Faculty Notes

Christopher I. Beckwith (CEUS) gave a paper entitled “Comparative Morphology and Japanese-Koguryoic History: Toward an Ethnolinguistic Solution of the Altaic Problem” at the Altaistic Conference of Japan, held at Daito Bunka University, Tokyo, November 27, 2004. He also chaired the panel “Field Research and Xinjiang History” at the International Workshop on Xinjiang Historical Sources, December 12-14, Hakone, Japan. He attended two other international conferences, namely Diversity in Data and Description: Problems and Progress in the Study of Peripheral Eurasian Languages, at the University of Tokyo, November 26-27, 2004, and The New Horizon of Historical Studies on Central Eurasia, at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, November 17, 2004. In 2004, Professor Beckwith published one research book, Koguryo, the Language of Japan’s Continental Relatives: An Introduction to the Historical-Comparative Study of the Japanese-Koguryoic Languages, with a Preliminary Description of Archaic Northeastern Middle Chinese (Leiden: Brill, 2004) and one research article, “Old Chinese,” in: Philipp Strazny, ed., Encyclopedia of Linguistics (London: Fitzroy Dearborn, 2004). Professor Beckwith is currently in Tokyo on a Fulbright-Hays Faculty Research Abroad Fellowship.

Sheena Choi (EDUC, IPFW) presented at two international conferences in 2004. In September, Choi presented “Marketization or Globalization?: Foreign School Dilemmas in South Korea” at the International Conference on Making Educational Reform Happen: Learning from the Asian Experience and Comparative Perspectives which was held in Bangkok, Thailand. The trip was supported by the Purdue University International Travel Fund. Choi was also invited to present her ongoing research “Citizenship, Education, Identity, and Cultural Sustenance: A Study of Ethnic Koreans in China” at the International Conference on Cultural Education and Cultural Sustenance hosted by Hebrew University in Jerusalem in December. Her research was supported by the Ford Foundation, Beijing and her trip to Israel was supported by Hebrew Studies Center, Hebrew University.

Choi published two book chapters and a referred journal article: “International Schools in Korea: Globalization or Marketization? Vacillating Between the Two” in Sekai no Gaikokujin-gakkou (International/Foreign Schools in the World) edited by Shunichi Nishimura which was published by the Center for Research in International Education, Gakugei University Press. The updated version “International Schools in South Korea” in International /Foreign schools in the World edited by Seiji Fukuda and Dr. Mitsuko Suefuji is to be published by Toshindo. Her article “Citizenship, Education, and Identity: A Comparative Study of Ethnic Chinese in Korea and Ethnic Koreans in China” was published in the summer 2004 issue of International Journal of Education Reform 13(3):253-266.

Sumie Jones (EALC & CMCL) published Edo Bunika to Sabu-karucha (Edo Culture and Subculture) as well as a special issue (January 2005) of Kokubungaku: Kaishaku to Kansho which features a panel discussion (zadankai) of Sumie Jones, Haruko Iwasaki (UC Santa Barbara), and Adam Kern (Harvard University), entitled, Edo no Gesaku to America (America and Gesaku Literature of the Edo Period).

Heejoon Kang (BUS) taught the seven-week course Economic Analysis at Sungkyunkwan University in Seoul, Korea from late August to the end of October. Sungkyunkwan University has established a new, two-year, SKK-MIT MBA program. Instruction is all in English and students will spend a semester at MIT.

Yoshihisa Kitagawa (Linguistics) published a book entitled Seesee-bunpoo-no Kangae-kata ‘Ways of Thinking in Generative Grammar’ (co-authored by Ayumi Ueyama) through Kenkyusha in Japan. He was also invited to organize a symposium entitled “Prosody and Syntax” and make a keynote presentation at the Twenty-second Conference of the English Linguistic Society of Japan in November. His research paper entitled “Wh-scope Puzzles” was selected for presentation at the Thirty-fifth Annual Meeting of the North-Eastern Linguistic Society in October. Kitagawa was invited to provide a lecture series (“Extra-syntactic Factors in the Formal Study of Syntax” and “Parasitic Wh-phrases”) at Seoul National University in November. And he was invited to give talks entitled “PF-LF Synchronization” and “Redoing Syntax without Syntax,” at Generative Grammar Circle and Korean Language and Information Society, respectively, both in Seoul, Korea in November.

Ann Mongoven (Religious Studies) is in Japan this academic year as an Abe Fellow of the Center for Global Partnership, Japan Foundation. Professor Mongoven is researching comparative American-Japanese conversations on bioethics, especially regarding organ donation and transplantation. She is working with the University of Tokyo’s 21st Century COE Project on the Construction of Life and Death Studies.

Jan Nattier (Religious Studies) is o n leave for the 2004 calendar year, funded by grants from the ACLS (January - June) and NEH (July - December). In 2004, she presented several papers: “The Proto-History of the Avatamsaka-sūtra: New Light from Chinese Sources,” International Conference on Huayan Thought, Budapest, Hungary, May 2004, “Bodhisattvas and the Pure Land: A New Look at the Early Mahāyāna in India,” Tokyo University, Tokyo, Japan, July 2004, “Bodhisattvas and the Pure Land: A New Look at the Early Mahāyāna in India,” Otani University, Kyoto, Japan, October 2004, and “Beyond Translation and Transliteration: A New Look at Chinese Buddhist Terms,” American Oriental Society/Western Branch, Portland, Oregon, October 2004. Papers published in 2004 include: “The Twelve Divisions of Scriptures in the Earliest Chinese Buddhist Translations.” Annual Report of The International Research Institute for Advanced Buddhology at Soka University for the Academic Year 2003 [ARIRIAB], vol. 7, pp. 167-196, “The Indian Roots of Pure Land Buddhism: Insights from the Oldest Chinese Versions of the Larger Sukhāvatīvyūha.” Pacific World [memorial volume for Prof. Masatoshi Nagatomi of Harvard University], 3rd series, no. 5, pp. 179-201, and “Monks in the Mahāyāna,” in Donald S. Lopez, Jr., ed., Buddhist Scriptures (New York: Penguin, 2004), pp. 269-277. Nattier also participated in weekly research seminars on Chinese Buddhist texts at the International Research Institute for Advanced Buddhology (Hachioji) and at Tokyo University.

Anne Prescott (EASC) wrote an article called Japan Digest: Koto, published by the National Clearinghouse for US-Japan Studies, June 2004, available online at www.indiana.edu/~japan/Digests/koto.html. Her article “The Donkey’s Ears Go Flop, Flop: Miyagi Michio’s Koto Works for Children,” was published in Asian Music, Vol. 36, No. 1 (Fall/Winter 2004/2005).

Lynn Struve (History & EALC) had two publications appear in December. First, a special issue of History and Memory that she edited, on the theme “Traumatic Memory in Chinese History,” includes her own article, “Confucian PTSD: Reading Trauma in a Chinese Youngster’s Memoir of 1653,” as well as her “Brief Historical Introduction” to the special issue. Second, Late Imperial China published her article “Ruling from Sedan Chair: Wei Yijie (1616-1686) and the Civil Examination Reforms of the ‘Oboi’ Regency.” This article challenges the thirty-year-old paradigm for interpreting the Oboi Regency, as described in a book by Robert Oxnam titled Ruling from Horseback.

Natsuko Tsujimura (Linguistics & EALC) was invited to Western Washington University to g ive two lectures in October of 2004. The lectures were “Issues in Lexical Semantics” and “Another Look at Unconventional Word Class.” In November Tsujimura presented her paper “Multiple Stages in the Acquisition of Mimetics in Japanese” at the Sixth High Desert Linguistics Conference held at the University of New Mexico. A shorter version of this paper was given at the annual meeting of the Linguistic Society of America, held in Oakland, CA on January 6-9, 2005.

Jeffrey Wasserstrom (History & EALC) has recently published essays in general interest magazines with an Asian focus: his commentary “Shanghai Pride” appeared in the November-December issue of China Business Review, while “Beijing’s New Legitimacy Crisis” appeared in the inaugural (December) issue of the reformatted Far Eastern Economic Review, which is now a monthly as opposed to a weekly and runs more scholarly articles than it did in the past. In late October and early November, he was in Taiwan taking part in the “Distinguished Scholar” program run by National Chengchi University, and while there he gave talks at Academia Sinica and National Chungyang University and participated in an international conference on contemporary Chinese politics.

Yasuko Ito Watt (EALC) received the 2004 Collegiate Teacher of the Year Award at the luncheon at the annual Indiana Foreign Language Teachers Association (IFLTA) Conference on November 6, 2004 in Indianapolis. This award was given “in recognition of outstanding instruction and professional service in the state of Indiana.”

TOP

Main Page Spotlight EASC Events Profiles What to Read Faculty News Student/Alumni News Print Ready Newsletter