2023 ALC Graduation and Awards Ceremony

Additional departmental awards were then presented by members of the department faculty to honor hard work and passion among undergraduate and graduate students.

• The twelfth annual Philip Thomas Lincoln, Jr. Memorial Endowment was presented by Dr. Christi Merrill to Brittany Puller, a Doctoral Candidate in Asian Languages and Cultures. This fellowship is named for a 1964 LSA graduate who was a career diplomat with the U.S. State Department from 1966 to 1996. Lincoln dedicated his life to the betterment of relations between the United States and the countries of Asia, especially China. The Lincoln Fellowship is given to one ALC graduate student a year to assist with funding a proposed research trip abroad. Brittany will be using this award to conduct archival research in the Punjab and New Delhi this summer, to benefit her proposed dissertation On the Basis of Biradari: Community and Kinship in 18th-Century Punjab. 
• The Charles and Myrl Hucker Essay Prize is a tribute to the scholarly and collegial legacy left behind by Charles O. Hucker, a Professor of Chinese in the department from 1965-1983. It also recognizes the great support and friendship he received from his wife, Myrl. This prize is given annually for the best China-focused essay written in an Asian Languages and Cultures course. Dr. SE Kile presented this award to sophomore Shao-Chi Ou for his essay entitled Visual Experiences in Literary and Filmic Narrative Through a Three Kingdoms Lens. This essay, written for Dr. Kile's 400-level seminar on the Three Kingdoms, compares narrative perspective in the novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms and the Japanese anime Ya Boy! Kongming.
• The sixth annual Kristin Carosella Memorial Fellowship named in honor of a 2013 graduate in Asian Studies and Anthropology who, following graduation, pursued a career teaching English to school-age children in China before her death in September 2014. Through generous donations from the Lieberthal-Rogel Center for Chinese Studies; the Center for Japanese Studies; the Nam Center for Korean Studies; the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures; the Department of Anthropology; and the Dean of the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, this fellowship has been established in perpetuity to honor her life and to inspire other students to pursue service to others through teaching in Asia. Director of Undergraduate Studies, Dr. Markus Nornes, presented the award to Neya Ramprasad, a recent recipient of the Fulbright English Teaching Assistant Award. Excelling in all the qualiies essential to teaching and mentoring in her Korean language classes, Neya hopes to move to South Korea in January 2024 to teach English as a second language.

Following the presentation of awards, our Director of Undergraduate Studies, Professor Markus Nornes, recognized the hard work of the seven students graduating from the Asian Studies major with Honors. Graduating with Honors not only requires completing the major with stellar grades, but also working closely with a faculty member to complete an Honors thesis. The 2022 ALC Honors graduates were:

Twenty students graduated with an Asian Studies major in 2023, exemplifying the diverse range of academic interests represented in the many areas of study our department offers. This year's graduating class comprises of 10 Chinese studies students, 6 Japanese studies students, 3 Korean studies students, and 1 Southeast Asian studies student.