UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA - AFRICAN STUDIES CENTER
Infusing African and Asian Studies into the Undergraduate Curriculum, 04/00
The East-West Center
The East-West Center and The University of Hawai’i

in conjunction with

LeMoyne-Owen College

present

Africa as Practice, China as Practice:

Understanding Differences as

Ways of Relating

A Faculty Development Workshop

for

Infusing African and Asian Studies

into theUndergraduate Curriculum

March 29—April 2, 2000

Whispering Woods Hotel and Conference Center Memphis, Tennessee

Funded through a grant from the

National Endowment for the Humanities

"Africa as Practice, China as Practice: Understanding Differences as Ways of Relating" is part of New Initiatives: Dialogues for Bridging African and Asian Studies in Undergraduate Education, a multi-year project funded through the National Endowment for the Humanities and administered by the Asian Studies Development Program (ASDP), a joint program of the East-West Center and the University of Hawai’i. The aim of the project is to develop cultural dialogues challenging the area studies segregation of Africa and Asia, thereby fostering a more fully integrated approach to globalizing the core undergraduate curriculum.

Workshop Schedule


Wednesday, March 29th

                    2:00 ­ 5:00 pm Check-In and Registration
                     6:00 ­ 8:00 pm Opening Reception
                    8:00 ­ 9:00 pm Dr. Roger Ames: Introduction to and Bridging Cultural Faultlines:
                        Rationales for Comparative Scholarship and Crossing the Area Studies Divide

Thursday, March 30th

9:00 ­ 12 noon Dr. Roger Ames: Practices of Self-Cultivation: Chinese Premises and Pragmatics
12:00 ­ 1:45pm Lunch
2:00 ­ 4:30 pm Dr. Albert Mosley: Practices of Self-Cultivation: African Premises and Pragmatics
6:00 ­ 7:00 pm Dinner
7:00 ­ 9:30 pm Informal Conversation: Differences and Mutual Enhancement
Friday, March 31st 8:30am­12 noon Dr. Judith Farquhar,
Dr. John Janzen and
Dr. Zolani Ngwane: Knowing Practices: Traditional Chinese and African Medicine in Cultural Context
12:00 ­ 1:45 pm Lunch
2:00 ­ 4:30 pm Dr. Mary Osirim and Dr. Michael Nylan: The Family in Practice: Genders, Rituals, and Strategies for Change in African and Chinese Societies
6:00 ­ 7:00 pm Dinner
7:00 ­ 9:30 pm Informal Conversation: Merging Worldviews, Emerging Worldviews
Saturday, April 1st

                9:00am­12 noon Dr. Howard Goldblatt and Dr. Sylvia Lin: Fictions of Nation Building
                12 noon­1:45pm Lunch
                 2:00 ­ 5:00 pm Dr. Linda-Susan Beard: Narrative Bridges: Perspectives From African
                        Literature
                6:00 pm Dinner and Informal Discussions with Workshop Faculty

Sunday, April 2nd

            9:00 ­ 11:30 am Dr. Roger Ames: Workshop Summary and Participant Roundtable Discussion:
                Infusing Asian and African History, Culture and Aesthetics into the Undergraduate Curriculum.

List of Presenters (in alphabetical order):

ROGER T. AMES is Professor of Chinese Philosophy at the University of Hawai’i, Director of the Center for Chinese Studies at the University of Hawai'i, and Co-Director of the Asian Studies Development Program.

LINDA-SUSAN BEARD is Associate Professor of English at Bryn Mawr College and is a specialist in South African and African American comparative literature.

JUDITH FARQUHAR is Bowman and Gordon Gray Associate Professor of Anthropology and Chair of Asian Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her research focuses on traditional medicine in contemporary China.

HOWARD GOLDBLATT is Professor of Chinese at the University of Colorado at Boulder. In addition to his teaching activities, he is a translator of contemporary Chinese fiction into English.

John M. Janzen is professor of Anthropology at the University of Kansas, Lawrence, and is Director of the African Studies Resource Center at the University of Kansas. His research centers on African healing practices in Central and Southern Africa.

SYLVIA LIN is a research associate at the Colorado Institute of 20th-Century China. She is a translator of Chinese fiction into English and has completed a novel that will be published next year.

ALBERT MOSLEY is Professor of Philosophy at Ohio University, and specializes in African and African-American philosophy and the philosophy of science.

ZOLANI NGWANE is a doctoral candidate at the University of Chicago in the Department of Anthropology. His research centers on issues of higher education and social transformation.

MICHAEL NYLAN is Associate Professor of East Asian Studies at Bryn Mawr College and specializes in the early and the 20th-century history of China, focusing on gender and children's issues, social and economic history, and religion.

MARY OSIRIM is Associate Professor and Chair of the Sociology Department at Bryn Mawr College. She is the former Coordinator of the Africana Studies Program and Director of the African Studies Consortium (Title VI Center) at Bryn Mawr College. Her teaching and research interests focus on gender and development, the family, economic sociology and the role of entrepreneurship in African development.

Application Process

The application process for participation in the workshop is a competitive one. To enhance your chances for acceptance, please thoughtfully submit

  1. A copy of your curriculum vitae, complete with the following contact/registration information:

  2. Email address, postal address, telephone

    number, fax number, and social security number.

    A 2-3 page essay detailing your interest in this workshop. Please include relevant details of your background, your motivation for attending this workshop, and ways in which you envision implementing the workshop content into the curriculum in your academic department and/or throughout your home institution.

  3. One letter of recommendation from the President or Provost of your home institution.
Application Deadline

February 21, 2000

Participants will be notified of acceptance by February 28, 2000.

Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar
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