Tuesday, 9 September @ 6:30pm – 8:30 pm BST
\nProfessor Jennifer Coates \u2013 Studying Japan from the UK: New Challenges and Historical Precedents<\/strong><\/h4>\nThis illustrated talk reflects on the past, present and future of Japanese Studies in the UK; the antecedents of the field, its strengths and challenges, and its place in our fast-changing globalised world. As many countries around the world turn inwards to prioritise national concerns and domestic politics, Japan remains an object of fascination for students, researchers, and the general public. From the mystical \u2018Japan\u2019 located just west of Laputa in Jonathan Swift\u2019s Gulliver\u2019s Travels (1726) to the \u2018Japan\u2019 of geisha in rickshaws captured by the Lumi\u00e8re brothers\u2019 cameramen (1897), and from the opponent of World War II to the exciting exoticism of \u2018Japan\u2019 as holiday destination, our engagement with ideas about \u2018Japan\u2019 has shaped not only the UK understanding of Japan, but also the UK itself. Connecting the history of the study of Japan to contemporary research on its impact on the UK, this talk demonstrates the value of learning about Japan.<\/p>\n
This talk also mark the start of an exciting mini lecture series on various aspects of Japanese studies, hosted by the Society in collaboration with the Courtauld Institute of Art and the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures in the coming months.<\/p>\n
About the Speaker<\/strong><\/p>\nJennifer Coates is Professor of Japanese Studies at the School of East Asian Studies, University of Sheffield and Honorary Secretary of the British Association of Japanese Studies. Her books include Making Icons: Repetition and the Female Image in Japanese Cinema, 1945-1964<\/em> (2016), Film Viewing in Postwar Japan, 1945-1968: An Ethnographic Study<\/em> (2022), and co-edited volumes War Memory and East Asian Conflicts, 1930\u20131945, Japanese Visual Media: Politicizing the Screen<\/em> and The Routledge Companion to Gender and Japanese Culture<\/em>.<\/p>\n~~~~~<\/h4>\nThursday, 18 September @ 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm BST
\nNicolas Revire \u2013 Charting : The Making of an Early Buddhist Polity in Central Thailand<\/strong><\/h4>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/royalasiaticsociety.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1-1-e1756465548297.jpg\")
<\/strong><\/p>\nThis lecture explores the intellectual foundations of Dv\u0101ravat\u012b studies and the making of an early Buddhist polity in central Thailand during the mid-to-late first millennium CE. It highlights the pivotal roles of Prince Damrong Rajanubhab (1862\u20131943) and Professor George C\u0153d\u00e8s (1886\u20131969), whose historical and epigraphic work shaped modern understandings of Dv\u0101ravat\u012b as a Therav\u0101da Buddhist culture with Old Mon, Sanskrit, and Pali influences. Beginning with the 19th-century rediscovery of sites like Nakhon Pathom, the talk traces how their scholarship framed Dv\u0101ravat\u012b in both historical, and cultural terms. It also considers the legacy of their work in the writings of later scholars and Orientalists such as Horace Geoffrey Quaritch Wales\u00a0(1900\u20131981), Pierre Dupont (1908\u20131955), Jean Boisselier (1912\u20131996), or Piriya Krairiksh (b. 1942), whose contributions continue to shape debates on early Southeast Asian religion, language, and state formation.<\/p>\n
Jennifer Coates is Professor of Japanese Studies at the School of East Asian Studies, University of Sheffield and Honorary Secretary of the British Association of Japanese Studies. Her books include Making Icons: Repetition and the Female Image in Japanese Cinema, 1945-1964<\/em> (2016), Film Viewing in Postwar Japan, 1945-1968: An Ethnographic Study<\/em> (2022), and co-edited volumes War Memory and East Asian Conflicts, 1930\u20131945, Japanese Visual Media: Politicizing the Screen<\/em> and The Routledge Companion to Gender and Japanese Culture<\/em>.<\/p>\n This lecture explores the intellectual foundations of Dv\u0101ravat\u012b studies and the making of an early Buddhist polity in central Thailand during the mid-to-late first millennium CE. It highlights the pivotal roles of Prince Damrong Rajanubhab (1862\u20131943) and Professor George C\u0153d\u00e8s (1886\u20131969), whose historical and epigraphic work shaped modern understandings of Dv\u0101ravat\u012b as a Therav\u0101da Buddhist culture with Old Mon, Sanskrit, and Pali influences. Beginning with the 19th-century rediscovery of sites like Nakhon Pathom, the talk traces how their scholarship framed Dv\u0101ravat\u012b in both historical, and cultural terms. It also considers the legacy of their work in the writings of later scholars and Orientalists such as Horace Geoffrey Quaritch Wales\u00a0(1900\u20131981), Pierre Dupont (1908\u20131955), Jean Boisselier (1912\u20131996), or Piriya Krairiksh (b. 1942), whose contributions continue to shape debates on early Southeast Asian religion, language, and state formation.<\/p>\n~~~~~<\/h4>\n
Thursday, 18 September @ 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm BST
\nNicolas Revire \u2013 Charting : The Making of an Early Buddhist Polity in Central Thailand<\/strong><\/h4>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/res.cloudinary.com\/bloomsbury-atlas\/image\/upload\/w_568,c_scale,dpr_1.5\/jackets\/9780755601608.jpg\")
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