Author Archives: jdahl

Dissertation Proposal Writing Informational Session: Thursday, February 23 4:00-6:00 PM

Dissertation Proposal Writing Information Session

Kathy Cochran, Deputy Director of the Writing Program

(OPEN TO ALL STUDENTS IN ANY FIELD)

Thursday, February 23rd

4:00-6:00 PM

John Hope Franklin Room (SSR 224)

Please join the East Asia: Transregional Histories Workshop in welcoming Kathy Cochran as she guides us through writing one of the most important papers of your pre-ABD career, the dissertation proposal. Using examples from real proposals as well as Professor Leora Auslander’s guide to proposal writing, Kathy’s presentation on mobilizing “problem and solution” language in proposals will offer techniques for clearly conveying the value of your project. Afterward, there will be time for questions of all sorts about proposals. This event is open to any and all who might find it valuable, and it is aimed primarily at history students, regardless of field.

There is no paper for this event, but Professor Auslander’s guide to writing the dissertation proposal can be found on the History Grad Student chalk site under “Proposals,” and also at the East Asia: Transregional Histories workshop website. 

As always, first-time attendees are welcome. Light refreshments and snacks will be served.

If you have any questions or require assistance to attend, please contact Jessa Dahl at jdahl@uchicago.edu or Erin Newton at emnewton@uchicago.edu.

Thurs. Feb. 9 **4:30 PM** : Stacie Kent “Commercial Treaties: A Framework for Governance”

Stacie Kent

Collegiate Assistant Professor, University of Chicago

“Commercial Treaties: A Framework for Governance”

February 9, 2017

4:30 – 6:30 PM

John Hope Franklin Room, SSR 224

**Please note the time change from 4:00 to 4:30**

Discussants:

Kenneth Pomeranz, University Professor of Modern Chinese History and the College, University of Chicago

Carl Kubler, University of Chicago History Department

In the first decade of the 19th century, European opinions about China and its trade policies began to shift towards bellicose opposition. China was denounced as backwards and antisocial, its administrators as arbitrary and self-interested. With this critique in mind, this paper examines the significance of Qing commercial treaties to global commercial and geopolitical integration as well as everyday commercial administration. It argues that Qing commercial treaties should be seen as part of a global effloresce in treaty making that attempted to rationalize and simplify global trade by curtailing the prerogatives and decision making power of local political authorities. Presented as a means to codify a natural community of equal nations, treaties naturalized the abstract compulsions of capital growth and offered a new interface between political authorities and global commerce that generated new limits on the exercise of official power. In China evolving treaty language gradually erased Qing claims to govern trade through flexible decision-making and mutual obligations between merchants and government authorities. In their stead, the treaties called for a novel static regulatory framework and rote official actions.

Professor Kent has been kind enough to provide us with both a chapter and the book proposal from her current project. Both can be found at the East Asia: Transregional Histories workshop website below.

As always, first-time attendees are welcome. Light refreshments and snacks will be served.
If you have any questions or require assistance to attend, please contact Jessa Dahl at jdahl@uchicago.edu or Erin Newton at emnewton@uchicago.edu.

TOMORROW, Thursday Jan. 12th 4:00 PM Gender and Law: A Faculty Forum

Gender and Law: A Faculty Forum

Thursday, January 12th, 4:00 – 6:00 PM

John Hope Franklin Room (SSR 224)

Presenters:

“Legal Sources, Gender and Historians’ Quest for Non-elite Agency”

Johanna Ransmeier (University of Chicago, Assistant Professor of History and the College)

and

“In the Arena of the Courts: Rethinking Gender and Law in Meiji Japan”

Susan Burns (University of Chicago, Associate Professor of History, East Asian Languages and Civilizations, and the College)

Discussants:

Erin Newton (PhD Student, History, University of Chicago) and Jessa Dahl (PhD Student, History, University of Chicago)

As participants in EAT Histories’ second faculty forum, Professor Ransmeier and Professor Burns will each give a brief presentation on their recent work on the theme of gender and law. During the subsequent discussion we hope to explore the relationship between gender and law in the history of East Asia and beyond.

There is no pre-circulated paper for this event, and first-time attendees are welcome. Light refreshments will be served.
If you have any questions or require assistance to attend, please contact Jessa Dahl at jdahl@uchicago.edu or Erin Newton at emnewton@uchicago.edu.

East Asia Transregional Histories Workshop Winter Quarter Schedule

Welcome back to campus everyone! The East Asia: Transregional Histories Workshop is proud to present our schedule for winter term. We are starting the quarter off next week with another installment of our faculty forum series, in which Professors Susan Burns and Johanna Ransmeier will present on the theme of gender and law. We are also still accepting applications for discussants and presenters, particularly for spring term. Feel free to contact us at emnewton@uchicago.edu or jdahl@uchicago.edu if you have any questions.

1/12 (Th) Gender and Law: A Faculty Forum

Presenters: Susan Burns (University of Chicago) and Johanna Ransmeier (University of Chicago)

4:00-6:00 PM

Location: John Hope Franklin Room (SSR 224)

Discussants: Erin Newton and Jessa Dahl

1/26 (Th) Confronting the Words: Overcoming Challenges in Writing the Seminar Paper or Masters’ Thesis

4:00-6:00 PM

Location: John Hope Franklin Room (SSR 224)

2/9 (Th) Presenter: Stacie Kent (Collegiate Assistant Professor, University of Chicago)

Theme: Capitalism and Qing Governance in the 19th Century

4:00-6:00 PM

Location: John Hope Franklin Room (SSR 224)

2/23 (Th) Dissertation and Grant Proposal Writing Informational Session with the Writing Center

4:00-6:00 PM

Location: John Hope Franklin Room (SSR 224)

2/28 (T) For Dignity, Justice and Revolution: An East Asia By the Book! CEAS Author Talk

Presenter: Norma Field (University of Chicago)

5:00 PM

Location: Seminary Coop

3/9 (Th) Presenter: Jessa Dahl (PhD Student, University of Chicago)

Title: TBA

4:00-6:00 PM

Location: John Hope Franklin Room (SSR 224)

WED 11/30 5 PM : Kyle Gardner

Kyle Gardner

University of Chicago

“The Space Between: Trade, Cosmology, and Modes of Seeing in Independent Ladakh”

WED, Nov. 30th 5:00-7:00 PM

John Hope Franklin Room, SSR 224

Discussants:

Matthew Lowenstein, University of Chicago History Department

Please join us for Kyle Gardner’s presentation of a chapter from his dissertation on Wednesday, November 30th at 4 PM in the John Hope Franklin Room (SSR 224). In addition to providing historical background of the making and demise of Ladakh (a region in the northwest Himalayan mountain range), “The Space Between: Trade, Cosmology and Modes of Seeing in Independent Ladakh” explores how four indigenous modes of viewing space–cosmological, political, linguistic, and material–created multiple modes of seeing that space.

Kyle’s paper can be accessed through at the East Asia: Transregional Histories workshop website. The password is “cosmology”

As always, first-time attendees are welcome. Light refreshments and snacks will be served.

If you have any questions or require assistance to attend, please contact Jessa Dahl at jdahl@uchicago.edu or Erin Newton at emnewton@uchicago.edu.

TOMORROW, Friday Nov 4th at 4:00 PM: Jamie Monson

Jamie Monson

Professor, Michigan State University

“Learning by Heart: Practice as knowledge building along the TAZARA Railway in late Twentieth Century Mang’ula”

Friday, November 4, 4:00 – 6:00 PM

CEAS Room 319 (1155 E 60th St)

Professor Monson’s presentation will include photographs and video clips demonstrating her ethno-historical methodology. Her paper can be found on the East Asia: Transregional Histories Website. 

This paper explores the transmission of knowledge from Chinese experts to African workers during the construction of the TAZARA railway in Mang’ula, Tanzania. Using a practice called shou ba shou (literally “hand holding hand”), the Chinese experts taught local workers how to use drills and lathes to build railroads. Monson’s ethno-historical research reveals that such processes “spanned and charted major upheavals of the mid-twentieth century in the global history of work, technology and politics.” This railway project bridged the divide between China’s socialist internationalism and Cultural Revolution, on the one hand, and Tanzania’s socialist experiment on the other. As Monson states, “the meeting of Chinese experts and African workers in the secluded mountain stronghold of Mang’ula formed a connection between two frontline landscapes of railway building during the Cold War – from the frontiers of Sichuan and Yunnan to the rugged escarpment of the Udzungwa mountains.“

As always, first-time attendees are welcome. Light refreshments and snacks will be served.

If you have any questions or require assistance to attend, please contact Jessa Dahl at jdahl@uchicago.edu or Erin Newton at emnewton@uchicago.edu.