$2 million grant will expand Asian studies offerings

13 March 2002 | International and Area Studies has received a $2 million grant from the Freeman Foundation as part of its initiative to increase the interest of undergraduate students in the study of Asia.

The four-year grant was awarded to Professor Bonnie Wade, professor of music in the College of Letters & Science, and chair of the Group in Asian Studies in the International and Area Studies Teaching Program.

Grant proceeds will fund curriculum development and the enhancement of undergraduate Asian studies programs focusing on East and Southeast Asia, she said.

“Five courses per year will be developed over the four-year granting period,” Wade said. “These new courses will meet undergraduate students’ general education requirements.”

Grant money will also be used to increase student participation in the University of California’s Education Abroad Programs in Asian cultures through the award of living and traveling scholarships to undergraduates. Additionally, some funds are earmarked to support a Visiting Scholars program for professors in an affiliated Education Abroad Program institution.

In the four years of the grant, visiting professors in East and Southeast Asian Buddhist Studies will be recruited to teach undergraduate courses in that important area of religious studies while regular faculty positions are put in place.

For information on curriculum development, contact Bonnie Wade, chair of the Group in Asian Studies at the Institute of East Asian Studies, at 642-0333 or bcwade@socrates.berkeley.edu.

For information on the Education Abroad Programs in Asian cultures, contact Jan Kieling at 642-3067 at kieling@uclink.berkeley.edu.