Border of Water and Ice: The Yalu River and Japan’s Empire in Korea and Manchuria 11.14.24

The Korean peninsula exerts an outsized influence on almost every facet of the world today. South Korea has emerged as one of the largest economies in the world, whose exports include everything from advanced technologies to popular culture. North Korea remains an authoritarian regime, whose efforts to challenge its international isolation threatens to ignite a global conflict. The peninsula is thus a critical engine of the global economy and a volatile flashpoint of geopolitical tensions. It is too important to be overlooked, let alone ignored.Now in its second year, the Rethinking Korea: New Perspectives on a Critical Region speakers series continues to invite an interdisciplinary roster of scholars to offer novel perspectives on Korea while situating its complex place within global developments. We invite speakers to share their work that will not only shed light on the internal dynamics and rich history of Korea but also explore the complex relationship between this critical region and the larger world.

This lecture in this year’s series will feature Dr. Joseph Seeley, Assistant Professor of History and an affiliated faculty member at University of Virginia. He specializes in the history of Korea, the Japanese Empire, and East Asian environmental history. His first book, Border of Water and Ice: The Yalu River and Japanese Imperialism in Korea and Manchuria (Cornell University Press, 2024), examines the Yalu River boundary between northern Korea and China during a period of Japanese expansion in the region. 

The speakers series is made possible by the South Korea Initiative Fund, which is dedicated to helping establish an institutional commitment to Korean Studies at Northeastern, offering financial support to students studying or working in Korea, and educating the community about important issues regarding Korea in the world.