[1]

ASIAN STUDIES: THE FAR-FLUNG DEPARTMENTJoel Brereton, Department Chair

I suppose that there are departmental chairs who

would not mind seeing at least certain of their colleagues

or students flung far and wide. I assure you that I am most

decidedly not among them. But though I very much enjoy

the company of the faculty and students in Asian Studies, I

am also very proud of all the many places they go and all

the many things they accomplish.

This newsletter will give you an idea of the kinds of

travel and the kinds of activities of our undergraduates,

graduate students, and faculty. Three undergraduate

majors, who were in Beijing at the time of the Olympics,

report on the Olympics and, more especially, on their

engagement with China and their lives there. Elliott

McCarter, who is researching his doctoral dissertation on

an Indian pilgrimage site and its traditions, talks not only

about his work in India but also the joys and tribulations of

journeying through the archives and countryside of North

India. Last academic year, two of our faculty were on

leave. Prof. Nancy Stalker spent the year in Japan,

studying the development of ikebana, flower-arranging,

from a Japanese to an international art form. And Prof.

Patrick Olivelle, pictured within competing for attention

with the Taj Mahal, was practically everywhere else—India

and Sri Lanka, England and Wales, Australia, and Spain—

and still able to find time to work on no less than three

projects concerning traditional Indian law and statecraft.

And, as you will see, there is much else the

department is doing as well. But before I leave you to find

out just what that is, I did want to say a special word of

thanks to Josh Gilliland, who has done the yeoman's work

of putting this newsletter together. As you will see in an

interview with him, he too has gotten around.

Department of Asian Studies Newsletter

January 2009

Narayana Temple in Bahlolapur, Haryana, India. Photo by Elliott McCarter.

[2]

ASIAN STUDIES GOES TO THE OLYMPICS

A building inside the Beijing Olympic grounds. Photo by Elissa Smith, History Senior.

Sofia Avila is a Senior double major in Asian Cultures and Languages (Chinese) and Plan II. She and her sister Victoria Avila, Junior in Asian Cultures and Languages (Chinese), spent the summer working for the Mexican Embassy in Beijing.

As I stood in awe gazing up at the fireworks on that

unforgettable night of the 2008 Beijing Olympics Opening

Ceremonies, I was overcome with the acute awareness that

I was witnessing history firsthand. China was sharing with

the world the very best of what they are: the beauty of their

culture, the richness of their language, the warmth of their

people. More than that, it was the culmination of decades

of reform that marked the dawn of a new era in which

China is officially appearing on the world stage with a

leading role; a preview of what to expect from China in the

21st century. The eyes of the entire world were fixed on

this city that I had the privilege to be in, at that precise

moment in time.

No, I was not one of the lucky few who actually saw the

fireworks and the Opening Ceremonies from inside the

Bird’s Nest, but I was just a few blocks away. My sister

and I had been studying Chinese in Beijing for the past

two months, and the Olympic excitement could be felt in

the air everywhere you went, well before 8/8/08. From the

Olympic volunteers on every corner, to the banners on the

streets, to the Beijing Olympics song played in every

major store.

Our summer in Beijing was made even more

memorable due to the wonderful opportunity of actively

participating in the Olympic atmosphere. My sister and I

did internships at the Mexican Embassy in Beijing; we

helped coordinate official receptions for the Mexican

athletic delegation, and—of course—took pictures with as

many athletes as possible (they didn’t win 8 gold medals,

but hey, picture worthy nonetheless).

I loved experiencing the Olympics, but to truly live

Beijing is unique in itself. Beijing is a city of contrasts: in the

early morning, the elderly fill Beijing’s parks for the

millenary practice of tai-chi, while the traffic and bustle of

the metropolis echo in the background. This is the China I

know: beautiful, confusing, and always captivating.

Sofia and her sister Victoria riding a bicycle cart in Beijing.

SOFIA AVILA

[3]

The glowing blue puddles

of the majestic Water Cube on

the Beijing Olympic grounds

reflected the hazy, polluted

night sky, offering an aesthetic

distraction to the task at hand. It

seemed as if days had passed

since the 10 am start of my shift that morning. It was now

somewhere between 3 and 4 in the morning. A day had

passed after all.

“Okay,” Frank, a fuel technician from Dallas called out.

That was my cue to communicate to the team of four

Chinese fuel delivery men who were standing awkwardly

behind us to stop the gas pump and transfer the truck’s

hose to the adjacent generator, making sure that the

correct nozzle was attached. Pausing for a brief, sarcastic

aside in which I regretted that my Chinese study had not

yet progressed to the lesson on 3 am fuel delivery and

nozzle inspection, I sighed quietly and turned to face the

delivery crew, preparing for my imminent doom to

embarrassment and frustration.

Although it could hypothetically be attributed to any

number of reasons – common sense, knowing how to do

their jobs, my hand signals – somehow the delivery crew’s

slightly puzzled smiles unequivocally assured me that they

knew what to do for one reason and one reason only:

because I communicated it to them.

I watched with amazement as they performed the job,

and afterwards gazed back at the puddles as I waited for

the next generator to fill. Perhaps it was the peculiarity of

the situation or the ludicrous hour, or perhaps even the

obvious poetic symbolism, yet whatever the reason I

couldn’t help but reflect upon my time abroad up until that

point.

I had been in China for seven months already. What

had begun as a spring semester studying at the Capital

Normal University in Beijing gradually transitioned into a

summer of travel before ultimately culminating in an

unforgettable work experience. That night I was two weeks

into my NBC Olympic Internship, and struck by the

unbelievable coincidence and fortune – that an Olympics

was hosted by the country whose culture, language and

history I had dedicated my academic career to studying,

during a time in which I was eligible to go abroad. As a

language major I had devoted three years to waging a

linguistic war against the difficulties of learning a foreign

language, made more difficult by the complex writing script

and tonal-based speech of Chinese. Yet even in the

darkest hours of the night, after a sixteen-hour, payless

day, I grinned broadly as the mist rained down on us. The

simple truth was that this one chance to be able to use my

language skills in a professional setting seemed in one act

to justify all those hours spent. More importantly, that night

reassured me that despite the seemingly imminent collapse

of the global economy and the common stereotype that a

degree in a foreign language – or liberal arts in general –

lacks marketability in the workforce, I can look to the future

with confidence. Communication is essential to business,

politics, economics and practically every other aspect of

civilization, and as globalization continues to increase in

intensity and multiply international interactions, it isn’t too

hard to assume that somewhere in the world at any given

point in time, in one form or another, there will always be a

fuel technician who needs someone to tell the delivery

crew what nozzle to attach.

RYAN DAILEYAsian Cultures & Languages (Chinese) Senior Ryan Dailey spent the summer interning for NBC at the Bei j ing Olympics.

Ryan Dailey inside the Olympic stadium in Beijing.

[4]

RACHEL KNIGHTRachel Knight, a senior in Asian Cultures & Languages (Chinese) spent the summer working in Beijing.

This summer, I received the opportunity to be a

volunteer for two weeks at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Through an organization called Community Collaborations

International, we did things such as work at orphanages,

bring the orphans to the Games, pick people up from the

airport, and hand out surveys about the environment and

the Olympic Committee.  Although we did not get the

opportunity to work inside the venues, all 150 or so of us

received four tickets to whichever events we chose.

This trip was by far one

of my favorites.  I had

already spent the Spring

2008 semester in Beijing,

so I knew the layout of

the city and what it had

been like before the

Olympics had rea l ly

started to take effect on

it. My first thoughts when

I returned to Beijing were

centered on how amazed

I was that a city could

change so much in a

mere two months. Not

only were there at least

two more comp le te

subway lines, but the

traffic was extremely light

fo r Be i j i ng whereas

before, anytime after noon until about seven, anywhere

twenty minutes away would take about an hour and a half

guaranteed. Another change actually occurred to me when

I boarded the flight: no one on the flight was speaking

Chinese. Though this might seem normal as the flight was

coming from a mostly English speaking country, it’s not.

Before, on both my flights at least half the people on the

plan had been speaking Chinese to each other. Even after

landing, when walking around Beijing it was odd to see so

many foreigners and hear so many different languages

other than Chinese being spoken.

As far as the venues and the actual Olympics go, most

of the venues were entirely new and showed it with high

tech lighting, brand new seats, and a smell of newness to

it. I chose for my events artistic gymnastics, boxing, diving,

and tennis. Though only in tennis did I really get close

seats, seeing athletes wasn’t a problem since all around

Beijing, and especially at the touristy sites such as the Silk

and Pearl Markets and the Great Wall, you couldn’t miss

seeing at the very least five athletes all decked out in their

country’s uni forms. In

Beijing and at the events,

t h e y s e r v e d s u c h

delicacies as ketchup

flavored potato chips,

b l u e b e r r y fl a v o r e d

popcorn, and all kinds of

live critters wiggling on

sticks fried in front of

your eyes. Though these

types of concessions

were new for me, the

thing about the events

that really stuck out was

the Chinese spectators.

Wherever you were in the

venue, you always knew

when a Chinese citizen

was competing because

the entire place started to

almost shake from the screaming of “Zhongguo

Jiayou!” (Let’s Go China). Though very enthusiastic about

their own competitors, they were still very friendly and if

China wasn’t competing, but another spectator was being

loud and cheering for a different country, the Chinese

people would join in, rooting for that country as well.

Overall, my experience at the Olympics was fantastic.

Not only did I make many new friends though the people I

volunteered with, I also got to experience a whole variety of

culture in one place.

Rachel visiting a temple in Shanghai, China.

[5]

What are you currently working on in India?My project basically looks at the sacred and semi-

sacred narratives surrounding the Kurukshetra region of

Haryana, the battlefield of the epic Mahabharata. I’m

surveying about 1500

years of literature that

contain the stories and

histories of this region

and also collecting

modern oral narratives.

The centerpiece of the

textual work is a group

o f p r e v i o u s l y

unpublished Sanskrit

texts written in the

early-modern period

that tel l about the

practices and meaning

of pilgrimage. I’ve also

been roaming around

Haryana, visiting small

v i l l ages , a t tend ing

religious festivals, eating

del ic ious food and,

most importantly, listening to stories about the sacred

character of the local pilgrimage sites.

What is it like to conduct research over there?  How

is it different from conducting research in the U.S.?

Conducting research here has been really difficult at

times and really rewarding at others. One of my worst

experiences was in Bikaner where they only allow manual

reduplication of manuscripts. My wonderful and patient

wife and I spent a few weeks typing and proofreading a

nearly 200 page manuscript in the library.

Going here and there collecting stories has been a lot

more fun than working in libraries and institutes. There has

been no shortage of people willing to talk with me,

because when I go into a village everyone just stares at

me until I call someone over and we commence to talking.

I hear all kinds of interesting stories about all manner of

things. I now know the

average output of an

acre of wheat, how

Indian moonshine is

m a d e , a b o u t t h e

women’s school and

sewing cooperat ive

located at one of the

pilgrimage sites, in

addition to loads of

stuff related to my

topic.

In comparison with the

U.S., it seems much

easier here to conduct

open-ended interviews

a n d a l l o w t h e

conversations to lead

the research rather than

the other way around. I

tried questionnaires at first, but they led to less interesting

tidbits and adventures. I still work the questions in, but it’s

been more fruitful to just let things develop.

You mentioned that you’re visiting pilgrimage sites.

What exactly are people going there to do?“Pilgrimage site” might be a bit of a misnomer for the

smaller places. They’re called “tirthas” in Sanskrit. In this

part of Haryana, about ninety-five percent of the tirthas are

small ponds. In a nutshell, people go there, bathe in the

water and ask for blessings. But all kinds of things go on

at these places. In the cities of Kurukshetra and Pehowa

people perform funerary rites, rather than going to

AN INTERVIEW WITH ELLIOTT MCCARTER, PH.D. CANDIDATE IN ASIAN CULTURES AND LANGUAGES

Elliott McCarter is currently in Haryana, India, working on his dissertation.

Josh Gilliland interviewed him by email to find out more about his work and experiences in India.

Elliot talking with a tirtha purohit at Brahma Sarovar, Kurukshetra

[6]

Haridwar or other more famous funeral rite locations. At

certain times of the year, there are various festivals at

these tirthas. There are camps, storytelling sessions and

other religious events. On the less religious side, I’ve seen

people using the local sacred lake simply to wash their

tractors.

The biggest event is in the city of Kurukshetra on the

day of the solar eclipse. Around a million and a half people

from all over India come to this town on that day to take a

dip in the lake right at the moment of the eclipse. It’s said

that at that time all the gods and all of the other tirthas of

India gather in a single lake here named “Sannihit

Sarovar.” The event is quite a scene and remarkably well

organized by local authorities. Many people make offerings

to their ancestors on this day, but mostly people come to

have the experience of bathing in the lake. They say it’s a

very peaceful feeling and a wonderful environment, and

many of them believe that bathing in this lake on this day

purifies them of all the misdeeds they may have ever done.

I personally declined to bathe on that day since the water

didn’t look too terribly clean and I had made that mistake

before. It may have been good for my spirit, but I wasn’t

so sure about my body.

Blanton Exhibits Japanese ArtIn conjunction with the Blanton Museum of Art exhibit of

ukiyoe prints from the James A. Michener Collection this summer, two professors from the Asian Studies Department, Nancy Stalker and Kirsten Cather, gave talks as part of a Summer Art Class on Japanese culture. This series was one of the many events sponsored by the museum for the campus and broader community, including workshops on woodblock printing, public lectures by curators and scholars, Japanese tea ceremony demonstrations, and book club selections on modern Japanese literature.

Dr. Stalker discussed the historical and cultural background surrounding the production and consumption of Edo prints, particularly the role of the cities and the pleasure quarters. Dr. Cather discussed how images and techniques common to the ukiyoe prints, particularly depictions of geisha, traditional theater, and Mount Fuji, reappear and are reinvented in modern Japanese literature and film. Dr. Stalker also appeared with exhibit curator Cheryl Snay in an interview on Aielli Unleashed, a blog on KUT (Austin's National Public Radio station) hosted by radio personality John Aielli to discuss and publicize the exhibit.

Taiwan Studies GrantProfessor Sung-Sheng Yvonne Chang

The Department of Asian Studies and Center for East Asian Studies have received a US$300,000 grant from Taiwan's Ministry of Education. The funding will be used to establish a Taiwan Studies major and to increase our course offerings on Taiwan-related subjects. The grant will also be used to fund postdoctoral fellowships, faculty and student research—particularly on Taiwan in the East Asian context—and to sponsor lectures and symposia. The University of Texas has a three-decade history of commitment to the study of Taiwan. This grant will significantly enhance UT's connection with Taiwan's academic institutions and build UT into a research center of Taiwan studies in the United States.

Pilgrims and tourists at Brahma Sarovar on the day of the Solar Eclipse, Kurukshetra

[7]

UT’s Hindi Urdu Flagship program (HUF), the first of its

kind in the US, is a comprehensive and intensive language-

training program designed to raise the level of our students

of Hindi and Urdu to a professional level of competence.

After taking two years of language courses, students spend

the third year of their four-year program on Study Abroad in

India. HUF is currently developing its study abroad

program through a collaboration between The University of

Texas and the American Institute of Indian Studies (AIIS), a

consortium of American Universities that has offered

language programs in India since the 1960s. The first group

of Flagship students will arrive in India in August 2009.

Hindi and Urdu are sister languages of India and

Pakistan that stand in an unusual linguistic relationship.

They are identical in grammar and colloquial speech but

have different writing systems and higher-level vocabulary,

which reflects their different religious and cultural contexts.

After orientation in New Delhi, Flagship students will study

for about two months in Jaipur, Rajasthan, where they will

live with host families and study advanced Hindi language

at the AIIS. Then the students will move to Lucknow, which

is a major center of Urdu as well as being the capital of

Hindi-speaking Uttar Pradesh. There, students will study

advanced Urdu at the AIIS Urdu language program while

also continuing their study of Hindi. They will also visit two

other important cultural centers: Varanasi, a center of

Hinduism and Hindi culture on the Ganges, and

Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, a center for the development

of Urdu in 18th-century Mughal India.

In addition to their language courses, students will be

tutored by professors from Indian universities in courses

that count towards their major. The final component of the

year will consist of internships related to the students’

professional fields, which will give them opportunities to

work with NGOs in such areas as health care and women’s

and children's education, or with corporations in the areas

of international finance and business.

HUF is a program that runs parallel to a student's

major throughout the undergraduate program. Applications

to the program are especially invited from students who

have prior knowledge of Hindi or Urdu or who have

demonstrated outstanding aptitude in foreign languages.

HINDI URDU FLAGSHIP STUDY ABROAD IN INDIAThe Hindi Urdu Flagship will be sending its first group of students to India in August 2009.

Grant Davis and friend in front of the Golden Temple in Amritsar

Chelsea Aldridge on a roof in Jaipur

[8]

Could you tell me a little about your background?

I grew up in northwestern

Pennsylvania a small town, and

then I went to undergrad at a

small liberal arts college in

Michigan called Calvin College.

I did my grad work in Chinese

linguistics at Ohio State. After

that, I l ived in China—in

Shanghai—for three years, and

then came here to Austin.

Could you tell me a little

more about your experience in China?

I went there the summer

after my sophomore year of

college, and I did an intensive language study with

Princeton University in the summer, and then stayed on

and did a semester with my college in the fall. I was in

Beijing for the whole time. After that, I decided without a

doubt that I wanted to keep doing things related to Chinese

and China. So, when I got back, I kept doing Chinese, and

eventually ended up doing grad school after I finished with

my undergrad. I went to Shanghai on a Fulbright for my

M.A. thesis, then after that finished, I stayed on and

worked, teaching English and translating. I really liked

Shanghai a lot—it’s such a vibrant city, and it’s really

exciting to live there because so much stuff is happening

there right now.

What is your impression of UT now that you’ve been here for a year?

UT is great. I really like having a community where I

interact with people from all over the world on a daily basis.

I love the students as well. We’ve got a lot of really great

students, especially in Asian Studies, and they have a really

wide array of interests.

Can you give some highlights of working with

students?

I think the highlights are when I

really feel that I have helped

someone figure something out

about their academic career, or

their future, or their interests, or

something that they didn’t have

articulated quite as clearly in

their minds before they walked

through my door.

What do you think your

experience in China and your Masters in Chinese

linguistics brings to the

table as far as advising is concerned?

Well, Chinese is our second

largest major in the department,

and is also our second most popular language behind

Japanese, so as far as those students go, I know where

they are coming from—sometimes I’ve even been able to

give language learning advice. In fact, one of the things

that I have planned that I haven’t been able to do yet is a

workshop on foreign language learning. As someone who

has successfully learned a foreign language, I think that’s

something that I can bring to the table.

Other than that, I really encourage students to do study

abroad, and I think that’s because of my own experience

studying abroad—I spent six months in China as an

undergrad, and I would say that it was the seminal

experience of my college career. So having done that, I can

really speak to students about the importance of study

abroad and how it can help them reach their goals.

What are some projects that you’re working on right

now?Well, currently I’m working on the newsletter. After that,

I hope to start doing some workshops for students, like the

one on language learning I just mentioned, and also maybe

one on choosing courses that work best for students’

interests and your future goals.

INTERVIEW WITH JOSH GILLILAND, ACADEMIC ADVISORIan Wong, a Senior Chinese major, interviewed Josh Gilliland, new Academic Advisor in Asian Studies

[9]

I spent the 2007-2008 academic year in Tokyo as a

Fulbright fellow, conducting research on my next book

project, which will address the development and

internationalization of ikebana (the art of Japanese flower

arrangement) from the late nineteenth to the late twentieth

century. With more than three thousand officially registered

schools and a per capita floral consumption rate nearly

twice that of the U.S., ikebana is one of the nation’s largest

cultural industries. My research focuses on the three

largest schools of ikebana (Ikenobo, Ohara and Sogetsu),

which each had over a million students at the height of

ikebana’s popularity in the 1960s.

My nine months in Japan passed very quickly. There

are two annual bursts of ikebana exhibitions in Japan, in

the fall and the spring. Soon after my arrival in September, I

began attending major exhibitions held in Tokyo’s finest

department stores. I was amazed by both the lavish scale

of the exhibitions and the massive number of spectators

attending. I quickly developed a sense of the different

aesthetic promoted by each school. Most weeks, I spent

the majority of my time collecting primary source materials

at the headquarters of the three major schools and at other

libraries throughout Tokyo, especially the National Diet

Library and the Shufu-no-Tomo women’s library at

Ochanomizu. I also attended meetings for Ikebana

International, a non-profit association designed to help

popularize ikebana worldwide and indulged in weekly

ikebana lessons, alternating among the three major

schools.

My host institution was Sophia University, a popular

destination for UT exchange students, located in the heart

of Tokyo, where I lived in a University apartment. It was an

ideal location, as I could walk to the Diet Library and easily

commute to any spot in Tokyo, but it was not your average

neighborhood. I did a lot of my shopping, banking, post

office visits and dining at the luxurious New Otani Hotel,

directly across the street. The New Otani lobby featured a

giant Sogetsu ikebana arrangement that changed with the

seasons and I enjoyed chronicling its evolution.

During the course of the year, I traveled twice to Kyoto

to visit Ikenobo headquarters and to see some temples I’d

missed on previous trips. Towards the end of my stay, I

also made a brief tour of famous onsen (hot spring) towns

in three northern prefectures. Onsen is my favorite

Japanese leisure activity, with little to do but soak, relax

and eat tasty, elaborate local cuisine. On Christmas day, I

even visited an onsen “theme park” in Tokyo with a few

other curious academic friends. We opted to try the famous

“Dr. Fish,” tiny creatures that clean the dead skin off of your

feet.

All in all, it was a productive and fun year, a chance to

pursue my new research project, to meet old and new

friends in Tokyo and to eat my fill of great sushi!

NANCY STALKER STUDIES THE ART OF IKEBANAAssistant Professor Nancy Stalker has taught many classes on Japan, including “Modern Japan” and “History of

Japanese Religions.”

[10]

REFLECTIONS ON 2007-2008Professor Patrick Olivelle is the former Department Chair of Asian Studies. His past courses include “Religion

and Society of Ancient India” and “ History of Sanskrit Literature.”

In Spring 2009, UT students will be able to study a topic often spoken of only in hushed tones: courtesans. The course, taught by Professor Carla Petievich of Asian Studies, will be entitled “Cultivated Women: Courtesans in Cross-Cultural Perspective,” and will be cross-listed with Women and Gender Studies as well as Comparative Literature.

In this course students will look at the profiles and practices of courtesans across several cultures and times—devadasis from South India, tawa’ifs of northern India, geisha from Japan, singers and poetesses of China’s and Japan’s “floating world,” even the legendary cortigiani of Venice. Readings will be drawn from a variety of texts (autobiography, biography, novel, poetic texts, letters and scholarly essays) and will consider the social role of courtesans as women and as performers, the arts they cultivated and disseminated from generation to generation, and various debates surrounding their social position. Class discussion will be directed toward how we ought to understand who and what these special women are/were.

“Cultivated Women: Courtesans in Cross-Cultural Perspective”

After stepping down as Chair of the Department of

Asian Studies last August, I was rewarded with a year's

sabbatical leave. I received a visiting fellowship at Wolfson

College of Oxford University for the Fall and spent four

productive months at Oxford. I had three major research

projects for the year: the critical edition of the Law Book of

Yajnavalkya on which I had been working for a few years;

the beginning of a new translation of Kautilya's Arthasastra,

the oldest and only text on statecraft and law from ancient

India; and continuing my work on a Dictionary of Ancient

Indian Law that I initiated several years ago along with my

students David Brick and Mark McClish. I made good

progress on all three fronts, although none is close to

completion.

While at Oxford I held a weekly seminar on ancient

Indian law at Balliol College attended by graduate students

and faculty. I also gave several talks at Oxford itself, and at

the Universities of London, Cardiff and Madrid. In

December my wife and I spent a little over a month in India

and Sri Lanka. In Delhi I contacted several scholars and

institutions in an effort to organize an international

conference on the ancient Indian emperor Asoka now

scheduled to be held in Delhi in August 2009. I also

arranged with scholars in Pune, India to undertake a

collaborative effort in collating the over 100 manuscripts of

the Yajnavalkya legal treatise that I had collected. Five

young Indian scholars are now engaged in this project. I

also gave talks at the Osmania University in Hyderabad

and at the University of Pune. We also spent a few

wonderful days in Vrindavan where Krishna is reputed to

have lived.

In February I spent a month in Australia at the invitation

of Latrobe University in Melbourne. I gave talks at Latrobe,

as well as at the Australian National University in Canberra

and the University of Sydney. In Sydney I was interviewed

for a radio program on religion by the Australian

Broadcasting Corporation.

My research travel last year was supported by the

Jacob and Frances Sanger Mossiker Chair in the

Humanities. But I am delighted to be back in Austin and in

the classroom.

Patrick Olivelle in front of the Taj Mahal.

[11]

Department UpdatesPatrick Olivelle recently published a translation entitled

Life of the Buddha: Buddhacarita by Asvaghosa. (New York

University Press, 2008). His translation was mentioned in

an article in Time magazine on July 31, 2008 called

“Siddhartha's Saga” (http://www.time.com/time/magazine/

article/0,9171,1828094,00.html).

Robert Oppenheim published Kyongju Things: Assembling

Place (University of Michigan Press, 2008). Robert will be

promoted to Associate Professor beginning Fall 2009. His

research interests include place and technical and cultural

politics in Korea, as well as the history of Korean

anthropology.

Martha Selby co-edited a volume entitled Tamil

Geographies: Cultural Constructions of Space and Place in

South India (State University of New York Press, 2008).

Nancy Stalker recently published Prophet Motive: Deguchi

Onisaburo, Oomoto, and the Rise of New Religions in

Imperial Japan (Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press,

2007). Nancy will be promoted to Associate Professor

beginning Fall 2009. Her research focuses on the

intersections between traditional Japanese culture and

modernity.

Huaiyin Li will be promoted to Associate Professor

beginning Fall 2009. His research interests include Modern

Chinese history; Contemporary Chinese economy, society,

and politics; agrarian studies; Chinese culture and religion;

and comparative studies of development and globalization.

Naoko Suito, Lecturer in Japanese language, was

promoted to Senior Lecturer, beginning Fall 2008. She

teaches lower and upper division Japanese language

courses.

Chien-hsin Tsai was hired for the position in Modern

Chinese Culture and Society, beginning Fall 2009. Tsai

recently completed his doctoral dissertation at Harvard

University on Chinese literature from Taiwan during the

Japanese colonial period. He will offer a broad range of

new courses on China and East Asia, including literature,

film studies, and popular culture.

Beginning Fall 2008, the Department of Asian Studies is

now offering fourth-year Korean courses. KOR 330, taught

by Korean Lecturer Sooyeon Tahk, focuses on advanced

reading in the first semester and advanced conversation in

the second semester.

Recruiting is currently ongoing for the Mitsubishi Heavy

Industries Chair in Japanese Studies.

Alumni NewsWarner Belanger (MA 2000) accepted a position as

Assistant Professor of Religion and Interdisciplinary Studies

at Georgia College and State University.

Laura Brueck (Ph.D. 2006) accepted a job as Assistant

Professor of Hindi Literature in the Asian Languages and

Civilizations Department at the University of Colorado at

Boulder beginning in fall 2008.

Michelle Cheng (BA 2006) is studying at Tohoku University

(Sendai, Japan) on a Fulbright Scholarship. She is

researching Japanese wordplay. Upon her return to the

United States she will be studying Japanese Linguistics in

the Asian Languages Ph.D. Program at Stanford

University.

Eduardo Contreras (MA 2001) is a student in the master's

program in Higher Education at the Harvard Graduate

School of Education. He is the chair for the Alumni of Color

Conference Alumni Achievement Award Committee. In

addition to school, he is also a graduate assistant at MIT in

the Office of Minority Education working on their Mentor

Advocate Partnership program.

Eric Zusman (MA 1998) is a climate  policy researcher

at  the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies  in

Hayama, Japan

Are you an alumnus or a current student in the Department of Asian Studies? Send us news to include in the next newsletter! Please e-mail updates to Josh Gilliland at jgill@mail.utexas.edu

[12]

Undergraduate NewsKathryn Hansen, Undergraduate Adviser

Congratulations to the 75 students who graduated with

majors in Asian Studies or Asian Cultures and Languages

last year. This was one of the largest graduating classes in

the department’s history. The students and their parents

were honored at a special Asian Studies luncheon for

graduates on May 16, 2008. This was a great opportunity

for families to meet faculty and staff, and for students to

celebrate their many accomplishments.

As part of their Asian Studies learning experience, a

number of undergraduate students took the opportunity to

spend time on one of the Study Abroad programs offered

at UT. Altogether 35 students from the department studied

in Asia in 07-08. The most popular destinations were the

IES program in Beijing, Sophia University in Japan, Yonsei

University in Korea, and the IES program in New Delhi.

Two undergraduates were awarded university prizes for

their outstanding academic records. Ishan Chakrabarti, a

graduating senior triple-majoring in Asian Studies, Sanskrit

and English, received a University Co-op George H.

Mitchell Undergraduate Student Award for Academic

Excellence. Devon Reynolds, a dual degree student in

Chinese and Biology, was awarded an Unrestricted

Endowed Presidential Scholarship for the 2008-2009

academic year. The Presidential Scholarship is considered

one of the most notable scholarships a UT student can

receive. Many students also received awards of various

kinds from within the department.

The graduates of 07-08 included nine students who

received honors in Asian Studies. Each student who

pursues departmental honors must complete an honors

thesis of at least 40 pages in length. This involves working

on an original research topic under the supervision of an

Asian Studies faculty member. During 07-08, two honors

students wrote on Chinese literary texts, two on

contemporary Korean culture and politics, two on aspects

of 20th century Japan, two on Indian history or religion, and

one on Asian-American religion.

The complete list of honors theses is given below, with

supervisors’ names in parentheses:

• Bisheh, Sahar Katherine, “Never Refusing the Axe”: The Poetic Identity of Du Fu (712-770) in Shu. (Lai)

• Boitmann, Brian. The Nizam’s Last Stand. (Minault)• Chakrabarti, Ishan. Identity, Difference and the Muslim in

Medieval Vaishnava Hagiography. (Snell)• Kim, Christopher. The Wednesday Protests: The Comfort

Women Protest Movement. (Oppenheim)• Langley, Melissa Louise. A Concubine’s Tokens:

Impotence and Fetishism in Su Tong’s Novella “Raise the Red Lantern”. (Lai)

• Lertdilok, Jeffrey. Culture and Compromise: The Incorporation of Asian Immigrant Buddhism in the United States. (Selby)

• Mina, Mona. Racism, Nationalism and Globalization on the Field: Korea’s Perspective on the Hines Ward Phenomena. (Oppenheim)

• Nartowicz, Tonya. Carrot or Stick? An Examination of Japan’s Failed China Official Development Aid Policy. (Metzler)

• Orlando, R. Janice. The Nationalist Manga Wave: On Yamano’s Kenkanryu. (Cather)

New Course on Graduate Academic Writing for Non-Native Speakers of EnglishIn Spring 2009, Professor Chiu-Mi Lai will offer a course on graduate academic writing. This course is

designed for non-native speakers of English seeking to develop and/or refine their academic writing skills. Focus will be on both informal and formal writing—from mechanics to style to development of ideas, and from “pre-draft” stages to finalizing revisions. The course will also introduce and apply what can be called American academic writing, especially in comparison with other stylistic and cultural approaches to writing.

The course will emphasize hands-on exercises in writing, revising, proofreading, and other essential factors connected with writing. Attention will be given to areas particular to Asian Studies, e.g. citation of translations from Asian language texts. Students are strongly encouraged to focus on a long-term writing project, such as a seminar paper, thesis, dissertation, or a manuscript in preparation for publication.

Additionally, two oral presentations will be required for this course, designed to assist students in the refining stages of critical writing. Students will be assessed on oratory skills as a well-presented talk will greatly contribute to a communication of your ideas. As well, oral presentations are always good practice for an academic life and career, long after students leave the classroom.

[13]

Graduate NewsMartha Ann Selby, Graduate Adviser

Our graduate programs in Asian Studies and Asian

Cultures and Languages continue to thrive through the

contributions of our many talented students and through

the dedication of our faculty and staff.

In the past year, several of our graduate students have

received prestigious fellowships and awards. From the

Office of Graduate Studies, Urmila Patil received an

Endowed Graduate Fel lowship to complete her

dissertation, a unique study of identity formation among

brahmin communities in Western India. Shaohua Guo

received a University Continuing Fellowship to work on her

dissertation on women’s “self-reflective writing” in China, in

which she will examine women’s so-called middlebrow

culture. Maeri Megumi was awarded a Bruton Fellowship

and David Brick received a Graduate School Fellowship.

These awards are the most competitive given by the

Graduate School: over 300 students compete to receive

one of the 100 Continuing or endowed fellowships.

In addition to these university fellowships, several of

our students received grants from outside agencies. The

U.S. Department of Education awarded Dean Accardi the

multi-year Jacob K. Javits Fellowship to undertake his

doctoral work on Kashmiri religious formations. Ph.D.

candidates Peter Knapczyk and Nathan Tabor were

awarded Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research

Abroad and American Institute of Indian Studies Junior

Fellowships to conduct research in India during the

2008-2009 academic year. Peter’s dissertation is a literary

and historical study of marsiya, a genre of elegiac poetry

associated with the commemorative practices of Shi’i

Muslims. Nathan will conduct research on Urdu poetry

recitals in New Delhi. Nathan also received a Wenner-Gren

Dissertation Fieldwork Grant. Ph.D. student Nikola Rajic

was awarded the South Asia Graduate Fellowship to

continue his studies in Tamil literature.

A number of our graduate students also received

Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowships, American

Institute of Indian Studies fellowships for language

immersion study in India, awards for professional

development from the Graduate School, POSCO (Korean)

and Mitsubishi (Japanese) Graduate Research Fellowships,

and funds for study abroad from the China Endowment.

For a complete list of graduate student fellowship

recipients, please see our news story located at http://

www.utexas.edu/cola/depts/asianstudies/news/current/

grad_fellows_08/.

This year we celebrated the graduation of 10 Masters

students: Emily Anderson, Justin Fifield, Lindsey Ford,

James Hudson, Daniel Majchrowicz, Tanya Palermo,

Thomas Patterson, Sanvita Sample, Blaire Schultz, and

Linda Takamine. The Department of Asian Studies also

marked the graduation of an unprecedented four Ph.D.

students. Sarah Houston Green (Ph.D. May 2008) is now

Associate Director for Student and Community Relations in

the Hindi-Urdu Flagship Program at UT. Gardner Harris

(Ph.D. May 2008) is Visiting Assistant Professor of Religion

at Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas. Kristen

Rudisill (Ph.D. December 2007) is Assistant Professor of

Popular Culture at Bowling Green State University.

Matthew Sayers (Ph.D. May 2008) is Visiting Assistant

Professor of Philosophy and Religion at Lebanon Valley

College in Pennsylvania.

We are also delighted to welcome new students to our

M.A. and Ph.D. programs. We admitted ten new Masters

students to our program in August 2008: Brian Boitmann,

Libby Bowers, Max Bruce, Ishan Chakrabarti, Hye Eun

Choi, Shirley Field, Bob Gallagher, Jae Lee, Priya Nelson,

Natasha Raheja, Dan Rudmann, Jonathan Seefeldt, Rachel

Vought, and Lindsey Wilson. We also admitted four new

students to our Ph.D. program: Asiya Alam, Emilia

Bachrach, Manomohini Dutta, and Tien-wen Lin.

Recipients of the Office of Graduate Studies' Professional Development Award, from left to right: Mark McClish, Neil Dalal, and Shaohua Guo, with Dr. Martha Selby.

[14]

Asian Studies Student Scholarships and AwardsCongratulations to the recipients of the following awards, fellowships, and scholarships!

Asian Studies Scholarship for Study AbroadMichael Brown, Dhawal Doshi, Sree Latha Yakkala

China Studies Study Abroad Scholarship

John Richard, Lacey Robinson, Tuyet Tu

Mitsubishi Study Abroad Scholarship

Genevieve LeGris

POSCO Korea Studies Scholarship

Sean Brown, Hae K. Chung, Whitney L. Yang

Mahatma Gandhi Memorial ScholarshipGabriela M. L. Rios

Louise J. Faurot Memorial ScholarshipDevon Reynolds

Outstanding Chinese Language Students

Vijay John, Andrea Thiessen

Outstanding Japanese Language Students

Amanda Lawley, Brittney Marquart

Best “All Around” Japanese Studies and Language

Student

Mona Min

Korean Language Achievement Award

Sean Brown, Brittany Hamilton, Thuyduyen Thi Nguyen,

Angela Whiteman

Hindu Urdu Flagship Scholarship Recipients

Chelsea Aldridge, Sofiya Riyaz Ali, Sanjay Gulati, Kovid

Gupta, Shan Khan, Ramu Kharel, Suhrid Mantravadi,

Uruba Niazi, Koosh Patel, Will Williams

Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS)

Fellowship

Ishan Chakrabarti, Alex Dodson, Isabel Huacuja, Amy

Hyne, Suzanne Schulz

Presidential ScholarshipDevon Reynolds

American Institute for Indian Studies (AIIS) Language Fellowship

Natasha Raheja

American Institute for Indian Studies (AIIS) Dissertation Research Fellowship

Peter Knapczyk, Nathan Tabor

East Asia Graduate Fellowship

Mei Huang, Maeri Megumi, Kathryn Page-Lippsmeyer,

Yongzhen Shu, Euhwa Tran, Nhu Truong

Graduate Student Professional Development Award

Cary Curtiss, Neil Dalal, Shaohua Guo, Mark McClish

Asian Studies Outstanding Assistant Instructor &

Teaching Assistant Award

Shaohua Guo (TA), Gardner Harris (AI)

China Endowment Professional Development

ScholarshipJames Hudson, Yi Lu, Fei Ren

JK and Shanti Aggarwal Award

Jacqueline Pallardy

Louise J. Faurot Memorial Endowed Fellowship in

Chinese StudiesEuhwa Tran

Richard and Janis Lariviere Graduate Fellowship in

South Asian StudiesMatthew Milligan

POSCO Endowment in Korean StudiesEmily Anderson

POSCO Graduate Research Fellowship

Anthony Bonville, Yoojun Kim, Hyunjung Lee, SoonAh Lee,

Wonjun Yoon

Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching AssistantsMadina Bano (Urdu), Sadiqur Rahman (Bengali), Shilpa

Parnami (Hindi)

[15]

THE ASIAN STUDIES NEWSLETTER IS PUBLISHED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF ASIAN STUDIES AT THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN.DEPARTMENT CHAIR: JOEL BRERETONNEWSLETTER EDITOR: JOSH GILLILANDNEWSLETTER COMMITTEE: KIRSTEN CATHER, ROBERT OPPENHEIM, MARTHA SELBY

Gifts to the Department of Asian Studies

We hope that you will consider making a tax-deductible donation to the Department of Asian Studies. Your donations will

be used to help the department expand its educational and scholarly mission. Your check should be payable to The

University of Texas at Austin with Department of Asian Studies in the “memo” section of the check. For more information

about giving opportunities, or if you would like to establish a named endowment, you may contact:

Kathleen Aronson, Director of Development and Alumni Relations

College of Liberal Arts

The University of Texas at Austin

1 University Station G6300

Austin, TX 78712

mcaronson@mail.utexas.edu, 512-475-9763

Donations should be mailed to Ms. Aronson at the above address. Please include this form with your gift.

Name_____________________________________________________________Class of _______________________

Address__________________________________________________________________________________________

City/State____________________________________________________________Zip_________________________

Phone_________________________________________E-mail_____________________________________________

Enclosed is my check for $ ____________________ payable to The University of Texas at Austin.

Please charge my gift of $____________________ to my credit card.

Credit Card Type _______________ Account Number __________________________ Expiration Date _____________

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Please check with your employer about matching gift programs. Many companies will double or even triple your qualifying gift.I am sending a matching gift from my employer.

[16]

Congratulations to the graduating class of 2008!

THE DEPARTMENT OF ASIAN STUDIESThe university of texas at austin1 university station, G9300Austin, TX 78712-0587