The World Acting Globally
Gateway to Asia
SPU launches Asian studies major and minor
By Colleen Steelquist | Photo by Luke Rutan
A group of students headed to China with SPU faculty members Doug Downing (back row, right) and Zhiguo Ye (front row, right).
Growing up in a military family, for sophomore Jireh Reduque, home ranged from Germany to South Korea.
“Ever since I was young, I’ve had a big heart for seeing the world,” she says. Reduque views her plans to teach English overseas after college as a win-win: “You get the satisfaction of helping others learn English, and in return, you get to experience the country’s culture.”
Reduque is one of the first students to join SPU’s Asian studies program, launching in Autumn Quarter 2016, with both a major and a minor. She will pursue the new minor alongside her family and consumer sciences major.
“It’s an ideal major or minor for any student who is interested in any aspect of Asia for reasons as varied as curiosity, future job, ministry, service prospects, or travel,” says Asian Studies Program Director Mike Hamilton, professor of history.
The program provides students with disciplinary and topical courses to allow in-depth study and to prepare for their place in an increasingly interconnected world. And it takes advantage of Seattle’s strategic position on the Pacific Rim.
The major’s core requirements include 21 credits of history courses focused on Asia and 15 credits of intermediate Asian language courses. Students with no previous Asian language skills may need to take an additional 15 credits of beginning Asian language courses. SPU currently offers Chinese instruction, but hopes to expand to Japanese and Korean.
Senior Hannah Moore, who speaks all three of those languages and plans to study in Japan next year, says the Asian studies minor complements her linguistics and cultural studies major. “Culture and language are interrelated,” she says. “When we deepen our cultural knowledge, we are then able to understand and connect at a deeper level.”
Every Asian studies major will also complete an “engagement experience” — an Asia-focused study abroad program, internship, or senior project.
Zhiguo Ye, assistant professor of history, and Doug Downing, associate professor of economics, will lead six students, including Reduque, on the program’s first trip to China this summer. During their 22 days in Beijing and Wuhan, the students will see historic sites, take classes at area universities, sample theatre performances and food, visit Chinese Christian churches, and engage in cultural activities with local students.
“It’s a fantastic learning opportunity for students to better understand China’s culture, society, history, politics, and religion in ways that are not available on our campus,” Ye says.
Hamilton believes that, like all of SPU’s liberal arts majors, the Asian studies major and minor will be a launching pad for careers. He points to a number of recent SPU graduates who majored in history and now hold jobs with significant ties to Asia, including a senior manager of global trade services at Amazon, an immigration review attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice, and an operations coordinator at South Korea’s Yonsei University.
The program is expected to draw more Asian-American students to SPU. “It also allows us to serve our neighbors through partnerships with agencies in the community, nation, and abroad that are engaged with Asian peoples and their cultures through research, education, and development,” Hamilton says.