A Consortium of Liberal Arts Colleges to Promote Asian Studies
ASIANetwork Freeman Foundation
Student-Faculty Fellows Program
for Collaborative Research in Asia
Summer 2009 Program: Student-Faculty Fellows
During the summer of 2009, the ASIANetwork Freeman Student-Faculty Fellows Program will support collaborative research in East and Southeast Asia for an eleventh time. Over $408,000 has been provided by the Freeman Foundation to support the research of fourteen faculty mentors and fifty-five student researchers for work in Japan (6 programs), the People’s Republic of China (6 programs), South Korea (1 program) and Vietnam (1 program).
ASIANetwork wishes to extend our appreciation to the Freeman Foundation for their continued financial support of this program which, to date, has provided 133 grants to 566 fellows from 84 different colleges throughout North America.
For those interested in applying, funding is available for a twelfth round of research to be undertaken during the summer of 2010. Directions for applying will be posted on this website later this summer.
Presented below are the colleges, faculty mentors, and student researchers participating in the summer 2009 program. The titles and a brief description of their research projects are also given. We extend our hardy congratulations to the grant recipients.
Agnes Scott College, Li Qi, Economics, China
- Kelly Bledsoe, ’09, “Differing Views towards Retirement and Uncertain Futures Based upon Gender”
- Tiye Glover, ’10, “Efforts by Local Government in China to Boost Household Consumption by Rural and Urban Households”
- Asalwe Edwige Lydie Tia, ’11, “Savings Behavior of Chinese Households”
- Qian Zhang, ’10, “Differing Views towards Retirement and Uncertain Futures based upon Household Wealth”
These projects will be undertaken in and around Shanghai on the East Coast of China, and Xian in the less developed West, relying upon the close ties established between Agnes Scott College and the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics and Shaanxi Normal University which will help facilitate these research endeavors.
Coastal Carolina University, Miglena Ivanova, English, Japan
- Yelena Ninichuk, ’10, “East Asian Women: Exemplary Lives of Fulfillment through Sacrifice”
- Victoria Poston, ’10, “Sharp Minds, Brushes, and Swords: Images of East Asian Warriors and Heroes”
- Mikkenna Woods, ’09, “Confucian Bridges and Divides: Japan, China & Korea”
Professor Ivanova’s group will conduct their research on the island of Kyushu and in the Kansai area of Honshu seeking to discover the interconnections between China, Korea, and Japan during the Heian period (8th-12th centuries) and the 19th-21st centuries. They are primarily concerned with exploring museum narratives of these relationships to discover how “Japan views its national self and its past/present cultural, historical, and political relationships with Korea and China.”
College of William and Mary, Tomoko Hamada Connolly, Anthropology, Japan
- Samuel Davis, ’10, Jeffrey DeMars, Jr., ’11, Christopher Pugliese, ’10, Nathaniel Revere, ’10, Loretta Scott, ’10, Joint Project titled “Foodways and Daily Ritual Practice in Contempory Japan”
Professor Connolly’s research team will conduct ethnographic field work for three weeks in Kamakura, Japan “using participatory field research methods to investigate the Japanese world of foot-related custom, taboos, myths, rituals and categories (to) analyze the changing symbolic meaning of food consumption as it relates to shifting Japanese identity, social relationships, technology, demography, and public health policy.” Each student researcher has been designated as a group leader to lead research on different subthemes related to this overall project including the following: “Ritualized Discourse Conventions and the Language of Proper Etiquette,” “Attitudes and Changes of Foodways in the Japanese Household,” Ritual Practice and Food in the Japanese Business Firm,” “Social Conflict Resolution Strategies and the Japanese Ritual of Tea, Coffee, and Alcohol Consumption,” and “Digital Socialization about Food as Daily Ritual Practice in Contemporary Japan.”
Edgewood College, Jinxing Chen, History, China
- Kellian Hartshorn, ’11, Renee Hartshorm, ’09, Mark Leonard, ’11, Ruth Rolfsmeyer, ’11, Zachary Uher, ’11, Joint Project titled “Local Identity and Change in 21st Century Suzhou: A Multidisciplinary Perspective”
Professor Chen’s research group will examine the effect of modernization on local identity in Suzhou, China as discovered through the lenses of five different disciplines: history, business, environmental studies, linguistics and art utilizing the close personal connections of their mentor with colleagues at Suzhou University and the Suzhou Historical Society.
Hope College, Roger Nemeth, Sociology, Japan
- Karianne Bechtel, .12, Amanda Bruff, ’10, David Dethmers, ’09, Alexander Krieg, ’12, Lindsay TerHaar, ’10, Joint Project titled “The Role of Non-Profit Organizations in Providing Elderly Care in Japan”
Professor Nemeth’s research team hopes to study “the capacity of non-profit organizations (in Japan) to address the wide range of needs of the elderly, and their ability to sustain their efforts for the foreseeable future.” Given Japan’s aging population, this country provides an excellent environment to conduct such research, and the researchers hope the information derived from this study can be used to inform policy makers in other countries also faced with rapid growth in elderly populations. Students propose to survey twenty such organizations while in Japan and conduct interviews with directors of these non-profits and volunteers who work for them.
Lake Forest College, Shiwei Chen, History, China
- David Esturain, ’09, Ryan Glowacz, ’10, Saitlin Smith, ’12, Ian Tinley, ’10, Kylie Trotman, ’09, Joint Project titled “China through Student Eyes: Three Case Studies on China’s Economic and Educational Development”
Professor Chen’s research group seeks to study the “change and continuity in China’s pursuit of modernity (and the challenges the government faces in) how to remain socialist while trying to embrace capitalism” by focusing on three separate but interrelated cases: the “1) Wanxiang Group, a leading Chinese auto parts manufacturer located in Xiaoshan, Zhejiang Province; 2) Zhoujiazhuang People’s Commune, the last functioning socialist organization embodying the old Communist notions of collectivization in the remote countryside of Hebei Province; and 3) Xian International University, one of the top five Chinese private higher educational institutions located in Shanxi Province.”
Linfield College, Nancy Ann Drickey, Mathematics Education, Japan
- Marissa Davis, ’09, Amy Shoemaker, ’09, joint project titled “Lessons Learned from Looking Inside the Classroom: A Study of Middle School Mathematics Education in Japan”
Professor Drickey’s team of researchers will visit about one dozen urban and rural classrooms around Tokyo, Kyoto and Hiroshima to observe then interview and survey faculty and administrators at these schools in hopes of securing enough data for a comparative analysis of Japanese and American mathematics education using a 2003 U.S. study by Horizon Research as a cross reference point.
Macalester College, Gary Allan Erickson, Art, China
- Eartha Bell, ’10, “Constructed Tradition for Modern Consumers: The Impact of Tourism on Art”
- Myoungah Park, ’09, “Defining Art in China: A Comparison of the Differing Artistic Visions”
- Pei-hsuan Wang, ’10, “Patterns on Form and Forms on Patterns: A Look at Art Surfaces in China”
The primary focus of Professor Erickson’s research group will be to “investigate how present day artists and artisans build upon the traditions of the past.” Each student researcher has his/her own research agenda which will be facilitated by meeting artists and gallery directors in the “Soho-esque” areas of Beijing centered around the Dashanzi Art District and the 798 Art District, museum personnel at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Shanghai, local Miao and Zhuang artists in Guizhou Province and artisans at the Sanbao Ceramic Art Institute in Jingdezhen.
St. Olaf College, Katherine Tegtmeyer Pak, Political Science, Japan
- Katherine Abell, ’11, Benjamin McNeill, ’09, Kelsey Menninga, ’10, Amanda Wright, ’09, joint project titled “National Memories in Action: Peace and Nationalist Museums in Japan”
Professor Pak’s research team seeks to use the ethnographic method of observation to examine how “peace” and “war” museums in Japan communicate their war narratives, especially those focused upon the Asia-Pacific War. To do this they will visit three nationalist-oriented museums, three peace-oriented museums, and one non-specific museum. They note that “the .history’ of our country .consists of a string of specific narratives that both embrace and neglect certain viewpoints.” By studying Japan, “where the government and the people explicitly embrace discussion of their own national narrative, we intend to bring awareness of this process back with us to the U.S.” They also seek a better understanding of the heated debate that is being waged in Japan about the Asia-Pacific War.
Swarthmore College, Hongyu Huang, Chinese, China
- Miyuki Baker, ’11, “The Effects of the Chinese Government in Training Contemporary Artists in Beijing Higher Education”
- William Lin, ’12, “The Changing Nature of HIV/AIDS Prevention and Treatment in Contemporary China”
- Amanda Ling Morrison, ’11, “Disparate Impact: Looking at the Effects of the One-Child Policy across Socio-Economic Strata”
- Mary Ayn Prager, ’11, “Outsiders and Insiders: Comparing Perspectives on Faith of Chinese Christians and Non-Christian Chinese on the Streets of Beijing”
- Benjamin Yelsey, ’11, “Government Impact on Public High School Science Education in Beijing”
The overall title of this research endeavor is “Living Near the Central Power: Government Policy and the Realities of Life in Contemporary Beijing.” The goal of student participants is to “evaluate how concrete government actions affect residents in Beijing,” and “how Beijingers work with, around, and through government policy.”
University of Evansville, Young-Choul Kim, Political Science, South Korea
- Kelly Cyr, ’10, Maria Gahan, ’10, Marissa Mitchell, 10, Joint Project titled “The Dynamics of the Changing U.S. Image in South Korea: A Study of South Korean College Students’ Perceptions of the United States”
Through extensive interviewing and surveying of college students throughout South Korea, Professor Kim’s research group seeks to better understand current Korean student views on issues such as the reunification of North and South Korea, U.S. troop presence in South Korea, U.S. economic and trade policies, and U.S.-North Korean relations.
University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, Joseph Hupy, Geography, Vietnam
- Justin Berg, ’09, Thomas Koehler, ’09, Joint Project titled “Linking Landscape Recovery and Land-Use patterns to Disturbances Associated with the Second Indochina War: Khe Sanh, Vietnam”
Professor Hupy and his student researchers note that “war is a unique form of landscape disturbance (in which) the ability for the landscape to fully recover into its original state is often non-existent.” They assert that during the spring of 1968, in the battle of Khe Sanh, 98,721 tons of munitions was dropped over the Khe Sanh battlefield-more than all the tonnage of explosives deployed by allied forces in the entire Pacific theatre of WWII. Their study will “characterize and determine the varying degrees of disturbance across the (Khe Sanh) battlefield” and seek to “characterize and understand spatial patterns of landscape recovery across the battlefield taking into consideration post-conflict human land-use patterns.”
Warren Wilson College, Dongping Han, History/Politics, China
- Allison Hoyman-Browe, ’10, Elizabeth Greene, ’10, Sean Moffit, ’10, Anna Petrie, ’10, Christopher Sterling, ’09, Joint Project titled “Researching the Impact of Globalization on Rural China: Educational Disparities in Urban and Rural China”
Professor Han’s research team will visit two urban schools in Liancheng City and four rural schools: two in Linging County and two in Yanggu County in Shangdong Province to determine whether rural students are at a disadvantage in education and resources in comparison to their urban counterparts. The study will focus primarily on accessibility to education, the quality of teachers and school curriculum, the effects of Key Schools and Streaming on educational opportunities, and the rates of acceptance of students into higher education.
Willamette University, Miho Fujiwara, Japanese, Japan
- Jennifer Fujita, ’10 and Amy Wada, ’11, joint project titled “Japanese Presentations of the Japanese-American Experience during World War II: Japanese .Americans as Civilians and Soldiers”
- Caitlin Godwin, ’11, “Learning Perspectives through Language: An Examination of Language Used to Talk about the Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki”
- Chelsea Robinson, ’10, “Presentations of Emperor Hirohito in Japanese WWII-Related Museums”
Professor Fujiwara’s four student researchers will undertake three separate research projects, one of which will be undertaken by two of the group’s members. All are focused on how the memory of World War II in the Pacific is constructed in Japan and conveyed to the populace in important museums such as the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, the Kyoto Museum for World Peace, and the Yushu-kan Museum at Tokyo’s Yasukuni Shrine.