Faculty, Student, and Alumni News

PITTSBURGH, PA – The Japan America Society of Pennsylvania (JASP) and the University of Pittsburgh’s Asian Studies Center jointly hosted the 26th Annual High School Japanese Speech Contest. The contest was held in person at the William Pitt Union at the University of Pittsburgh on Friday, March 3.
 
This year, 46 students from Western PA presented their speeches, participated in Japanese cultural activities, and watched a special presentation by Pittsburgh Taiko. Japanese language students of all levels and students who are involved in Japan-related cultural activities participated in one of five speech levels (beginner, intermediate, advanced, advanced plus, and heritage) or the poster contest. Participating schools were Pittsburgh Allderdice High School, Pittsburgh Japanese School, Shaler Area High School, and Upper St. Clair High School. Students from Shaler Area Middle School submitted artwork for a vote during the awards ceremony. Students from Pittsburgh Obama Middle School visited the activities fair.
 
Shrida Devaki from Upper St. Clair High School won first place in Advanced Plus level. Shrida received smart earbuds as the grand prize donated by the Consulate General of Japan in New York. First place in the Heritage category went to Hirai Shuda, Pittsburgh Japanese School/Pittsburgh Obama High School.First place in the Advanced category was awarded to Quinne Vulakovich from Shaler Area High School. First place in the Intermediate category went to Kathryn Luft from Shaler Area High School. The first place in the Beginner category went to Conner Hyatt from Upper St. Clair High School. Finally, first place in the Poster competition went to Lindsay Ross from Upper St. Clair High School.
 
This event is made possible through the generous support of the Elliott Group, Temple University Japan Campus, Japan Foundation Los Angeles, the Japanese Consulate General of New York, University of Pittsburgh Asian Studies Center, the Japan Iron & Steel Federation and Mitsubishi Endowments at the University of Pittsburgh, and all participating schools, students, and volunteers.
 
About The Japan-America Society of Pennsylvania:
Established in 1986, The Japan-America Society of Pennsylvania is an association ofindividuals, corporations and organizations that seek to promote local understanding of andmutually beneficial participation in the changing US-Japan relationship. The Society providesinformative, innovative programming in order to encourage a better understanding of thebusiness, cultural, social, educational and political practices and customs of Japan and the UnitedStates. More can be learned about the JASP at our website: http://japansocietypa.org/.
 

On Saturday, January 28th, people from all over globe tuned in to listen to a online book discussion on Indian Cinema. In connection with the publication of 25 essays in The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Indian Cinema (2022), the co-editors, Neepa Majumdar (University of Pittsburgh) and Ranjani Mazumdar (Jawaharlal Nehru University) invited six speakers to engage with the keywords archives, technology, circulation, and bodies as they relate to the book and to the fields of film and media studies and South Asia studies. The speakers at this Zoom event were: Mark Betz (King’s College, London), Manishita Dass (Royal Holloway, University of London), Vinzenz Hediger (Goethe University Frankfurt), Priya Jaikumar (University of Southern California), Juan Llamas-Rodriguez (University of Pennsylvania), and Rosie Thomas (University of Westminster).
 
The Asian Studies Center was proud to help host this event and support increased interest in South Asia as a whole, and Indian culture more specifically. The Asian Studies Center always seeks to highlight distinguished accomplishments by the Pitt Community such as Prof. Majumdar's new book.

Pitt has won 12 concurrent U.S. Department of Education awards that will support teaching, research and learning about five different world regions, key world languages and overarching global themes.
 
All six of the University Center for International Studies’ global and area studies centers have been chosen to receive both National Resource Center grants and Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowships by the federal government. These competitive awards will bolster the work of Pitt faculty and their students with more than $11 million in funding over the next four years.
 
“The University of Pittsburgh is dedicated to preparing our next generation of global leaders,” said Chancellor Patrick Gallagher. “And — as this news shows — the team behind our University Center for Institutional Studies has positioned our international and global studies programs to be among the best in the nation. It’s both an exceptional achievement and a well-deserved one.” 
 
The six centers are: Asian Studies Center, Center for African Studies, European Studies Center, Center for Latin American Studies, Global Studies Center and Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies.
 
National Resource Center funding will allow all six centers to maintain and expand existing programming, broadening the University’s student and community engagement and offering global perspectives. Current center initiatives include teaching foreign language and area studies courses, offering study abroad opportunities to students, showcasing the immigrant communities of Pittsburgh and bringing international visitors and academic research to Pitt.
 
“We are very excited that the excellent work done by all of Pitt's global and area studies centers is recognized at this level. This is a historical achievement,” said Ariel Armony, vice chancellor for global affairs and director of UCIS. “The unprecedented number of awards places Pitt in a top group of global institutions that offer the best international research and learning experiences to all students."
 
The six centers also have plans for expanded programming moving forward, including advancing initiatives to promote diversity, inclusion and equity within area studies; supporting course development to foster essential skills to students engaging in international careers; developing a consortium of colleges and universities across Appalachia to expand access to foreign language and international studies courses; and increasing the teaching of endangered and less commonly taught languages such as Quechua (an indigenous language of South America), Irish Gaelic, Twi and Slovak.
 
Foreign Language and Area Studies funding will directly support Pitt students as they seek to become proficient in less commonly taught languages and deepen their knowledge of related regions. Target languages include Portuguese, Arabic, Russian and Swahili, among others. This funding will finance as many as 280 graduate and undergraduate students with academic year and summer fellowships over the next four years.
 
Starting in the spring of 2023, students will be able to apply for Foreign Language and Area Studies funding through the UCIS website.
 
 

For many academics, especially those affiliated with a top-ranked research institution such as the University of Pittsburgh, being involved in the publication of an academic journal is a major accomplishment. So, in July 2021, when he was named the Editor for the Journal of Asian Studies, it was a high personal honor for Dr. Joseph Alter, the Director of the Pitt Asian Studies Center.
 
The Journal of Asian Studies, or JAS, is the premier peer-reviewed academic journal for the field of Asian studies and is the primary organ for the Association for Asian Studies. The journal was founded in 1941 as the Far Eastern Quarterly, but the scope and focus of the journal has shifted over time along with the changing nature of Asian studies and especially recently as Asia continues to play a bigger and bigger role in global affairs, a term Dr. Alter calls “Global Asia.” Indeed this “Global Asia”, or the growing impact that Asia, in particular the developing countries of China and India and the cultural exporters of Japan and South Korea, is what Dr. Alter would like his 5-year term as editor to focus on. Dr. Alter said that he is seeking to publish papers and academics that tackle this topic regarding the new and profound ways that Asia interacts with the rest of the world, and vice versa. 
 
Dr. Alter stressed is that while being named Editor for the JAS is a personal honor, it is also a big responsibility that he takes extremely seriously. Due in large part to his editorial predecessors, the JAS is a well-known and well-run academic journal that has a reputation for being the foremost journal regarding Asian studies. Dr. Alter also talked in-depth about the challenges that he will face as an editor for a membership-based publication. As more and more journals become open-access rather than subscription-based, journal editors must adapt to the changing technologies and continuously improve their publications to keep their readership willing to pay, a process that hinges on making sure that the journal is as good of a publication as possible and worth reading. Dr. Alter also readily shared that this is also an honor for the ASC and the University of Pittsburgh as a whole. As both the Director of ASC and the Editor of the JAS, he hopes this prestigious position will help to elevate the Center and the University, bringing in new resources and new academic collaborators. 
 
As editor, Dr. Alter said that he would continue to advocate for policies and highlight papers and books that meet and surpass the high bar for quality that has come to be expected from the JAS. There are two policy priorities that Dr. Alter seeks to put forth during his tenure. The first is that he wants to have more papers submitted and published by authors from Asia, especially the often-overlooked countries. Relevant to this point, his second policy regards publishing topics that deal with these lesser-known countries and topics that are often excluded from other journals.
 
Congratulations to Dr. Alter on this wonderful accomplishment and best of luck during his tenure as Editor for the Journal of Asian Studies.