With funding for area studies centers like the Center for East Asian and Pacific Studies (CEAPS) under unprecedented threat right now, by contributing to CEAPS, you help preserve essential opportunities for students, faculty & scholars, public engagement, & our global partners.
Student Support
CEAPS fellowships and travel grants have empowered students to advance their foreign language skills, conduct dissertation research, and present at professional conferences. Read their impact stories featured below to see the differences these grants make.
“The grant gave me confidence in pursuing ambitious research question and affirmed my commitment to a research career focused on Southeast Asia and the international politics of foreign aid.” - Paul Un | Dissertation Travel Grant Recipient
“The grant allowed me to conduct fieldwork in Indonesia, collect primary observations, and engage with local communities to gather unique qualitative and quantitative data.” - Azifah Astrina | Dissertation Travel Grant Recipient
“I can confidently say that I have made it this far because of the generosity of CEAPS, something I am forever grateful for.” - Kolten Conklen | Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellow & Wanxiang Fellow
“My fellowship allowed me the dedicated study and research time I had long wished for...The fellowship made me feel supported and acknowledged my efforts in the field.” - Yangyang Liu | Conference Travel Grant Recipient & IGI Graduate Language Fellow
Public Engagement
CEAPS values interacting with the community: K-12 schools, community colleges, Champaign-Urbana and surrounding area, and on a national level. Your contributions allow us to continue building relationships and provide East Asian & Pacific learning to the community.
This includes AsiaLENS, a documentary and independent film series at the Spurlock Museum in Urbana. Each film brings contemporary stories from across Asia to campus and the wider community. Each film is accompanied by a local or visiting expert who engage audience members with thoughtful post-screening discussions.
"What AsiaLENS provides is a different environment and experience where we get a chance to sit down and talk to the filmmaker. This is different from watching a film at home, because it directly sparks our rethinking and reflection both on the film and on ourselves. Seeing ourselves, our own reflection, society, and institutions makes us think about how we can contribute not just as film viewer, but also as an active participant in the world."
- AsiaLENS audience member
Faculty & Scholar Support
CEAPS is committed to advancing research and interdisciplinary collaboration in East Asian and Pacific studies by supporting faculty and scholars through a variety of professional opportunities. Our travel grants help fund presenting at conferences nationally & globally. We also provide a platform for faculty and scholars to share their research and engage with those both in and outside our campus.
Professor-student duo Prof. Sarah Park Dahlen & PhD student Michelle Lê (School of Information Sciences) co-present their research on the Vietnamese diaspora in picture books
CEAPS hosted the 72nd Midwest Conference on Asian Affairs in Fall 2023, giving faculty and students opportunities to share research and develop scholarly networks
Visiting Asian Scholars Program (VASP) Brown Bag talk featuring Baiheng Qian (PhD Candidate, Sun Yat-sen University, China) presenting her research on Ming dynasty female poets
CEAPS & EALC co-sponsored speaker, Prof. Emeritus Peter Kornicki (University of Cambridge) presents on manuscript culture in Edo period Japan
CEAPS co-sponsored bringing film scholar Dr. Yiman Wang (UC Santa Cruz) to campus for her Roger Ebert Lecture on the work of Anna May Wong
Illinois Global Institute Roundtable organized by CEAPS featuring political scientists from Illinois and Notre Dame discuss U.S. Foreign Aid
CEAPS Brown Bag talk featuring Dr. Meicen Sun from the School of Information Sciences presenting her research on Internet control in China
Global Connections
Your donation to CEAPS helps strengthen global connections and sustain vital programs that deepen understanding of Asia and its role in the world. By giving to CEAPS, you invest in opportunities that build cross-cultural awareness and connect our campus community to partners and perspectives across the globe.
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University of Illinois x University Academic Alliance in Taiwan (UAAT)
CEAPS has partnered with UAAT to provide scholarship opportunities and financial support for UI System students to study Mandarin in Taiwan at National Tsing Hua University and other university partners in Taiwan.
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University Academic Alliance in Taiwan Mandarin Education Program Liaison Office Opening Ceremony
We were delighted to host Taiwanese representatives from UAAT at the formal opening ceremony for the UI System Liaison Office administered collaboratively by UAAT and CEAPS in partnership with LAS International Programs at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the Office of Global Engagement at University of Illinois Chicago.
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University of Illinois x Osaka Metropolitan University (OMU)
CEAPS coordinates co-hosted exchange symposiums between the University of Illinois and Osaka Metropolitan University, where both faculty and graduate students present research.
Give to CEAPS
We hope that you will join us both in supporting students researching East Asia and the Pacific and in making a statement about how diverse and deep support for CEAPS itself is. We appreciate your willingness to do so, and we encourage you to share this giving opportunity with others. We invite you to provide your generous support at the following link: