[1]
ASIAN STUDIES: THE FAR-FLUNG DEPARTMENTJoel Brereton, Department Chair
I suppose that there are departmental chairs who
would not mind seeing at least certain of their colleagues
or students flung far and wide. I assure you that I am most
decidedly not among them. But though I very much enjoy
the company of the faculty and students in Asian Studies, I
am also very proud of all the many places they go and all
the many things they accomplish.
This newsletter will give you an idea of the kinds of
travel and the kinds of activities of our undergraduates,
graduate students, and faculty. Three undergraduate
majors, who were in Beijing at the time of the Olympics,
report on the Olympics and, more especially, on their
engagement with China and their lives there. Elliott
McCarter, who is researching his doctoral dissertation on
an Indian pilgrimage site and its traditions, talks not only
about his work in India but also the joys and tribulations of
journeying through the archives and countryside of North
India. Last academic year, two of our faculty were on
leave. Prof. Nancy Stalker spent the year in Japan,
studying the development of ikebana, flower-arranging,
from a Japanese to an international art form. And Prof.
Patrick Olivelle, pictured within competing for attention
with the Taj Mahal, was practically everywhere else—India
and Sri Lanka, England and Wales, Australia, and Spain—
and still able to find time to work on no less than three
projects concerning traditional Indian law and statecraft.
And, as you will see, there is much else the
department is doing as well. But before I leave you to find
out just what that is, I did want to say a special word of
thanks to Josh Gilliland, who has done the yeoman's work
of putting this newsletter together. As you will see in an
interview with him, he too has gotten around.
Department of Asian Studies Newsletter
January 2009
Narayana Temple in Bahlolapur, Haryana, India. Photo by Elliott McCarter.
[2]
ASIAN STUDIES GOES TO THE OLYMPICS
A building inside the Beijing Olympic grounds. Photo by Elissa Smith, History Senior.
Sofia Avila is a Senior double major in Asian Cultures and Languages (Chinese) and Plan II. She and her sister Victoria Avila, Junior in Asian Cultures and Languages (Chinese), spent the summer working for the Mexican Embassy in Beijing.
As I stood in awe gazing up at the fireworks on that
unforgettable night of the 2008 Beijing Olympics Opening
Ceremonies, I was overcome with the acute awareness that
I was witnessing history firsthand. China was sharing with
the world the very best of what they are: the beauty of their
culture, the richness of their language, the warmth of their
people. More than that, it was the culmination of decades
of reform that marked the dawn of a new era in which
China is officially appearing on the world stage with a
leading role; a preview of what to expect from China in the
21st century. The eyes of the entire world were fixed on
this city that I had the privilege to be in, at that precise
moment in time.
No, I was not one of the lucky few who actually saw the
fireworks and the Opening Ceremonies from inside the
Bird’s Nest, but I was just a few blocks away. My sister
and I had been studying Chinese in Beijing for the past
two months, and the Olympic excitement could be felt in
the air everywhere you went, well before 8/8/08. From the
Olympic volunteers on every corner, to the banners on the
streets, to the Beijing Olympics song played in every
major store.
Our summer in Beijing was made even more
memorable due to the wonderful opportunity of actively
participating in the Olympic atmosphere. My sister and I
did internships at the Mexican Embassy in Beijing; we
helped coordinate official receptions for the Mexican
athletic delegation, and—of course—took pictures with as
many athletes as possible (they didn’t win 8 gold medals,
but hey, picture worthy nonetheless).
I loved experiencing the Olympics, but to truly live
Beijing is unique in itself. Beijing is a city of contrasts: in the
early morning, the elderly fill Beijing’s parks for the
millenary practice of tai-chi, while the traffic and bustle of
the metropolis echo in the background. This is the China I
know: beautiful, confusing, and always captivating.
Sofia and her sister Victoria riding a bicycle cart in Beijing.
SOFIA AVILA
[3]
The glowing blue puddles
of the majestic Water Cube on
the Beijing Olympic grounds
reflected the hazy, polluted
night sky, offering an aesthetic
distraction to the task at hand. It
seemed as if days had passed
since the 10 am start of my shift that morning. It was now
somewhere between 3 and 4 in the morning. A day had
passed after all.
“Okay,” Frank, a fuel technician from Dallas called out.
That was my cue to communicate to the team of four
Chinese fuel delivery men who were standing awkwardly
behind us to stop the gas pump and transfer the truck’s
hose to the adjacent generator, making sure that the
correct nozzle was attached. Pausing for a brief, sarcastic
aside in which I regretted that my Chinese study had not
yet progressed to the lesson on 3 am fuel delivery and
nozzle inspection, I sighed quietly and turned to face the
delivery crew, preparing for my imminent doom to
embarrassment and frustration.
Although it could hypothetically be attributed to any
number of reasons – common sense, knowing how to do
their jobs, my hand signals – somehow the delivery crew’s
slightly puzzled smiles unequivocally assured me that they
knew what to do for one reason and one reason only:
because I communicated it to them.
I watched with amazement as they performed the job,
and afterwards gazed back at the puddles as I waited for
the next generator to fill. Perhaps it was the peculiarity of
the situation or the ludicrous hour, or perhaps even the
obvious poetic symbolism, yet whatever the reason I
couldn’t help but reflect upon my time abroad up until that
point.
I had been in China for seven months already. What
had begun as a spring semester studying at the Capital
Normal University in Beijing gradually transitioned into a
summer of travel before ultimately culminating in an
unforgettable work experience. That night I was two weeks
into my NBC Olympic Internship, and struck by the
unbelievable coincidence and fortune – that an Olympics
was hosted by the country whose culture, language and
history I had dedicated my academic career to studying,
during a time in which I was eligible to go abroad. As a
language major I had devoted three years to waging a
linguistic war against the difficulties of learning a foreign
language, made more difficult by the complex writing script
and tonal-based speech of Chinese. Yet even in the
darkest hours of the night, after a sixteen-hour, payless
day, I grinned broadly as the mist rained down on us. The
simple truth was that this one chance to be able to use my
language skills in a professional setting seemed in one act
to justify all those hours spent. More importantly, that night
reassured me that despite the seemingly imminent collapse
of the global economy and the common stereotype that a
degree in a foreign language – or liberal arts in general –
lacks marketability in the workforce, I can look to the future
with confidence. Communication is essential to business,
politics, economics and practically every other aspect of
civilization, and as globalization continues to increase in
intensity and multiply international interactions, it isn’t too
hard to assume that somewhere in the world at any given
point in time, in one form or another, there will always be a
fuel technician who needs someone to tell the delivery
crew what nozzle to attach.
RYAN DAILEYAsian Cultures & Languages (Chinese) Senior Ryan Dailey spent the summer interning for NBC at the Bei j ing Olympics.
Ryan Dailey inside the Olympic stadium in Beijing.
[4]
RACHEL KNIGHTRachel Knight, a senior in Asian Cultures & Languages (Chinese) spent the summer working in Beijing.
This summer, I received the opportunity to be a
volunteer for two weeks at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Through an organization called Community Collaborations
International, we did things such as work at orphanages,
bring the orphans to the Games, pick people up from the
airport, and hand out surveys about the environment and
the Olympic Committee. Although we did not get the
opportunity to work inside the venues, all 150 or so of us
received four tickets to whichever events we chose.
This trip was by far one
of my favorites. I had
already spent the Spring
2008 semester in Beijing,
so I knew the layout of
the city and what it had
been like before the
Olympics had rea l ly
started to take effect on
it. My first thoughts when
I returned to Beijing were
centered on how amazed
I was that a city could
change so much in a
mere two months. Not
only were there at least
two more comp le te
subway lines, but the
traffic was extremely light
fo r Be i j i ng whereas
before, anytime after noon until about seven, anywhere
twenty minutes away would take about an hour and a half
guaranteed. Another change actually occurred to me when
I boarded the flight: no one on the flight was speaking
Chinese. Though this might seem normal as the flight was
coming from a mostly English speaking country, it’s not.
Before, on both my flights at least half the people on the
plan had been speaking Chinese to each other. Even after
landing, when walking around Beijing it was odd to see so
many foreigners and hear so many different languages
other than Chinese being spoken.
As far as the venues and the actual Olympics go, most
of the venues were entirely new and showed it with high
tech lighting, brand new seats, and a smell of newness to
it. I chose for my events artistic gymnastics, boxing, diving,
and tennis. Though only in tennis did I really get close
seats, seeing athletes wasn’t a problem since all around
Beijing, and especially at the touristy sites such as the Silk
and Pearl Markets and the Great Wall, you couldn’t miss
seeing at the very least five athletes all decked out in their
country’s uni forms. In
Beijing and at the events,
t h e y s e r v e d s u c h
delicacies as ketchup
flavored potato chips,
b l u e b e r r y fl a v o r e d
popcorn, and all kinds of
live critters wiggling on
sticks fried in front of
your eyes. Though these
types of concessions
were new for me, the
thing about the events
that really stuck out was
the Chinese spectators.
Wherever you were in the
venue, you always knew
when a Chinese citizen
was competing because
the entire place started to
almost shake from the screaming of “Zhongguo
Jiayou!” (Let’s Go China). Though very enthusiastic about
their own competitors, they were still very friendly and if
China wasn’t competing, but another spectator was being
loud and cheering for a different country, the Chinese
people would join in, rooting for that country as well.
Overall, my experience at the Olympics was fantastic.
Not only did I make many new friends though the people I
volunteered with, I also got to experience a whole variety of
culture in one place.
Rachel visiting a temple in Shanghai, China.
[5]
What are you currently working on in India?My project basically looks at the sacred and semi-
sacred narratives surrounding the Kurukshetra region of
Haryana, the battlefield of the epic Mahabharata. I’m
surveying about 1500
years of literature that
contain the stories and
histories of this region
and also collecting
modern oral narratives.
The centerpiece of the
textual work is a group
o f p r e v i o u s l y
unpublished Sanskrit
texts written in the
early-modern period
that tel l about the
practices and meaning
of pilgrimage. I’ve also
been roaming around
Haryana, visiting small
v i l l ages , a t tend ing
religious festivals, eating
del ic ious food and,
most importantly, listening to stories about the sacred
character of the local pilgrimage sites.
What is it like to conduct research over there? How
is it different from conducting research in the U.S.?
Conducting research here has been really difficult at
times and really rewarding at others. One of my worst
experiences was in Bikaner where they only allow manual
reduplication of manuscripts. My wonderful and patient
wife and I spent a few weeks typing and proofreading a
nearly 200 page manuscript in the library.
Going here and there collecting stories has been a lot
more fun than working in libraries and institutes. There has
been no shortage of people willing to talk with me,
because when I go into a village everyone just stares at
me until I call someone over and we commence to talking.
I hear all kinds of interesting stories about all manner of
things. I now know the
average output of an
acre of wheat, how
Indian moonshine is
m a d e , a b o u t t h e
women’s school and
sewing cooperat ive
located at one of the
pilgrimage sites, in
addition to loads of
stuff related to my
topic.
In comparison with the
U.S., it seems much
easier here to conduct
open-ended interviews
a n d a l l o w t h e
conversations to lead
the research rather than
the other way around. I
tried questionnaires at first, but they led to less interesting
tidbits and adventures. I still work the questions in, but it’s
been more fruitful to just let things develop.
You mentioned that you’re visiting pilgrimage sites.
What exactly are people going there to do?“Pilgrimage site” might be a bit of a misnomer for the
smaller places. They’re called “tirthas” in Sanskrit. In this
part of Haryana, about ninety-five percent of the tirthas are
small ponds. In a nutshell, people go there, bathe in the
water and ask for blessings. But all kinds of things go on
at these places. In the cities of Kurukshetra and Pehowa
people perform funerary rites, rather than going to
AN INTERVIEW WITH ELLIOTT MCCARTER, PH.D. CANDIDATE IN ASIAN CULTURES AND LANGUAGES
Elliott McCarter is currently in Haryana, India, working on his dissertation.
Josh Gilliland interviewed him by email to find out more about his work and experiences in India.
Elliot talking with a tirtha purohit at Brahma Sarovar, Kurukshetra
[6]
Haridwar or other more famous funeral rite locations. At
certain times of the year, there are various festivals at
these tirthas. There are camps, storytelling sessions and
other religious events. On the less religious side, I’ve seen
people using the local sacred lake simply to wash their
tractors.
The biggest event is in the city of Kurukshetra on the
day of the solar eclipse. Around a million and a half people
from all over India come to this town on that day to take a
dip in the lake right at the moment of the eclipse. It’s said
that at that time all the gods and all of the other tirthas of
India gather in a single lake here named “Sannihit
Sarovar.” The event is quite a scene and remarkably well
organized by local authorities. Many people make offerings
to their ancestors on this day, but mostly people come to
have the experience of bathing in the lake. They say it’s a
very peaceful feeling and a wonderful environment, and
many of them believe that bathing in this lake on this day
purifies them of all the misdeeds they may have ever done.
I personally declined to bathe on that day since the water
didn’t look too terribly clean and I had made that mistake
before. It may have been good for my spirit, but I wasn’t
so sure about my body.
Blanton Exhibits Japanese ArtIn conjunction with the Blanton Museum of Art exhibit of
ukiyoe prints from the James A. Michener Collection this summer, two professors from the Asian Studies Department, Nancy Stalker and Kirsten Cather, gave talks as part of a Summer Art Class on Japanese culture. This series was one of the many events sponsored by the museum for the campus and broader community, including workshops on woodblock printing, public lectures by curators and scholars, Japanese tea ceremony demonstrations, and book club selections on modern Japanese literature.
Dr. Stalker discussed the historical and cultural background surrounding the production and consumption of Edo prints, particularly the role of the cities and the pleasure quarters. Dr. Cather discussed how images and techniques common to the ukiyoe prints, particularly depictions of geisha, traditional theater, and Mount Fuji, reappear and are reinvented in modern Japanese literature and film. Dr. Stalker also appeared with exhibit curator Cheryl Snay in an interview on Aielli Unleashed, a blog on KUT (Austin's National Public Radio station) hosted by radio personality John Aielli to discuss and publicize the exhibit.
Taiwan Studies GrantProfessor Sung-Sheng Yvonne Chang
The Department of Asian Studies and Center for East Asian Studies have received a US$300,000 grant from Taiwan's Ministry of Education. The funding will be used to establish a Taiwan Studies major and to increase our course offerings on Taiwan-related subjects. The grant will also be used to fund postdoctoral fellowships, faculty and student research—particularly on Taiwan in the East Asian context—and to sponsor lectures and symposia. The University of Texas has a three-decade history of commitment to the study of Taiwan. This grant will significantly enhance UT's connection with Taiwan's academic institutions and build UT into a research center of Taiwan studies in the United States.
Pilgrims and tourists at Brahma Sarovar on the day of the Solar Eclipse, Kurukshetra
[7]
UT’s Hindi Urdu Flagship program (HUF), the first of its
kind in the US, is a comprehensive and intensive language-
training program designed to raise the level of our students
of Hindi and Urdu to a professional level of competence.
After taking two years of language courses, students spend
the third year of their four-year program on Study Abroad in
India. HUF is currently developing its study abroad
program through a collaboration between The University of
Texas and the American Institute of Indian Studies (AIIS), a
consortium of American Universities that has offered
language programs in India since the 1960s. The first group
of Flagship students will arrive in India in August 2009.
Hindi and Urdu are sister languages of India and
Pakistan that stand in an unusual linguistic relationship.
They are identical in grammar and colloquial speech but
have different writing systems and higher-level vocabulary,
which reflects their different religious and cultural contexts.
After orientation in New Delhi, Flagship students will study
for about two months in Jaipur, Rajasthan, where they will
live with host families and study advanced Hindi language
at the AIIS. Then the students will move to Lucknow, which
is a major center of Urdu as well as being the capital of
Hindi-speaking Uttar Pradesh. There, students will study
advanced Urdu at the AIIS Urdu language program while
also continuing their study of Hindi. They will also visit two
other important cultural centers: Varanasi, a center of
Hinduism and Hindi culture on the Ganges, and
Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, a center for the development
of Urdu in 18th-century Mughal India.
In addition to their language courses, students will be
tutored by professors from Indian universities in courses
that count towards their major. The final component of the
year will consist of internships related to the students’
professional fields, which will give them opportunities to
work with NGOs in such areas as health care and women’s
and children's education, or with corporations in the areas
of international finance and business.
HUF is a program that runs parallel to a student's
major throughout the undergraduate program. Applications
to the program are especially invited from students who
have prior knowledge of Hindi or Urdu or who have
demonstrated outstanding aptitude in foreign languages.
HINDI URDU FLAGSHIP STUDY ABROAD IN INDIAThe Hindi Urdu Flagship will be sending its first group of students to India in August 2009.
Grant Davis and friend in front of the Golden Temple in Amritsar
Chelsea Aldridge on a roof in Jaipur
[8]
Could you tell me a little about your background?
I grew up in northwestern
Pennsylvania a small town, and
then I went to undergrad at a
small liberal arts college in
Michigan called Calvin College.
I did my grad work in Chinese
linguistics at Ohio State. After
that, I l ived in China—in
Shanghai—for three years, and
then came here to Austin.
Could you tell me a little
more about your experience in China?
I went there the summer
after my sophomore year of
college, and I did an intensive language study with
Princeton University in the summer, and then stayed on
and did a semester with my college in the fall. I was in
Beijing for the whole time. After that, I decided without a
doubt that I wanted to keep doing things related to Chinese
and China. So, when I got back, I kept doing Chinese, and
eventually ended up doing grad school after I finished with
my undergrad. I went to Shanghai on a Fulbright for my
M.A. thesis, then after that finished, I stayed on and
worked, teaching English and translating. I really liked
Shanghai a lot—it’s such a vibrant city, and it’s really
exciting to live there because so much stuff is happening
there right now.
What is your impression of UT now that you’ve been here for a year?
UT is great. I really like having a community where I
interact with people from all over the world on a daily basis.
I love the students as well. We’ve got a lot of really great
students, especially in Asian Studies, and they have a really
wide array of interests.
Can you give some highlights of working with
students?
I think the highlights are when I
really feel that I have helped
someone figure something out
about their academic career, or
their future, or their interests, or
something that they didn’t have
articulated quite as clearly in
their minds before they walked
through my door.
What do you think your
experience in China and your Masters in Chinese
linguistics brings to the
table as far as advising is concerned?
Well, Chinese is our second
largest major in the department,
and is also our second most popular language behind
Japanese, so as far as those students go, I know where
they are coming from—sometimes I’ve even been able to
give language learning advice. In fact, one of the things
that I have planned that I haven’t been able to do yet is a
workshop on foreign language learning. As someone who
has successfully learned a foreign language, I think that’s
something that I can bring to the table.
Other than that, I really encourage students to do study
abroad, and I think that’s because of my own experience
studying abroad—I spent six months in China as an
undergrad, and I would say that it was the seminal
experience of my college career. So having done that, I can
really speak to students about the importance of study
abroad and how it can help them reach their goals.
What are some projects that you’re working on right
now?Well, currently I’m working on the newsletter. After that,
I hope to start doing some workshops for students, like the
one on language learning I just mentioned, and also maybe
one on choosing courses that work best for students’
interests and your future goals.
INTERVIEW WITH JOSH GILLILAND, ACADEMIC ADVISORIan Wong, a Senior Chinese major, interviewed Josh Gilliland, new Academic Advisor in Asian Studies
[9]
I spent the 2007-2008 academic year in Tokyo as a
Fulbright fellow, conducting research on my next book
project, which will address the development and
internationalization of ikebana (the art of Japanese flower
arrangement) from the late nineteenth to the late twentieth
century. With more than three thousand officially registered
schools and a per capita floral consumption rate nearly
twice that of the U.S., ikebana is one of the nation’s largest
cultural industries. My research focuses on the three
largest schools of ikebana (Ikenobo, Ohara and Sogetsu),
which each had over a million students at the height of
ikebana’s popularity in the 1960s.
My nine months in Japan passed very quickly. There
are two annual bursts of ikebana exhibitions in Japan, in
the fall and the spring. Soon after my arrival in September, I
began attending major exhibitions held in Tokyo’s finest
department stores. I was amazed by both the lavish scale
of the exhibitions and the massive number of spectators
attending. I quickly developed a sense of the different
aesthetic promoted by each school. Most weeks, I spent
the majority of my time collecting primary source materials
at the headquarters of the three major schools and at other
libraries throughout Tokyo, especially the National Diet
Library and the Shufu-no-Tomo women’s library at
Ochanomizu. I also attended meetings for Ikebana
International, a non-profit association designed to help
popularize ikebana worldwide and indulged in weekly
ikebana lessons, alternating among the three major
schools.
My host institution was Sophia University, a popular
destination for UT exchange students, located in the heart
of Tokyo, where I lived in a University apartment. It was an
ideal location, as I could walk to the Diet Library and easily
commute to any spot in Tokyo, but it was not your average
neighborhood. I did a lot of my shopping, banking, post
office visits and dining at the luxurious New Otani Hotel,
directly across the street. The New Otani lobby featured a
giant Sogetsu ikebana arrangement that changed with the
seasons and I enjoyed chronicling its evolution.
During the course of the year, I traveled twice to Kyoto
to visit Ikenobo headquarters and to see some temples I’d
missed on previous trips. Towards the end of my stay, I
also made a brief tour of famous onsen (hot spring) towns
in three northern prefectures. Onsen is my favorite
Japanese leisure activity, with little to do but soak, relax
and eat tasty, elaborate local cuisine. On Christmas day, I
even visited an onsen “theme park” in Tokyo with a few
other curious academic friends. We opted to try the famous
“Dr. Fish,” tiny creatures that clean the dead skin off of your
feet.
All in all, it was a productive and fun year, a chance to
pursue my new research project, to meet old and new
friends in Tokyo and to eat my fill of great sushi!
NANCY STALKER STUDIES THE ART OF IKEBANAAssistant Professor Nancy Stalker has taught many classes on Japan, including “Modern Japan” and “History of
Japanese Religions.”
[10]
REFLECTIONS ON 2007-2008Professor Patrick Olivelle is the former Department Chair of Asian Studies. His past courses include “Religion
and Society of Ancient India” and “ History of Sanskrit Literature.”
In Spring 2009, UT students will be able to study a topic often spoken of only in hushed tones: courtesans. The course, taught by Professor Carla Petievich of Asian Studies, will be entitled “Cultivated Women: Courtesans in Cross-Cultural Perspective,” and will be cross-listed with Women and Gender Studies as well as Comparative Literature.
In this course students will look at the profiles and practices of courtesans across several cultures and times—devadasis from South India, tawa’ifs of northern India, geisha from Japan, singers and poetesses of China’s and Japan’s “floating world,” even the legendary cortigiani of Venice. Readings will be drawn from a variety of texts (autobiography, biography, novel, poetic texts, letters and scholarly essays) and will consider the social role of courtesans as women and as performers, the arts they cultivated and disseminated from generation to generation, and various debates surrounding their social position. Class discussion will be directed toward how we ought to understand who and what these special women are/were.
“Cultivated Women: Courtesans in Cross-Cultural Perspective”
After stepping down as Chair of the Department of
Asian Studies last August, I was rewarded with a year's
sabbatical leave. I received a visiting fellowship at Wolfson
College of Oxford University for the Fall and spent four
productive months at Oxford. I had three major research
projects for the year: the critical edition of the Law Book of
Yajnavalkya on which I had been working for a few years;
the beginning of a new translation of Kautilya's Arthasastra,
the oldest and only text on statecraft and law from ancient
India; and continuing my work on a Dictionary of Ancient
Indian Law that I initiated several years ago along with my
students David Brick and Mark McClish. I made good
progress on all three fronts, although none is close to
completion.
While at Oxford I held a weekly seminar on ancient
Indian law at Balliol College attended by graduate students
and faculty. I also gave several talks at Oxford itself, and at
the Universities of London, Cardiff and Madrid. In
December my wife and I spent a little over a month in India
and Sri Lanka. In Delhi I contacted several scholars and
institutions in an effort to organize an international
conference on the ancient Indian emperor Asoka now
scheduled to be held in Delhi in August 2009. I also
arranged with scholars in Pune, India to undertake a
collaborative effort in collating the over 100 manuscripts of
the Yajnavalkya legal treatise that I had collected. Five
young Indian scholars are now engaged in this project. I
also gave talks at the Osmania University in Hyderabad
and at the University of Pune. We also spent a few
wonderful days in Vrindavan where Krishna is reputed to
have lived.
In February I spent a month in Australia at the invitation
of Latrobe University in Melbourne. I gave talks at Latrobe,
as well as at the Australian National University in Canberra
and the University of Sydney. In Sydney I was interviewed
for a radio program on religion by the Australian
Broadcasting Corporation.
My research travel last year was supported by the
Jacob and Frances Sanger Mossiker Chair in the
Humanities. But I am delighted to be back in Austin and in
the classroom.
Patrick Olivelle in front of the Taj Mahal.
[11]
Department UpdatesPatrick Olivelle recently published a translation entitled
Life of the Buddha: Buddhacarita by Asvaghosa. (New York
University Press, 2008). His translation was mentioned in
an article in Time magazine on July 31, 2008 called
“Siddhartha's Saga” (http://www.time.com/time/magazine/
article/0,9171,1828094,00.html).
Robert Oppenheim published Kyongju Things: Assembling
Place (University of Michigan Press, 2008). Robert will be
promoted to Associate Professor beginning Fall 2009. His
research interests include place and technical and cultural
politics in Korea, as well as the history of Korean
anthropology.
Martha Selby co-edited a volume entitled Tamil
Geographies: Cultural Constructions of Space and Place in
South India (State University of New York Press, 2008).
Nancy Stalker recently published Prophet Motive: Deguchi
Onisaburo, Oomoto, and the Rise of New Religions in
Imperial Japan (Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press,
2007). Nancy will be promoted to Associate Professor
beginning Fall 2009. Her research focuses on the
intersections between traditional Japanese culture and
modernity.
Huaiyin Li will be promoted to Associate Professor
beginning Fall 2009. His research interests include Modern
Chinese history; Contemporary Chinese economy, society,
and politics; agrarian studies; Chinese culture and religion;
and comparative studies of development and globalization.
Naoko Suito, Lecturer in Japanese language, was
promoted to Senior Lecturer, beginning Fall 2008. She
teaches lower and upper division Japanese language
courses.
Chien-hsin Tsai was hired for the position in Modern
Chinese Culture and Society, beginning Fall 2009. Tsai
recently completed his doctoral dissertation at Harvard
University on Chinese literature from Taiwan during the
Japanese colonial period. He will offer a broad range of
new courses on China and East Asia, including literature,
film studies, and popular culture.
Beginning Fall 2008, the Department of Asian Studies is
now offering fourth-year Korean courses. KOR 330, taught
by Korean Lecturer Sooyeon Tahk, focuses on advanced
reading in the first semester and advanced conversation in
the second semester.
Recruiting is currently ongoing for the Mitsubishi Heavy
Industries Chair in Japanese Studies.
Alumni NewsWarner Belanger (MA 2000) accepted a position as
Assistant Professor of Religion and Interdisciplinary Studies
at Georgia College and State University.
Laura Brueck (Ph.D. 2006) accepted a job as Assistant
Professor of Hindi Literature in the Asian Languages and
Civilizations Department at the University of Colorado at
Boulder beginning in fall 2008.
Michelle Cheng (BA 2006) is studying at Tohoku University
(Sendai, Japan) on a Fulbright Scholarship. She is
researching Japanese wordplay. Upon her return to the
United States she will be studying Japanese Linguistics in
the Asian Languages Ph.D. Program at Stanford
University.
Eduardo Contreras (MA 2001) is a student in the master's
program in Higher Education at the Harvard Graduate
School of Education. He is the chair for the Alumni of Color
Conference Alumni Achievement Award Committee. In
addition to school, he is also a graduate assistant at MIT in
the Office of Minority Education working on their Mentor
Advocate Partnership program.
Eric Zusman (MA 1998) is a climate policy researcher
at the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies in
Hayama, Japan
Are you an alumnus or a current student in the Department of Asian Studies? Send us news to include in the next newsletter! Please e-mail updates to Josh Gilliland at [email protected]
[12]
Undergraduate NewsKathryn Hansen, Undergraduate Adviser
Congratulations to the 75 students who graduated with
majors in Asian Studies or Asian Cultures and Languages
last year. This was one of the largest graduating classes in
the department’s history. The students and their parents
were honored at a special Asian Studies luncheon for
graduates on May 16, 2008. This was a great opportunity
for families to meet faculty and staff, and for students to
celebrate their many accomplishments.
As part of their Asian Studies learning experience, a
number of undergraduate students took the opportunity to
spend time on one of the Study Abroad programs offered
at UT. Altogether 35 students from the department studied
in Asia in 07-08. The most popular destinations were the
IES program in Beijing, Sophia University in Japan, Yonsei
University in Korea, and the IES program in New Delhi.
Two undergraduates were awarded university prizes for
their outstanding academic records. Ishan Chakrabarti, a
graduating senior triple-majoring in Asian Studies, Sanskrit
and English, received a University Co-op George H.
Mitchell Undergraduate Student Award for Academic
Excellence. Devon Reynolds, a dual degree student in
Chinese and Biology, was awarded an Unrestricted
Endowed Presidential Scholarship for the 2008-2009
academic year. The Presidential Scholarship is considered
one of the most notable scholarships a UT student can
receive. Many students also received awards of various
kinds from within the department.
The graduates of 07-08 included nine students who
received honors in Asian Studies. Each student who
pursues departmental honors must complete an honors
thesis of at least 40 pages in length. This involves working
on an original research topic under the supervision of an
Asian Studies faculty member. During 07-08, two honors
students wrote on Chinese literary texts, two on
contemporary Korean culture and politics, two on aspects
of 20th century Japan, two on Indian history or religion, and
one on Asian-American religion.
The complete list of honors theses is given below, with
supervisors’ names in parentheses:
• Bisheh, Sahar Katherine, “Never Refusing the Axe”: The Poetic Identity of Du Fu (712-770) in Shu. (Lai)
• Boitmann, Brian. The Nizam’s Last Stand. (Minault)• Chakrabarti, Ishan. Identity, Difference and the Muslim in
Medieval Vaishnava Hagiography. (Snell)• Kim, Christopher. The Wednesday Protests: The Comfort
Women Protest Movement. (Oppenheim)• Langley, Melissa Louise. A Concubine’s Tokens:
Impotence and Fetishism in Su Tong’s Novella “Raise the Red Lantern”. (Lai)
• Lertdilok, Jeffrey. Culture and Compromise: The Incorporation of Asian Immigrant Buddhism in the United States. (Selby)
• Mina, Mona. Racism, Nationalism and Globalization on the Field: Korea’s Perspective on the Hines Ward Phenomena. (Oppenheim)
• Nartowicz, Tonya. Carrot or Stick? An Examination of Japan’s Failed China Official Development Aid Policy. (Metzler)
• Orlando, R. Janice. The Nationalist Manga Wave: On Yamano’s Kenkanryu. (Cather)
New Course on Graduate Academic Writing for Non-Native Speakers of EnglishIn Spring 2009, Professor Chiu-Mi Lai will offer a course on graduate academic writing. This course is
designed for non-native speakers of English seeking to develop and/or refine their academic writing skills. Focus will be on both informal and formal writing—from mechanics to style to development of ideas, and from “pre-draft” stages to finalizing revisions. The course will also introduce and apply what can be called American academic writing, especially in comparison with other stylistic and cultural approaches to writing.
The course will emphasize hands-on exercises in writing, revising, proofreading, and other essential factors connected with writing. Attention will be given to areas particular to Asian Studies, e.g. citation of translations from Asian language texts. Students are strongly encouraged to focus on a long-term writing project, such as a seminar paper, thesis, dissertation, or a manuscript in preparation for publication.
Additionally, two oral presentations will be required for this course, designed to assist students in the refining stages of critical writing. Students will be assessed on oratory skills as a well-presented talk will greatly contribute to a communication of your ideas. As well, oral presentations are always good practice for an academic life and career, long after students leave the classroom.
[13]
Graduate NewsMartha Ann Selby, Graduate Adviser
Our graduate programs in Asian Studies and Asian
Cultures and Languages continue to thrive through the
contributions of our many talented students and through
the dedication of our faculty and staff.
In the past year, several of our graduate students have
received prestigious fellowships and awards. From the
Office of Graduate Studies, Urmila Patil received an
Endowed Graduate Fel lowship to complete her
dissertation, a unique study of identity formation among
brahmin communities in Western India. Shaohua Guo
received a University Continuing Fellowship to work on her
dissertation on women’s “self-reflective writing” in China, in
which she will examine women’s so-called middlebrow
culture. Maeri Megumi was awarded a Bruton Fellowship
and David Brick received a Graduate School Fellowship.
These awards are the most competitive given by the
Graduate School: over 300 students compete to receive
one of the 100 Continuing or endowed fellowships.
In addition to these university fellowships, several of
our students received grants from outside agencies. The
U.S. Department of Education awarded Dean Accardi the
multi-year Jacob K. Javits Fellowship to undertake his
doctoral work on Kashmiri religious formations. Ph.D.
candidates Peter Knapczyk and Nathan Tabor were
awarded Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research
Abroad and American Institute of Indian Studies Junior
Fellowships to conduct research in India during the
2008-2009 academic year. Peter’s dissertation is a literary
and historical study of marsiya, a genre of elegiac poetry
associated with the commemorative practices of Shi’i
Muslims. Nathan will conduct research on Urdu poetry
recitals in New Delhi. Nathan also received a Wenner-Gren
Dissertation Fieldwork Grant. Ph.D. student Nikola Rajic
was awarded the South Asia Graduate Fellowship to
continue his studies in Tamil literature.
A number of our graduate students also received
Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowships, American
Institute of Indian Studies fellowships for language
immersion study in India, awards for professional
development from the Graduate School, POSCO (Korean)
and Mitsubishi (Japanese) Graduate Research Fellowships,
and funds for study abroad from the China Endowment.
For a complete list of graduate student fellowship
recipients, please see our news story located at http://
www.utexas.edu/cola/depts/asianstudies/news/current/
grad_fellows_08/.
This year we celebrated the graduation of 10 Masters
students: Emily Anderson, Justin Fifield, Lindsey Ford,
James Hudson, Daniel Majchrowicz, Tanya Palermo,
Thomas Patterson, Sanvita Sample, Blaire Schultz, and
Linda Takamine. The Department of Asian Studies also
marked the graduation of an unprecedented four Ph.D.
students. Sarah Houston Green (Ph.D. May 2008) is now
Associate Director for Student and Community Relations in
the Hindi-Urdu Flagship Program at UT. Gardner Harris
(Ph.D. May 2008) is Visiting Assistant Professor of Religion
at Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas. Kristen
Rudisill (Ph.D. December 2007) is Assistant Professor of
Popular Culture at Bowling Green State University.
Matthew Sayers (Ph.D. May 2008) is Visiting Assistant
Professor of Philosophy and Religion at Lebanon Valley
College in Pennsylvania.
We are also delighted to welcome new students to our
M.A. and Ph.D. programs. We admitted ten new Masters
students to our program in August 2008: Brian Boitmann,
Libby Bowers, Max Bruce, Ishan Chakrabarti, Hye Eun
Choi, Shirley Field, Bob Gallagher, Jae Lee, Priya Nelson,
Natasha Raheja, Dan Rudmann, Jonathan Seefeldt, Rachel
Vought, and Lindsey Wilson. We also admitted four new
students to our Ph.D. program: Asiya Alam, Emilia
Bachrach, Manomohini Dutta, and Tien-wen Lin.
Recipients of the Office of Graduate Studies' Professional Development Award, from left to right: Mark McClish, Neil Dalal, and Shaohua Guo, with Dr. Martha Selby.
[14]
Asian Studies Student Scholarships and AwardsCongratulations to the recipients of the following awards, fellowships, and scholarships!
Asian Studies Scholarship for Study AbroadMichael Brown, Dhawal Doshi, Sree Latha Yakkala
China Studies Study Abroad Scholarship
John Richard, Lacey Robinson, Tuyet Tu
Mitsubishi Study Abroad Scholarship
Genevieve LeGris
POSCO Korea Studies Scholarship
Sean Brown, Hae K. Chung, Whitney L. Yang
Mahatma Gandhi Memorial ScholarshipGabriela M. L. Rios
Louise J. Faurot Memorial ScholarshipDevon Reynolds
Outstanding Chinese Language Students
Vijay John, Andrea Thiessen
Outstanding Japanese Language Students
Amanda Lawley, Brittney Marquart
Best “All Around” Japanese Studies and Language
Student
Mona Min
Korean Language Achievement Award
Sean Brown, Brittany Hamilton, Thuyduyen Thi Nguyen,
Angela Whiteman
Hindu Urdu Flagship Scholarship Recipients
Chelsea Aldridge, Sofiya Riyaz Ali, Sanjay Gulati, Kovid
Gupta, Shan Khan, Ramu Kharel, Suhrid Mantravadi,
Uruba Niazi, Koosh Patel, Will Williams
Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS)
Fellowship
Ishan Chakrabarti, Alex Dodson, Isabel Huacuja, Amy
Hyne, Suzanne Schulz
Presidential ScholarshipDevon Reynolds
American Institute for Indian Studies (AIIS) Language Fellowship
Natasha Raheja
American Institute for Indian Studies (AIIS) Dissertation Research Fellowship
Peter Knapczyk, Nathan Tabor
East Asia Graduate Fellowship
Mei Huang, Maeri Megumi, Kathryn Page-Lippsmeyer,
Yongzhen Shu, Euhwa Tran, Nhu Truong
Graduate Student Professional Development Award
Cary Curtiss, Neil Dalal, Shaohua Guo, Mark McClish
Asian Studies Outstanding Assistant Instructor &
Teaching Assistant Award
Shaohua Guo (TA), Gardner Harris (AI)
China Endowment Professional Development
ScholarshipJames Hudson, Yi Lu, Fei Ren
JK and Shanti Aggarwal Award
Jacqueline Pallardy
Louise J. Faurot Memorial Endowed Fellowship in
Chinese StudiesEuhwa Tran
Richard and Janis Lariviere Graduate Fellowship in
South Asian StudiesMatthew Milligan
POSCO Endowment in Korean StudiesEmily Anderson
POSCO Graduate Research Fellowship
Anthony Bonville, Yoojun Kim, Hyunjung Lee, SoonAh Lee,
Wonjun Yoon
Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching AssistantsMadina Bano (Urdu), Sadiqur Rahman (Bengali), Shilpa
Parnami (Hindi)
[15]
THE ASIAN STUDIES NEWSLETTER IS PUBLISHED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF ASIAN STUDIES AT THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN.DEPARTMENT CHAIR: JOEL BRERETONNEWSLETTER EDITOR: JOSH GILLILANDNEWSLETTER COMMITTEE: KIRSTEN CATHER, ROBERT OPPENHEIM, MARTHA SELBY
Gifts to the Department of Asian Studies
We hope that you will consider making a tax-deductible donation to the Department of Asian Studies. Your donations will
be used to help the department expand its educational and scholarly mission. Your check should be payable to The
University of Texas at Austin with Department of Asian Studies in the “memo” section of the check. For more information
about giving opportunities, or if you would like to establish a named endowment, you may contact:
Kathleen Aronson, Director of Development and Alumni Relations
College of Liberal Arts
The University of Texas at Austin
1 University Station G6300
Austin, TX 78712
[email protected], 512-475-9763
Donations should be mailed to Ms. Aronson at the above address. Please include this form with your gift.
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Enclosed is my check for $ ____________________ payable to The University of Texas at Austin.
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