Exciting opportunities
EALC News
- The next Korean Proficiency and Placement Test (KPT) will be scheduled for an in-person administration at 9:30 AM [CT] on Friday, August 21, 2026. Please note that this test will NOT be administered online. Time: 9:30 am to 12 pm (CST)... Read full story
- Course DescriptionThis course explores the intricate relationship between language and identity in both Greater China (Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan) and Chinese diasporic communities around the world. Through the lens of sociolinguistics, students will examine how... Read full story
Faculty Spotlight: Three New Instructors/Lecturers to join EALC in Fall 2024
We are delighted to announce that three new faculty will join the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures starting Fall 2024: Quillon Arkenstone (Lecturer in Modern-Contemporary Japanese Literature), Yujie Pu (Instructor in Imperial Chinese History), and Jihye Yun (Instructor in Korean Language). Our new colleagues will add to our strengths in the study and teaching of Japan, China, and Korea. Dr. Quillon Arkenstone Dr. Arkenstone holds a PhD in Japanese literature from the University of Hawai’i. His research, which involves literary studies, theory,...
Faculty Spotlight: Anna Jungeun Lee to join EALC faculty in Fall 2024
We are delighted to announce that Dr. Anna Jungeun Lee will join the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures as Assistant Professor of Korean History. Dr. Lee, previously the Global Korean Studies Invited Professor at the College of International Studies at Korea University, is a historian of Korea’s transnational consumption. Her research focuses on the intersection of state and society in consumer spaces in modern South Korea. Her first book project, “Resisting Consumers: Transnational Consumption in Authoritarian South Korea” examines the irony of foreign and luxury...
Event Spotlight: Spring 2025 End-of-Semester Reception Recap
To wrap up the Spring 2025 semester, the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures hosted an end-of-semester reception to celebrate our students, faculty, and staff. It was a warm and lively gathering, filled with conversation, shared memories, and a variety of East Asian snacks and Kimbap provided by the department. We’re grateful to everyone who joined us and helped make the event a success. Special thanks to our student volunteers who assisted with setup and cleanup! As we look ahead to EALC’s 25th anniversary celebration in AY 2025-2026, we’re excited to continue highlighting the...
Student Spotlight: Student Spotlight: 2026 MATK Korean Speech Contest
Jana Karunakaran and Frances Ivy-Barrett, winners of the Beginning and Advanced Levels at the 10th UIUC Korean Speech Contest, represented the Korean Language Program at the 7th Midwest Korean Speech Contest on April 4, 2026. We are proud to share that Jana received the Excellence Award in the Beginning Level category, which includes a $500 cash prize. We warmly congratulate both Jana and Frances for their outstanding efforts and achievements, and for representing our program with such distinction.
Student Spotlight: EALC Ph.D. Candidate Yating Li Awarded HRI and IGI Fellowships
The Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures warmly congratulates Yating Li, a fourth-year Ph.D. candidate, on receiving both the 2026–27 HRI Campus Fellowship, themed “Up Against Erasure,” and the 2026 Illinois Global Institute Summer Research Fellowship. Her dissertation project, “Pathologizing the Womb: Medical Knowledge, Women’s Body, and Mirage of Health in China (1900s–1940s),” examines the intersections of gender, medicine, and modernity in Republican-era China. These prestigious awards recognize the originality and significance of her research, and...
Publication Spotlight: New book by EALC Professor Emeritus Ronald Toby: Engaging the Other: 'Japan' and Its Alter-Egos, 1550-1850
In Engaging the Other: “Japan and Its Alter-Egos”, 1550-1850, Ronald P. Toby examines new discourses of identity and difference in early modern Japan, a discourse catalyzed by the “Iberian irruption,” the appearance of Portuguese and other new, radical others in the sixteenth century. The encounter with peoples and countries unimagined in earlier discourse provoked an identity crisis, a paradigm shift from a view of the world as comprising only “three countries” (sangoku), i.e., Japan, China and India, to a world of “myriad countries” ( bankoku) and...
Publication Spotlight: Professor Cai's How to Read Chinese Poetry in Context forthcoming from Columbia University Press
The next volume in EALC professor Zong-qi Cai's How to Read Chinese Poetry series will be published by Columbia University Press in February 2018. How to Read Chinese Poetry in Context is an introduction to the golden age of Chinese poetry, spanning the earliest times through the Tang dynasty (618–907). It aims to break down barriers—between language and culture, poetry and history—that have stood in the way of teaching and learning Chinese poetry. Not only a primer in early Chinese poetry, the volume demonstrates the unique and central role of poetry in the...
Why Study EALC?
A degree from the Department of East Asian Languages & Cultures equips you with the knowledge and skills for a successful career in a variety of fields while nourishing your interest in different languages and cultures.