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Joseph Seeley

@josephaseeley.bsky.social
2.5K followers 396 following 160 posts

assoc prof @UVA_History. Specialist in 20th century Korea, Japanese Empire, and East Asian environments. Author of Border of Water and Ice: The Yalu River and Japan's Empire in Korea and Manchuria (Open-access link: tinyurl.com/3susuy49)

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Kjell Ericson @kjelldericson.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
This stuck out to me on my last trip to Busan: a fantastically illustrated 1962 poster from the South Korean central fisheries experiment station asking ordinary fishers to send in any tagged horse mackerel, mackerel, or squid specimens they managed to catch.
Poster with illustrations of a tagged mackerel, horse mackerel, and squid.
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Joseph Seeley @josephaseeley.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Excited to host Russell Burge at UVA to talk about his new book on the underside of rapid urban development in 1960s-1970s Korea.
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Bathsheba Demuth @brdemuth.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Coming in February! An edited collection on rivers past and present and how they move. The code E27RIVER gets you 30% off a preorder from Duke. #envhist #rivers #envhum
Cover of the book Rivers on the Move, edited by Bathsheba Demuth, by Mark Healey, anyone Giacomo Pareinello & Laurence Smith. Cover shows white swirls of a river channel on a blue background
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Micah Muscolino @mmuscolino.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Preorder now. You cannot get such an expertly crafted and researched history of empire, ethnicity, and the environment anywhere else.
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Gina Anne Tam @dgtam86.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
A first for me-- I was quoted in the NYTimes this morning! Thanks to Tiffany May for including me in this important story on English language learning in China in the age of AI www.nytimes.com/2026/09/16/w...
nytimes.com
In the Age of A.I., Some in China Wonder if Learning English Is Worth the Trouble
A math teacher’s viral post prompted a debate over the language, which some see as an optional skill — and a symbol of Western dominance.
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David Fedman @dfeds.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Hi friends, happy to share a labor of love: an essay in the latest issue of Environmental History on Tokyo's war-damaged trees (戦災樹木), the more than 200 hundreds trees scattered across the city that carry scars of wartime bombing in their morphology www.journals.uchicago.edu/toc/eh/0/0
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Joseph Seeley @josephaseeley.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Seems about right for someone born in California, grew up in Utah/Idaho, and went back to CA for grad school. The last seven years in VA have done little to my English except that I say y'all more often now.
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American Council of Learned Societies @acls1919.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Ten of the finalists for the 2026 ACLS Open Access Book Prizes shares why they decided to publish their humanities and social sciences books #openaccess: bit.ly/4ctFeEf
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10 Authors Share Why They Published Open Access
Finalists of the ACLS Open Access Book Prize share why they published open access books in the humanities and social sciences.
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永原宣 Hiromu Nagahara @hiromunagahara.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
An MIT Press Reader article by the art historian Nozomi Naoi in connection to her new book on Mitsukoshi department store: thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/how-japan-tu...
thereader.mitpress.mit.edu
How Japan Turned Department Stores Into Dreamworlds
What started as dry goods shops serving the elite became sprawling emporiums that helped usher in an age of mass consumption.
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Lisa Onaga @lisaonaga.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
Placing East and Southeast Asia in Convo, Forum In Memory of Aaron Stephen Moore got published! Writing "Agents of Development: The Roles of Insects + Entomological Expertise in Japanese Technical Aid in Southeast Asia"=next best thing to talking w ASM in person read.dukeupress.edu/journal-of-a...
read.dukeupress.edu
Agents of Development: The Roles of Insects and Entomological Expertise in Japanese Technical Aid in Southeast Asia
Abstract. Japanese overseas development assistance intersected with sericulture in Southeast Asia especially during the 1970s and 1980s. Piecing together disparate entomological engagements as reporte...
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Joseph Seeley @josephaseeley.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Proud of my wife and favorite author @mengxiseeley.bsky.social for this starred review. She did a lot of impressive research into late imperial Chinese history to tell this charming, Austen-inspired story!
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Micah Muscolino @mmuscolino.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
"Made in China Journal" published a conversation between Yuan Gao and I about my recent book. @uwapress.uw.edu madeinchinajournal.com/2026/07/27/r...
madeinchinajournal.com
Remaking the Earth, Exhausting the People | Made in China Journal
Environmental historians of modern China have often examined how states transformed landscapes in pursuit of economic development and ideological visions of remaking nature. In Remaking the Earth, Exh...
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Joseph Seeley @josephaseeley.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
Guilty as charged! My parents had an old 1970 edition that we inherited from my grandparents.
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Mengxi Seeley 李梦溪 @mengxiseeley.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
It's a good day to share some historical background behind my debut novel, right?
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Joseph Seeley @josephaseeley.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
Happy to be in the lovely city of Edinburgh for the History of Science Society conference. This Scottish weather is a perfect respite from the Virginia humidity.
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Joseph Seeley @josephaseeley.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
A cute chonkster with a tragic backstory-- Hanpyo (한표) was captured in 1962 as one of the last wild Amur leopards in South Korea. These leopards once ranged throughout Korea but were overhunted. Photo is from his later years at Seoul's Changgyeongwon Zoo.
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NCC (北米日本研究資料調整協議会) @nccjapaninfo.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
Are you getting ready for a spooky summer? 👻 We have just the thing! Revisit some quality bakemono and yokai in this #NCCSpotlight by Jack Stoneman (Brigham Young University), introducing their Edo period Pictures of Monsters scroll! 💀 #妖怪 #化け物 guides.nccjapan.org/homepage/new...
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sakura christmas @prof-christmas.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
#CFP Porous Worlds: Histories, Environments, and Material Relations at the Surface-Subsurface Interface (Bergen, October 28-29, 2026), due September 1. Workshop explores relationship between surface and subsurface w/ keynote by @gabriellehecht.bsky.social #envhist #envhum #extractivism #histstm
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Joseph Seeley @josephaseeley.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
Hard to believe the book has been out for almost two years! Late tonight I'll be giving what may be my last "new book" talk. Many thanks to SNU's Kyujanggak Institute for Korean Studies for hosting!
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Joseph Seeley @josephaseeley.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
"Let's incinerate this tendency!"--1950s North Korean cartoon criticizing endless meetings. And this was made before the hellishness of Zoom meetings...
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Joseph Seeley @josephaseeley.bsky.social · 13/06/2026
This will be a key text for years to come on the history of capitalism in the Japanese Empire, and the transformation of Korean rural society under empire. So looking forward to it!
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Gina Anne Tam @dgtam86.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
Always a good day for Song dynasty cat poetry
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DIJ Tokyo @dijtokyo.org · 08/06/2026
TOMORROW Join us for Tuesday's #DIJStudyGroup "The Aikoku Fujinkai and Social Welfare Work in Colonial Taiwan and Korea" with @merlekar.bsky.social (Harvard University/DIJ Tokyo) 📅 June 9, 2026 / 6.30 pm JST / 11.30 am CEST 🏚️🖥️ online & onsite @ DIJ Tokyo ▶️ www.dijtokyo.org/event/the-ai...
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sakura christmas @prof-christmas.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
Wow, @universitypress.cambridge.org keeps putting out bangers on early modern Japan! Can’t wait for Laura Nenzi’s Japan After Dark, which challenges the idea that 19th-c. electrification disenchanted night www.cambridge.org/core/books/j... #envhum #envhist #histstm #AsianStudies
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Gina Anne Tam @dgtam86.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
This book (written by a scholar with language competency in Japanese using LLMs to translate secondary scholarship Korean, which he cant read) raises important questions we as a field have to face about expertise and translation, as well as what the role of language-learning is in history (🧵)
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Joseph Seeley @josephaseeley.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
"Let's Raise More Dogs!"--a few pics of some very good doggies from a 1960s North Korean magazine. One on the left is from the unique NK "Pungsan" breed, described as "docile to humans but fierce towards its enemies."
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Joseph Seeley @josephaseeley.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
Happening tomorrow! Really looking forward to chatting with @sayakachatani.bsky.social
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David Fedman @dfeds.bsky.social · 30/05/2026
can't think of a time i've smashed the order button harder www.sup.org/books/asian-...
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Konrad Lawson @kml.muninn.net · 28/05/2026
Trump on wars longer than the current Iran mess, we have an 8 year Korean War…has he been reading Bruce Cumings and co. and is going for 1945-1953? 🤔😜
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Modern Japan History Association @modernjapanhist.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
In a week! Sayaka Chatani (National University of Singapore) on her new book “A Nation Within: North Korean Zainichi in Postimperial Japan”, in conversation with Yumi Kim (University of California Berkeley) and Joseph Seeley (University of Virginia). Register for Zoom here: mjha.org/event-6602790
A screenshot of the MJHA webpage with the event details typed out, featuring a blue and red book cover with old photographic images plus bold red and white circular designs.
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Cornell University Press @cornellupress.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
Three incredible books—one big honor: 📚 Poet-Monks (@tommazanec.bsky.social) 📚 Ecological States (Jesse Rodenbiker) 📚 Border of Water and Ice (Joseph A. Seeley) All 2026 ACLS OA Book Prize + Arcadia Awards finalists! Congrats! 🎉 🔗 bsky.app/profile/acls...
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Connie Chiang @connieychiang.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
Excited to share my latest article in @modamhist.bsky.social. Focuses on a top-secret Army dog-training project that used Japanese Americans as live bait during World War II.
cambridge.org
Japanese American Dog Bait: Racialized Odors, Canine Violence, and the Environment on Cat Island, Mississippi | Modern American History | Cambridge Core
Japanese American Dog Bait: Racialized Odors, Canine Violence, and the Environment on Cat Island, Mississippi
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American Council of Learned Societies @acls1919.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
Announcing the 2026 finalists for ACLS Open Access Book Prizes + Arcadia Open Access Publishing Awards! Five books in six categories—anthropology, environmental humanities, history, literary/media studies, multimodal, and political science—advance to the final round of $50k prizes: bit.ly/43rZPDD
bit.ly
ACLS Names 2026 Finalists for ACLS Open Access Book Prizes and Arcadia Open Access Publishing Awards
Thirty titles advance to final round for six $50,000 prizes for open access books in the humanities and social sciences
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Joseph Seeley @josephaseeley.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
So thrilled to have my book named as a finalist for the ACLS @acls1919.bsky.social Open Access Book Prizes and Arcadia Open Access Publishing Awards!! Many thanks to all who helped this happen, especially my editors at the OA Environments of East Asia book series at Cornell!
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Kelsey Granger @kelseygranger.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
Thrilled that my article on postal horses in ancient China has been published in the latest #AnimalHistory! 🐎 What do excavated administrative texts from 1st C. BCE-CE tell us about equine life and labour on the edge of empire? A lot, it turns out! (1/4) #Xuanquan #postalhorses ✉️🛞🐴
online.ucpress.edu
An Equine Archive? Using Excavated Documents to Recover the Entangled Labor of Humans and Horses in China’s Ancient Postal System
This article seeks to expand the history of pre-industrial animal labor beyond the farmyard. Centering on China’s ancient postal system, it approaches a surviving corpus of over 20,000 excavated admin...
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David Fedman @dfeds.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
if you happen to be 1) interested in Korea; 2) interested in the environmental humanities; and 3) in SoCal in early June, please consider coming to a conference I've organized with my dear colleagues Eleana Kim, Albert Park, and Juwon Lee. Details 👇
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David Fedman @dfeds.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
an embarrassment of riches in the latest issue of Environmental History www.journals.uchicago.edu/toc/eh/current
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CedarBough T. Saeji @thekpopprof.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
14 May 4pm EASTERN Dr. #RussellBurge #Seoul #Korea #History #booktalk #koreasociety "The Promised Republic: Developmental Society and the Making of Modern Seoul, 1961-1979" Zoom registration: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
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David Fedman @dfeds.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
The scheduled air routes of the Japan Air Transport Co. (Oct. 1938 – Mar. 1939), which doubles as a fascinating diagram of the civil aviation infrastructure then collapsing the distance of the Japanese empire
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Joseph Seeley @josephaseeley.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
Tomorrow! Really looking forward to moderating this discussion about @hannahjshepherd.bsky.social's fantastic new book!
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Mengxi Seeley 李梦溪 @mengxiseeley.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
Come check out Library Journal's Day of Dialog on May 7! Amazing authors and librarians will be chatting about upcoming books. (As a little debut author, I'm honored to be on a panel with some big stars in historical fiction 😄)
Flyer for Library Journal's Day of Dialog free virtual event on May 7, 2026Schedule of panelsPhoto of Asian woman in front of bookshelf
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Daniella M. @farsouthhistory.bsky.social · 24/04/2026
Check out my new article! It argues that the rise of continental drift should be understood within the context of the geopolitical shift that came from decolonization. lmk if you can't access! #histsci #STS www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
sciencedirect.com
Geology as geopolitics: continental drift and the southern hemisphere
This article argues that the mid-twentieth-century acceptance of continental drift cannot be understood solely as the result of new geophysical eviden…
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Matthew W. Mosca @matthewmosca.bsky.social · 22/04/2026
Out today!
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Joseph Seeley @josephaseeley.bsky.social · 18/04/2026
A new review essay of unique ambition analyzes my book along with 23(!) others for insights into the nature of late Qing enviro-governance, foregrounding "adaptive resilience" rather than decline. Glad my efforts with Qing docs added to the conversation! www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
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Konrad Lawson @kml.muninn.net · 14/04/2026
I created a deep linked and searchable table of contents index for issues of the prewar "Japan Magazine" found on Internet Archive, with over 200 issues and several thousand articles. Useful for history students working only with English sources: froginawell.net/indexes/japa... #japan
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Mengxi Seeley 李梦溪 @mengxiseeley.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
I'm practicing explaining my book so I don't freeze up when people ask me what it's about
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Joseph Seeley @josephaseeley.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
Newest review of my book and first in a sinological journal. Many thanks to Ruochen Chen at WashU for the kind review. Chen presses me for a little more on Chinese politics of the Yalu border, but also ends review with this lovely bit of writing: brill.com/view/journal...
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Joseph Seeley @josephaseeley.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
So excited to get a copy of @sayakachatani.bsky.social (with Kumhee Cho)'s new book. In sheer awe of the amazing research, incl. more than 200 interviews with members of the Zainichi/Chongryon community. I'll be moderating a book talk in June, so please join! mjha.org/event-6602790
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Koji Hirata @khirata.bsky.social · 30/03/2026
While I was unable to attend the BHC meeting this year, I am honored that my book, "Making Mao’s Steelworks, was selected as a finalist for the Hagley Prize in Business History. I am very grateful to the prize committee, and congratulations to the recipient and fellow finalists.
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Micah Muscolino @mmuscolino.bsky.social · 29/03/2026
My review of the volume _Oceanic Japan_ for the journal _Animal History_ is now online. Once a fish guy, always a fish guy. 🐟 🐠 🎣 🐡 online.ucpress.edu/ah/article/d...
online.ucpress.edu
Review: Oceanic Japan: The Archipelago in Pacific and Global History, edited by Stefan Huebner, Nadin Heé, Ian J. Miller, and William M. Tsutsui
Thirty years ago, while I was sitting in the first lecture of my first-ever class on East Asian history, Professor Thomas R. H. Havens opined that Japan is not a “rice culture” but really a “fish cult...
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