Fulbright Scholar Peter Williams Not Monkeying around in China ​

​Peter Williams on Safari during his study abroad, Tanzania, summer 2013

Peter Williams, former student in Asian Languages and Literatures, has received a prestigious Fulbright Research Award to study the endangered golden snub-nosed monkeys of west central China. Graduating in 2014, Peter was an honors student majoring in Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior; he also had minors in Chinese and Music. For his research he will be using a combination of GPS, GIS, and remote sensing technologies to understand better how to protect the monkey's habitat and conserve the species. In the first semester he will be taking classes at China West Normal University in Nanchong, Sichuan in preparation for his study. In the second semester, he will conduct field work in a national nature reserve in rural Sichuan, working with researchers from China West Normal University who are studying this monkey.
Readers may remember Peter from his stellar presentations in the Chinese Bridge Speech contests over the last few years (first prize in 2012), which included his performance on the two-stringed Chinese instrument, the erhu.

​Golden snub-nosed monkeys, Qinling mountains China (source: C. P. Groves, 2005: Mamal Speices of the World. Baltimore: John Hopkins UP, 174)

Once widespread, golden snub-nosed monkeys are now endangered and are only found in pockets of Sichuan, Gansu, Hubei, and Shaanxi. Hunting has been banned since 1975, but habitat loss from logging is a continuing threat.

Joe Allen Wins Levenson Book Prize!

Shortly after arriving at the University of Minnesota, Professor Joseph Allen dramatically expanded his field of research to include Taiwanese literature and culture. This move culminated in his book Taipei: City of Displacements, which this year was awarded the Levenson book prize--the most prestigious prize in modern Chinese studies.
In this book, Professor Allen traces Taiwanese colonial history through the Taipei cityscape and Taiwan's multiple periods of colonization. The Chair of the Levenson Prize committee remarked that the issues Professor Allen discusses in his book are "highly relevant to those of other postcolonial societies struggling to define their identity, as well as to other 'global cities' similarly experiencing radical physical transformations."
The presentation of the award took place at this year's Annual Meeting for the Association for Asian Studies, which is the largest Asian Studies conference in the world, and attended by thousands of scholars from the U.S., Asia, and Europe. This great achievement well represents the Department of Asian Languages and Literatures at the University of Minnesota as a program supporting the most rigorous, current scholarship on Asia.

Japanese Students Take Home the Prizes

(L to R) Jue Sun, Phillip Yocca Bachman, Yiqing Ma

Phillip Yocca Bachman (double majoring in ALL and Linguistics) won the Grand Prize at the 28th Annual Japanese Language Speech Contest held at the Consulate General of Japan at Chicago on March 22, 2014. The prize includes a trip to Japan on Japanese Airlines.
The good news does not stop there. Not only did an ALL student win the grand prize; every student ALL sent to the competition won a prize. Yiqing Ma (majoring in Psychology) won 4th Prize, and Jue Sun (majoring in Global Studies with a minor in ALL) won the special Bonjinsha Award.
The competition was tough. Seventy-four contestants from a wide range of colleges and universities in the region competed in the speech contest. Congratulations to all our hard-working students!

Kaler Calls Out Kat Klett

Kat Klett without bees

In President Kaler's State of the University address on March 6th, he called on only one student for special recognition: Katrina (Kat) Klett--an Asian Languages & Literatures major, focusing in Chinese, with a minor in Sustainability Studies (administered by University's Institute on the Environment). Kat is known for her bees and her Chinese. She grew up in a family that specializes in breeding queen bees for US beekeepers. Chinese came later, after she arrived at the university. Kat loved language study, so why not Chinese? These two skills serve her well in her on-going work with farmers and migratory beekeepers in Yunnan Province, China, where biodiversity has made for a strong apicultural (aka. beekeeping) environment.

Kat Klett with bees

Kat plans on changing the world: she is committed to modifying modern agricultural practices to promote biodiversity at home and abroad. And she is well on her way. She is already the recipient of two prestigious national undergraduate awards: the Harry S. Truman Scholarship and the Udall Scholarship. And she was also a winner, placing 2nd, in the U.S. Midwest University Level Chinese Bridge Speech Contest held in spring 2013. The next stage of her work will include graduate studies in Public Affairs and a return to Asia and Africa to continue working with rural populations and bees.

Travis Workman Wins University's Top Award

Assistant Professor Travis Workman has been named a University of Minnesota McKnight Land-Grant Professor, the highest honor the University awards to junior faculty. Travis will hold the title from 2014-16.
The purpose of the McKnight Land-Grant Professorship program is to advance the careers of the most promising junior faculty members who are at the beginning stages of their professional careers, and who have the potential to make significant contributions to their departments and to their scholarly fields.
The award will support Travis research on "Melodrama and the Cold War: Ideas and Emotion in Korean Cinemas" that analyzes the melodramatic mode in the cinema cultures on both sides of the Cold War, focusing on the South Korean and North Korean film industries (1945-89). Expanding on his first book on humanism in the Japanese empire, he explores the political, social, and humanist ideas of Cold War melodrama, as well as parodies and critiques of its dominant images of a world split in two.

New Scholarship for Students of Arabic

Kimberly Wilson checking out some traditional transportation in Fez, Morocco fall 2013

Thanks to the generosity Prof. Caesar E. Farrah, late professor of Arabic language and history, Asian Languages and Literatures is pleased to announce a new scholarship for students of Arabic. Through the Middle East Outreach Consortium (MEOC) scholarship, students receive support for a year of Arabic language study. This year we have two recipients: Benjamin Eischens and Kimberly Wilson. Benjamin, a Linguistics major and Asian Languages and Literatures minor, focusing in Arabic, is currently working on his second year of Arabic at the University. Beyond the standard language classes, Benjamin also applied his knowledge of Arabic in a research paper for his "Languages of the World" course last fall. He is planning to study abroad next year. Last semester, Kimberly, a Political Science and Global Studies double major, went to the Arabic Language Institute in Fez, Morocco to continue her Arabic studies. In addition to her class work, she used Arabic in her daily interaction with her host family and other people in Fez, including when she volunteered at a shelter for abused young girls. Congratulations to Benjamin and Kimberly.

ALL Hosts Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Program Alumni

The Japanese Language Program invited the JET Alumni Association (JETAA) of Minnesota to hold JET information sessions on October 28 and October 31. The JETAA members gave enthusiastic presentations for an audience of thirty-five interested students. The presenters were: Mario Acito (ALL alumnus, 2010-2013 Kyoto ), Amanda Costello (ALL alumna, 2005-2007 Hyogo), Kate Myer (U of M graduate, currently in U of M grad school and taking 3rd year Japanese, 2006-2010 Nagasaki), and Kate Thersleff (Events Coordinator of JETAA of Minnesota; U of M-Morris graduate, 2005-2008 Wakayama).

Mario Acito, ALL alumnus, with his 5th grade students from Goka Elementary School (Kyotango City, Kyoto) 2013

Since 1987, the Japanese government has hired over 55,000 young people from around the world to live and work as an assistant language teacher or a coordinator for international relations in Japan. We are very proud that the Japanese Language Program sends several students to Japan through the JET Program every year. We sent seven students to Japan in 2013.