Confucius Institute Director Michele Heryford Honored with Individual Performance of Excellence Award
James Cook, Madame General Xu Lin, Jennifer Creamer, and Michele Heryford at the Hanban Conference.
Michele Heryford displays her award.
At their annual Confucius Institute Conference this past December the Confucius Institute Headquarters designated outstanding contributors in both Confucius Institute of the Year awards and Outstanding Individual Performance of Excellence Awards. This year Michele Ferrier Heryford, director of the University of Pittsburgh Confucius Institute was honored with a Confucius Institute Individual Performance of Excellence Award for 2011. This award was given to 31 directors from Confucius Institutes/Confucius Classrooms around the world. Currently there are 350 Confucius Institutes and 500 Confucius Classrooms internationally. Of the 850 directors 31 received this outstanding commendation for exceptional service and leadership. Ms. Heryford was one of nine directors in North America to be selected for the award out of 110 CI's and Confucius Classrooms.
AID India Program Offers Summer 2012 Internships
AID initiates efforts in various interconnected spheres such as education, livelihoods, natural resources including land, water and energy, agriculture, health, women's empowerment and social justice (www.aidindia.org). AID is offering internship opportunities at some of their partner non-governmental organizations in India in the field of education. Applicants can be Undergraduate or Graduate students of any discipline.
Opportunities include working on education for children in the slums of Mumbai; working to help make underprivileged locales self-sustainable through education; empowering local communities through projects in the fields of education, health and livelihood; and promoting value-based education to visually challenged girls.
The first deadline for applications for Internship is January 20th, 2012 and second deadline is Feb 14th, 2012. Preference will be given to early applications. More information on the Internship program will be posted here.
AID is happy to answer any questions about the program and the application process at aidindia.intern@gmail.com.
ASC Alumnus Eric C. Shiner Named Warhol Museum’s Director
Eric C. Shiner, acting director and former chief curator of Pittsburgh’s Andy Warhol Museum, has been named the museum’s director. Shiner became the acting director in January 2011, and the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh announced in July that he would permenantly fill the position. Former director Tom Sokolowski left the position at the end of December 2010 after serving as director for 14 years.
Mr. Shiner’s fascination with art history began at Pitt, where he was graduated magna cum laude in 1994 with a BPhil and a focus on Art History and Japanese. A New Castle native, Eric earned an MA at Osaka University in Japan where he interned at the National Museum of Modern Art in Kyoto during his final year. While his first degree was in medieval Japanese architecture, his focus switched to contemporary art. He interned at The Warhol while he was still at Pitt and recently commented, “My internship at the Warhol completely opened my eyes to contemporary art.” Eric keeps close ties with his alma mater by giving guest lectures for the Asian Studies Center. He also teaches classes at Pitt for the History of Art and Architecture department and the East Asian Languages and Literatures department.
The Asian Studies Newsletter was most recently released in Spring of 2010. The content is often contributed by ASC staff, affiliated faculty and students. Please browse the links below to see the current and previous issues, all in PDF format:
Monthly Updates contains a variety of Asia-related lectures and social and cultural events. If you have any questions about a particular event or wish to have an Asia-related event posted, please contact Ms. Dianne F. Dakis, Assistant Director, Student Affairs, Asian Studies Center, Newsletter Editor, via e-mail at dakis@pitt.edu.
Download the latest issue of Monthly Updates in PDF format:
Lecture -- Preaching on the Margins: The Depiction of Outcasts in the Ippen Hijiri-e
Elizabeth Self, Masters Candidate, History of Art and Architecture
12:00 pm
Frick Fine Arts Building, room 203
Asian Studies Center
Department of History of Arts and Architecture
The Ippen Hijiri-e (1299) is a set of twelve Japanese handscrolls documenting the religious life and beliefs of Ippen (1234-1289), itinerant monk and founder of the Ji Sect of Pure Land Buddhism. The scrolls are unique for the inclusion of more than one hundred outcasts, or hinin (non-persons). In 14th-century Japan, outcasts were often despised and discriminated against because of their disregard for Buddhist proscriptions against killing. Located outside of the mainstream social order, outcasts were relegated to the periphery of society, and forced to make their homes in marginal spaces like dry riverbeds, roadsides, and shantytowns.
Although scholars have often commented on the unusual number of outcasts in the Ippen Hijiri-e, they have not been closely examined in the English-language literature. Yet the large number of outcasts and the clarity with which their lives were depicted make their importance in the scrolls clear. In pre-modern Japanese art history, the focus is often on the powerful and rich, who leave behind architecture, painting, and literature. But the dispossessed, like the outcasts in the scrolls, leave behind few traces in history. Scrolls like the Ippen Hijiri-e provide a unique opportunity to understand the lives of outcasts.
Why did the creators of the Ippen Hijiri-e choose to include so many outcasts, and what purpose did they serve? In this talk, I will investigate how depictions of outcasts function within the Ippen Hijiri-e. Drawing on both historical sources and visual analysis, I will examine where outcasts can be found in the scrolls, and what part they played in the story of Ippen’s life. Finally, I will trace the reasons, both religious and secular, which may have motivated the Ippen Hijiri-e’s creators to include outcasts.
Come to experience an extraordinary world class show -- Shen Yun Performing arts, it will be at the Benedum Center Feb. 15-16, 2012.
Reviving the purity and grandeur of Chinese classical dance and music, the show is inspired by the myths, legends, and divine beauty of 5,000 years of traditional Chinese culture.
Shen Yun and its breathtaking beauty are not to be missed. Its masterful choreography and graceful routines range from grand classical processions to ethnic and folk dances, with gorgeously costumed dancers moving in stunning synchronized patterns.
In 2011, Shen Yun dazzled over 800,000 live audience members in more than 100 cities on four continents.
For the University of Pittsburgh, with the code: SYU, all faculty, staff members and students, can enjoy 10% off( order by phone or by on line).
The code will be expired on Feb 10th.
To secure your seat and for more info, please visit here:
This event is not sponsored by the University of Pittsburgh.
Thursday, February 16
Lecture Series / Brown Bag -- Asia Over Lunch: An Ill Wind That Blows No Good?
Sara L. Sumpter, Ph.D. student in History of Art & Architecture
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
4130 Wesley W. Posvar Hall
Asian Studies Center
Jennifer Murawski
412-383-3602
jmurawski@pitt.edu
ASIA OVER LUNCH LECTURE – Noon in 4130 Posvar. Please feel free to join us for this lecture – all are welcome to bring their lunch or a snack along if you wish and enjoy!
In the late-twelfth-century handscroll Kibi Daijin Nittô emaki, the vengeful spirit of Abe no Nakamaro (701-770) appears in demonic form on a viciously wind-swept night. Despite this ominous entry into the tale, Nakamaro does not kill the main character—the Japanese envoy Kibi no Makibi (695-775)—and instead agrees to help him return home to Japan. The generally accepted hypothesis about this handscroll is that its two protagonists represent the rival clans of Kamo and Abe on’yôdô (yin-yang mastery), with the Kamo clan shown as ascendant over the Abe clan through the depiction of Kibi no Makibi as the more powerful of the two characters. This evaluation assumes that Abe no Nakamaro is merely a tool of Kibi’s, ignoring the possibility that Nakamaro is actually a powerful figure in his own right, whose assistance is integral to Kibi's success, and that his depiction either stems from heretofore unconsidered social factors or represents a different power dynamic between the Abe and Kamo clans than has been previously asserted.
Thursday, February 23
Lecture Series / Brown Bag -- Asia Over Lunch: Citizenship Education in Post-Suharto Indonesia
Suzanna Eddyono, Ph.D. student in Sociology
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
4130 Wesley W. Posvar Hall
Asian Studies Center
Jennifer Murawski
412-383-3602
jmurawski@pitt.edu
ASIA OVER LUNCH LECTURE – Noon in 4130 Posvar. Please feel free to join us for this lecture – all are welcome to bring their lunch or a snack along if you wish and enjoy!
Abstract: TBA
Wednesday, February 29
Lecture -- L2 Acquisition of Mandarin LE and ZAI
Xiner Dong, MA Candidate, East Asian Studies
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
4130 Wesley W. Posvar Hall
Asian Studies Center
Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures
Dr. Ebru Turker
412-624-5562
turker@pitt.edu
Thursday, March 1
Lecture Series / Brown Bag -- Asia Over Lunch: The Global Impact of Contemporary Art from China and Japan:
Cindy Lisica, Ph.D. and part-time faculty of Japanese art, visual culture and aesthetics, EALL
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
4130 Wesley W. Posvar Hall
Asian Studies Center
Jennifer Murawski
412-383-3602
jmurawski@pitt.edu
ASIA OVER LUNCH LECTURE – Noon in 4130 Posvar. Please feel free to join us for this lecture – all are welcome to bring their lunch or a snack along if you wish and enjoy!
Abstract:TBA
Saturday, March 10
Workshop -- Japanese Traditional Tea Scoop Workshop & Chanoyu Ceremony
Tadao Arimoto, SCC Store artist, and Yoko Motoyama
12:30 pm - 6:00 pm
Society for Contemporary Craft (Smallman St. & 21st Street)
Asian Studies Center
Society for Contemporary Craft
$80 to attend, +$15 for the ceremony, +$10 for materials
thestudio@contemporarycraft.org
Experience the Japanese Culture of Tea! Students will learn about the ancient tradition of the Tea Ceremony as they shape their own bamboo tea scoops with artist Tadao Arimoto. The bamboo will be split with an ax, thinned with a chisel, heated to bend into a scoop and cooled in water to hold its shape. The workshop will conclude with a Chanoyu Tea Ceremony performed by Yoko Motoyama. There are limited spaces available for participants to share the Chanoyu Ceremony with their guests.
Tuition: $80, Chanoyu guests are an additional $15 each
Materials Fee: $10
During the 17-year rule of Kim Jong-il, North Korea became a dictatorship armed to the teeth but unable to feed its own people without foreign aid. But with the death of Kim Jong Il on December 17th, foreign policy experts across the globe have wondered aloud what does the future hold for this nuclear power? “North Korea as we know it is over,” a Korea specialist who served in the second Bush administration confidently asserted in the New York Times, a mere two days after Kim died. As the last Stalinist state on earth, North Korea, in 2006, became the latest country to join the nuclear club. All eyes are on Kim Rong-Un, the youngest and least-known son of Kim Il-Jong. Will the “great successor” be able to avoid national collapse? Or will the country become subsumed by its northern neighbor, China? The Asian Studies Center and the Korea Council of the University of Pittsburgh as well as the World Affairs Council invite you to an evening seminar with two of the U.S.’s most astute Korea-watchers—Bruce Cumings of the University of Chicago and L. Gordon Flake of the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Foundation—to discuss these very important questions.
The Kims' Three Bodies: Dynastic Succession and its Antecedents in North Korea
Bruce Cumings is the Swift Distinguished Service Professor in History at the University of Chicago. He is the editor of the modern volume of the Cambridge History of Korea (forthcoming). He was also the principal historical consultant for the Thames Television/PBS 6-hour documentary, Korea: The Unknown War.
1994 Redux: North Korea's Third Generation Hereditary Succession and what it means for China, South Korea, and the United States
L. Gordon Flake is the Executive Director of the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Foundation. He has traveled to North Korea numerous times. He is on the Board of the U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea and the Advisory Council of the Korea Economic Institute of America.
Wednesday, March 21
Lecture -- EALL Colloquium 2012 #3
Dr. David Kim, Department of Anthropology
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
4130 Wesley W. Posvar Hall
Asian Studies Center
Department of East Asian Languages and Literature
Dr. Ebru Turker
412-624-5562
turker@pitt.edu
Thursday, March 22
Lecture Series / Brown Bag -- Asia Over Lunch: Islamic Resurgence in Post-Colonial Malaysia
Ya-wen Yu, Post-doctoral Fellow, Political Science
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
4130 Wesley W. Posvar Hall
Asian Studies Center
Jennifer Murawski
412-383-3602
jmurawski@pitt.edu
ASIA OVER LUNCH LECTURE – Noon in 4130 Posvar. Please feel free to join us for this lecture – all are welcome to bring their lunch or a snack along if you wish and enjoy!
Abstract: TBA
Thursday, March 29
Lecture Series / Brown Bag -- Asia Over Lunch: China's America:
Jay Jing Li, Associate Professor of History, Duquesne University
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
4130 Wesley W. Posvar Hall
Asian Studies Center
Jennifer Murawski
412-383-3602
jmurawski@pitt.edu
ASIA OVER LUNCH LECTURE – Noon in 4130 Posvar. Please feel free to join us for this lecture – all are welcome to bring their lunch or a snack along if you wish and enjoy!
Lisa See, a book club favorite, writes moving stories about friendship, family secrets, and forgotten history, inspired by her Chinese-American background. She returns with Dreams of Joy, following Joy, daughter of Pearl from Shanghai Girls, in a poignant depiction of life in 1957 Shanghai amidst the New Society of Red China. She also wrote the book Snow Flower and the Secret Fan.
Experience memorable literary evenings with ten of the world’s finest authors as they offer personal insights about their writing and explore the universal themes of literature from the podium at the historic Carnegie Music Hall in Oakland. Each program also includes the opportunity for social interaction, questions from the audience, and a personalized book signing in the Music Hall Foyer — an enjoyable Monday Night at the Lectures!
See http://www.pittsburghlectures.org/section.php?pageID=111 or call 412-622-8866 to purchase tickets. Thanks to sponsorship by the Confucius Institute, discounted student tickets are available to those who order over the phone and mention "Confucius Institute."
Thursday, April 5
Lecture Series / Brown Bag -- Asia Over Lunch: The Invention of the Human in Early China:
Vincent Leung, Assistant Professor, History
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
4130 Wesley W. Posvar Hall
Asian Studies Center
Jennifer Murawski
412-383-3602
jmurawski@pitt.edu
ASIA OVER LUNCH LECTURE – Noon in 4130 Posvar. Please feel free to join us for this lecture – all are welcome to bring their lunch or a snack along if you wish and enjoy!
Abstract: TBA
Thursday, April 12
Lecture Series / Brown Bag -- Asia Over Lunch: Gender Based Violence :
Mythili Ramakrishna, Ph.D., Heinz Fellow, University Center for International Studies
4:00 pm - 5:00 pm
4130 Wesley W. Posvar Hall
Asian Studies Center
Co-sponsored by the Global Studies Center's Global...
Jennifer Murawski
412-383-3602
jmurawski@pitt.edu
ASIA OVER LUNCH LECTURE –4pm in 4130 Posvar. Please feel free to join us for this lecture – all are welcome to bring their snack along if you wish and enjoy!
Abstract: TBA
Friday, April 13
Lecture -- The Hidden Qualifiers of Globalization
Dr. Leslie Sklair (London School of Economics, Sociology)
12:00 pm - 1:30 pm
2432 Posvar Hall
African Studies Program, Asian Studies Center, Center for Latin American Studies, Center for Russian and East European Studies, European Studies Center, European Union Center of Excellence, Global Studies Center
Department of Sociology, Pittsburgh Social Movements Forum
Sociology Colloquium, "The Hidden Qualifiers of Globalization," presented by Dr. Leslie Sklair, Emeritus Professor of Sociology, London School of Economics.
Asian Studies Center
University of Pittsburgh
4400 Posvar Hall
Pittsburgh, PA 15260
Phone: (412) 648-7370
Fax: (412) 624-4665
E-mail: asia@pitt.edu
Web: http://www.ucis.pitt.edu/asc
