History Of Asian Studies At UB

Professor Thomas Burkman became the Asian Studies Program director in 1994 and began a busy 13 years of program leadership. The Asian Studies Program successfully competed for $450,000 from 1995-2000, including federal Title VI grants and private funding from the Japan Foundation among others. These funds hired Asia-focused faculty in several departments, including Communication, Comparative Literature, Philosophy, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese. These funds also hired lecturers in Asian culture, language, and history topics and provided funding for UB faculty to develop new Asia-related courses. “Asian Studies in the Arts”, our second Title VI award, supported new faculty, visiting artists, and campus events. UB’s College of Arts and Sciences formed in 1998 and our program became a unit in the college. Several Asianist faculty joined UB from 1998 to 2000, in Geography and Art History.

UB hosted several Asia-themed conferences during the first years of the Asian Studies Program, starting our program’s tradition of cosponsoring Asia-related workshops, symposia, and conferences at UB. Some of these include:

• The New York Conference on Asian Studies (NYCAS) in 1995
• The 11^th Annual Conference of the Association of Chinese Political Science in 1996
• In 1997, a conference on Korean Unification cohosted with the Korean Graduate Association
• The “Asian Perspectives on World Order in the 20^th Century” in 1998, cohosted by our program and the Toronto and York Joint Centre for Asia Pacific Studies (JCAPS)
• Also in 1998, our program cohosted the South Asian Human Rights Awareness Conference

Many new Asia-focused faculty joined UB from 2001 to 2005 in Linguistics, English, Art History, History, Anthropology, Communication, Law, Women’s Studies, and Education.  Awards from the Korea Foundation, the College of Arts and Sciences, and the Northeast Asia Council of the Association supported arts events and lectures on our campus. Nila T. Gnamm made a bequest of $250,000 to the APEC Studies Center in 2001.

The Asian Studies Program hosted or cohosted several conferences on and off campus during this period. Some of these include:

• The “Words vs. Meaning: Art & Culture in 20^th Century China” conference in 2000,
• NYCAS again in 2003
• The “Asia in the Classroom” workshop for elementary and secondary school teachers in 2003
• Also in 2003, the Midwest Japan Seminar in Niagara Falls
• The Roles and Representations of Walls in the Reshaping of Chinese Modernity conference in 2005

The Asian Studies Program continued to support Asia-related events on campus and fostered the development and hiring of Asianist scholars. New Asia-focused faculty joined UB in Sociology, American Studies, and History. We hosted a Fulbright Scholar in 2006 and visiting scholars in 2008. In 2009, our program received permission to establish a Confucius Institute at UB. New AS courses were developed, expanding our program’s offerings. In 2008, our graduating seniors presented their senior thesis projects in a public colloquium for the first time. This colloquium event is now held every fall and spring semester in which we have graduating seniors. In 2007, Prof. Thomas Burkman retired as Program Director to become our Director of Undergraduate Studies. Prof. Kristin Stapleton became our new Program Director.

The Dalai Lama visited in 2006. To prepare the UB community for his visit, the Asian Studies Program developed a course funded by the President’s Office titled “Tibet: Myth and Reality.” The course brought in North America’s leading scholars on Tibet. Other funding, from the National Committee on U.S.-China relations and the Title VI Undergraduate International Studies and Foreign Language program, supported South Asian language (Hindi) instruction and events and program development, including visiting lecturers, film screenings, and artistic presentations.

The Asian Studies Program hosted or cohosted several conferences on and off campus from 2006-2010. Some of these include:

• In 2006, the Midwest Japan Seminar in Niagara Falls
• In winter 2007-2008, the National Consortium for Teaching About Asia seminar
• In spring 2008, the 12^th Annual International Women’s Film Festival
• The performance “Explosive Beats: Japanese Taiko Drumming” in 2008
• Also in 2008, the second annual CHINA Town Hall program of the Committee on S.-China relations
• With funds from the Baldy Center, our program sponsored “Law, Society, and Culture in Asian History” in 2009

Professor Kristin Stapleton stepped down as Director in 2013, and Prof. EunHee Lee became the Acting Director in 2013 and the Director in 2014. New faculty focused on research in Asia join UB’s School of Architecture, History, and English Departments and our program hosted Fulbright scholars from India. In 2013, our program was awarded the NEH Summer Institute Grant for K-12 Teachers ($171,000) for “China and India: Comparisons and Connections.” Other cosponsored and hosted events include:

• The workshop “Implementing Truth and Reconciliation: Comparative Lessons for Korea” in 2011
• NYCAS for a third time in 2011 with the theme of “Asia at Work and Play”
• With the Confucius Institute in 2012, “Beyond New Confucianism: Confucian Thought for Twenty-first Century China”
• A workshop on “Social and Cultural Approaches to Language” in 2014
• Our first Asian Studies Faculty Symposium, the “Symposium on Health, Well-being, Social Security and Vulnerability in Asia” in 2015
• Many other Asia-related events across campus in 2016-2016! Visit our 2015-2016 Annual Newsletter to learn more about our most recent activities