Recent News
Published: Aug 5 2017 - 10:13am
On May 18, critically acclaimed film director Hirokazu Koreeda and Davinder Bhowmik, professor of Japanese literature, spoke before an audience of nearly 100 in the Walker-Ames Room about the director’s prior films and the US debut of his film, “After the Storm,” screened to capacity crowds in the 2017 Seattle International Film Festival.
Koreeda, who had originally planned to become a novelist, began his career as an assistant director of television documentaries. He eventually went on to direct feature films in which his penchant for documentary style is evident. Known for films such as “... Continue reading
Published: Aug 5 2017 - 10:02am
Of the 11 University of Washington students to receive the Fulbright Scholarship in 2017-2018, two come from the Department of Asian Languages & Literature. Benjamin Lee (’15, Chinese) and Christopher Diamond (current graduate student in South Asian Languages & Literature) both received the prestigious award to pursue research projects overseas.
Administered by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the Department of State, the Fulbright Scholarship provides resources for students to pursue graduate study, advanced research, and teaching opportunities abroad. Benjamin and... Continue reading
Published: Aug 5 2017 - 9:39am
In early March, Professor Zev Handel was invited to participate in the Thirteenth Annual Oriental Institute Symposium, titled Seen Not Heard: Composition, Iconicity, and the Classifier Systems of Logosyllabic Scripts. The symposium brought together over a dozen scholars in the fields of Egyptology, Sinology, Hittitology, and Mesoamerican, Cuneiform, and Sign Language studies to explore the communicative and cognitive role of visual aspects of linguistic communication systems. Professor Handel presented on the role of “classifiers” (also called “radicals” or “signifiers”), which are... Continue reading
Published: Jul 29 2017 - 10:30am
Dr. Chan Lü, Assistant Professor of Chinese Language and Linguistics at the University of Washington’s Department of Asian Languages and Literature, was invited to join a panel of reading researchers from US institutions and participated in week-long events in Beijing on Chinese literacy in education from June 3 to June 10, 2017. Though China enjoys a long tradition of emphasizing reading and writing skills as indicators of one’s overall educational attainment, promoting literacy instruction across different disciplines, focusing on components of reading other than rote memorization and... Continue reading
Published: Jun 28 2017 - 4:06pm
On June 9, 2017, the annual Asian Languages & Literature convocation and awards ceremony marked the passing of another successful year for the department. Featured front and center were the accomplishments of the department’s graduating students, including the conferral of the Bachelor of Arts degree upon 14 Chinese majors, 25 Japanese majors, 7 Korean majors and 3 South Asian majors. In addition, a large group of graduate students earned their degrees in Japanese, Chinese, and South Asian languages and literature. The Master of Arts degree was conferred upon Ross Henderson, Harumi Maeda... Continue reading
Published: Jun 19 2017 - 2:22pm
The 2016-2017 Academic Year saw the Department of Asian Languages & Literature welcoming four new graduate students.
Benjamin DeTora graduated with a B.A. in Japanese Language & Literature from Boston University and continued on to work as an ALT in the JET Programme in Shikokuchūō City, Ehime, Japan. Prior to arriving at UW, Ben received his M.A. from Washington University in St. Louis and attended the Inter-University-Center for Japanese Language Studies in Yokohama, Japan. His research focus is modern literature and Japanese-language literature of minorities,... Continue reading
Published: May 31 2017 - 9:01am
Professor Reiko Yamanaka, Director of the Noh Theatre Research Institute of Hosei University in Tokyo, visited the University of Washington as a Visiting Scholar during April and May 2017. Dr. Yamanaka is a renowned authority on Noh Drama, specializing in individual Noh plays and the way they've been staged throughout history.
While at the University of Washington, Dr. Yamanaka co-taught a course with Department Chair Paul S. Atkins on Noh and Kyogen drama, and was a guest speaker for the Drama department's "Theatre History I" class. She served as guest judge at the 34th annual Washington... Continue reading
Published: May 26 2017 - 12:01pm
by Amy Snyder Ohta, Associate Professor
For this year’s Andrew L. Markus Memorial Lecture, Dr. Junko Mori, Professor of Japanese and Department Chair of Asian Languages and Cultures from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, skillfully guided all who attended on a thought-provoking tour through various ideas related to the construct of the “native speaker” in the context of Asian language education in our world of increasing migration and global mobility. Her lecture, entitled “On Native-Speaker-Hood, Translingual Competence, and Asian Language Education” was presented on May 8th, 2017. The... Continue reading
Published: May 19 2017 - 2:07pm
Korean Language Full-time Lecturer or Senior Lecturer
The Department of Asian Languages & Literature at the University of Washington seeks to appoint a full-time Lecturer or full-time Senior Lecturer in Korean. The initial appointment, starting Autumn Quarter 2018, is for three years, with the possibility of renewal. Applicants must have at least an M.A. degree in Korean, Foreign Language Teaching, or another relevant area, must have native or near-native proficiency in Korean, be fluent in English, and have at least one year of experience teaching at the college or university level. The... Continue reading
Published: May 10 2017 - 2:21pm
Senior Lecturer Pauli Sandjaja was featured in KOMPAS newspaper on April 21, 2017 to commemorate the birth of Kartini, who is known as a national hero in Indonesia who fought for women's rights through education. Livi Zheng, Desiana Pauli Sandjaja, and Juliana Wijaya have different backgrounds, but they all share Kartini's passion for education. Together they collaborated on the film, "Bali: Beats in Paradise" in order to promote Indonesia's rich culture within the United States and to the rest of the world.
In this interview, Ms. Sandjaja shared information about the Indonesian language... Continue reading