ASIANetwork Delivers
Innovative Programming
in North America
and Across Asia
ASIANetwork Leads in
Education about Asia
in the Liberal Arts
Our Impacts
ASIANetwork fosters collaboration among individuals and institutions in North America and Asia, working with our partners to deepen intercultural understanding. Our leading liberal arts colleges and universities set the standard for education about Asia at the undergraduate level, cultivate tomorrow’s leaders through global engagement, and build capacity for teaching and learning about Asia.
Since 1992, ASIANetwork has received over $12 million in support of our innovative programming for students, faculty, institutions and communities across North America and in numerous Asian regions, delivering on the mission of our funding partners including Mellon, Luce, Freeman, Ford, and Fulbright.
Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow Program
Prepares recent Ph.D. graduates for careers in education about Asia
ASIANetwork Leads
The teaching fellow program leads member colleges by enhancing their Asian Studies curriculum with cutting-edge scholarship of recent Ph.D.’s. Teaching fellows bring Asia to students across the curriculum and help ensure that Asia remains an important part of undergraduate liberal arts education.
Erin Schoneveld
Assistant Professor of Japanese Art and Visual Culture
Haverford College
“Following my year as the ASIANetwork Luce Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow at Haverford College, I was invited to remain on the faculty as Visiting Assistant Professor. Based upon the success of my postdoctoral position, the Provost’s Office at Haverford supported a new tenure-track search in contemporary Japanese art and culture. I applied and successfully received the tenure track offer.”
ASIANetwork Delivers
The postdoctoral fellowship delivers by giving recent Ph.D.’s the opportunity to hone their teaching skills in small classes, under the guidance of mentors, within the context of America’s finest liberal arts colleges and universities. As 1- or 2-year teaching fellows, they reflect on teaching and pursue scholarly research while preparing to enter the job market. And they are successful. Of the 24 teaching fellows who have completed their fellowships since 2010, over 20 now hold tenure-track or continuing positions at universities across the United States and the world. And half of the fellows have secured positions at ASIANetwork colleges.
Dewen Zhang
Assistant Professor of History
Randolph-Macon College
“My experience as a teaching fellow at Washington & Jefferson College confirmed for me the value and virtue of liberal arts education for civil society and convinced me that undergraduate teaching is what I want to do for the rest of my life.”
(This quote has been edited by Gary and will need to be confirmed with Dewen.)
Phillip B. Guingona
Assistant Professor of History
Wells College
“My ASIANetwork postdoc provided perhaps one of the most impactful opportunities in my life. It moved me from the status of protected graduate student to that of naive but eager colleague. My year in Marietta allowed me to counterbalance my mega-university experience by throwing me into the intimate setting of a liberal arts seminar. I made friends and mentors whom I still keep in touch with to this day.”
ASIANetwork Postdoctoral Teaching Program
Funded by: Henry Luce Foundation
Level of Support: $1,900,000
Years Active: 2010-present
Impacts: 25 colleges hired and mentored early-career teacher-scholars; over 85% moved into teaching positions at liberal arts colleges and comprehensive universities.
Program Director
Chris Herrick
Professor of Political Science
Muhlenberg College
Student-Faculty Fellows Program
Supports innovative, mentored student projects addressing global issues in an Asian context
ASIANetwork Leads
The Student-Faculty Fellows Program supports teams of students and faculty to carry out summer projects in Asia that address current global issues in an Asian context. Students collaborate with Asian people, and under strong faculty mentorship, develop practical and professional skills.
Loretta Scott
Japanese Media Specialist and Entrepreneur
Kemushichan, New York City & Tokyo
Student-Faculty Fellow, 2009, College of William and Mary
Currently based in Tokyo, Loretta received a full-ride, Japanese government “MEXT” scholarship for her graduate studies, and completed a Masters in Business Administration at Yokohama National University. While there, she conducted a series of case studies with Tokyo-based startups that tracked their expansion into English-speaking markets. Since 2019, Loretta has been working in Tokyo as a consultant for many of these companies. Loretta also works in media, both as a YouTuber and guest reporter on NHK World.
“My tenure at graduate school here in Japan was very much inspired by my research through ASIANetwork. My faculty mentor, Professor Hamada-Connolly, always found ways to apply case studies and ethnographic research as a problem-solving mechanism for companies and institutions. I mentioned her and our work with ASIANetwork in my application, citing how it not only prepared me to do research in a bilingual sphere, but taught me how to use my love of languages, startups and research to excel in Japan.”
ASIANetwork Delivers
The Student-Faculty Fellows Program projects engage students closely with Asian people to advance knowledge, address local challenges, and inspire others to make a difference in a globally-connected society. Students gain hands-on experience that prepares them for graduate school and careers.
Project Snapshot:
Loans that Change Lives: Interrogating Microcredit in Cambodia
Professor Maryanne Bylander, of Lewis and Clark College, and three students, Andrea Blobel Pérez, Peter Bradley, and Lacey Jacoby, interviewed microfinance institution managers, government officials, and borrowers to understand the challenges and opportunities of small-scale entrepreneurship in Siem Riep province, Cambodia.
“Microfinance has a tremendous social and political impact,” Dr. Bylander said. “There’s the rhetoric of what microcredit is supposed to do, and then there’s the reality.”
Project Snapshot:
Building a Coffee Community with a Global Mindset for Environmental and Social Justice
Seattle University Professors Quan Le and Le X. Hy, together with students Braden Wild, Samantha Henry, Grace Jovanovic, Linh Bui, Don-Thuan Le, and Danielle Alday, worked with ethnic minority agricultural communities in the central highlands of Vietnam toward improving the livelihoods of those impacted by climate change.
“Growing coffee sustainably will allow future generations of farmers to continue producing coffee while preserving the ecology and biodiversity of the central highlands,” said Dr. Quan. The collaboration has resulted in a student-run fair-trade coffee business in Seattle.”
ASIANetwork Student-Faculty Fellows Program
Funded by: Freeman Foundation
Level of Support: $7,354,658
Years Active: 1998-present
Impacts: 234 grants to 1135 fellows from 113 member institutions.
Program Director
Zheya Gai
Professor of Political Science and International Studies
Washington & Jefferson College
Conferences and Speakers Bureau
Enable the sharing of successful approaches to undergraduate education about Asia
ASIANetwork Leads
The annual conference draws teacher-scholars and their students from across the U.S. in a 3-day weekend of intensive exchange and collaboration in pedagogy, research, and skills development. Conference locations include all regions of the U.S., and members gather from across North America and several Asian countries.
The ASIANetwork Speakers Bureau opens the rich storehouse of scholarly expertise within ASIANetwork to our institutions and their communities. Composed of peer-nominated Asian Studies scholars with focus areas in Asian history, language, culture, the fine arts, society, and contemporary affairs, our speakers bring a wealth of knowledge and experience, injecting new energy to conversations on topics of crucial importance to our students, the next generation of global leaders.
Sabine Früstück
Professor of Modern Japanese Cultural Studies
University of California, Santa Barbara
Conference Keynote Speaker, 2019 Annual Conference at the University of San Diego
“The Future is Also a Different Country and We Should Do Things Differently There”
Jorrit Britschgi
Executive Director
Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art
Conference Keynote Speaker, 2021 Annual Virtual Conference
“Crossing Boundaries: Multidisciplinary Approaches Add Relevance and Value”
ASIANetwork Delivers
Our members share their top-tier research and pedagogy, creating an enriching conference environment that generates collaborative relationships and innovative projects. Our speakers are available to address topics of timely interest in open forum seminars and as guest visitors at colleges across the country.
Recent conference panels include:
- “Teaching Postwar Japanese Fiction: New Approaches for Diverse Classrooms”
- “China in the World, the World in China: Teaching Chinese Culture and Society Across Disciplines and Borders”
- “The Digital Visual: Interactive Visual Technology in the Classroom”
- “Looking Within: Visualization, Imagination, and Reflection as Pedagogical Tools”
Speaker Snapshot:
Christopher Reed Coggins
Professor of Geography and Asian Studies
Bard College at Simon’s Rock
- “God Mountains and Fengshui Forests: Spiritual Landscapes, Sacred Watersheds, and Nature Conservation in China”
- “The Ecological State (Shēngtài Lìguó 生态立国) and Ecological Civilization (Shēngtài Wénmíng 生态文明): Who Will Rise to Meet China’s Global Environmental Challenge?”
- “Rethinking the Environment, the Indigenous, and the Nation in the Chinese Anthropocene”
- “China’s Village Fengshui Forests: Geographic Distribution, Sociocultural Features, Ecological Significance, and Conservation Prospects”
Professor Chris Coggins’s research focuses on rural China, political ecology, biodiversity, sacred landscapes, protected area management, and the social construction of nature, property, and personhood under colonialism and globalization. He is the author of four books and many articles on environmental and ecological anthropology and is a leading expert on the fengshui forests of southern and central China.
ASIANetwork Conferences
Annually Since 1993
Program: Hundreds of peer-reviewed papers and arranged sessions, plus invited panels, workshops, keynote speakers, films, student posters and more.
ASIANetwork Speakers Bureau
Since 2016
Program: Dynamic liberal arts experts in contemporary Asian Studies speak and engage faculty and students during 2-day residencies.
Impacts: Extensive, constructive networks of collaboration and shared practices in teaching and research about Asia.
Conference Program Chair
Sophia Geng
Associate Professor of Chinese
College of St. Benedict / St. John’s University
Speakers Bureau Director
Rob Dayley
Professor of Political Economy
College of Idaho
Embodied Learning About Asia Program
Creates powerful, immersive cultural exchange opportunities for U.S. students and communities
ASIANetwork Leads
The Embodied Learning About Asia Program creates opportunities for students and communities to learn about Asia through immersive involvement and direct participation. Grants support the invitation of an experienced practitioner of an Asian art or cultural practice to ASIANetwork campuses for an extended residency. Participants from the host campus community enhance their knowledge about Asia in a way that goes beyond reading texts, listening to lectures, or viewing demonstrations. The program emphasizes performative, first-person experience facilitated by the visiting resident(s) along with self-reflection, dialogue and mentoring.
ASIANetwork Delivers
Bill Gorvine
Program Director
Associate Professor of Religious Studies
Hendrix College
“The value and promise of the Embodied Learning About Asia (ELAAP) program couldn’t be more clear. While none of us could have anticipated enduring an extensive period of remote and distanced learning during the pandemic, all of us can now appreciate the benefits of a program that seeks to capture the very best of in-person, experiential education.
As campus leaders and communities begin to reimagine programming that celebrates the kind of learning that best occurs—or perhaps is only truly possible—in a face-to-face setting, we at ASIANetwork are thrilled to support our members in conceiving short-term campus residencies that bring people together for first-hand experience, cultural dialogue, and informed reflection. We eagerly await creative, collaborative, and compelling proposals and look forward to supporting initiatives students, faculty, and communities will cherish and remember.”
Embodied Learning About Asia Program
Funded by: Private Donor in honor of Donald Clark, Professor of History Emeritus, Trinity University
Level of Support: $250,000
Years Active: 2019-present
Impacts: Inaugural cohort 2021
Program Director
Bill Gorvine
Associate Professor of Religious Studies
Hendrix College
Enhancing Asian Studies
Expertise to improve the teaching of Asia at the undergraduate level
ASIANetwork Leads
This project leverages the expertise and experience of ASIANetwork faculty to improve the teaching of Asia at colleges and universities across the country. It assists colleges conducting program reviews or seeking outside advice on ways to strengthen the study of Asia on their campus. Guided by a team of expert educators in the liberal arts, the Enhancing Asian Studies Program curates a digital resource guide for teaching about Asia at the undergraduate level and provides consultations to smaller and underserved institutional programs, building capacity in the curriculum and co-curriculum, and creating student opportunities.
ASIANetwork Delivers
The Enhancing Asian Studies Program carries out approximately five comprehensive college and university program reviews annually, providing best-practice guidance and engaging administrative decisions that improve the student academic experience, help keep Asia an important part of the curriculum, and strengthen faculty hiring decisions.
Zhihong Chen
Associate Professor of History
Guilford College
“I am very grateful for having an opportunity to work with Stephen Udry and Kammie Takahashi who were ASIANetwork consultants for Guilford College’s Asian Studies program. Throughout the whole process, Steve and Kammie were patient, accommodating, and supportive to Asianists at Guilford. They worked very hard within a tight timeline in order to get the consultants’ report ready before our program prioritization deadline. Their report highlights the strengths of our Asian Studies program and makes a compelling case for the importance of Asian Studies in Guilford’s curriculum. We submitted this report as part of the International Studies – Asian Studies program review. I believe that their report played an important role in saving Guilford’s Asian Studies program from proposed cuts. Steve and Kammie’s consultation provided us with timely programmatic and emotional support during a very difficult time. I am thankful!“
ASIANetwork Enhancing Asian Studies Program
Funded by: Henry Luce Foundation
Level of Support: $220,000
Years Active: 2018-present
Impacts: Curated digital resource for teaching about Asia in the liberal arts, and external academic program reviews, with an emphasis on small and minority-serving institutions.
Program Director
Stephen Udry
Professor of History
Carthage College
Faculty Development
Builds capacity for transformative education about Asia
ASIANetwork Leads
ASIANetwork supports the ongoing education of faculty to improve teaching and research about Asia, as exemplified by the Mellon-funded Faculty Enhancement Program. This project provided 10 faculty members each year the opportunity to study and travel to a country in Asia outside their primary expertise. Each program was led by a 2-person team of ASIANetwork faculty members with extensive experience in the country and included 3-week, on-site programming in India, South Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, and China. Faculty teams met in the year prior and shared their work with a broader audience at ASIANetwork annual conferences and other venues.
ASIANetwork Delivers
Participants in the ASIANetwork Faculty Enhancement Program transformed their teaching with richer and more engaging content, generated fruitful collaborations across U.S. institutions and with international partners, and produced numerous conference presentations and publications that have improved academic engagement with Asia across disciplines. Students have benefited from access to higher-quality education on-campus and new study-abroad opportunities.
Vincent Gaddis
Professor of History
Benedictine University
“ASIANetwork and its dedication to inviting scholars from liberal arts institutions to explore Asia in its many facets has been a critical development in my career. I was able to travel to Vietnam with ASIANetwork and that experience has enhanced my teaching, my scholarship and my professional development in many ways.
Today I serve the organization as a board member and my life has been enriched with the colleagues, who I call friends, that I have made through this wonderful organization.”
Siti Kusujiarti
Professor of Sociology
Warren Wilson College
“I was involved in two ANFEP programs, as a participant in the Japan program and as a co-leader for the Indonesia program. Through the Japan program, I have been able to improve several of my courses, especially those connected to the interrelationship between Japan and Southeast Asia. As a co-director of the Indonesia program, I shared my knowledge of my home country with ten enthusiastic ASIANetwork faculty members.
One of the most important aspects of this program is the creation of continuing collaborations and networks between the American participants and across American and Indonesian institutions that enhance teaching, research, and other academic activities.”
ASIANetwork Faculty Enhancement Program
Funded by: Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
Level of Support: $700,000
Years Active: 2011-2018
Impacts: 74 faculty members representing 55 colleges participated in this program, which included a 3-week, on-site summer workshop. They subsequently developed new and revised existing courses, published articles, created international partnerships for their university, and initiated new study abroad programs.
Program Director
Ronnie Littlejohn
Professor of Philosophy
Belmont University
ASIANetwork Science Initiative
Supporting collaborative projects and basic research to improve health and the environment in Asian communities and the world
ASIANetwork Leads
Our liberal arts colleges and universities value interdisciplinary engagement across fields of study, and seek insights that from the application of tools of discovery about the natural world with cultural lenses, to the benefit of local communities and broader society.
In an era in which the specters of pandemic disease, global climate change, and unsustainable agricultural development loom large in the the United States and across the world, our young scholars and future academic and political leaders need to develop the skills to address current and future crises, many of which have important connections to Asia.
ASIANetwork Delivers
ASIANetwork proposes to administer a program of educational exchange that pairs U.S. and Asian students, and their faculty mentors, in meaningful high-impact research and service projects related to the intertwined challenges of human and environmental health and agricultural development. Under the guidance of expert faculty, and in partnership with local communities in Asia, students will hone their professional skills and develop cultural competencies for greater career success in a changing world.
Project Snapshot:
Bat Conservation Biology in the Philippines
“Seeing animals up close is pretty fabulous,” said Jodi Sedlock, Associate Professor of Biology at Lawrence University, and with the support of the ASIANetwork-Freeman Student-Faculty Fellows Program, undergraduate students have had a chance to carry out impactful research among threatened bat populations and address real-world problems under expert mentorship. In collaboration with Filipino scientists and conservation professionals, including scientists at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, Lawrence University undergraduates have documented bat diversity in forests, caves, and agricultural areas across the archipelago of the Philippines to better understand how bats respond to human-caused landscape changes. ASIANetwork’s support of science brings students’ fresh eyes to Asia and opens them to new possibilities for their own research interests and future careers to make a difference in the health and environmental challenges of today and the future.
ASIANetwork Science Initiative
Our vision: Collaborative programming with our Asian partner colleges and universities to build international teams of undergraduate researchers and scholars.
Benefits: Address local health and environmental problems in the context of global issues, while fostering intercultural dialogue and mutual understanding.
We look forward to discussing these possibilites with sponsors.
Program Contact
James Godde
Professor of Biology
Monmouth College
Internships in Asia
Professional training for student success in a global economy
ASIANetwork Leads
For decades, ASIANetwork colleges have arranged effective short-term study and immersive internships across numerous academic fields in Asian settings. The resulting student experiences have been transformative. Now, ASIANetwork proposes to provide a mechanism to open up these important opportunities to students who may not otherwise have the ability to participate, and to support overseas organizations who host our students.
Students in the liberal arts bring with them to their overseas placements an interdisciplinary mindset and a willingness to adapt and make a different in the organization and community.
ASIANetwork Delivers
ASIANetwork has delivered transformative student-centered programming since the 1990s and the preparation of succeeding generations of young scholars and professionals with experiences in and about Asia is central to our mission.
Teodora Amoloza
Professor of Sociology
Illinois Wesleyan University
“A quote here about the impacts of internship programs could be good.”
ASIANetwork Internships in Asia Program
Our vision: Semester and summer-term internships in Asia, focusing on collaborative problem-solving and practical skill sharing and development.
Benefits: Added value to host organizations and communities (cultural exchange, skill sharing) and increased capacities of students seeking employment or graduate training in the U.S. or overseas.
We look forward to discussing these possibilities with sponsors.
Project Contact
Charlotte Placeholder
Assistant Professor of Internships
Northern College
ASIANetwork Exchange
Fosters high-quality scholarship in teaching and research about Asia at the undergraduate level
ASIANetwork Leads
As the only peer-reviewed journal of Asian Studies in liberal arts, ASIANetwork Exchange fosters much-needed dialogue on the emerging pedagogies and research fields that impact faculty and students across their academic careers. The journal provides insightful analyses and new scholarship, essays on teaching and learning in the undergraduate setting, and key reviews of books, films, websites and other resources with an eye to instruction. ASIANetwork Exchange advances important conversations in disciplinary research areas, applications of research to issues affecting society, interdisciplinary collaboration, and pedagogical innovation.
ASIANetwork Delivers
ASIANetwork Exchange is an open-access, fully digital platform, reaching educators and students worldwide. Publishing twice per year, the journal regularly invites leading experts to assemble themed issues across disciplines, most recently the Asian environment, digital pedagogy, and contemporary Vietnam.
Person Person
Professor of Manuscripts
ABC University
“A quote here might be a nice testimonial to the benefits of publishing in and reading the journal.”
Person Person
Professor of Journals
DEF College
“Here’s another quote.”
Popular Article:
“Creating Harmony from Diversity: What Confucianism Reveals about the True Value of Liberal Education for the 21st Century”
by Kenneth Berthel, Whittier College
ASIANetwork Exchange
Format: Peer-reviewed, scholarly articles, open access
Frequency: Two issues per year
Since: December 1992, and as a peer-reviewed scholarly journal since 2008
Impacts: Article views? Page views?
Co-Editors
Susan Bergeron
Assistant Professor of Politics and Geography
Coastal Carolina University
Ronald Green
Associate Professor of Philosophy and Religious Studies
Coastal Carolina University
ASIANetwork Book Series
Publishes transformative, open-access works of undergraduate-focused scholarship
ASIANetwork Leads
The ASIANetwork Book Series publishes high-quality, original monographs embodying a rigorous liberal arts approach to Asian Studies. These works raise broad questions of interest for Asian Studies scholars in the liberal arts and in the undergraduate classroom. The work published is relevant and timely, and reaches students, instructors, and a broader reading public with reliable and accurate scholarship about Asia, in North America and around the world.
ASIANetwork Delivers
This groundbreaking series is peer-reviewed and digital native, enabling rich multimedia content and superb scholarship that can present research and teaching content in novel, engaging ways. Housed on an open-access platform, the ASIANetwork Book Series is free to all, anywhere in the world.
Forthcoming Title:
Terraces and Terroirs: Smallholder Rice Growers in Yunnan and the Global Gastronomic Infrastructure by Philomene Blanchley, Coastal Kansas College
Some blurb from the prospectus could be placed here. It’s a great book, with wonderful liberal-arts connections and super useful in the classroom. Everyone is going to want to download it.
“Students will find this book especially useful,” said Dr. Blanchley, or maybe a reviewer. “It’s just exactly what they need.”
ASIANetwork Book Series
Format: Peer-reviewed, scholarly monographs, open access
Frequency: Two to four volumes per year
Since: 2020
Impacts: Downloads, breadth, access?
Series Editors
Erin McCarthy
Professor of Philosophy
St. Lawrence University
Lisa Trivedi
Professor of History
Hamilton College