[asiacouncil] Asia Council minutes, summary, and action items

[Eric Kendrick]

Asia Council colleagues,

It was great seeing everyone at the virtual meeting yesterday.  We had 13 participants representing 9 institutions (similar to fall semester with 14/9).  Three of our long-term and new colleagues notified me ahead of time that they would not be able to attend due to other conflicts (David Starling-Valdosta, Eric spears-Columbus, Josi Kalavar-Georgia Gwinnett), so in light of that, we had a good turnout.  Attached are the minutes by our secretary, Flor Bondal.  Thanks to Flor for always doing a great job and getting this done so quickly.

Welcome to Anne Gaquere-Parker, a new rep from the University of West Georgia.  Anne is a professor Chemistry and works with Education Abroad. Like with several new reps who joined us last fall, I'm including a link to Anne's homepage: https://www.westga.edu/profile.php?emp_id=29    You will remember that one of my objects starting last fall was to recruit representation from institutions that have never been involved, and to re-establish representation form institutions that have been involved in the past.  Many of you will remember Ihor Pidhainy, a Chinese history specialist, who represented WGA from 2017 to 2019, so it's great to have West Georgia on board again.  Ralitsa Akins, a Vice Provost at West Georgia, also joined us yesterday It is always beneficial to have senior level administrators learning more about the work of the council.

TWO MAIN DISCUSSION POINTS

China Study Abroad

One of our two main items of discussion was the Council's China Study Abroad that has been led by Baogang Guo (Dalton State) and Wilson Huang (Valdosta State) for many years.  After many years of leadership and successful programs, both Baogang and Wilson have decided to transition the program over to new leadership.  However, the relatively new USG Goes Global initiative present an array of challenges in light of how the program has been run in the past, especially the cost to students.  We will be exploring possibilities of new leadership through one of Wilson's contacts, as well as contact the USG Office of International Education for further clarification on pertinent issues.

Teaching Asia Faculty Development Workshop

We made great progress on planning for our first ever virtual "Teaching Asia" faculty development workshop on Friday, April 1st.  In order to cast a wide net in terms of both session topics and workshop participants across countries/regions as well as disciplinary areas (social sciences, humanities, STEM, etc.), the theme will be "Teaching Asia Across the Curriculum".
Confirmed Sessions

  *   Jonathan Leighton (Augusts) will do a session on the South China Sea region (thanks again to Jonathan for offering such a wide range of topics that he would be willing to present on).
  *   Salli Vargis (GSU Perimeter) will draw on her specializations on both Asian Studies and Women's Studies to do a session on Women's Issues in India.
Perspective Sessions

  *   Sungshin Kim, Director of East Asian Studies at North Georgia University, will reach out to a NGU colleague about a potential session on Korean Cinema.   North Georgia has a strong, growing East Asian Studies program, and many of you will remember that nine of their fauclty presented at the 2019 Asian Studies Development Program national conference that we hosted in Atlanta in 2109.
  *   I will reach out to our colleague, Matt Marone (Physics, Astronomy) of Mercer University, who is an expert at integrating science and Chinese history to see if he would be willing to do a session for us.
Summary

  *   If all the above were to work out, that would check off our objective of covering a wide range of disciplines: social sciences, humanities, and STEM fields.
  *   It would also connect with a wide range of countries and regions: India, China, Southeast Asia, and Korea.
  *   If anyone has ideas for a potential topic/speaker on Japan, please contact me directly.  (Remember, we do not have funds for honorariums for speakers.)

We set a goal of having the sessions lined up, as much as possible, in two weeks, by Friday, February 11th, so we can then begin publicizing the event and work with Georgia College and State University, our virtual host, on technology plans (an all-day zoom meeting or break up each session into individual rooms).

ACTION ITEMS


  1.  Workshop Planning Team

If anyone is interested in serving on the Workshop Planning Team, please email me directly.  We need to get on this ASAP to meet the above February 11th target date.  The following are some of the items we will address:

  1.  Finalizing the sessions: topics and length  (the ones with Jonathan and Salli that are not already confirmed.).
  2.  Finalizing the technology plan
  3.  Other items as necessary


  1.  Announcements, Accomplishments, etc.

  *   Events: When any of you have events that would be of interest to others (like the upcoming East Asian Film Festival at North Georgia), we can send those out anytime.
  *   Kudos: However, I would also like to send out one or two blurbs a semester called Asia Council Kudos on things that our council members are involved in related to Asian Studies and Initiatives and other pertinent issues  (publications, presentations, and other professional activities; campus programs; awards and recognition; features in media, etc.).  You can include more than one item.

     *   I will send the first one out Friday, February 4th, so send me anything that you have to be included in this first one by Thursday.  You can then send them periodically after that, and I'll do another call before the end of the semester.

Thanks again, everyone!
Eric Kendrick


PS: The Silent Sea  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Af_Hj0MDBBQ

For those of you that have Netflix and like quality Sci-Fi and/or Korean shows, here's a link to a two-minute trailer for the limited series that I mentioned in the meeting (8 episodes, 40+ minute range each - not 16 episodes in the one-hour range like most other popular Korean series).   Some of you might recognize Bae Doona (seated left) for her work in film outside Korea, as well.

[The Silent Sea' is Netflix's most-watched non-English series of the week]
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