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This year marks the 25^th anniversary of the establishment of the Center for Asian Studies. The occasion provides an opportunity to look back at the history of Asian Studies on the CU Boulder campus and the impact that CAS has made.

It may seem odd to begin discussion of a 25^th anniversary by going back 89 years, but CAS stands on the shoulders of those who came before, and this history is worth reviewing[1]:

In 1935, the first full-time faculty hire in Asian Studies was Professor Earl Swisher, who specialized in East Asian history. In his first year, 130 students enrolled in his Asia-related courses.

In 1942, the Navy Japanese Language School moved to CU from the University of California Berkeley. Renamed the Navy School for Oriental Languages in 1944, 684 officers were enrolled in credit-bearing CU courses in Japanese, Chinese, Malay, and Russian before the school again relocated in 1945. Alumni included many diplomats, intelligence officers, and scholars such as Donald Keene, Edward Seidensticker, and Theodore de Bary.

In 1944, the CU Institute of Asiatic Affairs was established by modern history professor Carl Eckhardt, with support from the Rockefeller Foundation, Guggenheim Foundation, and Social Science Research Council. Funding for the Institute dropped off in the 1950s, after the immediacy of World War II had started to recede into the past.

In 1958, the degree-granting Asian Studies Program was established. The first B.A. degrees in Asian Studies were granted in 1961. Though requirements and course offerings have shifted through the years, this is the same Asian Studies program that CAS houses today.

In 1967, CU was designated as a “Language and Area Center: East Asia” by the U.S. Office of Education, one of only 21 such centers nationwide. That designation led to the establishment of an East Asian Studies Program in 1968 and the Department of Oriental Languages and Literatures (today’s Department of Asian Languages and Civilizations) in 1969.

In a 1972 article entitled “CU’s New Asset: A Window to the Orient,”[2] the status of Asian studies is reported as reaching “well over 3000 students enrolled in more than 80 courses on Asia taught by dozens of specialists….which ranked CU in the top three or four universities in enrollment on strictly Oriental studies.” Although some of the language has become outdated, the expressed rationale for such study stands the test of time:

Why the interest? Because America’s relations with Asia probably will become more substantial and complex in the remaining decades of this century, says Dr. Lawrence W. Beer, … a professor of political science specializing on Japan.

The aim of the CU programs is to render the Oriental world more intelligible to Americans. In the 37 years since the Asian studies program’s modest beginnings in Boulder, the history of the United States has been tightly interwoven with that of the Orient. Wars have been fought. Economic relations have been established, broken and reestablished with Japan. Other Asian nations have moved from colonial status to independence and now America’s relations with China are moving toward improvement after shifting from friendship to enmity.

What’s clear, Dr. Beer emphasizes, is that wide dissemination of some basic knowledge of the nations of Asia is essential to America’s national interests.

In the mid-1990s, we reach the first efforts to establish today’s Center for Asian Studies: Dennis McGilvray (Anthropology, retired), Laurel Rodd (Asian Languages and Civilizations, retired), and Steve Snyder (Asian Languages and Civilizations, now Dean of Language Schools at Middlebury College) established the Asian Studies Task Force and sent a 1996 memo to the Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, Wallace Loh, which reads in part

A special task force, representing the approximately 45 UCB faculty members engaged with Asian research and teaching, has been working over the past 12 months on a proposal to establish a new Center for Asian Studies on the CU Boulder campus. We are now pleased to present this proposal for your consideration.

We feel that the Boulder campus, with its surprisingly strong and diverse faculty in Asia-related disciplines, can serve as a resource in Asian Studies for all of the CU campuses and for the Rocky Mountain region as a whole. As an academic enterprise, Asian Studies represents a perfect example of the sort of cross-disciplinary scholarship and integrative teaching which will be necessary for the 21^st century to provide the essential training our students need to become effective entrepreneurs, communicators, and ambassadors to the diverse regions and cultures of Asia.

We believe there will be … a unifying and catalyzing role for the CAS among the dispersed Asian Studies research faculty rostered in the various schools and colleges across campus…. Visitors to the CAS, guest speakers, and other public events sponsored by CAS will enhance the academic environment for Asian Studies both among students as well as among the faculty. The CAS will also coordinate for the first time an off-campus outreach effort in Asian Studies, seeking to provide a community and state-wide resource for citizens interested in Asia.

In 1998, then Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Phil DiStefano provided $15,000 in seed funding, and the Asian Studies Task Force sent the excellent news to other interested faculty members:

The Center is intended to support Asia-related research and outreach activities for the entire Boulder campus, including the College of Arts & Sciences as well as the Colleges of Business, Education, Engineering, Journalism, Law, and Music…. The Center for Asian Studies will assist faculty in arranging visiting speakers, organizing conferences and workshops, and sponsoring performances & cultural events. It will help to publicize Asia-related events, and to promote increased awareness and knowledge of Asia across the campus and in the wider community.

The creation of the Center for Asian Studies is something many of us have dreamed of for years, and we hope you will be willing to contribute your ideas and energy to making it a success.

Immediately after the Center’s founding, new faculty director Dennis McGilvray submitted a proposal to the CU President’s Fund for the Humanities for programing in Spring and Fall 1999. Professor McGilvray requested understanding that the details of the proposal had not been completely fleshed out, given that CAS was only a few weeks old at that point. The proposal was for an inaugural symposium series. The vision for the Center and its first events overlapped:

Asian Studies is an interdisciplinary field of scholarship which inextricably blends humanistic and social science research in a shared quest to understand and interpret Asian cultures and civilizations. While some scholars focus on the ancient and classical roots of Asian societies, others study the latest events and cultural trends in contemporary Asia. This symposium series on the theme of “Asia Today” will require that both types of expertise and knowledge are brought to bear on some of the most momentous issues in contemporary Asian affairs. Asia is changing, but how and why is this occurring? If we are to understand Asia today, we must appreciate both the deeply rooted traditions which are under siege and the newer patterns which are taking their place. By means of this inaugural symposium series, we intend to demonstrate that the field of Asian Studies generally, and the scholars and students affiliated with the newly formed CU Center for Asian Studies in particular, are committed to a kind of Asian scholarship and teaching which is both interdisciplinary in outlook and engaged with the significant historical and cultural factors which are molding major events in Asia today.

In 2001, the Program for Teaching East Asia (TEA) and its director, Lynn Parisi, came to CAS as an established program with 16 years’ experience. TEA’s mission is to enhance and expand teaching and learning about East Asia in U.S. K-12 education. Since coming to CU, TEA has received more than $17 million in grants from private foundations and federal agencies. TEA conducts national, regional, and state projects for teachers and students, with specific project activities including an annual offering of online and in-person seminars and workshops, annual summer institutes, and occasional co-sponsored study tours in East Asia for teachers.

2001 also saw CAS’ first successful grant application to the U.S. Department of Education, with an Undergraduate International Studies and Foreign Languages (UISFL) grant supporting hires in Korean language and South Asian History, as well as the first award from the Freeman Foundation’s Undergraduate Asian Studies Initiative, which ran through 2009 and supported faculty hires in Japanese women’s studies, Chinese history, and Chinese art history, as well as student scholarships, event funding, and faculty research activities.

CAS joined the prestigious National Resource Center network with a successful application to this program of the U.S. Department of Education in 2006. The first NRC grant supported hires in Asian political science, Farsi, Indonesian, Asian art history, and an East Asian librarian, as well as the staff South, Southeast, and West Asia (SSEWA) Outreach position.

CAS provided academic year and summer Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowships, also funded by the U.S. Department of Education, from 2006 to 2014.

In 2022, CAS again achieved National Resource Center recognition and received a Foreign Language and Area Studies grant, both of which will run from 2022 to 2026. These two grants together total $2.2 million.

All told, CAS and its partners the Program for Teaching East Asia and the American Association of Japanese have brought in nearly $30 million in external gifts and grants since 1999.

Over the years:

• CAS has hosted about 900 events, averaging approximately 1200-1500 attendees each year.
• Approximately 150 students have visited China and Taiwan on Global Seminars taught by CU faculty members with generous scholarship support from the Tang Family Endowment.
• CAS has served as the host unit for forty visiting scholars, from universities in China, France, Germany, Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea, and Taiwan.
• Eleven issues of the Colorado Journal of Asian Studies have been published by the Center, including 51 student papers.
• CAS has awarded over 100 undergraduate scholarships and over 100 graduate scholarships and fellowships.
• Approximately 35 CU students have participated in internships coordinated by CAS, including those at local organizations such as the Consulate General of Japan, Denver Art Museum, Little Treasures Chinese School, Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Company, Boulder Valley School District, and the Governor’s Office of International Trade. Additionally, 13 interns have worked at organizations in Tokyo and Shanghai through the summer Asia Internship Program.

Growing from 130 students learning about Asia in 1935-36 to 12,521 students enrolled in Asian language and area studies courses in 2023-24, and from 45 faculty members with interests in Asia in 1998 to approximately 120 today, Asian studies at CU has reflected the growth of interest in and curiosity about Asia over the decades. From the global pandemic to the climate crisis, there has never been a time when our world has felt more interconnected and the health and longevity of people in all corners of the globe more interdependent. CAS continues to strive to help our students recognize and prepare for their roles as global citizens, meeting them where they are and ensuring that learning about Asia and its people is accessible to all willing and interested parties. For our Asian students, we aim to help create a more welcoming and understanding campus environment, and for the broader community, we hope to provide much-needed context and nuance beyond news bites and political talking points.

There is much work to do, and we at CAS look forward to many more years dedicated to carrying out this mission. We invite members of the CAS community, whether faculty, students, staff members, alumni, partners, or global citizens, to share thoughts about your experiences with CAS on our 25^th anniversary webform. Additionally, all donors to CAS of amounts in multiples of $25 this year will be recognized on the CAS website as 25^th Anniversary Supporters. We will use all contributions to continue and expand our work.

Thank you to all the CAS Directors over the years:

1999-2001 - Dennis McGilvray, Faculty Director

2001-2002 - Stephen Snyder, Acting Faculty Director

2001-2005 - Lynn Kalinauskas, Associate Director

2002-2012 - Laurel Rodd, Faculty Director

Spring 2004 - Dipankar Chakravarti, Acting Faculty Director

2005-present - Danielle Rocheleau Salaz, Assistant Director/Executive Director

2009-2015 - Tim Weston, Associate Director (Fall 2009, Acting Faculty Director)

2012-2021 - Tim Oakes, Faculty Director (2022-2023, Acting Faculty Director)

2015-2019 - Collen Berry, Associate Director and Asian Studies Program Director

Spring 2017 - Carla Jones, Acting Faculty Director                                  

2021-present - Rachel Rinaldo, Faculty Director

2022-present - Lauren Collins, Asian Studies Program Director