From the Chair (2000)

Dear alumni and friends,

It 's a pleasure to write to you to bring you up to date on East Asian Languages and Civilizations activities at the end of another extraordinarily busy and productive year. The Department made its long-awaited move to the new Humanities Building at the close of 1999, and we have settled very happily into our new quarters during the spring semester. Not only is the building quite handsome--a delight to look upon and to work in--but, for the first time in many years, all EALC faculty offices are located in the same building. In addition, we have a bit more space for graduate students to study in and for teaching assistants to prepare lessons and hold office hours in; we have a small computer room dedicated to instructional technology and materials development; and we have a lounge and conference room shared with our "floor-mates" in Religious Studies.

Our new conference room provides an excellent display space for two lovely works of art that have been donated to the department in past years: the Imperial Rescript of the Kang-hsi Emperor donated by Elizabeth Barrett Robey from the bequest of Colonel David D. Barrett and the late Edo Japanese lacquer and mother-of-pearl chest given by Ms. Keryn O'Flyn Comerford and Mr. Robert T. Jones. We hope soon to have funds to make some prints, now that we have display space, of a fascinating collection of photos taken by Francis Lamb Clapp in early twentieth century Japan, negatives of which were donated to EALC by her niece Donna Racette.

We also have a wonderful Reading Room with a 180-degree view of the gorgeous Boulder vistas, a space which we share with Religious Studies, French and Italian, and Classics, and which provides quiet study space for our students with ready access to core collections. We hope those of you who haven't yet visited will stop by for a tour soon.

We are pleased that the classrooms in the new building are among the most "high-tech" on campus, and, with the support of an excellent staff, we're beginning to make use of these facilities in our instructional programs. Kyoko Saegusa, for example, taught intermediate Japanese in a computer classroom that allowed daily access to authentic materials on the Web and allowed students to do self-paced online work or online collaborative activities (which the instructor could monitor). Several other faculty in both Japanese and Chinese are involved in a departmental project to develop online and technology-enhanced instructional materials with support from an ATLAS grant. Thanks to Terry Kleeman, we hope soon to have a database of copyright-free images of East Asia which faculty in our department and across campus will be able to use in courses ranging from Chinese and Japanese language to history, theater, religious studies, or literature. (No more borrowing each other's slides!) Students will be able to view projected images in class and then to access them online for further study. And Steve Snyder and Madeline Spring have been working on developing online instructional units to supplement courses they offer on Japanese and Chinese film and culture.

We were happy to welcome Chao Fang-yi as Instructor of Chinese this year. Instructors Chao, Nishikura, and Saegusa organized a number of enrichment activities for our undergraduate students, including our first Chinese/Japanese Contest in which students in both language programs competed to present skits, interpret for native speakers, and present research papers. Frank Hsiao of Economics and Terry Kleeman of EALC and Religious Studies served as multi-lingual judges. Other events included the annual Japanese Speech Contest, a Chinese calligraphy demonstration, field trips, etc. Both undergraduate and graduate students also benefited from collaborating with faculty in outreach efforts to Colorado schools: Japan Day 2000 brought many high school students, teachers, and members of the community to campus for a wide range of activities organized by EALC faculty and students, and several of our graduate students took part in a very successful K-8 Foreign Language Exploratory Program organized by Kuan-yi Rose Chang, presenting introductory lessons on Chinese and Japanese in Colorado schools. Internship opportunities for both undergraduate and graduate students have increased (more are sought!). Students have been placed at businesses and institutions ranging from Sun Microsystems to the Boulder Public Schools.

The Department was pleased to host two conferences in Boulder in the fall of 1999--the annual meetings of the Association of Japanese Literary Studies, organized by Stephen Miller, and of the Rocky Mountain/Southwest Regional Japan Seminar. And in the fall we will be welcoming guests to campus for a third annual East Asian Graduate Students' Conference, as well as for a conference on Women Japanese Filmmakers. During this past year, we have also welcomed a number of guest speakers to campus, including Candace Chou of the University of Hawai'i and Hirofumi Yamamoto of the Univerity of Tsukuba, who were very helpful with our instructional technology projects. Other presentations are listed elsewhere in this Newsletter.

EALC is pleased to announce that a new opportunity for graduate students has been approved. Beginning in fall 2000, graduate students in EALC, History, and Religious Studies will be eligible to apply to complete dual Masters in two of the programs and to work toward the two degrees simultaneously. We are also delighted that our first B.A./M.A.-track students are completing their degrees this year and that the track is attracting truly gifted students from our undergraduate programs.

Congratulations to the students who completed undergraduate and graduate degrees and to those who won honors this year. We urge this year's graduates as well as alums from the past to keep us informed of your whereabouts and activities! If you give us permission, we will include the information in a "where are they now" column in future issues of the Newsletter.

Laurel Rasplica Rodd