts, particularly Chinese women and ethnic minorities.

 Gary Hejie Huang

Chemical Engineering and Comparative Literature major, UC Santa Barbara
Hometown: Gunagzhou, China; Irvine, CA
Gary's research areas include psychoanalysis of contemporary Chinese, Trauma Studies and Memory Studies, comparative analysis of literary changes under the democratic reform in the 1980s, and East Asian LGBTQ literature.

 Julie Morris

B.M. in Flute Performance from Morehead State University; Flute Performance M.M., Longy School of Music of Bard College
Hometown: Independence, KY
Julie's research is focused on the transmission of ideas in Japan as seen in the ritual performance art of kagura and its impact in the ripples of society.  In addition, she is interested in how instrumental kagura was in the dissemination and unification of political, social, and religious ideas surrounding these prefectures both in pre-modern and present day Japan.

 Allison Robertson

Japanese major and Art History minor, UCLA
Hometown: Los Angeles, CA
Allison’s current research focuses on issues of gender, fear, and cruelty in supernatural setsuwa of the medieval period. Having spent much of her life as the lead guitarist in an all-female rock band, she is particularly interested in analyzing the notion of the public persona as it relates to perceptions and representations of gender and class in premodern Japanese literature.

 Moe Sasakawa

Nagoya University/School of Letters
Hometown: Fukuoka/Japan
Moe’s interest lies in the human-animal intersectionality in modern and contemporary Japanese literature.

 Luxiao Shi 

Renmin University of China, Contemporary Chinese History
Hometown: Beijing, China
Luxiao is interested in the cultural and social history of modern China, with particular emphasis on the Mao era.

 Qingyi Sun

B.A. degree in History at Fudan University.
Hometown: Shanghai, China
Qingyi is interested in the cultural history of 20th-century China, and her undergraduate thesis  was focused on female hysteria in Shanghai during the 1930s and 1940s. After graduating from UCLA, she plans to pursue a Ph.D. degree. Besides studying, she  finds joy in reading, singing, and dancing.

 Jorge Torres Villalva

Political Science B.A., Davidson College
Hometown: Hilton Head, SC
Jorge's primary research interests lie in U.S.-China relations. He is fascinated by, and is constantly reflecting on, the relationship between communities, space and place, recorded history, identities, and institutional factors in East Asia.

 Jiayin Yuan

Undergraduate school and major: University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, B.A in Asian Studies, International Studies, and Psychology
Hometown: Wuhan, China
Jiayin's research focuses on premodern Japanese literature, particularly on war tales such as The Tale of the Heike. She's interested in exploring the question of how people imagine and understand the society and the world they inhabit, and in doing so how they use literature as a vehicle to justify or challenge the notion of authority in medieval Japan.

 Jingyan Zhang

Undergraduate Degree and Institute: Linguistics B.A. and Comparative Literature B.A., University of California, Santa Barbara
Hometown: Dongguan, Guangdong, China
Jingyan's  research interests lie in Chinese literature, trauma studies, memory studies, and Linguistics.