Current News
Let’s learn/continue to learn Japanese at BU over the summer!
The BU Japanese Program offers LJ111 and LJ211 (Japanese 3) for the Summer Term I (May 20th – June 27th) and LJ112 for the Summer Term II (June 30th ~ August 8th).
There are some advantages to taking Japanese courses in the Summer Term:
- Since your schedule will be relaxed compared to the fall/spring semester, you can devote your time and energy to learning Japanese.
- Class sizes are small, so you can receive more individual attention from instructors in a relaxed atmosphere.
- There are no ‘Asynchronous Tuesdays’ during the Summer Term, so there will be less homework and more in-person practice.
- You don’t have to worry about retaining all summer what you have learned this semester.
- If you are taking Japanese courses for your requirements, you will need to take fewer classes (es) during the academic year.
- (If you are age 58 and up, you can audit these courses through the BU Evergreen Program (https://cpe.bu.edu/evergreen/) at a reasonable cost.)
Summer courses are fun! Join us!
Asian Pacific Fund
2025 Hsiao Memorial Social Sciences Scholarship
Deadline: Friday, May 2, 2025 by 11:59PM.
The Hsiao Memorial Social Sciences Scholarship was established in honor of Dr. Katharine and Dr. Liang-Lin Hsiao to support graduate students of Asian descent who are facing financial need. Dr. Katharine and Dr. Liang-Lin Hsiao, both former professors of economics at Indiana State University, dedicated the majority of their professional lives in academia.
As young graduate students from China, they struggled to obtain their education amid financial uncertainty. Despite these obstacles, they earned their PhDs from Columbia University and New York University, respectively. They devoted their entire careers to the academic field and committed to giving back to those in need, including lecturing in China upon their retirements to educate the post-Mao era of economists now leading the country.
Award Information
One recipient will be selected and awarded a one-time $1,000 scholarship.
Henry Lucy Foundation
The Luce Scholars Program
Deadline: September 15, 2025
(The online application portal is now open.)
“A Different Approach to Cultivating Global Leaders
Established in 1974, the Luce Scholars Program is a competitive leadership development fellowship that provides emerging leaders with immersive professional experiences in Asia. In partnership with The Asia Foundation, which has offices in each of the countries and regions where we place our Scholars, we aim to strengthen relationships across borders by offering Scholars opportunities to deepen their understanding of Asia’s countries, cultures, and people. Through this yearlong immersion, the Program equips scholars with knowledge and skills to address global leadership challenges and build a more interconnected world.” (From https://lucescholars.org/about-the-program/)
Please go to their website for more information.
The Infosys Prize endeavors to elevate the prestige of science and research in India and inspire young Indians to choose a vocation in research.
The award is given annually to honor outstanding achievements of contemporary researchers and scientists across six Prize Categories – Economics, Engineering & Computer Science, Humanities & Social Sciences, Life Sciences, Mathematical Sciences, and Physical Sciences.
Each prize carries a prize of a gold medal, a citation and a purse of USD 100,000 (or its equivalent in Rupees). The prize purse is tax free in the hands of winners in India.
For more information, please visit the website or email Serene Kasim at serene_kasim@infosys.com.
Watch video of Author & Translator Event: Kaori Fujino & Kendall Heitzman
Watch the video below from the Boston University event on April 22, filmed inside the Boston University Riverside Room, for a sense of the tour.
Afro-Asian Diaspora and the Eaton Sisters at the Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center at the Boston Public Library
Who Are the Eaton Sisters?
Edith and Winnifred Eaton—or the “Eaton Sisters”—were born in the late nineteenth century to Chinese and English parents. In their writing, which transcended genres including poetry, short stories, journalistic articles, and travel nonfiction, the Eaton Sisters faced marginalization due to their mixed ethnic identities. Today, however, they are widely known as foundational figures in Asian American Studies, and their papers and writings are held made publicly available through institutions like the New York Public Library and the Winnifred Eaton Archive.
Though the Eaton sisters worked primarily in Western Chinatowns and Japan, their writing traverses and crosses into various spaces. In particular, their time in Jamaica and exposure to Blackness while there informed how they understood and performed their own ethnic identities—an understanding that is reflected in their later works. This essay provides a glimpse into their diasporic travel, publishing works, and textual networks in Jamaica, which have not been given much focus to date.
(From the Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center at the Boston Public Library. Please see their website for the rest of the web publication.)
Study Mandarin in Taiwan with a Huayu Enrichment Scholarship! (application due April 28, 2023)
Students are encouraged to apply for a Huayu Enrichment Scholarship to study Mandarin Chinese language in Taiwan. The award period may be 2, 3, 6, 9, or 12 months from July 2023 to August 2024. The scholarship provides a monthly stipend of NT $25,000, which equals approximately US $860. Here are some details: R.O.C. Ministry of Education 2023 Huayu Enrichment Scholarship (HES) Education Division, TECO-Boston 1/17/2023 Purpose The Ministry of Education (MOE) in the Republic of China (Taiwan) established the Huayu Enrichment Scholarship (HES) program to encourage international students (except Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macao SAR students) to undertake Mandarin language courses in... More
Congrats to Sunil Sharma and his collaborators on their new book, Three Centuries of Travel Writing by Muslim Women
Edited by Siobhan Lambert-Hurley, Daniel Majchrowicz and Sunil Sharma Contributions by Asiya Alam, Andrew Amstutz, C. Ceyhun Arslan, David Boyk, Greg Halaby, Hans Harder, Megan Robin Hewitt, Nurten Kilic-Schubel and Roberta Micallef Published by Indiana University Press, August 2022. When thinking of intrepid travelers from past centuries, we don't usually put Muslim women at the top of the list. And yet, the stunning firsthand accounts in this collection completely upend preconceived notions of who was exploring the world. Description from https://iupress.org/9780253062390/three-centuries-of-travel-writing-by-muslim-women/#generate-pdf Editors Siobhan Lambert-Hurley, Daniel Majchrowicz, and Sunil Sharma recover, translate, annotate, and provide historical and cultural context for the 17th- to 20th-century writings of Muslim women travelers in ten different languages. Queens and captives, pilgrims and provocateurs, these... More
Weng Family Collection of Chinese Painting: Art Rocks (at the Boston MFA March 26, 2022–May 3, 2023)
Celebrating a landmark gift of Chinese art 翁氏家藏精品展·第三期：奇石拙趣 In China, rocks in their natural form are objects of great aesthetic appreciation. As far back as one thousand years ago, serious art collectors and critics acquired and competed for rocks with the same passion they afforded great works of painting and calligraphy. Rather than celebrating superficial beauty, collectors exalted imperfection for its expressive possibilities and sought rocks that were not symmetrical or smooth or pretty. They used terms like strange, weird, and awkward as complimentary descriptions of the rocks they most preferred. The humble rock became, like an abstract sculpture, a medium to explore... More
Power and Perspective: Early Photography in China (Peabody Essex Museum, on view through April 2, 2023)
https://www.pem.org/exhibitions/power-and-perspective-early-photography-in-china Power and Perspective: Early Photography in China explores how the camera transformed the way we imagine China. Photography’s development as a new form of art and technology in the 19th century coincided with profound changes in the way China engaged with the world. The medium evolved in response to war, trade, travel, and a desire for knowledge about an unfamiliar place. The exhibition features 130 photographs in dialogue with paintings, decorative arts, and prints drawn largely from PEM’s outstanding collections with select loans from public and private collections. Power and Perspective provides a rich account of the exchanges between photographers, artists, patrons and subjects... More
Grant Rhode delivers keynote address at “China’s Belt and Road Initiative” symposium at Bridgewater State University
Grant Rhode, Boston University Center for the Study of Asia Visiting Researcher, delivered a keynote address at the Bridgewater State University Forum China’s Belt and Road Initiative: Development Opportunities and Challenges, held April 7, 2022. The purpose of the Forum was to discuss the current state of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), with a focus on developing international opportunities that are more equivalent, balanced, and sustainable. The faculty and student panels during the conference focused on regional cases including Egypt and the Suez Canal, the two Koreas, Pakistan and Gwadar port, the Ukraine, Russia, Turkey, and Jordan, and on topical... More
Congratulations to Robert Hefner and Zainal Abidin Bagir on their latest documentary film, “Religion in Quarantine: The Covid Pandemic in Indonesia”
Religion in Quarantine: The Covid Pandemic in Indonesia – the fifth documentary film in the “Indonesian Pluralities” series created and produced by Robert Hefner, Professor of Anthropology and of International Relations at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, and Zainal Abidin Bagir with the financial support of the Henry Luce Foundation – has been released in its English language version. This documentary traces the response of Indonesia’s diverse religious communities to the COVID-19 pandemic from early 2020 to late 2021. After an initial campaign of fake news and conspiracy theories promulgated by radical populists, the Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, and Hindu communities... More
BU Students Launch New Magazine Celebrating the Various Nuances of the Asian American Experience [from BU Today, Jan. 24, 2022]
Online publication Untangle encourages readers to learn, share, and reflect From BU Today https://www.bu.edu/articles/2022/bu-students-launch-magazine-celebrating-asian-american-experience/ BU Students Launch New Magazine Celebrating the Various Nuances of the Asian American Experience Online publication Untangle encourages readers to learn, share, and reflect Article and photos by Lauren Richards (COM '22), January 21, 2022 What is it like to be an Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) student at BU? The new free student-produced virtual magazine Untangle explores that question through a collection of revealing essays, photo illustrations, poetry, and more. Produced by a team of six students, the online publication celebrates AAPI culture and prompts readers to either reflect on their own experiences or learn from... More
Daryl Ireland (STH and CGCM) and Eugenio Menegon (History/CAS) receive Faculty Research Pilot Grant from The CAS Center for Innovation in Social Science (CISS) for 2021-2022
The Future of Sino-Western Relations is in their Past. The grant will support the expansion of the China Historical Christian Database (CHCD), a platform which provides users the tools to discover where every Christian church, school, hospital, lab, museum, orphanage, publishing house, and other important locations were situated in China. The expansion of this resource will document who worked inside those buildings, both foreign and Chinese. Collectively, this information creates spatial maps and generates global relational networks that reveal where, when, and how Western ideas, technologies, and practices entered China. Simultaneously, it uncovers how and through whom Chinese ideas, technologies, and practices moved West. More
Congratulations to Alice Tseng, our new Associate Dean of the Faculty for Humanities beginning July 1, 2022!
BUCSA is delighted to pass along news from Dean Stan Sclaroff (College of Arts and Sciences, Boston University) that our colleague Prof. Alice Tseng (Dept. of History of Art and Architecture) has agreed to serve as the next Associate Dean of the Faculty for Humanities. She will officially begin serving her term on July 1, 2022. As Dean Sclaroff notes, "Alice is a seasoned academic leader, who has had a distinguished service career at BU and in Arts & Sciences. Most recently, she was chair from 2016 to 2021 of the History of Art and Architecture Department. Prior to serving in... More
South Asia Summer Language Institute (SASLI) at U Wisconsin now accepting Summer 2022 applications
Interested in studying a language this summer? Look no further than the South Asia Summer Language Institute! SASLI is pleased to announce that our student application for the fully in-person Summer 2022 Program is officially open! SASLI, based at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is an eight-week intensive summer language program, offering courses in the following languages: Bengali, Dari, Gujarati, Hindi, Marathi, Nepali, Pashto, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Sinhala, Tamil, Tibetan, and Urdu. In addition to the Elementary and Intermediate course level offerings, SASLI will offer Third-Year Hindi, Third-Year Sanskrit, and Third-Year Urdu for the 2022 program. Program Dates: June 20th - August 12th Application Deadline: March 15th, 2022 Tuition: $5000 There are just... More