Past Events

Woodblock print: Tomoe Gozen in bright red samurai armor holding a tall naginata polearm against a backdrop of Japanese calligraphy.

Professor Roberta Strippoli (Associate Professor, University of Napoli L’Orientale) will take us on a journey across Japanese history, exploring the interplay of literature, gender, and cultural heritage by tracing a famous episode from The Tale of the Heike, Japan’s most celebrated medieval epic, and its many afterlives.

This event is free and open to the public.

A Japanese painting of a dynamic scene unfolds across a vibrant landscape, depicting figures engaged in a spirited struggle on a grassy incline. Various individuals, some adorned in traditional attire and others in Western clothing, are seen pulling on ropes connected to a large, ornate cart. In the background, soft green hills rise against a pale pink sky, where stylized clouds drift. A prominent tree with textured bark stands to one side, while additional figures observe the action from a distance.

With the theme “Asia and Environment across Time and Space,” NYCAS will bring scholars together to explore a wide range of topics related to Asia, including environmental issues, technological innovation, sociopolitical movements, geopolitics, cultural and social change, economics and politics, education, and migration and diaspora.

Panels and sessions are open to the Vassar Community as well as to local academic communities.

A grayscale visual overlay showing vertical lines of East Asian brush calligraphy layered on top of horizontal Latin manuscript script.

This symposium brings together scholars working across the Mediterranean and East Asia to explore the manifold dimensions of letter-writing in premodern cultures. Through perspectives spanning ancient Rome, early medieval China, and medieval Japan, the event examines how epistles shaped education, literary self-presentation, emotions, and relationships of power across different historical and cultural contexts.

This event is free and open to the public.

An individual with dark, shoulder-length hair and glasses smiles while sitting outdoors. They wear a white sleeveless top and white pants. Lush green plants and a wooden gate are in the background.

Kelly Yang is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of over 15 books for children, young adults and adults. She will speak on how she overcame poverty and language barriers as a young immigrant child to become an internationally best-selling and award-winning author.

The event is free and open to the public.

Decorative Japanese folding screen with rhythmic, curling waves rendered in fine lines over a gold background, punctuated by steep green and brown islands rising from the sea.

The Ullŭng Islander’s Drift through Classical and Post-classical Japanese Poetry, lecture by Jeffrey Niedermaier.

Graphic with geomtric background and text overlay that reads: Celebrating Soweto.
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Vassar celebrates Soweto with a screening of Sifiso Khanyile’s critically acclaimed documentary Uprize!, followed by a faculty roundtable featuring Professors Mia Mask, Ismail Rashid, and Samson Opondo, along with local activist and South African native Dr. Ereshnee Naidu. The discussion will be moderated by Professor Mariam Rashid.

Campus community only, please.

Smiling person with short gray hair and black glasses, wearing a green T-shirt, in front of a bookshelf with colorful books.
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Join playwright Mahesh Dattani, guest playwright and author, and the student cast of Dance Like a Man, for a compelling new play reading of his new work, Dance Like a Goddess and conversation exploring the dynamic intersection of performance and politics in modern India.

This event is free and open to the public.