Let’s cheer for our colleagues contributing to their fields through publications:

PhD student Cameron White shares news of his first Chinese-language publication, which appears in 《聯合報》. You can check it out here.

The Japanese textbook, TOBIRA II: Beginning Japanese, was published in July 2022. Written by current and former lecturers in the University of Michigan’s Japanese Language Program, this is the second volume of TOBIRA: Beginning Japanese for the elementary level. This volume pairs language learning with self-discovery by encouraging learners to engage with their own experiences, growth, and goals, while also addressing cross-cultural experiences and social issues. 

Please join me in congratulating our colleagues on the following achievements:

PhD Candidate Linh Trinh’s paper “Dining at the Horizon - Cultivating Modern Vietnamese Table through The Legacy of the Operation Passage to Freedom” was selected for the 2022 Judith Becker Prize for Outstanding Graduate Research on Southeast Asia.

Recent ALC PhD Joseph Leach has been honored as a 2022 Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Buddhism Public Scholar. Joe will be hosted for the duration of his fellowship by the Detroit Institute of Arts.

Qian Liu and Xiaoying Yu have been awarded a multi-semester Level II Faculty Project Grant for their proposal “Redesigning Business Chinese Courses for Student-Centered Learning.”

Premlata Vaishnava (Pinki) was invited as a Foreign Expert to the Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh (UP) India for the Global Initiative of Academic Networks (GIAN), Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India course on “Vaishvik Pariprekshya mein Hindi Anuwaad ki Upyogita” from July 25-29. This event was widely covered by the media and well attended by many students and faculty. 

Today, Miranda Brown is receiving a Distinguished Achievement Award at this year’s Celebration of U-M Asian and Asian American Faculty & Student Accomplishments Symposium. The symposium celebrates the accomplishments of Asian and Asian American scholars and their contributions to American society and the University of Michigan, and explores ways to advocate and strengthen their representation in the United States.

Welcome to the following people joining our community this year:

Urdu lecturer Umar Anjum has taught at Michigan State University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison and has received specialized Urdu pedagogy training at UC Berkeley. He has also worked in Lahore School of Economics, Forman Christian College, and at Lahore University of Management Sciences in Pakistan. He was attached with UC Berkeley for their study abroad program in Pakistan. In addition, he is a co-founding member of the Punjabi Boliyan Research Initiative (PBRI). He is a TED. Ed fellow and a TED translator. His areas of interest include translation, Urdu pulp fiction, and populism in Pakistan.

Chinese lecturer Haibo Hu comes to us with over ten years of experience in teaching Chinese at the college level, successively at the University of Notre Dame, Harvard University, Harvard Beijing Academy, the Summer Program of the University of Notre Dame, the Inter-University Program for Chinese Language Studies at Tsinghua University, and the Associated Colleges in China Program of Hamilton College. Haibo holds an MA in Teaching Chinese to Speakers of Other Languages (MTCSOL) from Beijing Normal University, and his teaching interests include all levels of Chinese courses, especially Elementary Chinese, Advanced Chinese, Business Chinese, and conversational Chinese. He is interested in second-language acquisition, content-based teaching, task-based teaching, curriculum design, and developing cultural immersion study abroad programs.

Our new FLTA Kiki writes:

Hi! I am Kiki. I am from Yogyakarta, one of the most touristic places in Indonesia! If you are looking for a place where you can relax at the beach, climb mountains, or dine in a city with rich culture, you are welcome to visit me!

I have a bachelor’s degree in Political Science, but am a teacher by nature. I have been teaching English as a second language for about four years to a variety of age groups, but working with young people is definitely one of the most fulfilling jobs I have ever had. I previously worked as a project manager in a software company. A big portion of my job was to handle the enrichment program for the employee, which included teaching English, as it is one of the most important skills needed by professionals.  

I love to watch movies, draw, listen to music, dance and cook. I am always looking forward to sharing my culture through these activities. Terima kasih!

Simantini Dhuru will be lecturing with us this fall. Simantini has been involved in various human rights and environmental movements as a media activist since 1986. She has made several documentary films which have won both national and international acclaim. Many of these are films centered around environment, education and justice. She is also the Director of the Avehi Abacus Project, a unique initiative in the field of education reaching out to more than 1000 government schools (www.avehiabacus.in ).

Simantini has been invited to lead processes and contribute to policies at National and State level. Since 2013 she has been teaching Masters-level courses about ‘Social Science Education’ at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai and has also developed courses for the Centre for Excellence in Teacher Education, TISS. She is currently in the final phase of her book on "Teaching of Social Sciences," to be published by Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group. 

In our department, Simantini will offer the mini-course “Social Justice in Indian Education” (ASIAN 397). Students, please keep an eye out for this one-time opportunity!

YuhJoo Byun is an incoming lecturer in Korean. She received my M.A. in Korean language and literature in Ewha Women's University in Korea. Before joining Michigan, she taught Korean at Brown University and at the University of Virginia.

New Korean lecturer Jeehyae Chung writes: I am truly honored and excited to join the Korean Language Program at the University of Michigan. After finishing my graduate studies at Teachers College, Columbia University in New York, I have taught English and Korean in various settings for the past 11 years, including at the university level in Seoul, Korea, and at the K-12 level in the public school environment here in Michigan. I look forward to teaching, learning, and making many new connections in the vibrant community of Ann Arbor. 

Muzaffar Hussain was born in Balochistan, Pakistan in 1994. He received his BS English Language degree from National University of Modern Languages, Islamabad in 2017. He completed Masters in Linguistics and Literature from Balochistan University of Information Technology, Engineering and Management Sciences, Pakistan in 2020. He has been serving as a Lecturer in the English Department at Balochistan University of Engineering and Technology Khuzdar, Pakistan since December 2019. He has taught linguistics courses at undergraduate level. His master thesis deals with his L1 “Ethnolinguistic Vitality of Hazaragi Language in Quetta, Balochistan.” His research article “Conceptual Metaphors in the Hazaragi Community’s Institution of Marriage in Balochistan” is in the process of publication. He joins us this year as a Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant for Urdu. 

Syed Nakib Sadi is a Fulbright FLTA from Bangladesh and belongs to the 2022 cohort. He completed his MA in Applied Linguistics and ELT from the Department of English, University of Dhaka. Back home, he used to teach courses related to English Language, ELT and Linguistics at the Department of English, Metropolitan University, Sylhet. He is also involved in translation and proofreading-related consultancy. His research interest includes material design, curriculum development and teaching practices. His mission is to explore the root of his Bengali origin and familiarise people across the globe with his sweet language (Bengali) and enriched culture.  

Ms. Harshita Srivastava is an independent scholar from Kolkata. She is here this year as a Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant for Hindi. Ms. Srivastava holds an MA in English (2021) from St. Xavier’s University, Kolkata and received the Britto Gold Medal for securing the first rank at the university. She has also received a Junior Research Fellowship. During her undergraduate years at Loreto College, in addition to several awards, she earned certificates for proficiency in political science, French, and Hindi. She has served as the Secretary of the Literary Society both at her undergraduate and graduate institutions; and has been on the editorial board of the college/university magazines.

Ms. Srivastava has authored a volume of poems titled Corona Diary, Before and Beyond, published by Writers Workshop. She has also translated Dr. Rakhi Roy Halder’s volume of Hindi poems titled Wheel of Creation into English and the subtitles of a documentary film produced by the Wordsworth Trust from English into Hindi. Her research interests mainly include the Divine Feminine in Hinduism and partition literature. She has presented and published research papers on these topics.

Read on to learn about faculty outreach and media appearances:

Premlata Vaishnava was interviewed by All India Radio Udaipur. The segment, which focused on Hindi Language in Foriegn Countries, aired July 27, 2022.

Read on to learn about special events in ALC classes and Programs:

Undergraduates Zachary Burton (’23), Lillith Jackson (’23), Tiffany Le (’22), and Vibha Shivakumar (’23) published their translation of Wang Changxiong’s 1937 short story Demodori musume 出戻り娘  in the 2022 issue of Studies on Asia, the journal associated with the Midwest Conference on Asian Affairs. Building on Japanese language training received in our Japanese Language Program, the students began their translation in Erin Brightwell’s course on “Literature of Empire” (ASIAN 442) and further polished it in late May and early June. You can see the fruits of their labors here.

Puzi Peitian Temple 配天宮, Chiayi, Taiwan
Photos by Cameron White