Asian Studies Seminar Series: Sabine Frühstück In brief Date - 15 October 2025Venue - Project Room 1.06, 50 George SquareSpeaker - Professor Sabine Frühstück (University of California, Santa Barbara)Title - Crafting the Modern Body: The Dollmaker, the General, and the Artist Activist About the eventby Professor Sabine FrühstückUnder the impact of posthumanist technologies and claims, a wide range of experts have called into question the boundaries between “organic” and “artificial” more forcefully than ever before. Scholars across disciplines suggest that we have become “posthuman” in the sense that we have crossed some kind of threshold, consigning both the idea of human uniqueness and the limits of the natural born human being to history.In this lecture, I will contend that the posthumanists base their claims on an original human conceived of as “whole” and characterized by integrity, coherence, and cohesion. I will propose that nowhere has this notion of the human been farther from actual experience than in war. Indeed, no other modern institution has been as invested in crafting and recrafting the right kind of bodies (and minds) to populate and animate it as the modern military.At the same time, the military’s charge has been ultimately harmful—both physically and psychologically, if not entirely destructive to many of those same bodies and minds. I will examine a series of technological innovations designed to build, repair and enhance human bodies prepared for and damaged by mass violence and show how the crafting and recrafting of the modern body forged unlikely bonds among the theater stage, the imperial household, the military, and activist art.This talk is supported by the Japan Society of Scotland.About the speakerSabine Frühstück is Distinguished Professor and the Koichi Takashima Chair in Japanese Cultural Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She is chief editor of the University of California Press book series “New Interventions in Japanese Studies” and co-editor of the Journal of Japanese Studies.Frühstück aims to rethink the conventions of scholarly work and transgress disciplinary, cultural and national boundaries. She mostly uses historical and ethnographic methods, takes visual culture seriously, and is currently completing a book on manifestations of “The Body Military” from the late nineteenth century to the present.How to attendThis event is free to attend and open to all. No registration is required, simply turn up on the day.Are you interested in studying with us?We are the only university in Scotland to offer full undergraduate and postgraduate degree programmes in both Chinese and Japanese, as well as postgraduate programmes in Korean Studies and East Asian Studies. Find out more about Asian Studies at Edinburgh Tags Asian Studies Oct 15 2025 16.15 - 18.00 Asian Studies Seminar Series: Sabine Frühstück An in-person seminar by Professor Sabine Frühstück (University of California, Santa Barbara), titled 'Crafting the Modern Body: The Dollmaker, the General, and the Artist Activist'. Project Room 1.06 50 George Square University of Edinburgh EH8 9LH Find the venue: 50 George Square
Asian Studies Seminar Series: Sabine Frühstück In brief Date - 15 October 2025Venue - Project Room 1.06, 50 George SquareSpeaker - Professor Sabine Frühstück (University of California, Santa Barbara)Title - Crafting the Modern Body: The Dollmaker, the General, and the Artist Activist About the eventby Professor Sabine FrühstückUnder the impact of posthumanist technologies and claims, a wide range of experts have called into question the boundaries between “organic” and “artificial” more forcefully than ever before. Scholars across disciplines suggest that we have become “posthuman” in the sense that we have crossed some kind of threshold, consigning both the idea of human uniqueness and the limits of the natural born human being to history.In this lecture, I will contend that the posthumanists base their claims on an original human conceived of as “whole” and characterized by integrity, coherence, and cohesion. I will propose that nowhere has this notion of the human been farther from actual experience than in war. Indeed, no other modern institution has been as invested in crafting and recrafting the right kind of bodies (and minds) to populate and animate it as the modern military.At the same time, the military’s charge has been ultimately harmful—both physically and psychologically, if not entirely destructive to many of those same bodies and minds. I will examine a series of technological innovations designed to build, repair and enhance human bodies prepared for and damaged by mass violence and show how the crafting and recrafting of the modern body forged unlikely bonds among the theater stage, the imperial household, the military, and activist art.This talk is supported by the Japan Society of Scotland.About the speakerSabine Frühstück is Distinguished Professor and the Koichi Takashima Chair in Japanese Cultural Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She is chief editor of the University of California Press book series “New Interventions in Japanese Studies” and co-editor of the Journal of Japanese Studies.Frühstück aims to rethink the conventions of scholarly work and transgress disciplinary, cultural and national boundaries. She mostly uses historical and ethnographic methods, takes visual culture seriously, and is currently completing a book on manifestations of “The Body Military” from the late nineteenth century to the present.How to attendThis event is free to attend and open to all. No registration is required, simply turn up on the day.Are you interested in studying with us?We are the only university in Scotland to offer full undergraduate and postgraduate degree programmes in both Chinese and Japanese, as well as postgraduate programmes in Korean Studies and East Asian Studies. Find out more about Asian Studies at Edinburgh Tags Asian Studies Oct 15 2025 16.15 - 18.00 Asian Studies Seminar Series: Sabine Frühstück An in-person seminar by Professor Sabine Frühstück (University of California, Santa Barbara), titled 'Crafting the Modern Body: The Dollmaker, the General, and the Artist Activist'. Project Room 1.06 50 George Square University of Edinburgh EH8 9LH Find the venue: 50 George Square
Oct 15 2025 16.15 - 18.00 Asian Studies Seminar Series: Sabine Frühstück An in-person seminar by Professor Sabine Frühstück (University of California, Santa Barbara), titled 'Crafting the Modern Body: The Dollmaker, the General, and the Artist Activist'.
