ASU professors bridge Asian digital media knowledge gap through outreach to area educators, open-source learning
ASU Japanese Lecturer Bradley Wilson wishes his American students knew more about the cultural influences behind the anime comics they love so much. Chandler Gilbert Community College Adjunct Professor Elizabeth Daly wants to make sure her composition courses are catering to a changing student demographic. Jacque Starks, diversity coordinator for Maricopa County Community Colleges, hopes to be a resource for faculty who want to know more about the Asian experience.
“There are so many stereotypes and misunderstandings” about such a vast area of the world, Starks said.
That’s why she, Wilson and Daly all attended the Engaging Asia workshop last week at Arizona State University’s Tempe campus. The workshop, hosted by ASU’s Center for Asian Research, served as an introduction to the center’s Asia Mediated project and a chance for local community college faculty and staff to network with one another as well as ASU faculty and staff.
“This event came out of a desire to connect better with community colleges and examine ways we might collaborate and better serve all of our students,” said Maria Hesse, ASU vice provost for academic partnerships and a former community college professor herself. “It’s a way to have a conversation about what we might be doing together to advance this area.”
The Engaging Asia workshop is just one way ASU Professors Juliane SchoberJuliane Schober is a professor in ASU’s School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies. and Pauline CheongPauline Cheong is a professor in ASU’s Hugh Downs School of Human Communication. have been working to increase knowledge and understanding of that area since receiving a two-year U.S. Department of Education UISFLUndergraduate International Studies and Foreign Language Program grant to fund the Asia Mediated project last year.
They’ve also developed a lunch and lecture series; a new multimedia course, COM 394: Digital Media, Culture and Communication in Asia; a suite of open-source online modules; and an internship program for Barrett Honors students.
“Asia is more than 40 countries, with a whole spectrum of media [platforms], from traditional media to brand-new digital applications,” Cheong said. “So we are talking about a rather deep and broad, rapidly evolving terrain.”
However, it’s a terrain not often trod by those in Western countries, resulting in a potentially problematic knowledge gap.
“What happens in Asia doesn’t just stay in Asia. It’s not like Vegas,” Cheong said. “It affects us here [in America and other Western countries] in our everyday lives.”