EASC Newsletter

A Letter from the Director

Heidi Ross

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

Remember summer? (Relatively) uninterrupted days dedicated to research, special training programs, travel, writing, renewal? At the mid-point of the semester, those days seem like distant memories. Nevertheless, let me take a moment to celebrate with you once again the happy news we received in July when EASC, with our consortium partner University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s Center for East Asian and Pacific Studies (EAPS), received Title VI funding to become one of 17 U.S. National Resource Centers for the study of East Asia.

As a member of this impressive nationwide group, our consortium brings together 140 faculty specialists in East Asia, making us a Midwest powerhouse. In addition to supporting outreach activities and cross-campus teaching, our joint projects include language pedagogy workshops; national dissertation workshops on East Asian ethnology, education, sexuality and gender, and culture and society; and summer seminars on transnational and cross-regional cinemas, varieties of capitalism, culture and cognition, and Daoism and folk beliefs in Chinese religion. We are now in the planning stages of a special consortium initiative, Science and Technology in the Pacific Century (STIP), which will bring together East Asian and U.S. scholars, students, and policy makers to consider the impact of science and technology on business and society on both sides of the Pacific.

To date, our colloquium series has brought Professor Ted Bestor (Harvard University) on “Global Sushi” and Professor Julia Andrews (Ohio State University) on “Ink Painting in the Art World of Contemporary China.” The Unforgiven, by first-time film director and writer Yoon Jong-bin, kicked off this semester’s film series. We look forward to seeing you at our up-coming events. Look for details on this website.

In other news, Scott Kennedy is proceeding through the final phases of establishing within EASC a one-of-a-kind Research Center for Chinese Politics & Business (RCCPB). Scott’s impressively multi-disciplinary May 2006 conference on “Capitalism with Chinese Characteristics” provided us with an enticing sneak preview of how the RCCPB will be a source of exciting intellectual synergies and research that will benefit our faculty, graduate students and undergraduate students.

I want to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to everyone who has made my first three months at EASC a period of engaged learning. We are truly fortunate to have such a fine staff. I also want to thank Nancy Abelmann, my counterpart at EAPS, and my colleagues on the EASC Executive Committee—Scott O’Bryan, Bob Eno, Mike Robinson, and Yasuko Watt—for their continual advice and encouragement.

Finally, I know that the phrase “crossing Jordan” has an ominous ring to it, but I look forward to my frequent walks back and forth from the School of Education to Memorial Hall. This is an energizing time at EASC. Indiana University and interim Provost Michael McRobbie have recognized the increasing importance of East Asia to U.S. society and education in this decade. In this context, your energies challenge all of us to think more creatively about the new opportunities and challenges that lie ahead. Thank you for your support, and we join you in looking forward to an exciting year.

Best wishes,
Heidi Ross
Director, EASC