On November 3, the Government of Japan announced the recipients of the 2020 Autumn Decoration, which is conferred by the Emperor of Japan. From Wisconsin, Dr. Naomi Hanaoka McGloin has been recognized for her outstanding contribution to the Japan-US relationship. Congratulations!
● The Order of the Sacred Treasure, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon for Dr. Naomi Hanaoka McGloin, Professor-Emeritus, University of Wisconsin-Madison For many years, Dr. Naomi Hanaoka McGloin has served as a professor of Japanese language and linguistics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She has written many academic papers and books on Japanese language as well as contributed to the development of teaching materials for learning Japanese as a second language. Through activities at the American Association of Teachers of Japanese (AATJ), including serving as President from 2004-2007, she has directly contributed to the development of Japanese language education in the U.S.
The remarkable achievements of the recipients represent the diversity and depth of the relations between Japan and the United States.
Professor William Nienhauser received the Special Book Award of China--one of 15 recipients worldwide. Congratulations!
The Special Book Award of China (中华图书特殊贡献奖) is an annual award established by the State Press and Publication Administration of the People's Republic of China to recognize foreign translators, writers and publishers who have made significant contributions to introducing China, translating and publishing Chinese books, and promoting cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries. The awards have been made annually since 2005, and are announced around the time of the Beijing International Book Fair.
If you missed last week's ‘Uprising in Thailand’ roundtable discussion, the link has just been posted on the UW-Madison Center for Southeast Asian Studies website. In order to watch the event:
Scroll down to ‘Roundtable on the Uprising in Thailand’
Click on ‘Click here to watch the recording'
Mental Health Resources
Mental Health Services is here to support you virtually.
We recognize this is a tough time for many, to hold the anxieties and stressors associated with this pandemic, while also balancing roles of students, employees, and family members. MHS will continue to support you virtually. All services are remote at this time.
Individual Counseling. University Health Services (UHS) offers individual counseling in a confidential, caring space. Counseling topics can be any issue that causes distress – emotional, psychological, interpersonal, or academic, for instance. UHS also has bilingual mental health providers for students who are more comfortable speaking in Mandarin or Spanish. This semester, individual counseling sessions are being conducted remotely—over phone or video.
Let’s Talk. Let’s Talk provides virtual, informal, 20-minute consultations with a counselor. These drop-in sessions are available each weekday. Drop in to talk to a counselor about any topic – stress, sadness, relationships, academic performance, financial struggles, and family problems are common topics. Counselors can help you explore solutions from their perspective, or, if you’re interested, introduce you to what it’s like to talk to a counselor more regularly.
Group Counseling for Graduate Students. UHS offers support/theme groups for graduate students, including groups for all graduate students, groups for dissertators, and groups for graduate women. This supportive environment is a great way to share experiences around the challenges of grad school with other grad students. Groups typically meet one to two hours weekly and may run from four to 12 weeks per semester. These groups fill up very quickly, and students encouraged to call 608.265.5600 option 2 to verify current openings.
Graduate Students of Color Group: A support group for graduate students who identify as people of color. Graduate students of color experience unique challenges, microaggressions, and lack of supports compared to their White peers and undergraduate counterparts.
Resilience Through Connection Workshops: A workshop series designed for graduate students. Sessions are held on Thursdays from 1:00 pm to 2:30 pm (about 60 minutes structured presentation). Topics rotate week to week. Individuals can sign up for the dates and times that work best for them.
Virtual Processing Spaces: This is a recurring online space for current students to connect with each other to cope with isolation, grief/loss, uncertainty about the future, discrimination, and many other things. These spaces are 90min drop-in meetings via Zoom and require a sign-up to join. Processing spaces will be held on Wednesdays from 5:30pm-7pm.
SilverCloud. SilverCloud is a self-guided mental health resource that provides treatment options 24 hours a day, no referral from a mental health or medical provider needed. It includes evidence-based learning modules on anxiety, depression, body image, and stress, designed to help students manage day-to-day stresses and improve resilience.
Badger Virtual Care Package: A list of resources that highlight ways to stay connected and healthy during quarantine. UHS also frequently update their Remote Services website with additional videos, workshops, and tools to get you through this time.
Remember you are not alone!
Graduate Student News
With support from the Graduate School Office of Professional Development, the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures invites you to two upcoming workshops with Maura Cunningham on how to work at the intersections of academic and public life. Please share with UW colleagues and humanities/social sciences students in your department and networks. Contact Tyrell Haberkorn [tyrell.haberkorn@wisc.edu] with questions --
One Degree, Many Paths: Alternative Possibilities for Your Post-Ph.D. Career
** Open to all UW-Madison graduate students. Registration with an @wisc.edu email address required.**
The academic job market has changed dramatically in recent decades (to say nothing of recent months), and many graduate students have realized that a tenure-track professorship is no longer their only—or even an attractive—employment option. We are increasingly discussing the importance of preparing for “alternative academic” (or “alt-ac,” for lack of a better phrase) careers, exploring the different paths one can pursue with a Ph.D. These range from academic administration or public-sector employment to journalism or non-profit work. A Ph.D. program offers training in many skills—research, analysis, program management, writing—that will serve students well when they enter the alt-ac job market. In this talk, Maura Elizabeth Cunningham, who holds a Ph.D. in Chinese history and works in the non-profit sector, will discuss how to prepare for and find alt-ac jobs, as well as how to maintain an academic profile when following an alt-ac career path.
The “Crossover” Author: How to Translate Academic Rigor into Public Writing
** Open to all UW-Madison graduate students. Registration with an @wisc.edu email address required.**
One of the most common frustrations expressed by academics is that journalists over-simplify complex issues and processes, “dumbing down” topics those academics have spent their careers researching. Yet when academics attempt to write for general audiences, the results often leave editors groaning and would-be authors frustrated. The key to becoming a successful “crossover” author is to develop two sets of skills: both area-specific knowledge and the ability to write in a fluid, readable manner. Additionally, writing for non-academic publications requires a different understanding of the relationship between author and editor, publishing timelines, and the meaning of the word “deadline.” In this session, Maura Elizabeth Cunningham will discuss these topics, explain how to get started in the field of public writing, and share her tips for crafting a successful pitch.
Maura Elizabeth Cunningham is a writer and historian of modern China. She is a graduate of Saint Joseph’s University (B.A., 2004), Yale University (M.A., 2006), the Hopkins-Nanjing Center for Chinese and American Studies (graduate certificate, 2008), and the University of California, Irvine (Ph.D., 2014), as well as Chinese language programs in Beijing and Hangzhou. She is a social and cultural historian whose ongoing research projects include a study of child welfare in 20th-century Shanghai, a biography of cartoonist Zhang Leping, and a planned book on the legendary martyr Lei Feng. Maura was the editor-in-chief of The China Beat, a blog based at UC Irvine, between 2009 and 2012, and associate editor of ChinaFile during a fellowship at the Asia Society’s Center on U.S.-China Relations in 2011-12. From 2014 to 2016, Maura served as a program officer at the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, where she co-directed the Public Intellectuals Program; in 2016, she became the digital media manager at the Association for Asian Studies in Ann Arbor, Michigan. As a writer, her work has appeared at the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and other publications. She is the co-author (with Jeffrey Wasserstrom) of the third edition of China in the 21st Century: What Everyone Needs to Know, published by Oxford University Press in 2018.
CALL FOR PROPOSALS
Contagion: Matter, Method, and Medium University of Minnesota, April 30-May1, 2021
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this conference will be held online through Zoom.
Call for Paper deadline: Thursday, December 31, 2020
Keynote Speaker: Scott O’Bryan, Indiana University (East Asian Languages and Cultures)
Sangjoon Lee, Nanyang Technological University (Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information)
This year, global “contagions” reached multiple tipping points, as seen in the COVID-19 pandemic that compounded racialized hatred and Black Lives Matter protests that fanned out worldwide. These cases materially and biologically substantiated the interconnection between racism, pathological discourse, postcolonialism, necropolitics, and media culture. Now more than ever, “contagion” is a dominant form for thought. The biological dimensions of contagion take on social resonances, and vice versa. The unknowability of contagious diseases tends to boost public anxiety over racial, ethnic, and sexual minorities as well as “exotic” animals. On the other hand, social phenomena, like public rioting, Internet vernaculars, and even collective laughter, are often dubbed “contagious.” In science studies, contagion is biological, viral, material. In the humanities and social sciences, it is geopolitical, racialized, and gendered. From an ecocritical perspective, contagion is material and political, as when the ecological impacts of capitalism create new points of contact with viruses. We propose to think through pandemic and post-pandemic epistemologies, adapting contagion as a methodology that productively blurs the boundaries of nation, discipline, media, genre, gender, and race.
For this biennial Graduate Conference on “contagion,” graduate student scholars in East Asian studies are invited to respond broadly to this theoretical concern with contagion across different media, cultures, genres of writing, research methodologies, geopolitical areas, and disciplinary languages. Papers will emphasize East Asian studies. We welcome work in post/neo/colonial studies, biopolitics, ethnic studies, critical racist studies, feminism, queer studies, trans studies, disability studies, cinema and media studies, and more.
Possible topics for the conference may include, but are not limited to:
• Disease on media/art/literature
• Politics/life/media and COVID-19
• History/Historiography of epidemiology in East Asia
• Contagion as a methodology in social science and humanities
• Transnational cinema and media studies
• Meaning of border crossing / translation in media and literature study
• Biopolitics and necropolitics in East Asia
• Memes, virality, and internet culture
• Contagious laughter and comedy
• Translation and perception in humor studies
• Affect theory and media/art/literature in East Asia
• Transversality and gender studies (trans, queer, feminist studies)
• Ecocriticism
• Public health Issues (epidemics, pandemics, and other contagious diseases)
• Anthropocene, posthumanism, animal, etc.
• Object oriented ontology in East Asian context
We accept submissions from current graduate students from all disciplines whose research interests are in the East Asian area.
Please send the abstract (up to 250 words), and a short bio (up to 100 words) to gvkoreabeyond@gmail.com by December 31, 2020.
Host: Asian & Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Minnesota
IAS Research and Creative Collaborative, “Gender and Violence: South Korea and Beyond”
Sponsors: Department of Asian & Middle Eastern Studies
Institute for Advanced Study
The Imagine Fund
Undergraduate Events
Virtual Information Session for 1-Year Real Estate MS and 2- Year Real Estate MBA Programs
Wednesday, November 11, 5:00 – 6:00 pm
Are you an undergrad looking to boost your employment prospects, long-term career trajectory, and earnings potential? If so, we encourage you to learn more about Wisconsin’s Real Estate Graduate Programs at an in-depth Virtual Information Session on November 11th. Join us to explore if the 1-Year Real Estate MS or 2-Year Real Estate MBA could be the right career move for you! The Wisconsin Real Estate Program is ranked the #1 public real estate program by US News & World Report, #2 overall.
Date and Time
Wednesday, November 11
5:00-6:00 PM CST
Virtual Event – Please register in advance. Register Here
Both the 1-Year Real Estate MS and the 2-Year Real Estate MBA Programs offer specialized career tracks in (1) Commercial Real Estate Development; (2) Applied Real Estate Investment; and (3) Private Equity Investment. Affordable housing and sustainable real estate courses are also available.
Attend this virtual trek to learn more about different career paths working in natural resource management, environmental advocacy, and sustainability marketing and consulting. Learn from professionals to gain insights, tips, and ideas to build your skills and gain experience to prepare for environmental careers in a state agency, non-profit or Certified B Corps. Featuring professionals from the Wisconsin DNR, Evolution Marketing, & the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC).
Co-sponsored by SuccessWorks, the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, and WASB.
Business for Non-Business Majors - Alumni Q&A Panel
Wednesday, November 18, 2020 11:00am - 12:00pm CST
The world of business is an evolving landscape. Business skills are critical in almost every job out there -- every single company needs someone to hire staff, build customer relationships and keep the books balanced. Employers are expanding their jobs to non-business majors , and are hungry for students with diverse L&S knowledge. The question on students' minds is "How do I fit into this landscape?"
At the "Business for Non-Business Majors" panel, you’ll meet four UW-Madison alumni who can help you answer that question! Our four panel alumni graduated with L&S Majors, and currently work in careers in HR, project management, sales and insurance. Come listen to their stories, their experiences and their advice for thriving in the business world! Alumni (Link to Showcase: https://airtable.com/shrGpzFl25fj88yr7/tblcxpH3be74ZRR39):
Professor Ran Liu will examine the effect of sibship structure on adolescent cognitive ability in China. Her research has shown a negative effect of having siblings on adolescent cognitive ability, and this effect is more evident among girls than boys. Three mediation mechanisms will be discussed: children with siblings tend to 1) have lower levels of parental education involvement and parent-child interaction; 2) spend more time on housework; and 3) possess fewer education resources. These three mechanisms work differently for boys and girls in families with different sibship structures. As China ends its One Child Policy and more children live in households with siblings, this talk points to the potential exacerbation of gender inequality and calls for the development of policy initiatives to address the adverse impact on girls.
This Brown Bag Talk will take place via Zoom starting at 12 PM Central.
The Madison Committee on Foreign Relations (MCFR) in collaboration with the National Committee on US-China Relations invites you to participate in the 2020 edition of China Town Hall. In the keynote presentation, renowned investor, author, and philanthropist Ray Dalio will speak on the forces that underpin the most important global issues of our time and the critical roles of the United States and China in an era of monumental worldwide change.
The China Town Hall will take place over a period of days, and the schedule is as follows:
Tuesday, November 10: Keynote with Ray Dalio, author of the upcoming book titled, The Changing World Order: Why Nations Succeed and Fail
These events are free, but registration is required.
Internships & Funding Opportunities
With only less than a month away from the application deadline (December 4, 2020) for the 2021 recruitment cycle, Yenching Academy plans to host a series of virtual open sessions, designed specifically for prospective students interested in different research areas.
Asterism Healthcare is a small healthcare nutrition company based in Japan with a global remote team of advisors. They are seeking three virtual part-time interns for spring semester (but starting whenever available). The supervisor is an American expat who has built his career in Japan so Japanese is only required for the translation role, but helpful for any.
Based in Seoul, South Korea, International University Exchange Center (IUEC) offers English language classes and helps support Korean students applying to several schools and colleges in Wisconsin. IUEC is seeking students to teach part-time virtual English and STEM classes during the winter session. No STEM experience is required to lead instruction on public speaking, but STEM coursework/experience is needed for robotics, coding, and engineering classes. Orientation will begin at the end of December, and curriculum and training is provided. If interested, email Ms. Mihye Kim (mihye70@gmail.com) your resume and cover letter. Compensation is provided.
Additionally, IIP is offering spring virtual English teaching internships with IUEC.
For over 30 years, the Hopkins-Nanjing Center has been at the forefront of training bilingual experts equipped to address complex Sino-global challenges around the world. Located in the vibrant and culturally-significant city of Nanjing, the Hopkins-Nanjing Center provides an authentic Chinese experience for graduate students who seek to study, discuss, and debate some of the most important issues faced by the world today, all while advancing their Chinese language skills.
Applications for the Hopkins-Nanjing Center programs are now open! In particular, Boren scholars and fellows are encouraged to apply for a named $10,000 China Exchange Scholarship, which is offered to alumni of US Government-supported programs for Chinese language study in China. The Laura Bassi Scholarship
The Laura Bassi Scholarship, which awards a total of $8,000 thrice per annum, was established by Editing Press in 2018 with the aim of providing editorial assistance to postgraduates and junior academics whose research focuses on neglected topics of study, broadly construed. The scholarships are open to every discipline and the next round of funding will be awarded in December 2020.
All currently enrolled master’s and doctoral candidates are eligible to apply, as are academics in the first five years of their employment. Applicants are required to submit a completed application form along with their CV. Further details, previous winners, and the application portal can be found here.The deadline is November 25.
CLS Scholarship Program Call for Applications are now being accepted for the U.S. Department of State’s Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) Program for intensive language study abroad in summer 2021. Full details are available here. Application deadline is November 17, 2020.
Boren Scholarships (for undergraduate students) and Fellowships (for graduate students) provide unique funding opportunities for U.S. students to study less commonly taught languages in world regions critical to U.S. interests, and underrepresented in study abroad, including Africa, Asia, Central and Eastern Europe, Eurasia, Latin America, and the Middle East.
Undergraduates with questions about the Boren Scholarship should contact Matt Geisler, Associate Director of International Academic Programs. The campus deadline for the 2021-2022 Boren Scholarship award cycle is December 4, 2020.
Graduate students interested in the Boren Fellowship should contact Mark Lilleleht, Assistant Director for Awards, Institute for Regional and International Studies, with questions or for feedback on applications. The campus deadline for the 2021-2022 Boren Fellowship award cycle is January 4, 2021.
YES Abroad Call for Applications theKennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study Abroad Program is now accepting applications for the the 2021-2022 academic year. Complete details are available here. Application deadline is December 8, 2020.
The American Institute of Indian Studies welcomes applications for its summer 2021 and academic year 2021-2022 language programs.
Programs to be offered include Hindi (Jaipur), Bengali (Kolkata), Punjabi (Chandigarh), Tamil (Madurai); Marathi (Pune), Urdu (Lucknow), Telugu (Hyderabad), Gujarati (Ahmedabad), Kannada (Mysore), Malayalam (Thiruvananthapuram), Mughal Persian (Lucknow), Sanskrit (Pune) and Pali/Prakrit (Pune). We will offer other Indian languages upon request. For summer Hindi we require the equivalent of one year of prior Hindi study. For summer Urdu, we require the equivalent of one year of either Hindi or Urdu. We can offer courses at all levels, including beginning, in other Indian languages for the summer. Summer students should apply for FLAS or other funding if available at their institutions to cover the costs of the program. Funding for Bengali, Hindi, Punjabi and Urdu is available through the U.S. State Department's CLS program (see www.clscholarship.org). AIIS has some funding available for summer students who cannot procure their own funding. This funding is allocated on the basis of the language committee's ranking of the applicants. AIIS will award language fellowships, on a competitive basis, to academic year and fall semester students, which would cover all expenses for the program.
Those eligible for these fellowships are U.S. citizens or permanent residents who will have had the equivalent of at least two years of prior language study by September 2021. AIIS offers Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, Urdu and other languages at all levels for the fall and academic year although fellowships would only be available for students who will have had the equivalent of two years of prior language study by the beginning of the program.AIIS will offer funding to masters students to complete a capstone project of their choosing upon completion of the summer program. The application deadline is December 31, 2020. Applications can be downloaded from the AIIS web site at www.indiastudies.org. For more information: Phone: 773-702-8638. Email: aiis@uchicago.edu.
CAORC Research Fellowships
CAORC (Council of American Overseas Research Centers) is now accepting application for two research fellowships. Complete details are available here.Application deadline is January 12, 2021.
Project GO provides institutional grants to U.S institutions of higher education with large ROTC student enrollments. In turn, these institutions provide language and culture training to ROTC students from across the nation while providing full scholarships for ROTC students who take part in the program. Civilian students are also welcome to apply but will not be eligible for the Project GO scholarship.
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Project Global Officer (Project GO) will host a summer 2021 Chinese language program in Taipei, Taiwan. The minimum qualifications to apply include good standing in ROTC and an equivalent of one year of university-level Chinese by May 2021. More information about the ERAU Project GO program can be found here.
SUMMER IN TAIWAN (May 7 - July 3)
This program is open to all students with some previous coursework in Chinese, and offers Intermediate I, Intermediate II and Advanced courses. The deadline to apply is January 13, 2021.
L&S Student Academic Affairs and University Housing are pleased to share this PVL for the Bradley Learning Community Program Coordinator position. This part-time role is perfect for someone who has a passion for supporting students in their academic and social transition to college. The Program Coordinator collaborates with faculty, Residence Life staff, and students to create curricular and co-curricular opportunities. A full list of duties can be found here.
The Bradley Learning Community, established in 1995, was one of the first Residential Learning Communities at UW-Madison. BLC is located on the shores of Lake Mendota and is home to 246 first-year students each year. Designed to enhance and connect the student experience both inside and outside the classroom, residential learning communities are the best of both worlds — the resources of a top research university combined with the intimate community feel of a small liberal arts college.
To ensure consideration for this position, application materials must be received by November 29, 2020. Please help spread the word about this opportunity.
Advising Available
To send items for the next ALC e-news please email: Rachel Weiss
Undergraduate Advisor and Graduate Program Coordinator
Department of Asian Languages & Cultures
(608) 890-0138 E-mail: rweiss@wisc.edu
