CAS Newsletter

“10” often stands for “perfect,” and the tenth anniversary of the Anlin Ku Lecture Series is the perfect time to celebrate the growth of Asian Studies at UTD. The Schools known as AHT, EPPS and JSOM* all offer robust curricula focused on Asia and/or Asian America. Undergraduates can “minor” in Asian Studies. After Spanish, the languages that attract the highest enrollment are (in order) Japanese, Chinese and Arabic. Recently AHT introduced courses in Hindi and Korean. The welcome acquisition of the Crow Museum of Asian Art and the opening of the Center for Asian Studies – both in 2019 – reflects the university’s growing commitment to the integration of Asia into its educational, research and outreach aspirations.

The path to those two transformative additions began, I am convinced, in 2013 with the decision of two visionary supporters – Stefanie Schneider and Jeffrey Robinson – to endow a major lecture series that would bring both luster and depth to the university’s public programming about Asia. Previous lectures have addressed topics from the Opium Wars to the Nanjing Massacre, from to the opportunities and obstacles encountered by Asian immigrants to their extraordinary contributions of Asians to American culture. This year’s lecture examines both the contribution made and the prejudice endured by the first Asian American film star.

Any celebration, however, must be tempered by productive dissatisfaction. We have barely begun to fashion the exemplary Center for Asian Studies that UTD deserves. Opportunities abound for others who recognize the profound importance of cultivating understanding, harmony and productive engagement between East and West. On this tenth anniversary of the Anlin Ku Lectures, I express my gratitude to its founders and invite others to emulate them.

*School of Arts, Humanities and Technology

School of Economic, Political and Policy Science

Jindal School of Management

Jonsson Performance Hall from 7:30 - 9:00 PM

800 W Campbell Rd, JO 2.604

Richardson, TX 75080

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Yunte Huang is Professor of English at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He came to the U.S. in 1991 after graduating from Peking University with a B.A. in English. He received his Ph.D. from the Poetics Program at SUNY-Buffalo in 1999 and taught as an Assistant Professor of English at Harvard University from 1999-2003. A Guggenheim Fellow, Dr. Huang has published numerous books, including Charlie Chan: The Untold Story of the Honorable Detective and His Rendezvous with American History, which won the Edgar Award and was the finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, as well as being named a New York Times Notable Book and one of the Best Books of the Year by San Francisco Chronicle, Village Voice, Amazon, and Kirkus Reviews. In 2018 he published Inseparable: The Original Siamese Twins and Their Rendezvous with American History, also an NBCC finalist. His lecture will be drawn from his forthcoming book on Anna May Wong, the first Chinese American movie star. Dr. Huang is a learned, witty and provocative scholar of the complex history and representation of Asian Americans in America.

He joins a distinguished list of speakers that includes:

Jonsson Performance Hall from 4:00 - 5:30 PM

800 W Campbell Rd, JO 2.604

Richardson, TX 75080

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Dr. Mai Wang is an assistant professor of literature at UT Dallas. She came to UT Dallas because she is excited to teach the diverse student body through both undergraduate and graduate seminars. She received her PhD in English from Stanford University, her Master’s of Fine Arts in creative writing from Boston University, and her Bachelor of Arts in English from Yale University. Her research areas include transnational Asian diasporic literary studies and Asian American literature.

Email: asianstudies@utdallas.edu
Website: https://asianstudies.utdallas.edu/
Location: 800 West Campbell Road, JO 5.504, Richardson, TX, USA
Phone: (972) 883-2798
Facebook: facebook.com/AsianStudiesUTDallas
Twitter: @cas_utd