The 2026 East Asian Studies Archival Research Series has launched!

Kate Collins, Research Services Librarian in the Rubenstein Library, discusses provenance and archival materials.

The Global Studies Department at Duke University Libraries launched its 2026 East Asian Studies Archival Research series on Friday, February 6.

To kick off the series, students gathered to hear from two experts about the fundamentals of researching and publishing on archival materials. Kate Collins, Research Services Librarian at Rubenstein Library, led the first session. Kate introduced best practices in archival work, tactics for navigating catalog records and finding aids, tips for locating archives in the United States, and suggestions for developing search terms for the effective discovery of archival materials. The second session was led by Kate Dickson, Director of Copyright and Information Policy at Duke Libraries, who introduced students to copyright, fair use, and the ethical responsibilities researchers bear in publishing on archival materials. Students came away from these back-to-back sessions with new knowledge of archival resources and the networks of research support at Duke and beyond.

Kate Dickson, Director of Copyright and Information Policy at Duke Libraries, provides an overview of copyright protection.

There are three sessions scheduled for the remainder of this series. Luo Zhou, Librarian for Chinese Studies and Coordinator for East Asian Collection Management, will deliver a workshop on conducting archival research in China on Friday, March 6. On Friday, March 20, Matthew Hayes, Librarian for Japanese Studies and Asian American Studies, will deliver a workshop on conducting archival research in Japan.

The workshop series will culminate with an invited lecture by Dr. Peter Zhou, who, for twenty-five years, directed the C. V. Starr East Asian Library at UC Berkeley. Dr. Zhou’s talk is titled “From Archives to Inquiry: New Horizons in East Asian Studies,” in which he will explore how archival development can lead to new academic inquiries and open up new horizons in East Asian studies. Dr. Zhou’s presentation is currently scheduled for the month of April. This page will be updated with a registration link for Dr. Zhou’s session once a date and time is confirmed.

If you missed our first session, have no fear! You can still register for any of the upcoming sessions. We welcome students working on any aspect of East Asian Studies.

Register for Archival Research in Chinese Studies (March 6)

Register for Archival Research in Japanese Studies (March 20)