Calvin Asian Studies Gets Large Grant

July 11, 2006 == MEDIA ADVISORY

Four years ago when Calvin College received a large grant for its Asian
Studies program, Dan Bays, director of the program, noted simply that
"ignorance of Asia is not an option for the 21st century."

Recent events in Asia, including the launching of missiles by North Korea and
rumblings this week by Japan about striking North Korea pre-emptively, have
done nothing to change Bays' opinion.

And he says Calvin will continue to equip its graduates with an understanding
of Asia thanks to a significant new grant from the National Endowment for the
Humanities.

Calvin will receive $500,000 from the NEH, provided it raises an additional
$1.5 million on its own. The money will go toward an Asian Studies endowment
at Calvin that will sustain and expand the new, but growing, program at the
college (some 500 students a year now are enrolled in Asian Studies at
Calvin).

"The grant is a fantastic opportunity for a fantastic program," says Calvin
history professor Daniel Bays, who heads up Asian Studies at Calvin after a
long tenure at the University of Kansas. "The endowment will allow us to
build on key accomplishments over the past eight years that have not only
strengthened a major humanities program, but also created tremendous momentum
in curricular development, faculty research and exhange programs with China,
Japan and Korea."

When fully funded the $2 million endowment for Asian Studies will fund a
multitude of projects at Calvin, including workshops on Asia for West Michigan
teachers, including faculty at local colleges; travel to Asia by Calvin
faculty for conferences and short-term teaching; expanded programs to bring
Asian scholars to West Michigan; development of more Calvin courses in Asian
Studies and much more.

Calvin's growing interest in Asia reflects the growing place of Asia in the
worldwide church as well as on the world stage says Bays (Calvin is the only
evangelical Christian college or university that has an Asian Studies
Program).

"The body of Christ worldwide is Asian, it's African, and it's Latin American
more than it is European and North American in terms of where the really
dynamic growth is happening," Bays notes. "And of course, there are some
practical things such as China becoming a powerhouse economically and
politically around the world. It's not an option to ignore Asia. A lot of our
students are instinctively aware of that."

Contact Bays at 616-526-6992 or dbay@calvin.edu
For the full story see
http://www.calvin.edu/news/releases/2005_06/asian_studies.htm

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Received on Tue Jul 11 08:17:05 2006