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Major grant awarded to Japanese studies program

by Jeanne Baron

June 28, 2011 | WMU News

Photo of Drs. Jeffrey Angles and Stephen Covell, WMU.
Drs. Jeffrey Angles and Stephen Covell
KALAMAZOO--Japanese studies at Western Michigan University will be greatly enhanced over the next three years through a grant from the Japan Foundation's Institutional Project Support Program.

WMU is one of just eight institutions nationwide selected to receive a share of the nearly $2 million dollars appropriated by the Japan Foundation for its 2011-12 award cycle. The University is slated to receive about $140,000.

The other grant recipients are Duke University, Columbia University, Wittenberg University, University of Cincinnati, Furman University, Arizona State University and the Japan Center for Michigan Universities.

WMU will use its new award to fund a regional outreach coordinator position for the Japan Studies Program, as well as a faculty position in Premodern Japanese Culture and two workshops each year. Those initiatives already receive major support from the University's Haenicke Institute for Global Education and College of Arts and Sciences.

The Japan Foundation's Institutional Project Support Program was launched in 2007 with a mission to encourage innovative projects that emphasize institution building and sustainable contributions to the field of Japan studies in the United States.

WMU's successful Japan Foundation grant application was written by Dr. Stephen Covell, director of WMU's Michitoshi Soga Japan Center and chair of the Department of Comparative Religion, and Dr. Jeffrey Angles, associate professor of Japanese languages and literature.

Learn more about Japanese studies at WMU by visiting WMU's departments of History and Foreign Languages online.

For more information, contact Margaret von Steinen at margaret.vonsteinen@wmich.edu or (269) 387-3993.