The Asian Studies Program organizes and sponsors roughly 20 events each year, offering the 7C community opportunities to engage with cutting-edge research, connect with scholars and practitioners, and strengthen a shared intellectual community.
Spring 2026
Clark Horowitz Lectures in Religion 2026: Manuscripts, Religious Ritual, and Daily Life in Pre-Modern China
Stephen F. Teiser, Princeton University.
The Clark, and now Clark Horowitz, Lectures in Religion are a time-honored tradition at Pomona College, dating back to 1924 when a gift made by Arthur O. and Laura Clark of Covina, Calif., made possible an annual series of Lectures in Religion, with the first held in 1926. Mr. David Horowitz '73 generously enabled the lectures to continue with a more recent gift in 1999.
For details, please contact Zhiru.ng@pomona,edu.
Lecture 1 - Tuesday, February 24
The Dunhuang Manuscripts: Origins, Storage, Discovery
4:30 p.m., Hahn 101
6 p.m. - Dinner, Hart Room, Smith Campus Center
For invited guests, all faculty, and RLST majors/minors
Lecture 2 - Wednesday, February 25
Curing with Karma: Buddhist Approaches to Healing Illness in Premodern China
4:30 p.m., Hahn 101
Thursday, February 26
Comparison and the Study of Ritual
Seminar for Religious Studies faculty and students
For reading, please email Zhiru.ng@pomona.edu.
1:15 p.m., Pearsons Hall 102
Reading Seminar on dunhuang manuscripts
Los Angeles area faculty and students
By invitation only, please email Zhiru.ng@pomona.edu.
4.30 PM, Pearsons Hall 203
Excavating East Asia: Interdisciplinary Perspectives
March 4, 2026 - 5-7 p.m. - Smith Campus Center 217
Dr. James Loftus, Tokyo Institute of Technology
Dr. Kirie Stromberg, Pomona College
Dr. Maddalena Poli, Yale University
Join us for a three-person panel on recent discoveries and methodological advances in the archaeology of early East Asia, with focus on Japan and China.
2026 Ena H. Thompson Distinguished Lectures
Ruth Rogaski is the Andrew W . Mellon Chair in the Humanities and Professor of History and Asian Studies at Vanderbilt University.
For more information, see our Ena H. Thompson Lectures page or contact Gina Brown-Pettay at ge004747@pomona.edu.
Tuesday, March 10
Finding Dragons in the Land: Approaches to Environmental History in Northeast Asia
11 a.m. - Smith Campus Center, Rose Hills Theatre
This talk considers how an array of explorers made sense of the Manchurian frontier from the seventeenth century to the 1970s. It examines how natural knowledge, and thus the nature of Manchuria itself, changed over time, from a sacred “land where the dragon arose” to a global epicenter of contagious disease; and then from a tragic “wasteland” to an abundant granary. Starting with the task of “finding dragons in the land,” the talk will consider how historians might write an environmental history and a history of science without privileging either the West or the post-colonial nation-state.
Thursday, March 12
American Qi: Addiction and Acupuncture in Music City, USA
11 a.m. - Smith Campus Center, Rose Hills Theatre
Drawing on extensive interviews with acupuncture practitioners and their patients, this talk examines the unexpected flourishing of Chinese medicine in Nashville, Tennessee—an American city more commonly associated with country music and evangelical Christianity than with acupuncture and qi. In a Southern state marked by high rates of substance use disorder, chronic pain, and limited access to mental health care, acupuncture has emerged as a low-cost, non-pharmaceutical intervention embedded in Nashville’s grassroots healing communities.
Naamyam: Cantonese Narrative Singing
March 12, 2026 - 7:30-8:30 p.m. - Boone Recital Hall in the Scripps College Performing Arts Center
Wing To, Jun Du, Wan Young
Naamyam is a critically endangered Cantonese narrative singing tradition that once flourished in Hong Kong and South China from the late 19th to early 20th centuries. Historically performed by blind artists, this unique art form represents a fragile cultural legacy that is on the verge of disappearance. Join us for an evening of cultural treasure from Hong Kong.
Past Events
Annual Events
- Welcome-Back Reception (Fall)
- Asian Studies Pre-registration Event
- Senior Thesis Presentations and Alumni Reception (Spring)
- Commencement Reception
Select Events over the Last Five Years
2025-Present
- Elena Shih, Asian Studies Distinguished Alumni Lecture
- Women in Global Security Career Talk
2024-2025
- Anthony Chambers, "Putting Students First: Professor Ch’en Shou-yi in the Classroom
- Book celebration for Lynne Miyake, The Tale of Genji Through Contemporary Manga
- Nicholas Bartlett, "The Perils and Possibilities of ‘Speaking Freely’ in the People’s Republic of China”
- Workshop: "Teaching Chinese Language, Literature, and Culture in the Age of AI”
- Naosuke Mukoyama, “Fueling Sovereignty: Colonial Oil and the Creation of Unlikely States”
2023-2024
- Robert Ku, "The Little Piggy Went Where? Koreans and Yemenis at the Gastronomic Crossroads"
- Samuel Yamashita, "The ‘Japanese Turn’ in European and American Art, Architecture, and Cuisine"
- Sha-Cheng Sun, "China’s Soft Power Strategy at Confucius Institutes”
- Sarah Yu, "Spitting the Settlement”
- Jeffrey Wasserstrom, "Patterns of Protest in China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan (1989–2024)”
2022-2023
- Student-curated Buddhist manuscript exhibition (Honnold Library)
- Nobuo Kazashi, synchronous Zoom lecture from Tokyo
- Lecture-demonstration on the biwa with taiko performance (Benton Museum)
- Each Day Begins with the Sun Rising: Four Artists from Hiroshima (Benton Museum exhibition)
- Samuel Yamashita, workshop on culinary hyperlocalism in Hawai‘i and Pacific Asia
2021-2022
- "Politics and Society under COVID: Hong Kong in Comparative Perspective”
- Yiching Wu (University of Toronto), "Beyond Teleological and Anachronistic History”
- Colette Fu, "What the Butterfly Dragon Taught Me" (2022 Goudy Lecture)
- Gina Tam (Trinity University), "How Languages Become Dialects”
- Film Screenings: Taking Back the Legislature and Inside the Red Brick Wall