CAPS

In 2012, the Center for Asian and Pacific Studies (CAPS) moved its administrative and organizational home from the Office of Research, Innovation, and Graduate Education (RIGE, now Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation OVPRI) to the Office of International Affairs (now Division of Global Engagement, DGE). CAPS is an internationally oriented academic center that coordinates and supports research, programming, curricular innovation, and outreach on Asia and the Pacific. It is one of our oldest and most prestigious units in the international arena at the University of Oregon (UO). CAPS serves constituencies across campus, from every School and College. In 2012, CAPS joined other units with complementary missions in the Global Studies Institute within DGE.

CAPS’ mission is to promote understanding of the Asia-Pacific region, and its primary aim is to foster collaborative and individual research engaging Asia-interested scholars from the UO, the nation, and around the world. The Center is distinctive in terms of its geographic scope with programmatic focus on East Asia, South East Asia, South Asia, and the Pacific Islands. CAPS has many service-oriented functions, which are showcased in this graphic:

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Stay up to date on all our East Asia events, funding opportunities, and programming, as well as information from our sponsors and the wider community.

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Upcoming Events

Stay tuned for more events coming soon…

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Funding to Support Virtual Speakers!

Open source meeting tools: 3 things to know | The Enterprisers Project

CAPS is offering new opportunities to support virtual visits by outside faculty to UO classrooms and to present virtual lectures as part of our lecture series. Please follow the links below for more information, and to complete an application for funding.

CAPS Virtual Speaker Classroom Visit Funding Application

CAPS Virtual Lecture Series Speaker Funding Application

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Wakakusa-Kai Chanoyu of Eugene, Oregon

Local Eugene community members have formed the Wakakusa-kai tea group, a group learning the Urasenke school of tea ceremony, also called Chanoya (the way of tea). Megumi Somi Unno, a first degree certified instructor of Urasenke school of Tea and CAPS affiliate, teaches classes from beginning through advanced levels along with elements of Japanese culture including flower arrangement, kimono dressing, and calligraphy. You can learn more about the group and Japanese tea ceremonies at the group’s website.

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The Artful Fabric of Collecting

The Artful Fabric of Collecting site introduces viewers to Chinese textiles from the collection of Gertrude Bass Warner (1863-1951), an American who developed the conviction that improved relations between nations can only evolve from the mutual understanding and appreciation of educated minds. Warner’s life led her to Asia, where she lived for ten years, mostly spent in Shanghai. During her later travels she observed the destruction and devastation of World War I. These experiences guided her as she built an art collection with works from China, Korea, and Japan, as well as a collection of books from and reference literature about East Asia. Today these collections are housed in the University of Oregon’s art museum, which opened in 1933 (and was renamed the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, or JSMA, in recognition of the donor who helped complete the museum’s expansion in 2005) and Special Collections and University Archives in the University of Oregon Libraries. Given to the university as a memorial to her late husband, the Murray Warner Collection consisted of more than 3,700 works of art from Asia as well as works by American and British artists who were influenced by Asian cultures. Textiles feature prominently in Mrs. Warner’s collection. She recognized that the distinction made by 19th-century European academics between works of fine art and applied arts and crafts did not adequately value the skills required to produce the luxurious silk fabrics that were favored in Asia and across the globe, the aesthetic, material, and social value they represented to their owners, or the contribution these textiles made to the economies of Asia. You can find the collection at this link.

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Tekagami and Kyogire: The University of Oregon Japanese Calligraphy Collection

With generous support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the UO library and museum embarked on a two-year initiative to build closer collaboration between the two institutions. As part of this initiative, Maude I. Kerns Associate Professor of Japanese Art Akiko Walley had the opportunity to research the fabulous—but still relatively unknown—collection of Japanese (and a few East Asian) calligraphy fragments presently held separately at SCUA and JSMA.

The SCUA piece is an accordion-style album, known as tekagami 手鑑, with a total of 319 fragments of calligraphy ranging in date from the 8th to the 17th century. The JSMA collection comprises 36 individually mounted kyōgire 経切 or sutra fragments also dating from the same periods.

In addition to combining and showcasing the UO’s calligraphy collection, the new website is also designed with the hope of establishing a resource that might be useful in teaching calligraphy as an artform. All calligraphy fragments are available on the website in high-resolution images, and have been supplemented with extensive discussion of various aspects of calligraphic appreciation, including early modern practices of kohitsugire 古筆切 collecting. The writing is meant to be both useful to scholars and informative to students.

You can find the collection at this link.

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Yokai Senjafuda: The University of Oregon Japanese Senjafuda Collection

This digital exhibition focuses on tiny slips of paper—senjafuda 千社札—that depict Japanese ghosts and monsters—yōkai 妖怪. Both senjafuda and yōkai have their roots in Japanese popular culture in the early modern period (17th-19th centuries), and both continue to cast a spell on viewers today. Yōkai simply means “monster,” but it’s best understood as referring specifically to monsters (and sometimes ghosts) as imagined in early modern Japan, particularly as depicted in wood-block prints. From Mizuki Shigeru to Studio Ghibli, from The Ring to Yōkai Watch, Japanese popular culture (including anime, manga, books, and film) is full of yōkai imagery. The University of Oregon’s collection of senjafuda is one of the largest in the world. It includes many senjafuda depicting yōkai. This exhibit uses senjafuda to explore yōkai culture, and yōkai to explore senjafuda culture. You can access the collection and learn more at this link.

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Best Lecture Series CAPS presents short lectures and event recordings on East Asia. Check out our new website! Oregon East Asia Network (OEAN) East Asianists from around Oregon can connect and collaborate here. And did we mention, we have funding? The Gertrude Bass Warner Papers are now online! CAPS has partnered with the UO Digital Scholarship Center to digitize a collection of personal correspondence, notes, travel diaries and ephemera belonging to Gertrude Bass Warner. Mrs. Warner traveled extensively to build her collection, to study, and to promote multiculturalism and appreciation for Asian culture. She was the founder and director of the UO Fine Art Museum and she has donated over 3,700 works of art to the Jordan Schintzer Museum of Art. The digitization of her papers has been generously supported by Title VI National Resource Center funding. You can find the collection of her papers on Oregon Digital at this link: https://oregondigital.org/sets/gbwarnerpapers. Chinese Literature Podcast Two UO Graduate Students, Robert Moore and Lee Moore, discuss Chinese literature in their podcast. Check out this amazing duo’s podcast here. It’s also available on iTunes. Check out the Chinese Language and Culture Club at Edison Elementary School. With funding from CAPS and in collaboration with the Language Teaching Specialization Program in the UO Department of Linguistics, the CLCC brings Chinese language and culture to students after school. Learn more about the CLCC here.