Project Team

Summer Seminar Project Team

Seminar Directors

Maram Epstein
Professor of Chinese
Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures
University of Oregon

Maram Epstein, Professor of Late Imperial Chinese Literature and Director of the Center for Asian and Pacific Studies, has been teaching Chinese literature and culture to undergraduate and graduate students for over twenty-five years. Her two monographs, Orthodox Passions: Narrating Filial Love during the High Qing (Harvard University East Asian Series, 2019), and Competing Discourses: Orthodoxy, Authenticity, and Engendered Meanings in Late-Imperial Chinese Fiction (Harvard University East Asian Series, 2001), feature her specific expertise in narrative aesthetics, intellectual history, gender, and the history of emotions. Epstein has taught graduate seminars focused on Plum and regularly includes excerpts in translation in undergraduate courses and in guest lectures in world history and world literature courses. She has contributed two chapters to the forthcoming MLA volume Approaches to Teaching Plum in the Golden Vase.

 

Thomas Glynne Walley
Associate Professor of Japanese
Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures
University of Oregon

Glynne Walley, Associate Professor of Early Modern Japanese Literature and Visual and Popular Culture, belongs among a handful of scholars who have the combined skills necessary to decipher the visual, linguistic, and socio-historical complexity of the literature and popular culture of metropolitan Edo (modern-day Tokyo); this is considered a highly specialized subfield even for native Japanese speakers. Walley’s publication of Good Dogs: Edification, Entertainment, and Kyokutei Bakin’s Nansō Satomi hakkenden (Cornell East Asia Series, 2017) and his translation of the entirety of Eight Dogs has established him as the authority on Bakin and Eight Dogs in the English-speaking world. Walley is also an expert on the visual and material culture of Edo Japan and regularly curates exhibits on woodblock prints, votive slips, and other popular materials for the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at the University of Oregon.

Visiting Faculty

William Hedberg
Associate Professor of Japanese
School of International Letters and Cultures
Arizona State University

Dr. Will Hedberg, Assistant Professor of Japanese at Arizona State University, will enhance the seminar with his research on Sino-Japanese literary contact and the formation of national literatures. His work on the reception of late imperial Chinese fiction during the Edo and Meiji periods of Japan will illustrate transnational literary influence. Pieces of his recently published monograph, The Japanese Discovery of Chinese Fiction: The Water Margin and the Making of a National Canon (Columbia University Press, 2019) will be included in the required readings.

Seminar Coordinator

Holly Lakey
Assistant Director
Center for Asian and Pacific Studies

Dr. Holly Lakey has a PhD in Linguistics from the University of Oregon and is the Assistant Director of the Center for Asian and Pacific Studies. Dr. Lakey has several years’ experience in grant administration, event organizing, and budget management. She will serve as the on-site coordinator for the seminar as well as manage the project website.

Graduate Student Assistant

Shan Ren
PhD Candidate
Department of East Asian Languages and Literature

Shan Ren is a Ph.D. candidate in early modern Japanese literature whose research focuses on the influence of Chinese vernacular fiction on 19th century Japanese fiction; she has worked closely with both directors, and is thoroughly familiar with the subject matter. As a result, in addition to her support in logistical areas, Shan’s own research expertise will be a valuable asset to the seminar.