Freeman Lecture

The highlight of the academic year at the CEAS is the Mansfield Freeman Lecture, which invites an outstanding scholar or other luminary in the field to present an original lecture on a topic of concern both to specialists and the rest of the Wesleyan community.

The lecture is followed by a colloquium the next morning, in which students and faculty have an opportunity to continue discussion with the Freeman Lecturer. The roster of past speakers, which includes Frederic Wakeman, John K. Fairbank, Tu Wei-Ming, Perry Link, Masao Miyoshi, Jonathan Spence, In-ho Lee, Stephen Owen, Carol Gluck, Wu Hung, Bruce Cumings, reads like a who's who of East Asian studies. In this way the Freeman Lecture gives students an opportunity for direct contact with the outstanding leaders of the field.

In October of 2004, we celebrated the thirtieth anniversary of the Freeman Lecture series, welcoming Bernard Faure to campus, who spoke on "Japan, Land of the Elephant: The Hidden Side of Medieval Japanese Religion." To commemorate the occasion, our Freeman Professor of East Asian Studies, Vera Schwarcz, wrote an essay reflecting on the meaning of the lecture series.