I’m delighted to report that two new members have joined our ranks: Michael and Betsy Zink. Michael and Betsy have spent three decades working internationally, most of it in China and Southeast Asia. Each member brings skills & ideas, new networks and new energy to the Council. Welcome!
- Advisory Council members have been active this past year in a variety of ways. Examples include:
- Supporting CU’s increased engagement with Indonesia, including support for periodic gatherings of Indonesian students and the launch of an exciting new exchange program with Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta.
- Identifying and helping to arrange speakers for CAS-sponsored events.
- Continuing to advocate for increased attention to Asia as well as broader “comprehensive internationalization” across the CU campus.
- Hosting a presentation by Kunming China-based CU graduate Colin Flahive of his book Great Leaps: Finding Home in a Changing China. This event was co-sponsored by Denver Kunming Sister Cities. We hope to do more events like this in 2020.
- Collaborating with the Law School and SEEC/Sustainability, Energy & Environment Community on the visit of Mongolian human rights activist and author Oyungerel Tsedevdamba and her husband Jeffrey Falt, who made presentations on three very different topics: international human rights law; an innovative solid waste management program in Ulaanbaatar, and their historical novel The Green Eyed Lama, the first in a four-volume series covering little-known events in Mongolian history.
- Testing a new category of event Mingle with the Expert designed to support CAS fundraising in conjunction with presentations on campus.
- As noted in my message a year ago, the Academic Futures report, prepared with extensive campus-wide input in 2018, identified “Internationalizing our Campus” as one of its Top 4 priorities “essential to our mission and to other goals and projects set forth in this report.” Although the University community was promised a plan to implement this element of the report in 2019, no plan has yet materialized. We hope to see one soon and trust that CAS will have an important role to play. In the meantime, progress continues to be made from the bottom up. As Dean Bobby Braun noted in a message to the CU Engineering Community: “Global engagement is a cornerstone of the strategic vision for the College of Engineering and Applied Science. Our aim is to graduate engineers with global experience, to lead in international project-based learning, to attract scholars from all over the world through strategic international partnerships and to develop technical solutions that can be exported globally to impact the world’s economy, security and quality of life.” Amen!
The members of the Advisory Council are enormously proud of the work CAS has been doing, some of which is outlined in this Newsletter. I encourage all who are interested in Asia to subscribe to the Center’s email list for news of upcoming events both at CU and along the Front Range. We hope to see you at as many of our events as your schedule will allow.
George Taylor, CAS Advisory Council Chair
Asia Internship Program alumna Kate Wexler discusses her experience at the CAS Advisory Council Meeting
You Can Help! Support Asian Studies at CU
The world has never been more interconnected. CAS aims to expand access to education and opportunities relating to Asia to all CU students. We also provide community programming and support faculty working in Asian studies. If you share these values, please consider contributing to one of the following initiatives, and help support the study of Asia for all.
• Contributions to the Asian Studies Advancement Fund allow us to help faculty pursue interdisciplinary research, attend conferences, and develop Asia-themed courses introducing students to new issues and ideas; and support events at which faculty and students from around campus and the Front Range region have opportunities to network and collaborate.
• Contributions to the Friends of Asian Studies Flatirons Fund endowment help to further the CAS mission through research and instruction support and outreach about Asia. The fund is used at the discretion of the CAS Director, with a current priority of scholarships defraying the cost of student travel to Asia for study abroad and internships.
• Contributions to the Asia Internship Program will provide program development funds and scholarships to offset costs for our summer internship students working in China and Japan.
Donations can be made online. If you would like to discuss other giving options or ideas, please contact Danielle Rocheleau Salaz at salaz@colorado.edu or 303-735-5312. Thank you for your support!
Asian Studies Leadership Circle
Please join us in thanking our 2019 Leadership Circle members, who each gave at least $1000 in the calendar year. Their support allows us to have an impact on campus and in the community.
France Addington-Lee, CASAC Member
Larry Bell, CASAC Member
Koji Fukumura, CU Alumnus
Paige Goodson Reberry, CU Alumna and CASAC Member
Dennis McGilvray, CASAC Member and Professor Emeritus, Anthropology
Laurel Rasplica Rodd, CASAC Member and Professor Emerita, Japanese; and Greg Rodd
Kazunori Takato, CU Alumnus
George and Beth Ann Taylor, CASAC Member
Nick Wang, CASAC Member
Michael and Betsy Zink, CASAC Members