In Waterman’s Memorial Lounge on Saturday morning, March 14^th, a select group of Vermont teachers gathered for the last session of an informative and rewarding 30-hour National Consortium for Teaching about Asia (NCTA) seminar series.  Open by application to 20 Vermont teachers, the free, five-seminar series that began in January is a multi-year initiative designed to encourage and facilitate teaching and learning about East Asia in elementary and secondary schools. Funded by the Freeman Foundation, the series is sponsored by the UVM College of Education and Social Services (CESS), The Five College Center of East Asian Studies (FCCEAS), and the Vermont Council on World Affairs (VCWA). 

Jacqueline Drouin, Program Specialist for CESS’s Asian Studies Outreach Program (ASOP), and lead organizer of the program, said that NCTA is a premier provider of professional development on East Asia, and its partnering this year with ASOP, FCCEAS, and VCWA is the first time that NCTA has presented a program in Vermont.

Participants in The NCTA in Vermont program, as it was named, got a chance to learn from an esteemed group of leading experts on East Asian Studies from the University of Vermont, Dartmouth College, Middlebury College, and the State University of New York at Albany. Among the seminar topics discussed were China-Japan relations in a historical context, understanding the modern Chinese party-state, contemporary U.S.- Japan relations in a historical perspective, war memory narratives in Japan, historic and contemporary Korean culture, transnational sport—gender, media, and Global Korea, and the religions of East Asia.

On Saturday, the teacher participants began the day immersed in 5000 years of Korean art history.  The seminar, “Understanding Korea through Arts,” was lead by Dr. Sung Lim Kim, Assistant Professor of Art History and Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at Dartmouth College.  She guided the group on a looking glass journey through an array of selected arts, including ceramics, painting, film, and architecture, beginning in ancient times with the pre-modern Goryeo and Joseon dynasties and traveling up to modern day Korea.  

In the afternoon and concluding session, the teachers had a chance to ‘visit’ the Forbidden City, the famed landmark in Beijing that served to house the imperial families of China from the 1400’s until the early 20^th century.  The seminar, “The Forbidden City,” was lead by Matthew Turner, of the China Institute. In his presentation, he made use of the “We All Live in the Forbidden City,” a school and teacher educational book series offered by the China Institute about the history, culture, architecture, and life of imperial China, as seen through the lens of the Forbidden City.

About the sponsors, The Asian Studies Outreach Program in the College of Education and Social Services at the University of Vermont promotes teaching and learning about Asia in Vermont schools at levels K-12 by providing teachers with direct interaction and experience with the Asian continent. The Five College Center for East Asian Studies is committed to promoting East Asian Studies at the Five Colleges (Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke, Smith, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst), and supports, encourages, and improves the teaching of East Asian cultures in elementary, middle, and secondary schools, and two- and four-year colleges in the Northeast. The Vermont Council on World Affairs brings the world to Vermont and Vermont to the world through programs that educate and engage about global affairs.