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East Asian studies program sets Witt apart from its peers

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By Kelly Mori, Staff Writer Updated 6:14 AM Thursday, March 18, 2010

The year 1969 was not the best to propose an East Asian studies program to university officials.

The U.S. was deep in the Vietnam War, the funding that the Johnson administration had promised for world studies programs was not materializing, and university officials considered interdisciplinary programs as dabbling — not education.

But Wittenberg University professor of religion Eugene Swanger believed the program would be a good fit for the university and presented the concept to the board that spring.

“It was a hard sell,” said Swanger, now professor emeritus of religion and East Asian studies. It took a year before the idea was finally approved in 1970.

On Saturday, March 20, the university will celebrate the 40th anniversary of the program that not only added Chinese, Japanese and Korean studies into major and minor degrees, but introduced the concept of interdisciplinary studies to the university.

The program incorporates the study of East Asian history, culture and language into multiple disciplines, such as political science and art.

Forty years later it still sets Wittenberg apart from many of its peers, said Director of East Asian Studies and associate professor of religion Jennifer Oldstone-Moore.

“There are students who are interested in East Asian studies, but they don’t want to go to a big university,” she said. “The program brings in people from both coasts and increases our diversity. I think it’s a good thing — makes us a nationally known place.

“And I think that helps Springfield as well.”

A spinoff of the program is the East Asian Institute for International Studies, which manages internships and study abroad programs as well as partnerships with the business community. The program launched in 2009.

This fall the university expects to expand the language portions of the program into majors in Japanese language and Chinese language, Oldstone-Moore said.

Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0347 or kmori@coxohio.com.

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