E KOMO MAI!

Welcome!

As you know, the Asian Studies program is organized so that it inherently isolates each area of specialization. China researchers, for example, have little interaction with Korea researchers and Japan researchers have little interaction with Southeast Asia researchers, and so on and so forth. Within this structure, to understand Asia in a regional context, a student must go out of his way to seek this information. For example, he must subscribe, not only to his own Area Studies Mailing List, but also the other Area Studies Mailing lists. Additionally, he must take time to immerse himself in the activities of the other Areas independently.

As graduate students in Asian Studies, it is crucial we have a stronger idea of how our countries of specialization relate to each other in the overall Asia-region context. People ask these kind of questions of us constantly and expect competent answers. A graduate student in Asian Studies is expected to be knowledgeable about the current affairs of the Asia region, especially those who are pursuing Plan B.

The key to a successful academic and personal experience is two-fold:

The first is having convenient access to comprehensive and practical information about our program's administrative requirements, classes, scholarships, events, conferences, etc,. Being on top of these fundamentals (in order to really concentrate on the important stuff) can save time and energy you can't even imagine. Department websites and mailing lists may at times not reach everyone and valuable opportunities are lost. This blog, if used as a collective resource, will attempt to cover that grey area.

The second aspect to a successful experience is being able to be in touch with each other regularly on what we are doing. Discovering another classmate is in Chengdu, China, or Kyoto, Japan, the same time you are there is invaluable. These exchanges could make all the difference in a short, 2-year academic career.

We don't expect to always be able to get together in person, thus Blogger is a good start as a virtual gathering point. We hope that if you have something to contribute, that you blog about it too! If there's an event that you attended, blog your thoughts on it! We'll blog back and everyone else will too. This is a collaborative effort. This is OUR resource, a place where we can help each other get the most out of this investment called graduate school.

Lastly, this blog is completely independent of the university and the program, so there's no need to be formal. We're all friends here!

Cheers,
The Asian Studies Blog Admins

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