EASC Newsletter

EASC Reports

New EASC Staff
The EASC is glad to welcome several new staff members:

Valerie Falstad, database coordinator
Valerie has a B.S. in computer science from Hope College in Holland, MI. She has studied Japanese for several years and last year taught English in Japan.
Kenneth Harvey, outreach coordinator
Ken comes to the EASC with over fifteen years of experience in East Asia. He holds an M.A in Chinese philosophy from Aichi University in Toyohashi, Japan. He attended language exchange programs at Hangzhou University in China and Miyazaki University in Japan to complete his undergraduate degree at Evergreen College. Since returning to the United States in 2000, Ken has worked as a technical translator for the Japanese robot manufacturer Yaskawa and for the Japanese Consulate General in Portland, Oregon. Over the past three years, he managed the publication of Asian academic materials for UMI/ProQuest in Ann Arbor. Ken maintains a strong interest in the technical, legal, and linguistic issues related to academic digital publishing—especially with respect to CJK language resources.
Paul Jackson, grants assistant
Paul is a second-year M.A. student in EALC, specializing in early Chinese religion and thought, specifically Han and pre-Han dynasty Daoism. Paul was born and raised in Italy and moved to Florida when he was twelve years old. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Florida.
Caleb Kramer, office assistant
Caleb is a sophomore pursuing a degree in graphic design. He recently transferred to IU Bloomington from IPFW in Fort Wayne, IN. He grew up in Taiwan where his parents are working for the Christian and Missionary Alliance.
Brian Ruh, outreach assistant / newsletter editor
Brian is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Communication and Culture with a minor in East Asian studies. He holds an M.A. in Asian cultures and languages from the University of Texas at Austin and is the author of the book Stray Dog of Anime: The Films of Mamoru Oshii (Palgrave Macmillan, 2004). In addition to his duties at EASC, Brian is currently working on a dissertation on the globalization of Japanese animation.
Patricia Tennen, assistant outreach coordinator
After graduating from Goshen College, Patricia taught English for two years with the JET program in Hiroshima Prefecture and for one year at a private girls’ high school in Osaka. She recently completed her Master of Public Affairs at IU’s School of Public and Environmental Affairs.

EASC also welcomes EALC’s new academic advisor, Michelle Pribbernow. Michelle graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a degree in anthropology and a minor in classical civilizations. She then took a year off and spent a few months in Japanese monasteries, later working a couple of archaeology jobs in Indiana. Her master’s degree in anthropology is from the University of Pittsburgh, where she focused on Japanese culture and worked with Professor L. Keith Brown. She completed that degree with a few months of NSF-sponsored fieldwork in Tokyo. Her thesis focused on gender and cross-dressing in Japanese theater and pop culture and situated the visual kei “cosplayers” (people who participate in “costume play”) of Harajuku within that historical tradition. She recently and happily returned to Indiana after a few years working as a research assistant at the Applied Behavioral Medicine Research Institute at Stony Brook University. She is the academic advisor for the Departments of Anthropology, EALC, and Classical Studies.

Music Workshop
The Teaching East Asian Music in the Elementary Music Classroom workshop was held June 11-14, 2006. Sponsored by EASC with funding from the Freeman Foundation, the workshop has been an annual event for the past four years. It gives elementary school music teachers the opportunity to learn about the musics of China, Korea, and Japan through instructional sessions and special performances. Fifteen teachers from around the United States as well as Shanghai, China and Guaynabo, Puerto Rico participated in this year’s workshop.

In addition to attending lectures by noted East Asian music scholars, the participants also were able to listen to a presentation on Chinese music accompanied by a performance. This included a number of pieces arranged by noted ethnomusicologist HAN Kuo-Huang, distinguished teaching professor emeritus at Northern Illinois University and Asia Center Fellow at University of Kentucky, and performed by the Luogu Ensemble as well as a presentation and performance by Simon Feng on the qin (sometimes referred to as the Chinese zither or hammered dulcimer).

Literature Workshop
This July EASC hosted its eighth annual workshop on Teaching East Asian Literature in the High School in Bloomington. Twenty-five teachers from around the country participated in this intensive weeklong workshop focusing on the literatures of China, Japan, and Korea. They also learned about the three cultures in special activities including ikebana, aikido, and cooking. Upon completing the workshop, teachers designed lesson plans detailing how to integrate East Asian works into their curricula. The grant from the Freeman Foundation that provides support for the literature workshop has been renewed through summer 2009. For information about next year’s workshop, which will take place July 8-14, 2007, see: http://www.indiana.edu/~easc/lit_workshop/index.htm.

Study Tour to China
Twenty middle- and high-school teachers from Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and Alabama who completed the National Consortium for Teaching about Asia’s (NCTA) Teaching about Asia seminar traveled to China for eighteen days this summer. They were accompanied by tour leader Anne Prescott (former EASC outreach coordinator), tour assistant Jessica Dzieweczynski (M.A. student in Chinese and EASC outreach assistant), faculty expert Jim Winship (professor, Augustana College), and curriculum coordinator John Frank (U.S. history teacher, Center Grove High School, Greenwood, IN).

Prior to departure, the teachers completed a lengthy reading list and came to the IU Bloomington campus for a two-day orientation. EASC’s study tours are designed to give teachers the opportunity to visit historical and cultural sites as well as local schools. Among the most popular stops were the Forbidden City and Great Wall in Beijing, the Terra Cotta Warriors in Xi’an, the Bund in Shanghai, the exquisite gardens of Suzhou, and dynamic Hong Kong. Upon their return to the United States, the teachers developed lesson plans to implement in their classrooms as well as outreach strategies for their local communities. In October the group gathered again in Indianapolis to discuss their experiences and how to strengthen teaching about East Asia in their schools.

High School Honors Seminar
Last spring’s High School Honors Seminar, titled A Day in Korea, took place in April on the Bloomington campus. The seminar included presentations on daily life in Korea by Professor Michael Robinson (EALC) and on shamanism by Kyoim YUN, a Ph.D. student in the Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology, and a hands-on exercise called Korea Amazing Race, EASC’s version of the popular television show.