Dr. Liping Wang, associate professor of history at the University of Minnesota will speak at Gustavus Adolphus College at 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 15. Wang’s visit is part of the College’s Global Insight program and is free and open to the public.

Wang’s talk, titled “Women in China: Rural Violence, Urban Labor, and the Promises of Capitalism,” will take place in the St. Peter Room, located on the upper level of the C. Charles Jackson Campus Center.

Wang has conducted field work in rural China for more than a decade. Her published works include Creating a National Symbol: The Sun Yatsen Memorial in Nanjing (1996), Tourism and Spatial Changes in Hangzhou, 1900-1927 (1999), and Women, Marriage, and Violence in Post-Mao Rural China: Ancient Legacies, New Age Commercialization or Socialism with Chinese Characteristics? (2000).

The Global Insight program at Gustavus is a campus-wide program that allows students, faculty, and staff to focus on one country, region, or global issues during the academic year. The program involves invited speakers, fine arts events, special presentations, service learning opportunities, and class time dedicated to discussions of the focus topic. While China is the theme for 2008-09, the College will focus on Mexico during the 2009-10 academic year.

For more information about Wang’s visit to Gustavus, contact Assistant Professor of Psychology Patricia Costello at pcostell@gustavus.edu.

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Media Contact: Media Relations Manager Matt Thomas
mthomas@gustavus.edu
507-933-7510

Greg Boone (Photo by Chen Mengxing)

When Gustavus Adolphus College senior Greg Boone decided to study abroad in Zhuhai, China during this year’s Fall Semester, he wanted to figure out a way to document his experience and continue to be involved with the College’s radio station, KGSM.

With the help of the College’s marketing and communication office, Boone was given the funding and necessary equipment to capture his experience in China on a series of ten podcasts.

“I asked myself how I could capture the study abroad experience in a different way,” Boone said. “There’s something audio can capture that is more intimate than a blog or a photo diary.”

In an episode that focused on the differences in social behavior in China compared to the United States, Boone said, “It seems like everywhere I go, people are excited to see me, almost overly excited, to get to know me, learn about me, my home country and what I am doing in China. How long have I been here? When am I leaving? What is my major? Do I play sports? Which is always followed up with “Basketball?” regardless of how I answer.”

In a later podcast, Boone reflects on his time in China and looks forward to returning home.

“I leave China in just over three weeks — leaving behind a country and community that has changed my life in just over three months to go back to the United States, to the real Americana I have so genuinely missed here — with a renewed, refreshed, and regenerated sense of self, ready to take on whatever life throws at me next.”

The podcasts, or audio diaries, can be heard in their entirety online at https://podcast.gac.edu/groups/studyabroad/blog/

Boone was a strong candidate to carry out the podcast project because of his experience working at KGSM. The senior has been involved with the station since his freshman year and has transformed the station from a glorified jukebox to a respectable source of news and information for the on-campus community.

“I’ve tried to make KGSM something that the whole campus could appreciate,” Boone said. “This podcast was one way to make KGSM a more recognized organization on campus.”

Last year, while serving as the station’s general manager, Boone covered the College’s annual Building Bridges Conference and produced the station’s first major documentary in the wake of the conference. Boone also addressed news and current events by bringing in political candidates for interviews over the station’s airwaves.

While the podcasts from China were beneficial to the radio station, they also benefitted Boone on a personal level. According to Boone, preparing for the podcasts not only improved his writing skills, but forced him to think deeply and seriously about what he was experiencing in a foreign land.

“It allowed me to evaluate my experience in a way that I don’t think I would have been able to otherwise,” Boone said.

Boone is now back in Minnesota and will resume a normal academic schedule during the spring semester, however, he is now committed to making sure that the podcasts will be an ongoing project at Gustavus.

“Now that we have the equipment I’m going to make sure that someone will be able and prepared to do the same thing next year when they study abroad.”

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Media Contact: Media Relations Manager Matt Thomas
mthomas@gustavus.edu
507-933-7510

Dr. David W. Vikner

Gustavus Adolphus College will welcome international scholar David W. Vikner to campus for a residency to honor initial use of the Gamelin Endowment Fund for China Studies.

Vikner will be in residence at Gustavus from Sunday, Oct. 26 through Wednesday, Oct. 29. He will present a public lecture at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 28 titled “The Church in China: Where it has Been and Where it is Going,” in Wallenberg Auditorium, located in the Alfred Nobel Memorial Hall of Science. During his residency, Vikner will also visit many classes and speak in Christ Chapel during the College’s 10 a.m. daily worship service.

Vikner’s visit also enhances the College’s new campus-wide themed learning program “Gustavus Global Insight.” This new program enables students, faculty, and staff to focus on one country, region, or global issue during the academic year and this year’s focus is on China.

Completing his undergraduate studies at Upsala College in East Orange, NJ, Vikner went on to earn a master’s degree at Yale Divinity School. Later he earned a certificate in the teaching of English as a second language at the University of Michigan and a Doctor of Education degree in comparative education, with an emphasis on China from Teachers College and Columbia University.

Vikner spent his early years in China and Japan and has worked in Asia for nearly 15 years, serving in various capacities. He taught English at the Lutheran Middle School in Hong Kong and subsequently became its headmaster. For four years he was on the faculty of National Taiwan University and later taught English for one year at Central China Normal University in Wuhan. From 1984 to 1986 he served as China consultant for the Lutheran World Federation in Hong Kong.

From July 1989 to Oct. 2000, Vikner was president of the United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia, an autonomous agency related to nine protestant denominations in North America. The United Board works with more than 80 colleges and universities in Burma, Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, the Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam. Vikner is currently the President of the Japan International Christian University Foundation, a post he has held since April 2002.

The Gamelin Endowment Fund for China Studies was established in 2000 to provide support for students and/or faculty to study in or about China, its culture, economy, politics, and/or international relationships, and to disseminate their learning to Gustavus and to a wider community.

The Gamelin Fund was started by Dr. Theodore and Helen Gamelin to honor his parents, Dr. Francis C. Gamelin ‘38 and Ruth Vikner Gamelin ‘37 whose interest in that part of the world goes back to Ruth’s early years as a child of missionary parents in China.

David Vikner’s lecture on Oct. 28 is free and open to the public. For more information on Vikner’s week-long residency at Gustavus, contact the Chaplain’s Office at 507-933-7446

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Media Contact: Media Relations Manager Matt Thomas
mthomas@gustavus.edu
507-933-7510

John Pomfret is the author of <i>Chinese Lessons: Five Classmates and the Story of the New China.</i>

<i>Chinese Lessons</i> was published in 2006.

Gustavus Adolphus College will welcome author John Pomfret to campus Monday, Sept. 15. Pomfret, the author of this year’s Reading in Common book, Chinese Lessons: Five Classmates and the Story of the New China, will speak at 7 p.m. in Christ Chapel.

In its ninth year of existence at Gustavus, the Reading in Common program is designed to have all first-year students read a chosen book during the summer and then meet with faculty members and upper-class students during New Student Orientation to discuss it.

Pomfret is an award-winning journalist who lived and worked in China off-and-on for a decade starting in 1980. He was an Associated Press reporter in China during the Tiananmen Square protests in the late 1980’s and served as Beijing bureau chief for The Washington Post from 1998 to 2003. Pomfret is currently the editor of the Post’s Outlook section and is the newspaper’s expert on immigration.

In addition to his work in China, Pomfret has served as a foreign correspondent in several other countries including Bosnia, Rwanda, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Iran, and Iraq. In 2003 he received the Osborn Elliott Prize for the best coverage of Asia by the Asia Society. In 2007 he received the Shorenstein Prize from the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics, and Public Policy at Harvard University for distinguished writing and reporting that helps Americans to better understand the complexities of Asia.

Pomfret’s lecture on Sept. 15 is also the first Gustavus Global Insight event of the 2008-09 academic year. Gustavus Global Insight is a campus-wide themed learning program in which Gustavus students, faculty, and staff will focus on one country, region, or global issue during the academic year. This year’s theme is China.

Following Pomfret’s lecture, there will be a question and answer session and a book signing. Questions regarding this event or the Reading in Common program at Gustavus can be directed to Director of Student Activities Megan Ruble at mruble@gustavus.edu or 507-933-7597.

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Media Contact: Media Relations Manager Matt Thomas
mthomas@gustavus.edu
507-933-7510

Gustavus Global Insight, a campus-wide themed learning program at Gustavus Adolphus College, will sponsor a teach-in on China from 1-4 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 11. The teach-in will take place in The Dive, located on the lower level of the O.J. Johnson Student Union.

The event will feature seven different 20-minute presentations by Gustavus faculty members on various topics concerning China, which is the Gustavus Global Insight focus topic for the 2008-09 academic year. The schedule is as follows:

• 1-1:20 p.m., “China: An Economic Powerhouse,” Dr. Henry Hays
• 1:25-1:45 p.m., “Imagining Democracy in China,” Dr. Richard Leitch
• 1:50-2:10 p.m., “Introduction to Chinese Writing,” Dr. Lianying Shan
• 2:15-2:35 p.m., “An Introduction to Chinese Instrumental Music,” Dr. Esther Wang
• 2:40-3 p.m., “Images of China Among American Christians,” Dr. Sarah Johnson
• 3:05-3:25 p.m., “Buddhism in China,” Dr. Jenkuan Shih
• 3:30-3:50 p.m., “The 2008 Beijing Olympics: A Double-edged Sword for National Politics, Identity, and the Search for International Recognition,” Dr. David Tobaru Obermiller

Gustavus Global Insight is intended to allow students, faculty, and staff to focus on one country, region, or global issue during the academic year. This community project will involve invited speakers, fine arts events, special presentations, service learning opportunities, and class time dedicated to discussions of the focus topic.

For more information about Gustavus Global Insight, go online to gustavus.edu/academics/globalinsight.

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Media Contact: Media Relations Manager Matt Thomas
mthomas@gustavus.edu
507-933-7510

In September 2008, Gustavus Adolphus College will inaugurate an annual, campuswide themed learning program designed to increase cultural awareness and international competency. The program, named Gustavus Global Insight, will feature invited speakers, fine arts events, special presentations, common reading, and service learning opportunities, as well as class time dedicated to discussions relating to the focus topic.

In 2008-09, the theme of Gustavus Global Insight will be “China.” In addition to continuing to pursue their own major courses and electives, students will acquire new knowledge of this vast, 3.7 million-square-mile country and gain new perspectives on its 1.3 billion inhabitants.

Class offerings and invited presentations will delve into China’s history, culture, economy, environment, government, current trends, future outlook, and more. Already scheduled events include a theatre production of Nobel Prize-winner Gao Xingjian’s The Other Shore in Spring 2009, two Artist Series performances, and a film series.

In addition, the Reading in Common book committee has selected Chinese Lessons: Five Classmates and the Story of the New China, by Washington Post journalist John Pomfret, as its common reading for the Gustavus community this fall. Pomfret is scheduled to visit Gustavus and give a lecture in the fall.

“Gustavus Global Insight is an exciting new program because it will involve such a large percentage of the Gustavus community,” said Tom Huber, chair of the Gustavus Global Insight planning committee. “Next year, Gustavus students will have the opportunity to gain a greater insight into some of the global issues related to China in the world today, as well as its history and culture.”

Gustavus Global Insight will focus on a single country, region, or global issue during each academic year. The tentative schedule for future topics is “Mexico” in 2009-10, “Food/Nutrition” in 2010-11, and “The Circumpolar Year” (Scandinavia, Northern Canada, Greenland, and Russia) in 2011-12. For more information about Gustavus Global Insight, go online to gustavus.edu/academics/globalinsight/.

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Media Contact: Media Relations Manager Matt Thomas
mthomas@gustavus.edu
507-933-7510

Warren Friesen is the conductor of the Gustavus Symphony Orchestra.

The Gustavus Adolphus College Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Warren Friesen, is making its final preparations before embarking on a 15-day (Jan. 18-Feb.1) international concert tour of China.

The ensemble will perform five concerts during the tour and also visit popular tourist attractions such as Tiananmen Square and the Great Wall of China. The concert schedule is as follows:

• Monday, Jan. 21, 7:30 p.m., Music School of Central Conservatory of Music, Beijing
• Thursday, Jan. 24, 7:30 p.m., Tianjin Guang Hua Theater, Tianjin
• Saturday, Jan. 26, 7:30 p.m., New Qinhaungdao Concert Hall, Qinhuangdao
• Sunday, Jan. 27, 7:30 p.m., Tangshan Town Hall, Tangshan
• Tuesday, Jan. 29, 7:00 p.m., outdoor street performance, Yangshuo

You can follow the orchestra’s tour of China on the Office of College Relations blog. Director of Design Services Sharon Stevenson will accompany the orchestra in China and will provide commentary, photographs, and video from the tour.

This will be a return trip to China for the 67-member symphony orchestra. The 2004 tour was deemed such a successful learning opportunity for the group, a decision was made to return to the most populous country in the world.

The tradition of concert touring by the music ensembles at Gustavus was established as early as 1878 for the musical, artistic, and educational benefit of the student members. Extended domestic and international tours are a unique feature at Gustavus. These tours are combined with a specially designed companion course to provide an interdisciplinary perspective for the students, develop increased cultural awareness, promote a more diverse student body, and build cross-cultural bridges.

Upon its return from China, the orchestra will perform a home concert at 1:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 17 in Christ Chapel. The concert is free and open to the public.

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Media Contact: Media Relations Manager Matt Thomas
mthomas@gustavus.edu
507-933-7510

During the month of January, staff members will publish two specific features. Director of Design Services Sharon Stevenson will blog from overseas as she shadows the Gustavus Symphony Orchestra on its tour of China. Back in St. Peter, Media Relations Manager Matt Thomas will sit in on several January Interim Experience classes and will blog about the unique educational opportunities available to students during the month of January.

The new blog can be read at collegerelations.blog.gustavus.edu.

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Media Contact: Media Relations Manager Matt Thomas
mthomas@gustavus.edu
507-933-7510

Dr. Edmund Kwok

Professor Edmund Kwok, Ph.D., Executive Vice-President of United International College (UIC) in Zhuhai, China, will visit Gustavus Adolphus College on May 20-21. Kwok and his wife Christine will visit six Minnesota private colleges in all as a follow-up to a visit to China in 2005 by a Minnesota Private Colleges Council (MPCC) group that included Gustavus President Jim Peterson.

The MPCC has agreed to become affiliated with UIC, a new American-style liberal arts college on the Chinese mainland near Hong Kong. The partnership will allow students and faculty from the state’s 17 private colleges to study and work at UIC.

“This partnership is another sign of the private colleges’ commitment to deepening students’ understanding of the world we live in today,” Peterson said. “More than half of the Minnesota college students who study abroad come from the state’s 17 private colleges.”

Kwok is eager for Gustavus participation in this learning initiative through two-way exchange programs for students and teaching stints for faculty. While on the Gustavus campus, Kwok will give a presentation Sunday night, May 20, explaining the impact of UIC in China. There will be an opportunity for interested faculty, staff, and administration members to meet Kwok at 9:30 a.m. on Monday, May 21 in the Office of International Education.

A reputable scholar and a capable administrator, Kwok has accumulated an impressive track record of substantial teaching, research, and administrative experience at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) during the last 27 years. After first receiving a degree from CUHK, he obtained his master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of California, Berkeley.

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Media Contact: Media Relations Manager Matt Thomas
mthomas@gustavus.edu
507-933-7510

The concert tour featured performances by two of the colleges 2003-04 Concerto/Aria Competition winners, showcasing concertos performed by Colin McGuire on violin and by David Adolphson on trombone. The repertoire of this concert included works by Georges Bizet, Derek Bourgeois, Aaron Copland, George Gershwin, Max Bruch, Camille Saint-Saens, and Peter Illich Tchaikovski. The orchestra will give a concert at 3:30 p.m. Feb. 15 in Christ Chapel.

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Media Contact: Media Relations Manager Matt Thomas
mthomas@gustavus.edu
507-933-7510