Senior comprehensives for our three majors are completed during senior year, with the majority of writing or translation work being completed in the fall. Asian Studies majors write a 20+ page research paper; Chinese and Japanese Studies majors either complete a translation with an extensive introduction or a 20+ page literature research paper.
Browse past senior comps project titles
You will begin to hear about your senior comps in your junior year.
We encourage you to begin thinking about possible topics and discussing them with your major advisor and other Asian Studies faculty. Students should consider conducting summer research supported by the Undergraduate Research Center the summer before their senior year. This will set you up well for the fall semester senior year, when you will do the bulk of your writing or translating work for your senior comps.
Also in the spring semester of your junior year, try to attend the senior comps presentations of your fellow majors. This usually occurs in mid-March (look out for emails on this).
By mid-April junior year, meet with your advisor to discuss your topic in detail and choose a member of the ASN faculty to advise you for your comps project (it doesn’t have to be your major advisor). By the end of the spring semester junior year, agree on a topic and comps advisor and let the chair of the department know your comps plan.
Fall semester senior year will be when you do the majority of your research and writing or translation work.
For ASN majors: enroll in fall semester ASN 497 (2-credit independent) with your comps advisor.
For CHIN majors: enroll in Fall semester CHIN 460 or CHIN 497 (2-credit independent) with your comps advisor.
For JAPN majors: enroll in Fall semester JAPN 497 (2-credit independent) with your comps advisor.
Present research proposal in early October; get feedback from peers and department faculty.
Work with comps advisor on (specific dates set by department chair and followed in consultation with your comps advisor):
Annotated Bibliography: Late October
First Draft: Mid-November
Complete Draft: End of Fall Semester
Honors Proposal: End of Fall Semester
Honors papers extend the work you did in the fall, with final honors papers at least 40 pages.
Spring semester senior year (almost done!)
Formal Presentations: After Spring Break
Final Papers: Early April
Past (East) Asian Studies, Chinese Studies, and Japanese Studies Senior Comprehensives
2021-2022
Lucas Dysart (Japanese Studies) “Gengoroh Tagame’s ‘Lover Boy’ and Shungiku Nakamura’s ‘The World’s Greatest First Love’: The Language of Japanese Homoerotica and the Conflict of Representation”
Calion Banz (Japanese Studies) “Murakami vs. Yoshimoto: Gender and Portrayal of Depression in Literature”
Sweda Rajaram (Japanese Studies) “Transnational Analysis of Women as Horror in Japan and Latin America”
Zhuoheng Li (East Asian Studies) “Identities and Social Elites in Modern Chinese Social Movements: The Case of the 1911 Sichuan Railway Protection Movement”
Brian Park (East Asian Studies) “Nature vs. Technology: Hayao Miyazaki’s Compromise”
2020-2021
Garrett Ikegami (East Asian Studies) “Japanese American Identity: Unity, Loyalty, and Incarceration”
Danni Xu (East Asian Studies) “Will Japanese Women Have Real Freedom? The Competition between Feminist Movements and the Idol Industry in Japan”
Tobias Larkin (East Asian Studies) "Remaining the Urban Underclass: The Precarity of Migrant Workers"
Nick Larkin (Chinese Studies) “The Translation of 鬼吹灯 (A Ghost blows out of the Light)”
Tobias Larkin (Chinese Studies) "Translating Bai Xianyong's "The Forever Yin Xueyan" (永远的尹雪艳)"
Claire Seo (Japanese Studies) "Describing Satoshi Kon’s Conceptualization of the Real and Unreal"
Ryu Frank (Japanese Studies) “Techniques and Issues with Translating A Wild Sheep Chase, by Haruki Murakami”
Maud O’Connor (Group Language) “Differing Approaches in Translation Methodology in N.H.K. ni Yōkoso! and ‘Wǒ yǔ Dìtán’”
2019-2020
Perrin Shyne (East Asian Studies) “Money and Riots: Exploring the Financial Backdrop of the 2019 Hong Kong Protests.”
Isabel Sung (East Asian Studies) “Activism in Hong Kong: How Past Protest Movements Shape Current Demonstrations.”
Kevin Conroy (East Asian Studies) "Modernization and Repression: The Japanese Industrialization of Manchuria."
Huixi Yang (East Asian Studies) “The Development of the Tea Industry in Contemporary China.”
Chengtian Yu (Japanese Studies) “Japanese Culinary Traditions: a Translation of Food-related Texts.”
Carol Beckett (Group Language: Japanese and Chinese) “What is Sensei: A Study through Japanese Novels and Everyday Usage” and “An Analysis on a Translation of the First Five Chapters of 淘气包马小跳：同桌冤家 (Taoqibao Ma Xiaotiao: Tongzhuoyuanjia).”
Karin Uzawa (Group Language: Japanese and Linguistics) “Consonant Gemination in Japanese Loanwords: A Comparative Literature Review on the Phonetics and Phonology.”
Robert Shreiber (Chinese Studies) “Translation of I Love Dollars.”
Thomas Roberson (Group Language: Chinese and French) "Reading Between the Panels: Comparing LGBTQ Representation in Chinese Webcomics and African Bande Dessinée."
Dorothy Hudson (Chinese Studies) "Translation of Zhuangzi."
2018-2019
Peter Fanikos (East Asian Studies) “Analysis of Public Health Disparities between Urban and Rural Chinese Residents”
Ryan Lu (East Asian Studies) “The Rise and Fall of Zhejiangcun”
Olivia Wilk (East Asian Studies) “Cultural Products and State Power: An Analysis of Government Intervention in the Chinese Music Industry”
Jessica Lee (Chinese Studies) “Transgressing Temporal and Spatial Boundaries: Zhang Ailing, a Cultural Symbol in Twentieth Century China (張愛玲：穿越時空二十世紀中國的文化象徵)”
Jack Peden (Chinese Studies) “A Translation and Commentary of Mo Yan’s ‘The Wall that Can Sing’”
Megan Mundell (Japanese Studies) “A Glimpse into Japan’s Economy: A Translation and Annotation of Japanese Economic and Banking Related Texts”
2017-2018
Lily Goldner (East Asian Studies) “Cultivating Cuteness: ‘Japanese Cool’ and the American Image of a Feminized Japan”
Timothy Valero (East Asian Studies) “Competing Lessons from the ‘Closed Country’ American News Narratives of Japanese Homogeneity”
Chase Holliday (Chinese Studies) “Mo Yan’s ‘Moonlight Beheading:’ Unpacking the Significance of Magical Realism in Contemporary Chinese Literature”
Kailee Whitten (Chinese Studies) “Li Juan’s ‘Winter Pasture:’ A Look into the Lives of Semi-Nomadic Kazakh Herders (李娟的《冬牧场》：一份关于半游牧哈萨克牧人生活的调查)”
Lily Goldner (Japanese Studies) “Translation and Analysis of Ishida Sui’s Poetry”
Naomi Hong (Japanese Studies) “Translation of Japanese News Articles”
Mizuki Shumsky (Japanese Studies) “Japan’s Evolving Sports Culture: Translation and Analysis of an online essay”
Francesca Cenzatti (Group Language) “A Literature Review of the Young Taiwanese Generation’s Language Attitudes Towards Taiyu (有關台灣年輕人對台語態度的文獻綜述)”
2016-2017
Connie Oh (East Asian Studies) “Red, Black, and Yellow: Connections between the Chinese Communist Party, African Americans, and Asian Americans, 1950s-1970s”
Thayer Fisher (Chinese Studies) “Lao She’s Crosstalk: Comedy during the Cultural Revolution”
Phoebe Seman (Chinese Studies) “Using Translation and Research to Analyze Chinese Children’s Rhymes”
Debra Ann Skinner (Chinese Studies) “The Poetry of Yi Sha: Contemporary Poetry about Contemporary China”
Preston Harry (Japanese Studies) “The Importance of Conversational Language in Manga and Other Difficulties: A Translation of ‘Gaku: Minna no Yama’”
Sophia Ludder (Japanese Studies) “Annotated translation of The Long, Dark Winter by Sono Ayako”
Haarika Reddy (Japanese Studies) “Annotated translation of essays by Sono Ayako and Endo Shusaku”
Lynn Yokota (Japanese Studies) “The Problem of Western Scholarship of Japanese Films and Mono no Aware in Hana-bi and A Taxing Woman”
Evan Bromberg (Group Language) “Annotated translation of three essays by Sono Ayako”
Julianne Butt (Group Language) “Annotated translation of Short Stories by Sono Ayako”
2015-2016
Emma Goldstein (East Asian Studies) “Rural Poverty and National Economic Development in Reform Era China”
Alexander Najarian (East Asian Studies) “The Historical Importance of Reevaluating Guomindang Rural Development Efforts”
Kaitlin Huemer (Japanese Studies) “‘Freedom Seat’ and Other Essays: Methods of Translating Humor from Japanese to English (和英翻訳を用いたユーモアの訳し方)”
Brandy Huff (Japanese Studies) “Japanese Women's Language (日本の女性語)”
Josh Escoe (Japanese Studies) “Translating Short Stories by Hiromi Kawakami: Keeping to the Source Text (川上弘美の掌編をどう訳すか：訳し方の問題)”
Marty Guerero (Japanese Studies) “Satoru's Monster: Translating the Horror Genre (さとるの化物：ホラージャンルを訳すこと)”
Natalie Laber (Japanese Studies) “‘Ambos Mundos:’ Kirino Natsuo in Translation (アンボス・ムンドス：桐野夏雄の翻訳文)”
Emily Rhiel (Chinese Studies) “Preface to The Autobiography of Fang Lizhi: Science, Democracy, and the Search for Truth (《方励之自传》前言：科学及民主的真理追求)”
Kaitlin Huemer (Chinese Studies) “Wu Zhuoliu’s Random Thoughts of Nanjing: Taiwanese Identity and Perspectives of China During Japanese Colonial Rule (吳濁流的《南京雜感》：日治殖民的台灣人身份認同和對中國大陸的看法)”
2014-2015
Chanelle Gadsden (East Asian Studies) “The Senkaku/Diaoyudao Island Dispute as Seen Through Sino-Japan Relations”
Javier Sevilla (Japanese Studies) “‘The Strange Library’ and the Murakami Formula (「不思議な図書館」と村上式)”
Julia Armbrust (Chinese Studies) “Han Han: The Most Controversial Advocate for China’s Youth (韩寒：中国当代最具争议的倡导者)”
Zhuangzhuang Shou (Chinese Studies) “Jin Yong and Twentieth-Century Chinese Literature (金庸与中国二十世纪文学)”