China and India: Comparisons and Connections

www.asianstudies.buffalo.edu/nehsummerinstitute

The Asian Studies Program of the University at Buffalo invites applications for “China and India: Comparisons and Connections,” a three-week NEH summer institute for teachers in July 2013. The Institute is open to thirty teachers and prospective teachers of any grade level or subject in U.S. schools who have the opportunity to teach about China and India in their classes.

Teachers participating in this NEH summer institute will receive a $2,700 stipend to cover travel, accommodations, and meals. They will also receive a set of textbooks, sourcebooks, and primary source materials sent to them prior to the institute. Funding is provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities (www.neh.gov), with additional funding from the UB Confucius Institute (www.confuciusinstitute.buffalo.edu). The application deadline is March 4, 2013.

Institute participants needing housing will live in the state-of-the-art Greiner Hall on the University at Buffalo North Campus and have access to university libraries, recreational facilities, restaurants, and other campus amenities. In their free time, participants can enjoy the many concerts, festivals, and sporting events that take place throughout the Buffalo-Niagara region in the summer, as well as an excursion to nearby Niagara Falls.

Presentations and discussion with Institute faculty will explore the long histories, rich cultures, and contemporary societies of China and India, with a focus on comparisons, contrasts, and interactions. The Institute will examine critically the popular preoccupation with “ancient empires” and “rising powers,” which often leads to interpreting all facets of life and history in China and India in terms of economic and military power and contributions to global “modernity.” To raise questions about the received wisdom in this and other domains, we will explore the origins, development, rise and fall of various polities over time and space in East and South Asia. We will also discourage over-generalizations and over-simplifications implicit in such terms as East and West, South and East Asia, and even India and China. We will encourage teachers to think critically for themselves how to conceptualize Chinese and Indian experiences and stimulate their students to engage in the same creative process.

An important goal of the Institute is for teachers to pass on to their students the ability to comprehend, analyze, and evaluate materials reflecting the daily concerns, perspectives, and choices faced by people in China and India historically and in the present day. To that end, the Institute will pay close attention to the careful reading and analysis of texts related to Chinese and Indian history and culture, and encourage participants to consider the specific skills in reading, writing, analysis, and cultural understanding that their students will need to make sense of Indian and Chinese experiences.

Questions can be addressed to Bruce Acker, assistant director of Asian Studies at backer@buffalo.edu / 716-645-0763. To see the invitation from the directors, application instructions, preliminary program, and other information, visithttp://www.asianstudies.buffalo.edu/nehsummerinstitute/index.shtml