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.)
Congratulations to our newly-tenured faculty in Asian Studies!
We are delighted to pass along news (May 18, 2021) from Provost Jean Morrison that the following faculty members who work on Asia have been awarded tenure and promotion: Lei Guo, COM, Emerging Media Studies, explores the development of media effects theories, computational social science methodologies, and emerging media and democracy in the United States and China. A founding member of the Faculty of Computing & Data Sciences, she is a past recipient of the Google Research Award and the Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly Outstanding Article Award and was BU’s inaugural East Asia Studies Career Development Professor. Her current work... More
Congratulations to Anne Feng (HAA) for her Henry Luce Foundation/ACLS Program in China Studies Early Career Fellowship
The BU Asian Studies community extends its enthusiastic congratulations to our colleague Anne Feng (Assistant Professor of Chinese Art, Boston University Dept. of the History of Art and Architecture) on being awarded a Henry Luce Foundation/ACLS Program in China Studies Early Career Fellowship for 2021-2022. Project details: Aqueous Visions: Water, Meditation, and Mural Painting in Medieval China (618-907 CE) Despite being situated in arid environments, Buddhist caves around the Taklamakan desert were constructed along complex waterways. This study examines the relationship between visions of Buddhist paradise and water management in medieval China and Central Asia. Representations of Amitabha Buddha’s Pure Land were famous... More
Laura Brubaker-Wittman (PhD candidate, BU Anthropology) wins Fulbright Scholarship to Indonesia
Congratulations to Laura Brubaker-Wittman, a PhD student in BU's Biological Anthropology program, who has been awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to Indonesia to continue her dissertation research “Interacting with Orangutans: A Multispecies Ethnography of Relationship Building in Borneo.” Laura holds a Master’s degree in Sustainable Development and Policy Advocacy from the School for International Training and a Bachelor’s degree in Anthropology from the University of Colorado. Her doctoral research focuses on the human-nonhuman primate interface by using the mixed methodology of ethnoprimatology, incorporating theories and techniques from both cultural and biological anthropology. Specifically, her work asks questions about how orangutans and humans... More
Peoples of the Pacific: Rodgers and Hammerstein musical and a Covarrubias anthropological map, portrayals of ethnic diversity raise questions about images and stereotypes
Connie C. Chin, President of the Norman B. Leventhal Map and Education Center at the Boston Public Library explores how a Rodgers and Hammerstein musical and a Covarrubias anthropological map provide portrayals of ethnic diversity that raise questions about images and stereotypes. To read the full article, click here About the author: Connie Chin was appointed President of The Norman B. Leventhal Map Center at the Boston Public Library in 2016. Previously, she served as Chief Operating Officer of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation and as General Manager at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival. Connie also worked in brand management at Kraft Foods and... More
Unique Perspectives on Kyoto: A Map Chat article by Richard Pegg (MacLean Collection)
The Norman B. Leventhal Map and Education Center at the Boston Public Library is pleased to present its first Map Chat article in which Richard Pegg, the curator of the MacLean Collection, examines graphic representations of urban Japan from the Tokugawa period. Unique Perspectives on Kyoto Richard Pegg The MacLean Collection Map Library includes a group of maps of the city of Kyoto, a city which was the official Imperial capital and unofficial cultural capital of Japan from the eighth century until the early seventeenth century. During the early Tokugawa period (1603–1868) the Shogun established the administrative capital in Edo, which was later named Tokyo... More
Congratulations to Prof. André de Quadros for winning the 2021 Brazeal Wayne Dennard Award from Chorus America!
Chorus America’s 2021 Awards Recognize Outstanding Choruses and Individuals Chorus America Staff | March 30, 2021 From Chorus America's awards website: Chorus America has announced the recipients of its 2021 awards program, recognizing a broad range of achievements in choral music and service to the choral field. The awards program celebrates and fosters meaningful contributions from remarkable individuals and choruses. “Chorus America is delighted to recognize the accomplishments of these incredible award winners,” said Chorus America president and CEO Catherine Dehoney. “Their artistry, their dedication, and the joy they bring to their work lift up the entire field and inspire us all.” The awards will be... More
Congrats to Prof. Eugenio Menegon (Dept of History) on his Berenson Fellowship from Harvard Center for Italian Renaissance Studies
Professor Eugenio Menegon received a Berenson Fellowship for the period January-June 2022 from the Harvard Center for Italian Renaissance Studies, located at Villa I Tatti near Florence. This is part of his sabbatical leave, when he will bring to completion his current book project on Europeans in Beijing in the early modern period. This Fellowship is designed for scholars who explore “Italy in the World” and address the transnational dialogues between Italy and other cultures during the Renaissance, broadly understood historically to include the period from the 14th to the 17th century. It is named after famed art historian and collector Bernard Berenson (1865-1959), a prominent authority on the... More
Kimono Couture: The Beauty of Chiso A virtual exhibition at Worcester Art Museum (ongoing)
Enjoy some beauty from the comfort of your home! The Worcester Art Museum presents A virtual exhibition online from November 28, 2020 Experience the world of traditional kimono design and artistry still practiced by Chiso, the 465-year-old, Kyoto-based kimono house in our virtual exhibition, Kimono Couture: The Beauty of Chiso. Click on the image below to enter this free virtual exhibition. Over the course of ten weeks, this interactive virtual exhibition reveals a new kimono theme to explore each week, leading up to the opening of the in-house exhibition, Kimono in Print: 300 Years of Japanese Design. The virtual exhibition includes a rare, behind-the-scenes look at... More
Shen Wei: Painting in Motion (Special exhibition at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, museum reopens Feb. 5!)
SHEN WEI PAINTING IN MOTION DECEMBER 3, 2020 - JUNE 20, 2021 Spanning the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum's Hostetter and Fenway Galleries, and Anne H. Fitzpatrick Façade Dancer, choreographer, painter, and filmmaker Shen Wei 沈伟 (b. 1968) moves fluidly between disciplines and cultures to create art that expresses a common spirit animating the world around us. His theory of dance seeks to align the energies inside and outside the body, approaching the body and its environment as fundamentally interconnected. As a painter, Shen Wei uses the monumental scale of the canvas to create immersive visual environments that evoke ancient Chinese landscape paintings while enlisting... More
China, Global History, and the Sea: BUCSA faculty contribute to special issue of Education About Asia
We are pleased to draw your attention to the newly published set of articles onChina's maritime history produced collaboratively by Grant Rhode, Thomas Kennelly, Eytan Goldstein, William Grimes, Eugenio Menegon, and Robert Murowchick for the Fall 2020 issue of the journal Education About Asia, published by the Association for Asian Studies. Their contribution "China, Global History, and the Sea: Pedagogical Perspectives and Applications"can be read by clicking on this link: Rhode, Grant, Thomas Kennelly, Eytan Goldstein, William Grimes, Eugenio Menegon, and Robert Murowchick 2020. China, Global History, and the Sea-Pedagogical Perspectives and Applications. Education about Asia 25 (2), pp 18-24 with online supplement electronic links... More