2016 Press Releases
Award for new course to boost Asian Studies
Dr Kevin Cawley, acting head of the Department of Asian Studies and Director of the Irish Institute of Korean Studies, has been awarded US $50,000 from the One Asia Foundation.
The award, renewable for three years, will help to further bolster UCC’s unique position as the only university in Ireland with a School of Asian Studies with experts on Korea, China, Japan, India and South East Asia.
UCC currently offers the only BA and MA degrees in Asian Studies on the island of Ireland, and allows students to study the languages from those countries.
The funding was based on Dr Cawley’s proposal for a new course in Asian Studies open to BA and MA students, which will feature invited guest speakers for each week of the 12-week module, to include world-class experts in Asian Studies from the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge.
‘’This course will greatly benefit our students, as well as highlight and promote the discipline of Asian Studies at UCC. It will be open to our own BA and MA students, as well as visiting and international students, encouraging them to consider Asia in a more comprehensive manner, as a continent where interactions between countries have been central to the cross-fertilization of many different ideas and cultures, which connects them through deeply intellectual traditions," Dr Cawley commented.
The funding will also allow the School of Asian Studies to hold an international conference in 2017 and lead to publications in the field of Asian Studies, including a book series.