Joseph Seeley
@JosephASeeley
asst prof @UVA_History. Author of Border of Water and Ice: The Yalu River and Japan's Empire in Korea and Manchuria. Open-access: https://tinyurl.com/4pytj9h9
My new book is open-access! Now available at the most reasonable price imaginable. Relevant to folks interested in histories of border-making, the environment, Japanese Empire, Korea and China, etc. Many thanks to all who helped make this possible! cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/978150177…
Stories like this reminds me why I love being a historian. You can feel @tsmullaney 's passion for what is far more than just machines and technology, but human struggles, aspirations, and dreams. Feel so lucky to have studied with him @Stanfordhistory nytimes.com/2025/07/22/nyr…
#HistoryMatters Prof. @tsmullaney's work on Chinese typewriters & his quest to bring a MingKwai to @StanfordLibs featured in @nytimes “To me it’s just a typewriter,” [Ms. Felix said], “But to other people it’s history; it’s a story, a life, a treasure.” nytimes.com/2025/07/22/nyr…
Historians of Twitter/X: I am putting together a syllabus for a graduate/upper undergraduate seminar this fall on "Animal Histories," and would love your help putting together a chronologically/geographically/thematically diverse set of readings. Self-promotion also welcome!
I am thrilled to share that my book, Mao’s Steelworks, has been awarded the 2025 Reid Prize (given for “the most significant book contributing to the understanding of Asia”) by the Asian Studies Association of Australia (ASAA). asaa.asn.au/news/book-abou…
Osiris’ latest issue: “Animal Mobilities” journals.uchicago.edu/toc/osiris/cur…
The ghosts of Korea's early 20th century history in the urban art of modern Seoul
More than just an airport stop before Seoul, Incheon is such a fascinating place architecturally and historically, especially around the old treaty port area. As a historian of modern Korea I've talked about this port so many times, but embarrassingly this was my first time here!
First time in mainland China since the pandemic. Last week friends at Tsinghua University kindly invited me to present about my book. Audience was great and asked sharp questions. Tsinghua is also a lovely campus with a main quad that reminds me a lot of UVA.
Call for applications — there's 1 week left for emerging scholars of Korea to apply for the National Committee on American Foreign Policy's Next-Generation Korean Peninsula Specialists program. ncafp.org/resources/appl…
Not in Tokyo for very long, but it's strangely nostalgic to be eating katsu curry at the National Diet Library again for the first time in years.
Ahead of new print alert! You can now read Richard Yu-Cheng Shih's "Reeds, Snails, and Parasites: Schistosomiasis and Wetland Ecology in China’s Yangzi Delta from the 1870s to 1949" from the July 2025 issue. #evnhist #envhum journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/73…
First time ever at UCLA! Look forward to presenting about my book tomorrow at the Center for Korean Studies: international.ucla.edu/cks/event/17184
New review just dropped! "Border of Water and Ice is a fascinating, richly researched, and accessibly recounted history that will appeal to a wide range of scholars variously interested in empires, environments, borderlands, and area studies" tinyurl.com/2xeswa96