Published: March 22, 2016

The annual meeting of the Association for Asian Studies is coming up next week, March 31-April 3, and CAS would like to recognize the many CU professors who will be presenting their work at this meeting, as well as spotlight the special panel in honor of Professor Laurel Rodd, who is retiring after many years of service to the field of Japanese Studies.

Scholar, Translator, Teacher, Leader: In Honor of Laurel Rasplica Rodd - Sponsored by the American Association of Teachers of Japanese (AATJ) - Friday, April 1

Laurel Rasplica Rodd has been a colleague, mentor, and inspirational leader to many in the Japanese language and literature field. On the occasion of her retirement from the University of Colorado, this panel reflects on the impact she has had. Many know of her work as scholar, translator, teacher, and mentor. Her leadership and advocacy, on behalf of Japanese and other foreign languages, have also earned her the thanks and respect of colleagues nation- and world-wide. 

The members of this round table will discuss her impact as a teacher of both language and literature; her prize-winning translations of both the classical Japanese poetry anthologies Kokinshu and Shinkokinshu and the Meiji-era feminist poet Yosano Akiko; her role in expanding and strengthening programs in Japanese at two leading public universities; and the innovative courses and study programs she developed for both students and teachers. 

Laurel became President of the Association of Teachers of Japanese (ATJ) in 1996 (a position she served in until 2002), and she was instrumental in transforming the organization from a small volunteer-managed group to the internationally respected organization of more than 1,400 teachers at all levels of instruction that it is today. She built bridges between teachers of language and teachers of literature and between teachers at all levels of instruction. She established a program to encourage more American students to study abroad in Japan and to fund them with scholarships. She was instrumental in developing an Advanced Placement program for high school students of Japanese that encouraged them to continue to more advanced study of the language. And she continued her work of translating works of classical, modern, and contemporary literature. Her many contributions will have a lasting resonance in our field.

The discussants will describe Laurel’s contributions in classical literature translation (Arntzen), modern and contemporary literature translation (Heinrich), language pedagogy (Saegusa), mentorship and program administration (Snyder), and leadership and advocacy for Japanese language learning (Tabuse).


All Buddhism is Local: Negotiating Authority and Creating Traditions in Bhutan and Sikkim - Thursday, March 31
Ariana Maki, Organizer - Drawing for Memory: Depictions of Buddhist Traditions and Authority in the Murals of Thangbi Lhakhang in Bhutan
Sonam Nyenda, Panelist - Re-evaluating the Legacy of Lhanangpa (1164-1224) in Bhutanese History and Buddhist Practice

Access to the Past: Tourism, Heritage, and Historical Imagination in Contemporary China - Thursday, March 31
Timothy Oakes, Panelist - Time Machine: Producing Visitable Pasts in Rural China

Cultural Memory in Medieval Chinese Literature - Thursday, March 31
Paul W. Kroll, Discussant

May Fourth and Its Aftermath in Transnational Context - Friday, April 1
Timothy B. Weston, Panelist - Partisanship and the Press: News, Commentary, and the May Fourth Movement

Artifacts, Actors, and Authority: New Approaches to Material Texts and Textual Culture in China and Japan (600-1400) - Friday, April 1
Matthias L. Richter, Discussant

Bloody Hell: Navigating the Visual in Conceptions of the Japanese Underworld - Sponsored by the Japan Art History Forum (JAHF) - Friday, April 1
Keller Kimbrough, Discussant

Making and Unmaking Kinship: Child and Adult Adoption in Japan in International Context, 1600-present - Saturday, April 2
Marcia Yonemoto, Organizer & Chair - The Flexible Family: Adult versus Child Adoption in the Edo Period

Gender, Femininity, and Family in North Indian Texts, circa 1870-1945 - Saturday, April 2
Peter Knapczyk, Organizer & Chair - Femininity and Resistance in the Urdu Shi'i Elegy and Colonial Awadh

Making Sense of Illness and Healing: Medical Narratives in Premodern Chinese Literature - Saturday, April 2
Antje Richter, Organizer & Chair - Emulating Vimalakīrti: The Rise of Sickbed Poetry in Medieval China

China Without: A Series of Two Roundtables on Modern Chinese History Using Archives and Resources Outside China, Taiwan, and Japan (Part II) - Saturday, April 2
Fredy Gonzalez, Discussant

Shaping Families, Shifting Lives: Law in the Japanese Empire - Saturday, April 2
Sungyun Lim, Panelist - Assimilation for Daughters: Son-in-Law Adoption and the Debate over Daughters' Inheritance Rights in Colonial Korea

Transnationalism, Borderlands, and the History of Archaeology in Twentieth-Century East Asia - Saturday, April 2
Miriam Kingsberg, Panelist - Excavating Nation from Empire: Transwar Japanese Archaeology in Tsushima

A Mystic Union of Form and Function 體用玄合: An Evaluation of the Life and Work of Li Fengmao - Sunday, April 3
Terry Kleeman, Organizer & Discussant

JAS as AAS: Contemplating the Cold War in Asia - Sunday, April 3
Carole McGranahan, Discussant

Erotic Immortals, Ambiguous Figures, and Social Relationships: Reading the Illustrated Literature of Late Imperial China - Sunday, April 3
Alexander C. Wille, Panelist - Image and Text Relations in a Late Ming Collection of Short Vernacular Fiction