Spotlight All

Celebrating the 2026 Impact Award Recipients

Elizabeth Williams — Thu, 05 Mar 2026 17:27:04 +0000

Celebrating the 2026 Impact Award Recipients Elizabeth Williams Thu, 03/05/2026 - 10:27

On February 11, Campus Compact announced that TEA’s Teaching East Asia Through Picture Books program was one of five programs recognized for the 2026 Excellence in Civic & Community Engagement Programming Awards - an award highlighting programs that have utilized on-campus civic and community engagement in a way that makes deep and long-lasting positive change. Teaching East Asia Through Picture Books has been helping K-12 classrooms establish cross-cultural connections with Asia since its launch in 2024 and has reached classrooms across Colorado. By introducing students to East Asian topics through picture books on natural sciences, geography, biographies, and more, TEA has opened the opportunity for teachers and students alike to gain a deeper understanding and appreciation of East Asia, and it strives to continue doing so for years to come.

The announcement can be read here.

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CAS and Buffs All In

Elizabeth Williams — Mon, 02 Mar 2026 22:46:36 +0000

CAS and Buffs All In Elizabeth Williams Mon, 03/02/2026 - 15:46

Buffs All In is 91��ý’s annual giving campaign, taking place throughout March and uniting our community in support of students, research, and programs.

Gifts to the Center for Asian Studies advance teaching and research in Asian Studies. At a time when federal research funding for international studies has been cut, your contributions are more crucial than ever. Every gift counts.

"The critical importance of Asia will only grow in the years to come. CAS is already fulfilling a strong need for faculty and students to understand and engage with Asian languages, cultures, geographies, ecologies, technologies, politics, and markets and has a strong vision for building on its many existing successes. CU-Boulder is already well positioned to be a leading institution in East, South, and Southeast Asian area studies due to the proven success of CAS in creating a vibrant intellectual and opportunity-driven community for more than 100 faculty and dozens of graduate and undergraduate students across the university." From the 2025 external review of CAS programs.

Be Buffs All In for the Center for Asian Studies

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CLAC Course Development Grants

Elizabeth Williams — Mon, 23 Feb 2026 20:30:33 +0000

CLAC Course Development Grants Elizabeth Williams Mon, 02/23/2026 - 13:30

Call for Proposals

Culture and Language Across the Curriculum (CLAC) is a national framework designed to promote the use of foreign languages to enhance the study of non-language subjects. The Center for Asian Studies invites 91��ý faculty who would like to add CLAC techniques to their teaching to apply for CLAC Fellow course development grants.

CLAC Co-Seminar Course Development Grants will offer a $1500 stipend for the development of a supplemental one-credit undergraduate co-seminar drawing students and content from an existing disciplinary course in any department. Faculty will be responsible for teaching this co-seminar using primary Asian language sources to enhance the content of the main course. CLAC co-seminars will be listed as ASIA 4001 (Arts & Humanities) or ASIA 4002 (Social Sciences).

Recipients who receive the summer stipend should offer the new course in AY 2026-27. All recipients will receive training and support through the CAS CLAC program and CLAC Consortium members. CLAC courses should utilize primary language and culture sources, including historical or contemporary materials and mass media.

Application Information:

Brief proposals should address the role that Asian language materials could play in supplementing the course, list examples of materials that could be used for CLAC, and outline selected topics from the main course that would lend themselves to CLAC techniques. Please include the existing course syllabus and a 2-3 page CV.

Applications are due to CAS on Monday, March 2, 2026 via email to cas@colorado.edu. Please enter “CLAC Course Development Grant” in the subject line.

CLAC Fellows should offer the new course in AY 2026-2027 if possible. Grants can be paid as summer salary or expense reimbursement. If paid as salary, grants will be subject to taxes and withholding. Award recipients will be asked to submit a brief report and syllabus for the new course during the Fall 2026 semester. Failure to do so will result in ineligibility for future CAS faculty awards.

For questions about the CLAC Course Development Grant, please contact Hannah Palustre, CLAC Coordinator, at hannah.palustre@colorado.edu

All awards are contingent upon continued funding from the Department of Education.

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Incarceration of 120,000 Japanese Americans holds lessons now

Elizabeth Williams — Thu, 19 Feb 2026 20:57:12 +0000

Incarceration of 120,000 Japanese Americans holds lessons now Elizabeth Williams Thu, 02/19/2026 - 13:57

Daryl Maeda

The Day of Remembrance, Feb. 19, should focus our attention on how a constitutional republic can shun its first principles

Today is the Day of Remembrance, marking the date that the United States officially marshalled the full force and power of the federal government against Americans whose only offense was being of Japanese descent. This day, which now lives in infamy, holds lessons for us now.

On Feb. 19, 1942, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which led to one of the most notable mass violations of civil liberties in U.S. history: the imprisonment of 120,000 Americans of Japanese descent without due process. Each year, the Japanese American community commemorates this Day of Remembrance to reflect on the lessons of that episode and resolve to advocate for justice for all.

Dressed in his U.S. Navy uniform, World War I veteran Hikotaro Yamada enters the Santa Anita assembly center after being forced to leave his Torrance, California, home. (Photo: Clem Albers/U.S. Department of the Interior)

The attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 exacerbated decades of anti-Japanese racism. Japanese immigrants were disparaged from the 1890s onward as an invading “yellow peril” that brought crime and sexual deviance, stole jobs and threatened to impose a foreign culture.

Before 1941, the federal government barred them from becoming naturalized citizens and eventually prevented their migration. Many states prohibited them from marrying white people and buying land, a serious impediment for an ethnic group whose economy relied heavily on agriculture. Despite these barriers, the Japanese American community grew to include Nisei, children born in the United States who possessed natural-born citizenship.

After Dec. 7, government and military officials portrayed Japanese Americans as a monolithic threat to national security, alleging that they could not be differentiated individually and were thus all potential spies or saboteurs.

As the historian Jacobus vanBroek reported, Mississippi Congressman John Rankin told the House of Representatives: “I'm for catching every Japanese in America, Alaska and Hawaii now and putting them in concentration camps and shipping them back to Asia as soon as possible ... This is a race war, as far as the Pacific side of the conflict is concerned ... The White man's civilization has come into conflict with Japanese barbarism ... One of them must be destroyed ... Damn them! Let's get rid of them now!”

New Deal liberals like Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson declared, “Their racial characteristics are such that we cannot understand or trust even the citizen Japanese.”

General John L. DeWitt, military commander of the West Coast, said, “In the war in which we are now engaged, racial affinities are not severed by migration. The Japanese race is an enemy race and while many second and third generation Japanese born on United States soil, possessed of United States citizenship, have become ‘Americanized,’ the racial strains are undiluted ... It therefore follows that along the vital Pacific Coast over 112,000 potential enemies of Japanese extraction are at large today.”

Read full article here.

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Asian Area Studies Curriculum Course Development Grants

Elizabeth Williams — Mon, 16 Feb 2026 21:50:39 +0000

Asian Area Studies Curriculum Course Development Grants Elizabeth Williams Mon, 02/16/2026 - 14:50

We are pleased to offer a final round of Asian Area Studies Curriculum Course Development Grants funded by our National Resource Center grant for summer 2026. This funding is available for 91��ý faculty members who would like to develop Asia-related curricula for new or existing courses.

CAS will offer up to five faculty awards for the creation or significant revision of an undergraduate course on any region of Asia in any discipline or college. At least one of these awards will be reserved for an Asian studies course that includes material on climate change or environmental issues and/or a course on climate change/environment that includes material on Asia.

This opportunity is offered as part of our National Resource Center for Asian Studies grant from the US Department of Education, which was discontinued in the fall of 2025. Funding will be provided for faculty to develop new courses with Asian content or revise existing courses to add Asian content, in order to enhance the area studies curriculum. Asian content should include at least two class sessions that are focused on Asia. We will give priority to classes with more substantial Asian content. Classes addressing environmental issues in Asia may also be included in our new Climate and Society in Asia undergraduate certificate (in final approval stages).

All grants will be made in the amount of $2000 to support faculty engaged in curriculum research and development. Awards will be paid as summer salary (subject to taxes and withholding), or as reimbursement for travel or related expenses. Award period will be Summer 2026.

Applications are due to CAS on Monday, March 2, 2026.

Find application information here.

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Malala Yousafzai to speak at Conference on World Affairs in April

Elizabeth Williams — Thu, 12 Feb 2026 17:13:40 +0000

Malala Yousafzai to speak at Conference on World Affairs in April Elizabeth Williams Thu, 02/12/2026 - 10:13

In partnership with the Center for Leadership and the Center for Asian Studies, we’re honored to announce Malala Yousafzai as the closing speaker for the Conference on World Affairs.

From speaking out for girls’ education at just 11 years old to becoming the youngest Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Yousafzai’s courage has helped shape a global movement for education, equality and human rights. Her story—and her ongoing work through Malala Fund—continues to demonstrate the power of one voice to drive meaningful change.

Yousafzai will close the Conference on World Affairs with a powerful conversation centered on hope, resilience and impact. The university is proud to support this moment and invites our community to engage with an extraordinary global leader as she concludes an inspiring week of dialogue and ideas.

Ticket information coming soon! Get early access to CWA.

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Event Wednesday: Lunar New Year at MSU Denver

Elizabeth Williams — Mon, 09 Feb 2026 20:46:49 +0000

Event Wednesday: Lunar New Year at MSU Denver Elizabeth Williams Mon, 02/09/2026 - 13:46

Wednesday, February 11, 2026 11:30am to 1:30pm MST
Tivoli Turnhalle, Tivoli Student Union, Auraria Campus, Denver

Ring in the Lunar New Year with a vibrant celebration of culture, tradition, and community! Join us for an exciting event filled with live performances, delicious food, and hands-on crafts. Enjoy traditional music and dance, savor flavorful dishes from various Asian cultures, and get creative with crafts that celebrate the season. Whether you're honoring the traditions or simply enjoying the festivities, this event is the perfect way to celebrate the start of a new year with family, friends, and the MSU Denver community!

Free and open to the public.

Co-Sponsored by the Center for Multicultural Engagement and Inclusion (CMEI), Office of Diversity and Inclusion and the 91��ý Center for Asian Studies.

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Event Thursday - Exploring Careers in Teaching, Leadership, and Learning

Elizabeth Williams — Mon, 02 Feb 2026 19:20:53 +0000

Event Thursday - Exploring Careers in Teaching, Leadership, and Learning Elizabeth Williams Mon, 02/02/2026 - 12:20

Thursday, February 5, 2026
12:30pm-1:30pm
Denison Arts & Sciences Building room 146

Interested in careers that center education, global engagement, and leadership? Join us for a panel conversation with three professionals whose paths span K–12 teaching, higher education, libraries, international exchange, nonprofit leadership, and experiential learning.

Panelists will share how their careers evolved, how international and interdisciplinary experiences shaped their work, and what students should consider when pursuing futures in education, leadership, and learning-focused fields. The conversation will be especially valuable for students interested in teaching, libraries, study abroad, nonprofit work, curriculum design, and educational leadership.

Featuring:

Paul Dreyer – educator and consultant with global experience across experiential education, leadership development, and organizational strategy
Adam Lisbon – Japanese & Korean Studies Librarian at 91��ý and JET Program alum
Christy Go – PhD candidate in Music Education and former K–8 teacher and JET Program participant

Please RSVP to lauren.collins@colorado.edu

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Event Friday - Geography Colloquium: An Indigenous Geopoetics for the Apocalypse

Elizabeth Williams — Thu, 29 Jan 2026 22:19:47 +0000

Event Friday - Geography Colloquium: An Indigenous Geopoetics for the Apocalypse Elizabeth Williams Thu, 01/29/2026 - 15:19

Friday, January 30, 2026 3:35pm to 5pm
Guggenheim Geography, 205

Dr. Mabel Gergan
Assistant Professor
Department of Asian Studies

Abstract:

Somewhere deep in the Dzongu valley, in the shadow of Mt. Kanchendzonga, lies a secret pathway to Mayal Kyong – a hidden paradise of abundance, home to seven immortal couples revered as ancestors by the Lepchas (Mutanchi Rongkup Rumkup). Mayal Kyong is one though perhaps the most significant of several hidden places believed to exist in Dzongu, where sacred scriptures, relics, religious teachings, and even precious jewels are said to lie concealed in rocky caves, crags, and waterfalls. These treasures are believed to reveal themselves only in moments of great need or at the end of the mortal world. One such sacred treasure is a pot filled to the brim with grains and seeds, meant to help the Lepcha people rebuild in the event of an apocalypse.

Since 2006, Dzongu has been the site of a vibrant anti-dam movement led by the Affected Citizens of Teesta (ACT), which successfully pressured the state to withdraw four proposed dams on the River Teesta in Sikkim, India. Today, however, much of the Teesta has been dammed, and only a few free-flowing stretches remain. Hydropower development has also intensified the impacts of cyclical disasters, the most devastating of which include the 6.9 magnitude earthquake in 2011 and the 2023 Glacial Lake Outburst Flood. Despite significant pressure and criticism, ACT members continue to nurture the hope that the Teesta will remain a free-flowing river. Their activism is nourished and sustained by their belief in the power and protection of Sikkim's sacred landscapes. It is this act of nurturing hope, and the beliefs and practices that sustain it, that inform my analysis here.

In Lepcha oral histories and prophecies, the apocalypse much like in its original Greek meaning signals not only a time of disaster and doom but also a moment of sacred revelation. In conversation with Indigenous Himalayan and critical geographic theorizations of geopoetics, sacred landscapes, and prophecy, I understand these articulations as an Indigenous geopoetics: a praxis and philosophy grounded in the particularity of place, one that reads the earth and its signs in ways that maintain hope in times of crisis and uncertainty.

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Student Event Thursday: From Coursework to Career: Creating an Asia-Focused Digital Portfolio

Elizabeth Williams — Mon, 26 Jan 2026 22:21:05 +0000

Student Event Thursday: From Coursework to Career: Creating an Asia-Focused Digital Portfolio Elizabeth Williams Mon, 01/26/2026 - 15:21

Thursday January 29^th from 12:30-1:30
Denison Arts & Sciences Building, room 146

How do you translate academic work on Asia into a compelling professional narrative? This workshop supports undergraduate students in transforming their coursework, research, language learning, and global experiences into a digital portfolio using BuffsCreate. Designed for students across Asian Studies, Asian Languages and Civilizations, History, Anthropology, Religious Studies, and beyond, the session focuses on articulating skills, framing academic projects for non-specialist audiences, and creating a portfolio that supports applications for internships, jobs, graduate school, and fellowships. Participants will leave with a clearer sense of how to present their work—and a foundation for a polished BuffsCreate site.

This workshop will be led by Linguistics graduate student and FLAS recipient Sarah Maronick and Dr. Lauren Collins, Asian Studies Program Director.

Pizza will be served. RSVP to lauren.collins@colorado.edu as space is limited

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