Following the enormous success of the inaugural 2022-23 Asia Bridge Graduate Fellowship, the Center for Asia-Pacific Studies’ received an unprecedented number of strong applications from a wide range of fields and disciplines across the university to the 2023-2024 program. We would like to congratulate the five finalists who successfully completed this demanding and competitive fellowship.
This semester, our five graduate fellows independently researched and wrote articles on a variety of timely topics relating to the Asia-Pacific region: the structural and gender challenges of Japan’s aging society, the intellectual history and present status of Sino-American containment policies, mental health outcomes among Asia-Pacific scholars in the USA, special needs schooling in Vietnam and beyond, and the contemporary cultural, aesthetic, and spiritual relevance of traditional Chinese gardens.
Miki Izu
“Japanese Conceptions of Loneliness and Health Outcomes for the Elderly”
Watch their presentation here »
Clayton Chambers
“Contemporary Containment: Trump US-China Policy Through the Lens of Containment”
Watch their presentation here »
Jessie Chen
“How do Cultural Factors Impact the Mental Health of International Students?”
Watch their presentation here »
Yen Duong
“Inclusive Learning in Vietnamese K-5 Education”
Watch their presentation here »
Ningjing Xin
“Classical Chinese Gardens and How They Affect Human Perception of Nature”
No presentation recording available.
Over the course of the year, the fellows conducted in-depth research with the assistance of extensive one-to-one research and writing tutelage alongside the Kiriyama Postdoctoral Fellow and Graduate Fellowship coordinator. The fellows refined their papers with an eye to publication in relevant academic journals, while also presenting abridged versions of their research at a graduate symposium.
Continuing the Center for Asia-Pacific Studies’ mission to build connections across the University disciplines, across the Asia-Pacific region, and extending to our local communities, the Fellows organized a tour and photography competition in San Francisco’s Japanese Tea Garden. In keeping with the spirit of community-building, the fellows also proactively contributed to the vitality of the University of San Francisco by promoting and engaging with conferences and speaker events relating to the Asia-Pacific region.
One of the core missions of our Graduate Fellowship is to build bridges across the Pacific region, developing intellectual relations and promoting a deeper understanding and empathy for the academic, social, political, and philosophical traditions and contemporary conditions of the Asia-Pacific region, while also introducing these topics to a broader and interdisciplinary audience here at USF. We look forward to offering the Asia Bridge Graduate Fellowship in the coming year, and to continue the work of promoting the understanding of the Asia-Pacific.
If you would like to support these and other curious and driven students who care about the Asia Pacific, please donate here.