Program Requirements Courses Study Abroad Lecturers/Events Undergrad Scholarships Florida Seminar for Teaching about Asia

News and Events

March 24, 2008 the University of Florida's Dept of Asian Studies and the Smathers Library present Beate Sirota Gordon.

Mrs. Gordon's father taught in the Tokyo Academy of Music before WWII, so she grew up in Japan, surrounded by musicians and artists. She became fluent in Japanese (and four other languages). She moved to California to attend Mills College at age 15 ½. 

She returned to Japan in 1945, and became a member of Douglas MacArthur's staff. She was asked by General MacArthur to serve on a committee to write a new constitution for Japan. She was the only woman. The committee did just that, in 7 days, using only resources available to them in Japan. The document they created, which gave legal rights to Japanese women for the first time, has remained essentially unchanged since then.

Mrs. Gordon will talk at 6 pm in Turlington L07 on March 24. Click here for informational poster.

K-12 Teacher Seminars and Opportunities

• Florida Seminar for Teaching on Asia . Sponsored by the National Consortium for Teaching about Asia (NCTA), these teacher seminars allow middle and high school teachers to learn about Asian culture, history, politics, and art in a two-week intensive summer session or an 8-month academic year seminar. Participants are taught by experts in the field of Asian Studies. Benefits include college credit or in-service points, stipends, library materials for the participants' schools, and on-site housing for the summer seminar.
• Applications for the 2009 NCTA Study Tour to China and Korea will soon become available. We will update this page with finalized schedules as they become available.
• The Gainesville Sun newspaper featured the summer 2006 NCTA seminar in its Chalkboard column!
• Click here for web resources for teaching about East Asia.

2008 Films

• Japan Foundation Film Festival : Asian Studies, in conjunction with the Japan Foundation, will host screenings of 4 classic black and white Japanese films next fall. Each film will be introduced by a Film Studies faculty member. All films will be free and open to the public.

2008 Exhibitions

• Documenting China: Photography and Social Change
  We are pleased to co-sponsor at the Thomas Center an travelling exhibit from the Smithsonian on China's recent past. Seven Chinese photographers take an insider's view of their country and its people. They document the battle between modern industrialization and the traditional agrarian past that has sustained the country for thousands of years. The 57 images range from quick snapshots of urban and rural life to methodical and artistic compositions. The exhibit runs from October 25, 2008 until January 3, 2009 .

Archived Events

• 2005-06 Lectures/Events
• 2005-06 Undergraduate Research
• 2006-07 Study Abroad

Student News

• English Teaching Program in Shenzhen, China: accepting applications. This program seeks graduating seniors and recent graduates to teach English in Shenzhen, China for one year. Participants learn Mandarin Chinese and gain a year's experience in one of the world's most important and most interesting cultures. This well-established, large program is supported by the Shenzhen government. The program begins with three weeks in Beijing for training in English teaching methods and in Chinese language (4 levels; the beginning course requires no prior study of Chinese). Please click here for more information.
• Gilman Program - new undergrad study abroad scholarship
• Freeman-Asia - opportunities for study in East and Southeast Asia
• Seven Graduates from the University of Florida Selected to Participate in the Japan Exchange and Teaching Program
• 2008 Monbukagakusho Research Student Scholarship offered by the Government of Japan.  Qualifications for this scholarship include: under 35 years of age by April 1, 2008, must be a US citizen to apply in the US , an undergraduate degree, a minimum 3.0 GPA, and the study area must be the same or related field of previous study.  Selected applicants will receive round-trip airfare to Japan , tuition exemption and allowances for a one-and-half or two-year program or the period to complete the relevant course if enrolled in a master's, doctoral or professional graduate course.  Further details and the application documents can be found on the website http://www.studyjapan.go.jp/en/toj/toj0307e.html#1 .
  The program is scheduled to begin in April or October 2008 unless enrolled in the master's, doctoral or professional graduate course.  The application is due at the Consulate General of Japan in Miami by July 6, 2007 .  The interview and examination will follow shortly after this date.  Please contact Ms. Kissinger at #(305)530-9090 x142 or e-mail cgjmia@cofs.net for additional information. 

Spring 2007 Lectures and Events

• An Asian Perspective of Tourism: Universal Principles or Culturally Determined Values? Wednesday, April 18, 12:00pm Florida Gym 260
  Distinguished speaker Trevor Sofield from the University of Tasmania, Australia
• "To the Divine through Beauty" Tuesday, April 10, 2007, 6 p.m. at the Harn Museum.
  Vidya Dehejia, Ph.D., Barbara Stoler Miller Professor of Indian and South Asian Art, Director, Southern Asian Institute, Columbia University.
  
• Japanese Festival: Saturday April 7
  The UF Japanese Club will present a Japanese Spring Festival on Saturday, April 7, from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. on the North Lawn of the Reitz Union as part of International Month.  
• The Japan-Florida Relationship Friday, April 6, 3:00- 4:00pm
  Turlington Hall, room L005. Deputy Consul Watanabe of the Consulate General of Japan in Miami
  
  
• Why I'm Talking about Modern South Asian Women's Poetry
  Women's Studies Brown Bag Lecture Series Thursday April 5, 2007, 11:45am
  Ustler Hall, Third Floor Reading Area
  
  
• The Origins of Sanxingdui: An Early Complex Society in Sichuan, China
  Thursday April 5, 2007 Ustler Hall 200 - Grand Atrium (Formerly the Women's Gym)
  7:00pm
  
  
• "New Research on the Mawangdui Silk Manuscripts & Paintings"
  April 5, 2007, 5:00-7:15pm
  Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art, Chandler Auditorium
  CHEN Songchang
  Professor and Director fo the Hunan Provincial Museum, Keeper of the archaeological materials excavated from the Mawangdui tombs
  
  
• ‘Partly Colored'?: Asian Americans, Jim Crow History, and Conceiving Coalition
  Thursday March 29, 2007 at 6 pm 113 Little Hall Professor Leslie Bow
  
  
• Limited Freedoms: Art in Shanghai Since 1991

  Wednesday, March 28, 6:15 pm Fine Arts Building 105
  Norman Bryson, Professor of Art History, UCSD, Harn Eminent Scholar Chair in Art History, UF
  
• Flutes, Wine and Cosmology: Shamanism in the Chinese Neolithic
  Dr. Sarah Nelson, leading researcher in East Asian Archaeology:
  Thursday March 1st, 2007, 7:00pm
  Ustler Hall 200 - Grand Atrium (Formerly the Women's Gym)
• Florida Statewide Chinese Language Competition, March 30-31, 2007. This reading, writing, and speaking competition brings together Chinese language students from around the state of Florida. For more information, please contact Dr. Cynthia Chennault, Department of African and Asian Languages and Literatures.
  

Spring 2006 Lectures and Events

• Prof. Matthew Thorn presents "Commercialism and Loss of Innocence: Children's Manga" at Reitz Union 282, February 24, 2006, 12 Noon
• Prof. Eugene Wang, Gardner Cowles Professor of History of Art and Architecture at Harvard University, shares "Other Times, Other Spaces in the Dunhuang Caves" at Dauer 219, March 6, 2006, 3 PM
• Prof. Byon Man Anh, UF Distinguished Alumnus, Fulbright Scholar, and President of Hankuk University, Seoul, Republic of Korea, explains "Dealing with North Korea" at the Emerson Room, University of Florida Foundation, March 23, 7:30PM

Faculty Books and Awards

• Current Publications from Asian Studies

2004-2005 Lectures and Events