Contact: Maridith Geuder
Three Mississippi State faculty members are part of a national effort to expand American higher education study of Japan.
Members of the university's history, art and political science faculty will join 21 others from seven institutions in a yearlong Faculty and Curriculum Development Seminar on Japan. The Association of American Colleges and Universities is sponsoring the effort.
"The program is geared to institutions developing an expertise in Japan," said historian and Asian scholar Christoph Giebel. "The goal is to help enhance course offerings."
Others from MSU include Paul J. Kaiser of the political science department and Walter T. Smith of art, with Alex Naughton of philosophy serving as an alternate. The group will be led by G. Cameron Hurst III of the University of Pennsylvania. [Ed. note: Other institutions have yet to be officially named.]
"This opportunity allows Mississippi State to focus its programs related to Japan," Giebel said. He credited department heads Charles Lowery of history, Douglas Feig of political science and Brent Funderburk of art for being "particularly supportive in securing MSU's participation in the program."
For five months, the teams will work on their home campuses, completing a core of readings to be discussed by electronic mail and conference calls. Among others, the topics will include language, culture, history, literature and arts, as well as foreign policy and economics.
Next summer, the entire group makes a three-week visit to Japan to conduct intensive personal research on various aspects of life in the Asian economic superpower.
The program concludes next fall with the teams developing new courses on their campuses that involve the study of Japan. A progress report will be presented at the AACU's January 1999 meeting.
Coincidentally, Mississippi State received an $8,500 grant in June from the New York-based Japan Foundation to expand library holdings related to Pacific Asia.
For these and other reasons, Giebel said he feels Mississippi State "is poised to become a regional center of excellence in Japan studies."