Joseph Seeley

Issue no. 4 is out! It features a 'Tracks in the Field' essay, four research articles, plus book reviews!

Another excellent issue of Animal History is now available! This issue includes an exciting article on mules as vital transport in Yunnan 🐎🐂🐂 #animalhistory
online.ucpress.edu/ah/article-a...

*who we will. Apologies for the typo!

Excited to dive into this newly published history of Pusan/Fukuoka as "imperial region" bound together by the fluid borderland of the Tsushima Strait. Many congrats to @hannahjshepherd.bsky.social , who will be hosting for a book talk @modernjapanhist.bsky.social in May! mjha.org/event-6433046

❄️ Our Winter Sale is here!
Use the code 09WINTER and get 44% off from November 10 to December 5, 2025. 📚

🔗Access to US & Canada: www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/books/
🔗Access to the rest of the world: mngbookshop.co.uk/publisher/co...

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Thanks! And thanks for sharing your work! I'll def take a look.

Also can't help but notice the visual parallels between this poster for the anime and my book cover:

Critiques of Meiji-era Japanese militarism/colonialism? Icy border crossings? Even tigers? Man, the anime Golden Kamuy hits all of the right buttons for me.

@cornellupress.bsky.social is having an amazing sale atm — 44% off until 12/5, including books by @josephaseeley.bsky.social , @timothymyang.bsky.social , and myself, among others!

In twelve hours!

Was thrilled to see this newly-published review of my book in the Journal of Asian Studies. Many thanks to Ted Boyle @borderthinking.bsky.social for the critically engaged review, especially his thoughts on my book's contribution to border studies.
Full Review: read.dukeupress.edu/journal-of-a...

It’s Halloween! 🎃 Time to let your skeleton shine! 💀🦴 Are you a dancing skeleton? Celebratory skeleton? This spooky season enjoy these possibilities from the late 19th century by Kawanabe Kyōsai. #ハロウィン Held by the University of California San Francisco Library: calisphere.org/item/ark:/13...

I've taught Tsuchimoto's documentary on Minamata Disease victims before in my class on Industiral Pollution in East Asia, which is a powerful indictment of unfettered corporate greed. Apparently Yale has many of his materials and offers a research gran to use them: macmillan.yale.edu/eastasia/nor...

Fun interlibrary-loan surprise. From Yale I got this interesting 1980s memoir of a Zainichi Korean describing North Korea's agricultural struggles. It was obviously marked up, and on the cover page I saw it was ex libris of Noriaki Tsuchimoto, the famed Japanese documentarian.

This is happening!!!! December 2: just in time for Christmas present season. I am still in the anxiety stage, not yet in the Saoirse Ronan as Jo March watching her book get published scene-stage, but I'm glad other people are excited already!

Not even an unusually heavy rain could dim my excitement at returning to my alma mater today! 6년만에 스탠포드. 懐かしすぎる.

Haha I love that

Highly idiosyncratic Hangul spelling of the word "조선" (Korea) on the cover of a 1930 colonial Korean magazine. Almost looks like a completely different script.

I am please to announce that this is the 1000th review that I have facilitated for H-Environment! Thank you so much to all of the reviewers who make this position such a pleasure! #envhist #envhum #ecrocrit #envphil #aghist #oceanhist #conservation #sustainability #plantstudies #animalhist #energy 🏞️

Needed some happy news, so I was thrilled to see that both of my panels had been accepted for next year's @asianstudies.org conference! Look forward to seeing Asian Studies friends and colleagues in Vancouver!

job alert:

My department is now running a search to fill a newly inaugurated endowed chair in the History of Technology. Please consider applying/share widely. I'm not on the committee, but happy to answer questions or connect you with those who are.

Details here: recruit.ap.uci.edu/JPF09897

Excited to be returning to my PhD alma mater (first time since graduation) for a book talk in a few weeks!

ceas.stanford.edu/events/borde...

An important topic! It's fully possible to critique US massacres in Korea while also not romanticizing Soviet influence. If you read Moon's piece, she is very critical of both big powers' role in Korean history.

An influential Koreanist once described Soviet-occupied North Korea as an "isle of tranquility," but the stories of those who fled South after Korea's 1945 division suggest otherwise. Yumi Moon’s chapter in this great new volume helpfully elucidates this refugee experience.

“August Journalism” Studies: Lessons in World War II Reporting from Japan’s Season of Remembrance - Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus […]

A new essay from me synthesizing the rich body of media criticism in Japanese focused on the practice of "August journalism" (八月ジャーナリズム): the tendency for rehearsed, compressed, and hollowed-out coverage of war memory each August.

apjjf.org/2025/9/fedman

A screenshot of the event and related details featuring a brightly colored red and green book cover.

On Monday!

Angus Lockyer (Rhode Island School of Design) on his new book “Exhibitionist Japan: The Spectacle of Modern Development”, in conversation with Jordan Sand (Georgetown University) and Joseph Seeley (University of Virginia).

Register for Zoom here: mjha.org/event-6239996

Bookshelf: Breakneck The first copy of Breakneck I received looked like the quintessential fear-mongering China book. Against an inky black background a red graphic appeared—somewhat difficult to identify, but it seeme…

My review of BREAKNECK, by Dan Wang, an insightful and balanced look at the Chinese engineering state—both its strengths and shortcomings—that offers a much-needed contrast to fear-mongering China books.

So I've written a book! Waterscapes is about how impactful our need for water is on the environment and people. It's also about the ways in which infrastructure projects can impact place for good or bad.