February 21, 2020 The Update is a bi-weekly roundup of news in the Department of Asian Studies for our Students, Faculty and Staff |
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UBC Japanese Faculty invited to Emperor's Birthday Celebration On January 29, 2020, a number of our Japanese faculty attended the Fairmount Hotel for a celebration of the Emperor’s birthday, also attended by UBC President Santo Ono and Dean Gage Averill. Held by the Consulate-General of Japan in Vancouver, it was particularly significant because it was the first birthday celebration of the emperor of the Reiwa era. Pictured above are (L-R): Japanese Language Coordinator Rebecca Chau, Japanese Language Lecturer Masumi Abe, UBC President Santa Ono, Japanese Language Lecturer Ihhwa Kim, and Associate Professor Christina Laffin. |
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| HIMALAYA PROGRAM AT UBC | ||||||
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UBC Himalaya Program's Summer Nepali and Tibetan Language Courses Two-week summer introductory Tibetan and Nepali language courses are being offered by the UBC Department of Asian Studies in partnership with the UBC Himalaya Program. These community-engaged courses blend classroom instruction with experiential learning off-campus at Tibetan and Nepali community sites in the Lower Mainland. Students receive 3 credits from the Department of Asian Studies. If you have questions about specific course content, please email himalaya.arts@ubc.ca.
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2020 Asian Studies Annual Careers Night Registrations are over halfway filled for our 2020 Careers Night – if you’re a current undergraduate Arts student curious to know where Asian Studies can take you, you won’t want to miss this free opportunity to meet alumni who’ve been in your shoes and trodden all sorts of paths, including education, translating, law, media, finance, business and many more... Come along for a delicious buffet dinner and then enjoy a “speed networking” session with alumni, with just some of our confirmed names including: · Micki Cowan (Assignment Producer and Reporter at CBC Vancouver) Interested in undertaking some graduate studies after your BA? We’ve also got you covered with current grad students Casey Collins and Nicole Lin on hand to answer all your burning questions. Register here and we’ll see you there! |
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Welcoming The Year Of The Rat If you walked around the AMS Nest anytime last week, you might have heard the loud banging of drums or the ocean of laughter coming from the Lower Atrium. That was, in fact, the sound of our Lunar New Year Festivities! |
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| Meet our Students - Aaron Throness |
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Interested in pursuing a BA in Asian Studies? In this interview series, we ask our students about their experience in our program and their future academic and professional goals. This interview features fourth-year undergraduate student Aaron Throness, who will be graduating in May 2020. Aaron’s main academic interests are Mandarin and Classical Chinese; and Late Imperial Chinese History. |
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Could you elaborate on an experience that you felt was fundamental in your acquisition of the language or appreciation of the culture? An experience that deeply impacted my appreciation for Chinese culture was 12 years after my first encounter, during my first visit to Beijing in May of 2018. Being an enthusiast of Late Imperial China, I made up my mind to visit the Temple of Heaven, a complex of religious facilities and structures frequented by Ming and Qing emperors when carrying out state sacrifices. During my early morning exploration, I gazed with pure amazement into the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests (the largest and most iconic building in the complex) and admired the intricacy and beauty of its construction. In my mind’s eye, I could see the emperors of China’s past praying earnestly before the altar just a few feet in front of me – it was in this profound moment of awe that I felt I had finally gained a true appreciation for traditional Chinese culture; experiencing it ‘in situ’ really served to validate the years of effort I had invested (and continue to invest) in the study of Chinese language, culture, and history. What choices did you make at UBC that contributed to your success / journey? First, staying up-to-date with UBC Asian Studies' opportunities has been one of the most important choices I made during my journey at UBC. It was through the department newsletter, for instance, that I learned of the North American Taiwan Studies Association’s undergraduate scholarship competition in early 2019 – I decided to participate, and my paper was fortunate enough to win first place! The Asian Studies Department offers a generous amount of academic and professional opportunities – all one has to do is take the initiative and get involved. Second, deciding to be an active participant in my education has been another key to success; I would encourage each and every student to make this choice. From something as simple as making sure to consistently raise my hand in class to studying Classical Chinese on my own time, deciding to not be a passive recipient, but rather an active facilitator in my education at UBC has allowed me to grow both academically and personally. What can you tell students who are considering taking Chinese history, Asian Studies, or China related courses? Whether one studies Asia’s extensive array of histories, its incredible cultural diversity, or its growing global economic impact, it becomes relevant in one way or another to each and every one of us. In the case of history, UBC’s Asian Studies program emphasizes tying together the themes, trends, and developments of the past with the contemporary Asian world; as I have found out for myself, China’s past exerts a remarkable influence on the trajectories of its current political decisions, cultural characteristics, and economic policies. UBC Asian Studies is thus important for those who seek to not only decipher the past and understand the present, but also for those who seek to gain insight into what lies ahead in the future. I would say that going the extra mile is something to always keep in mind. Whether it comes to class participation, small assignments, or major research projects, always invest more than what is simply stated in the requirements! |
| OPPORTUNITIES |
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2020 APU Summer Gateway Program The Gateway Program offers intensive Japanese language courses from beginner to intermediate level. APU’s multicultural environment, which cannot be found elsewhere in Japan, provides a friendly and safe environment for students who do not have any background in Japanese. You will not only expand your knowledge of Japanese and Asia Pacific cultures, but also deepen your intercultural understanding and cross-cultural communication skills by studying alongside students from over 90 countries and regions. Critical Asian Studies Journal's Online Blog Critical Asian Studies, a Taylor and Francis multidisciplinary academic journal, is soliciting 500-1,500-word online blog posts to for a linguistically and culturally diverse readership. With a focus on practice more than theory, the blog is now publishing posts emphasizing empirical evidence from early career scholars about emerging scholarship and research on new and critical topics infolding across Asia on the themes of research and opinion on politics, economic realities, or another critical topic in an Asian region, or reflections on fieldwork highlighting methods employed across various disciplines for research, analysis, and data collection. If you would like to submit or propose a post, respond to webeditor.criticalasianstudies@gmail.com with your interest and potential topic. Linguistics Summer Camps Instructors The Department of Linguistics is looking to hire three individuals to fill the positions of Summer Camp Instructor for both "Fun with English Language!" camp and "Language Detectives" camp. The goal of these camps is to engage children with language-oriented activities in fun and interactive ways. This is a great opportunity for those looking to gain leadership and program development skills while working with children and drawing on their passion for language! Application deadlines are on February 23, 2020. For those interested, visit here. Call for Submissions: 2020 Asian Studies on the Pacific Coast Conference The Organizing Committee of Asian Studies on the Pacific Coast (ASPAC) 2020 invites college and university faculty, K-12 schoolteachers, independent scholars and graduate and undergraduate students with an interest in Asian or Asian diaspora studies to submit proposals for organized panels, roundtable discussions, individual papers or poster presentations related to Asia and the Asian diasporas.The theme for the conference is “Asia: Our Global Future” and held at the University of Hawaii at Hilo on June 12-13, 2020. The submission deadline is February 29, 2020. Mental Wellness Cafe - Invitation for Speakers Back by popular demand, the UBC Science Undergraduate Society Mental Health Advocacy will be hosting their second Wellness Cafe with the theme being the Intersectionality of Mental Health and Culture, to recognize the disparities and additional challenges faced by students of colour; international students at UBC when it comes to mental health. MHA would like to invite speakers who are knowledgeable or have personal experiences on the subject of intersectionality of mental health in terms of their cultural background. If you are interested, please contact for more details! Call for Papers: 2020 Symposium on Language Research The UC Davis Cluster on Language Research is pleased to announce the Seventh Annual Symposium on Language Research at UC Davis on May 22, 2020. The purpose of this symposium is to showcase current investigations on language, and to cultivate a community of language researchers from various institutions. All graduate and undergraduate students, lecturers, postdoctoral and visiting scholars currently investigating language in some capacity are encouraged to submit their research, preliminary or otherwise. The deadline for submissisons is March 27, 2020; for more information, visit here. The Huayu Enrichment and The Taiwan Scholarships The Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Vancouver is promoting two opportunities to study abroad in Taiwan in order to increase cultural understanding of Taiwanese culture and society. The Huayu Enrichment Scholarship and Taiwan Scholarship are available to students interested in studying undergraduate, master, or doctoral degree programs in Taiwan. Please send your applications by March 31st, 2020. |
| ON & OFF-CAMPUS EVENTS |
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Feb 27 | 6:30 p.m. | Vancouver Public Library, Central Library, 350 West Georgia St., Vancouver Mar 3 | 6:30 p.m. | Vancouver Public Library, Central Library, 350 West Georgia St., Vancouver MOA Seminar: The Art of Mediums Feb 27 | 4:00 p.m. | Museum of Anthropology February | Varies dates and times Asian Studies 2020 Graduate Student Conference March 1 | 9:00 a.m. | Asian Studies Auditorium Rising Voices - Linguistic Diversity and Language Rights in a Globalized World March 7 | 10:00 a.m. | Irving K. Barber Learning Centre Mar 12 | 9:00 a.m. | Thea's Lounge, GSS Building, UBC Mar 13 | 9:00 a.m. | Thea's Lounge, GSS Building, UBC Ongoing |
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