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by Mike Forsythe, '99, Outgoing HEAS President The Harvard East Asia Society has enjoyed another productive year built upon the pioneering achievements of its many esteemed graduates. As in years past, the society has continued to provide both social and academic settings in which graduate students interested in East Asian studies at Harvard University can comfortably interact. Students enrolled in the Regional Studies - East Asia Program continue to comprise a large majority of the very active HEAS membership, but this year the society incorporated special students and members of the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, as well. This year, HEAS officers have organized a wide range of social events to help build and maintain friendships among members. In September, HEAS celebrated the beginning of the new academic year with pizza and the time-honored tradition of croquet on the lawn behind Coolidge Hall. In November, members enjoyed a delicious meal together at Koreana, a popular restaurant near Central Square. In conjunction with Dudley House, HEAS organized a "Roll-Your-Own Sushi" party for hungry graduate students in March, then welcomed prospective students with pizza and bowling after the official RSEA reception in early April. Following spring finals, HEAS members enjoyed an informal barbeque in the grassy area behind Coolidge Hall. The following week, HEAS members Philip Poh and Rosie Blau led fellow HEAS members to Chinatown for a side-splitting night of Cantonese karaoke. And throughout the year, Vice President Sylvia Copeland presented Asian movies in the graduate student dorms. Of course, social activities constitute only one half of the society's mission. February's Second Annual HEAS Graduate Student Conference on East Asia was an unqualified academic success, attracting several students from as far away as California. Hats off to the coordinators, Eiko Maruko and Jay Scheerer, for their organizational prowess! HEAS also provided supplemental funding that allowed 23 members to attend the national conference of the Association of Asian Studies (AAS), which Boston hosted for the first time this past March. Also of note, HEAS entered the information age with the creation of an official web site, thanks largely to the efforts of Alan Wagner, the RSEA office's new administrative assistant and resident HTML programming whiz. Although the site remains in the early stage of development, you can now visit us online at http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~heas/ in order to obtain information on the next HEAS conference, to view an online version of the most recent version of Asia Notes, and to keep us informed of important developments in your lives. I believe that, during the past year, HEAS remained one of the most active graduate student organizations on campus. Graduate Student Council (GSC) officers, who handled our frequent funding requests, can certainly vouch for that! Next year, with HEAS member Kenji Schwarz serving as GSC Treasurer, we hope to deepen our ties with that organization. HEAS will be in good hands next year, as Johanna Pitman, organizer of our first annual Graduate Student Conference, will assume the presidency after having taken a year off to train in Australia and work in China. Her greetings appear on page 10 of this issue. Have fun, Johanna, and best wishes to all of HEAS!
Alan Wagner: The New Face of RSEA
After graduating from Pomona College in 1992 with a degree in philosophy, Alan spent three years working as a theater technician and technical director in Los Angeles and New York. In addition to hiring and training crews, installing theater equipment and performing free-lance technical work for productions ranging from Nickelodeon television to occasional off-Broadway shows, he also developed an interest in making movies. Although his dream of studying film in New York City never quite panned out, those were clearly fun times. "It was like working in a great big treehouse with a 5000-watt stereo system," Alan recalls, the excitement coming back to him. "But over time, I found myself needing more intellectual stimulation." So he eventually decided to enter the Harvard Divinity School to pursue studies in Eastern religion, which matched his philosophical interests and struck him as a "sexy thing to study." Back at school, Alan found himself wanting to study a bit of everything, including a challenging East Asian language, while his brain still remained "young and flexible." While Japanese might have been more practical, he chose to study Chinese because of his frequent trips to Chinatown and his tremendous appreciation for Chinese food. The choice proved fortuitous, for it was in his first Chinese class that Alan met his future wife H‚lŠne, a visiting scholar from the National Institute of Oriental Language and Culture in Paris, France. During the summer of 1997, Alan and H‚lŠne visited China, Alan's first opportunity to travel there. They stayed in Beijing for language classes but managed to visit Shanxi and Inner Mongolia, as well. Knowing Chinese encouraged many culinary adventures that the restaurants in Chinatown simply could not permit. "We were blown away by the variety of food," Alan recalls before offering advice on some of the more exotic fare, including scorpions, grasshoppers, and silkworm cocoons. For Alan, the office opportunity came as pure coincidence. Near the end of spring term, he happened to drop by on an errand for his wife, a doctoral student affiliated with the Inner Asian and Altaic Studies program, which shares office space with RSEA. While chatting with Margaret, he learned of Susan's decision to transfer to Cabot House, where she had long hoped to work. Alan expressed interest in the pending vacancy, and the job fell into place. Working in a university setting has allowed Alan to continue studying East Asian religions and languages, which he soon hopes to pursue as a doctoral student. Not only has he taken additional classes in Classical Chinese and modern Japanese during the past term, he has also led silent sittings in Andover Chapel and continued training at the Cambridge Zen Center. In the meantime, he jokes, "I just feel lucky to have a degree in theology and to be employed." When not working or studying, Alan enjoys cultivating his artistic interests. "I would love to write short stories, screenplays, novels, and scholarly articles if I could support myself doing it," he explains wistfully. For the past several years, he has been putting together a screenplay examining the new society created during the 1849 California Gold Rush by miners from widely divergent cultural backgrounds.
RSEA Students "Seize Control" of Core Class In a move RSEA Administrator Margaret Lindsey called "unprecedented," five students from the RSEA Program earned appointments as teaching fellows for Professor Roderick MacFarquhar's core curriculum course on the Cultural Revolution during the spring term. The class enrolled over 300 students in twenty sections, making it one of Harvard College's largest and most popular courses. First-year RSEA students Charlotte Mangin, Will Dobson, Ed Cunningham, and Godfrey Firth, and second-year RSEA student Mike Forsythe served as teaching fellows. They hoped to translate their own interests in China into meaningful experiences for their students, many of whom had had no previous exposure to Chinese studies at Harvard. Doing so, however, demanded an intense time commitment and an unusual degree of motivation, they found. During the legendary lecture on the Red Guards, for instance, the fellows donned clothing from the Cultural Revolution era - complete with armbands and "little red books" - to lead the class in a re-enaction of a 1966 Tiananmen Square rally. "Mao Zhuxi wan sui!"
RSEA Students Form Backbone of Quarterly Harvard Asia Quarterly, a graduate student magazine under the aegis of the Harvard Asia Center, has flourished due to the active participation of many RSEA students. The journal, which includes in its staff students from nearly every graduate school at Harvard, publishes articles on a wide range of subjects, ranging from Chinese urban planning to Bangledeshi politics. The summer issue features a series on the many anniversaries that China will mark this year, from the May 4th (1919) incident to June 4th (1989). RSEA students form the backbone of its editorial and production staff. RSEA graduate Alina Huo, '99, led the production team and RSEA student Sylvia Copeland, '00, now serves as the magazine's business editor. RSEA graduate Mike Forsythe, '99, served as the Executive Editor and Jay Scheerer, '99, served as the regional editor for Japan. Other RSEA staff members included Alex Akin, Tracye Boyd, Ed Cunningham, Rusty Gates, Dan Hauck, Ian Hillman, Malinda Lo, Charlotte Mangin, Barney Moreland, Barry Myers, Sophie Roell, John Ruwitch, and Philip Vorobyov. The journal welcomes submissions from alumni of the RSEA Program. Please contact incoming executive editor Victor Shih (vshih@fas.harvard. edu) for additional information. Harvard Asia Quarterly
Second Annual HEAS Graduate Student Conference on East Asia Earns High Marks Following the success of the first HEAS Graduate Student Conference last spring, President Mike Forsythe challenged the group to establish an indelible conference tradition during the 1998-1999 academic year. This task fell to co-coordinators Eiko Maruko and Jay Scheerer, who spent five months working to expand the vision of last year's conference committee. These efforts culminated in the second annual HEAS Graduate Student Conference on East Asia on February 20, 1999. The day began with a keynote address from Dr. Hue-Tam Ho Tai, Chair of the Committee on Regional Studies - East Asia, who offered welcoming remarks and set the tone by sharing details of her own research on interpretations of time in contemporary Vietnam. The conference itself featured thirty-six presentations by graduate students from fourteen universities nationwide. All told, over 150 students participated in the day's events. While a majority of the attendees come from the Regional Studies - East Asia program and other Harvard programs, the audience also included representatives from universities, research centers, and non-governmental organizations in Washington, Wisconsin, and California. The gathering also featured innovations not commonly found at other graduate conferences. In an effort to foster dialogue, for instance, HEAS organizers encouraged presenters to trade ideas via email two weeks prior to meeting in Coolidge Hall. On the day of the conference, prominent faculty discussants agreed to offer commentary on each panel of papers. These features contributed to a highly stimulating academic environment. The members of HEAS are extremely excited about growing interest in the conference, which represents an opportunity both to raise the profile of graduate research on East Asia at Harvard University and to foster greater contact between graduate students at the nation's leading academic institutions. This ongoing effort would not have been possible without generous support from the Committee on Regional Studies - East Asia, the Asia Center, the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies, the Fairbank Center for East Asian Research, the Korea Institute, and the Graduate Student Council. Many thanks!
Discussant: Dr. Ezra Vogel, Harvard
Panel 2: Kinship and Family Discussant: Dr. Merry White, Boston University
Panel 3: International Relations and Security Dr. Robert Ross, Boston College
Panel 4: Representations of History Discussant: Dr. Philip Kuhn, Harvard
Panel 5: Religion in Transition
Panel 6: Political Economy and Development Discussant: Dr. Steven Vogel, Harvard
Panel 7: Identity Formation in Minority Culture Discussant: Dr. Andrew Gordon, Harvard
Panel 8: Literature Discussant: Dr. Leo Ou-Fan Lee, Harvard
Panel 9: State and Society Discussant: Dr. Joseph Wong, Wisconsin
Panel 10: Modern Culture Discussant: Dr. Eriberto Lozada, Jr., Butler University
Alastair Iain Johnston, `85, is currently the John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Social Sciences in the Government Department at Harvard. He is spending the 1998-1999 year in the San Francisco Bay area as a visiting scholar at the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University, where he has been working on a book about socialization in international institutions and sharpening his skills at roller hockey. His forthcoming book, co-edited with Robert Ross of Boston College, will be published by Routledge under the title Engaging China: The Management of a Rising Power. His future plans remain up in the air, he says, as befits his academic tendency to heavily discount the future. Shirley Chan, '92, made the transition from the practice to the creation of law in Hong Kong last autumn. She now works for a member of the Special Autonomous Region's Legislative Council, for whom she conducts research and analyzes policies. Shirley graduated from the RSEA program having focused on Chinese foreign policy and the international relations of East Asia. After working in Hong Kong as a corporate and telecommunications lawyer for several years, she decided to return to the public sector to pursue her longstanding interest in public policy. With her spare time, she has been volunteering at the Hong Kong University Museum and Art Gallery while taking courses in the art history of China. She has particularly enjoyed studying ceramics, paintings, and miniature curio cabinets. Julian Ha, '95, has begun a new job at the law firm of Linklaters & Paine in London, England. Moving from Singapore last summer has allowed him to bring his extensive experience grappling with the recent turmoil in Southeast Asian economies to work for the firm's U.S. Securities Group. Shortly after graduating from the RSEA program four years ago, Julian returned to Shanghai for the first time since his teenage years to find a city in the midst of dramatic change following forty years of state-sponsored economic lethargy. During that summer, Julian interned with a Chinese law firm, which allowed him to learn more about court procedures and commercial transactions, and with a British law firm, where he researched and drafted loan documents and other memoranda. Following his return to the United States, Julian completed a J.D. degree at New York University School of Law and undertook the New York bar exam, marking his "rite of passage" into the professional ranks. He worked for one and a half years in the corporate department of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison on mergers and acquisitions and securities transactions. Thereafter, he returned to Singapore to join the American law firm Baker & McKenzie, where he assisted Indonesian companies in need of Western capital. Despite having seen the Asian financial crisis up close, Julian is not entirely pessimistic about the economic plight of East Asia. A return trip to Shanghai last spring, he reported, offered an impressive sight. "The Bund has been lit up and the city's efforts to transform the erstwhile farming backwater of Pudong into China's Manhattan are starting to pay off. What a difference capitalism (with Chinese characteristics, of course) can make!" Sanjay Natarajan, '98, has been hard at work for the Singapore office of McKinsey & Company, a management consulting firm, since his graduation last June. Although the "virtual" office in Singapore has been open since the spring of last year, office space was not available until December. For Sanjay, the lack of a home office has necessitated frequent trips to neighboring countries, including Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia. "I only come back to Singapore on the weekends to charge my batteries," he reports. Although he keeps busy, he finds time to take advantage of the local beaches on those rare days without much work. Unpredictable economic conditions in Southeast Asia have generated a diverse set of projects requiring a tremendous amount of responsibility for young members of the company, including Sanjay. During his first several months with the firm, he worked on topics ranging from multimedia to banking, telecommunications to portfolio analysis. Several months later, he worked on the team that helped Siam Cement, Thailand's leading corporate conglomerate, implement a rigorous restructuring program and tackle other important reforms. Based on that experience, the team developed insights on the rise and fall of conglomerates in Asia, and their report suggesting survival strategies will soon be featured in the McKinsey Quarterly. More recently, Sanjay worked helped a leading Filipino conglomerate restructure its governance systems and revamp its holding structures. At last contact, Sanjay was awaiting a new assignment in the United States, where he will probably address concerns relating to electronic commerce. Working on so many different projects in such diverse locations might quickly frustrate others but, "as a product of the MTV generation, changing and juggling so many topics suits me perfectly!" Sanjay says.
An Adventurous Year of Teaching in China by Evan Dawley, '98, Past HEAS President Two days after graduation, I caught a plane for Shanghai, where I would spend the next five months. During the summer, I worked as Field Coordinator of the Shanghai Summer Teaching Program for WorldTeach, an organization that places volunteers in developing nations. I had spent the previous year working in the Cambridge office dispatching volunteers overseas, so I was eager to work in the field. Shanghai may not qualify as a developing region in some regards. In its more developed areas, you can forget that the city's average annual income remains below $5,000. Because such places are far between, the city remains on the road toward development. The SSTP assists in this journey by providing Shanghai High School, one of the top institutions in the city, native English speakers who give students the opportunity to polish their English speaking skills and, thus, improve their future prospects. In Shanghai, I worked with school officials to prepare for the arrival of the volunteers. After they arrived, I provided training on English teaching techniques, told them about life in China, and served as a player-manager, working with the volunteers while mediating between them and the school. I also spent time with students, participating in their outings and daily activities. With their eagerness and enthusiasm, the students were the best part of my experience. During my stay, I saw mostly a sanitized version of Shanghai filtered through the eyes of my Chinese hosts. They stressed calligraphy, paper cutting, and other art forms and showed us the homes of Sun Yat-Sen and Soong Qingling, the site of the First CCP Congress meeting, and the stunning new Shanghai Museum. When I explored on my own, however, I found more interesting sites. Two teahouses, only three blocks apart, provided windows on contemporary China. One remained a dank room with rickety tables and chairs, much as it would have appeared twenty years ago, had it been allowed to exist. I drank tea from a stained cup and slapped at mosquitoes while the owner's son practiced English with me. The other teahouse was a clean, air-conditioned space where I watched bootleg movies while the owners played computer games in the next room. Old and new, developed and developing, almost side by side. In the city - indeed throughout the country - not all things change at the same pace. I saw a more of Shanghai in early September, when I began studies at Fudan University under the auspices of a Harvard-Yenching scholarship. The experience reminded me of Shanghai's international settlement days. Some 700 students from all parts of the world pushed into five buildings within a walled compound just outside the university gates. The strict rules required Chinese friends to sign in on every visit. Although I ultimately left the university early to accept a position directing the WorldTeach program in Yantai, Shandong, I continue to believe that the Harvard-Yenching scholarship can provide great opportunities for students who want to conduct serious research in China. The scholarship also allowed me to have fun exploring Shanghai with my foreign friends. Together, we often forayed into the city to partake of its booming nightlife, if not to make a little money on the side - illegal for students but fairly common in practice. In Shanghai, the subway shuts down at 10 o'clock and buses stop running an hour later, making it even more difficult than in Boston to spend a night on the town. Despite these obstacles, most clubs remain open until the last customers leave. While the stragglers are often foreigners, the crowds who stay out until the wee hours consist largely of young Chinese taking advantage of the new wealth and (limited) social freedoms that now characterize Shanghai. The growing ranks of young party-goers may appear to be a superficial change. Viewed against a history of the Red Guard movement, however, it seems profound. The skyscrapers springing up on every corner may provide more monumental evidence of change, but I believe that if Shanghai and China are to progress further along the road to development, their success will depend more upon changes in spirit than upon changes in the architecture. Getting rich may be glorious, but it's only the start!
Profiles of Continuing RSEA Students Tracye Boyd is a graduate of Mount Holyoke College currently completing her first year in the RSEA program. Her academic interests encompass the literature and culture of Japan, particularly women's writing, comic books and drama. Tracye previously spent one year studying at Doshisha University in Kyoto. Jean I-Chun Chen graduated from the University of California, San Diego, with a double major in Chinese Studies and European History. Following graduation, she studied Mandarin Chinese in Taiwan at the International Chinese Language Program and the Taiwan National University. At Harvard, she is concentrating on the triangular relationship between China, Taiwan, and the United States. Jin Chen is currently studying regional institutionalism, Chinese history, and literature. Born and raised in Beijing, China, she received her higher education in the US in mathematics, economics, and finance. She served as Chairperson of the Board of the Harvard China Review during the past year and greatly enjoys activities relating to journal publication. Edward Cunningham is concentrating on the economic and legal development of greater China. He graduated cum laude from Georgetown University with a baccalaureate degree in Chinese. He also minored in business and Asian Studies. Will Dobson is completing a joint degree in the RSEA program and the Harvard Law School. He was previously the Associate Editor of Foreign Affairs with primary responsibility for East Asia. He also served as a Junior Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and as a staff member at Foreign Policy. His articles on Chinese foreign policy have appeared in a publications such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The New Republic, and Current History. He received a B.A. in History summa cum laude from Middlebury College. Rusty Gates is a first year RSEA student focusing on modern Japanese history. After completing his undergraduate degree at Occidental College, he spent one year on the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Program teaching English to junior high school students in Toyama Prefecture, Japan. Following his return, Rusty worked for a Japanese-owned consulting firm in New York City. His primary research interest lies in Japanese colonialism. Akiyuki Hagino is an officer of Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs currently pursuing the study of modern China. Aki has studied in the Faculty of Law at the University of Tokyo, as well as in Taiwan and at Peking University in the People's Republic of China. Charlotte Mangin specializes in the study of China. She began Mandarin Chinese at Amherst College and subsequently spent six months in China. She remains particularly interested in the one child policy and its effects on Chinese familial traditions, such as filial piety. Angela Ren worked as an assistant fund manager in the private investment partnership of Dolphin Management Inc. in New York. She also filled a research analyst positions at the Bankers Trust Company and Credit Lyonnais Asia Debt Capital Markets in Hong Kong before entering the RSEA program. Angela's experience analyzing stocks, convertible bonds, and Eurobonds issued by corporations and governments in Asia informs her current research on economic systems in East Asia. Sophie Roell worked as a financial journalist, specializing in emerging markets before joining the RSEA program. She spent some 18 months living in Beijing as a contributing editor for Euromoney magazine and also working for the Financial Times. She earned her undergraduate degree in history from Oxford University, but her current interests include Chinese politics and foreign relations. Following graduation, she hopes to return to Asia to work as a journalist.
New HEAS President Sends Greetings from Afar by Johanna Pitman, '00, President-Elect On the basis of an internet campaign conducted from Shanghai, China, Johanna Pitman was elected President of the Harvard East Asia Society in the annual presidential election held on May 15, 1999. After learning of her election, Johanna dutifully sent the following message to be included in this issue of Asia Notes. After almost a year away from Cambridge, I would like to take this opportunity to welcome incoming students and also introduce myself to those returning students whom I have not yet had a chance to meet. I entered the RSEA program in the fall term of 1997, coming from Australia with a background in Japanese and Korean studies. I originally focused on relations between North and South Korea but have become more broadly interested in the economic development of Asia, particularly China, since entering the program. Throughout my first year, I faced questions that most of us ask at some time, if not all the time. What was I going to do when I graduated? I decided to take time off to investigate several options. I spent the first six months of my year away from Harvard in Canberra, Australia, interning at the Australian Department of Defence on a project examining the future of the Korean peninsula and its implications for Australia. Since March, I have been living in China, trying to improve my Chinese language ability and obtain some business experience through corporate internships here. In my current position, I am working in the fast-paced, highly glamorous dairy industry, conducting a market survey about milk powder sold in China. I never thought that terms like "with added Calcium" or "Bifidus" would enter my Chinese vocabulary at such an early stage! Hereafter, I will spend the summer in Beijing. I can meet those of you who may be passing through or studying there. I very much look forward to serving as the President of the Harvard East Asia Society, and will endeavour to coordinate a wide variety of social and academic events throughout the 1999-2000 academic year. I wish the graduating students the best of luck and urge you to keep in touch as you move on. To everyone else, have a great summer - see you in September!
Graduates of the RSEA Program during the past academic year have informed us of a wide variety of future plans, as follows. Best of luck to the entire graduating class! Alexander Akin Professional numismatist (California); Rosie Blau Pursuing degree-related employment (Boston area); Jennifer Chan One-year leave of absence, followed by Doctoral program, Department of History and East Asian Languages (Harvard); Peter Chang Fulbright Fellowship (Korea); Erin Chung Foreign Policy position with the US government (Washington, DC); Stefanie Davidson Equities Division, Goldman-Sachs (Tokyo); Jeremy Entwisle Monbusho Fellowship (Tokyo); Frederick Falkson Pursuing degree-related interests (Asia); Michael Forsythe Harvard-Yenching Institute Fellowship, Fudan University (Shanghai); Ian Hillman Pursuing a career with the US Department of State (Washington, DC); Alina Huo Employment in a fine arts gallery specializing in East Asian art (New York); June Jo Raising a family while contemplating graduate studies in anthropology (San Francisco area); Mitsutoshi Kajikawa Japanese Finance Ministry (Tokyo); Michelle Kim Anubis Solutions computer company (California); Yi-Hsuan Kuo Associate editor for an internet company (New York); Shiamin Kwa Doctoral program, Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations (Harvard); Tae Kwak One-year leave of absence (Korea) followed by a Doctoral program, Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations (Harvard); Javan Lee Pursuing work in Asia or study in Japan; Vanessa MacDonald One year of degree-related work followed by a possible Doctoral program in Chinese fine arts; Kathryn Marlow Doctoral program, Department of Anthropology (Harvard); Eiko Maruko Doctoral program, Department of History (Harvard); Stacie Matsumoto Doctoral program, Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations (Harvard); Takashi Nishikawa Marketing research, A.C. Nielsen Company (Tokyo); Daniel Norcross Seeking employment on the East Coast or in China or Europe; Alan Oberlin Vice-President and General Manager of Career Development, PaineWebber (New York); Philip Poh Economic Development Board (Singapore); Jay Scheerer East Asia Analyst for the Global Business Policy Council, A.T. Kearney, (Washington, D.C.); Douglas Skonicki One-year leave of absence (Taiwan) followed by a Doctoral program, Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations(Harvard); Tiffani Wallace One-year leave of absence followed by a Doctoral program, Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations (Harvard); Matthew Wheeler Blakemore Foundation Fellowship (Thailand); Kasumi Yamashita Monbusho Fellowship (Tokyo) followed by a Doctoral program, Department of Anthropology (Harvard).
Alumni Play a Continuing Role in Support of RSEA by Margaret Lindsey, RSEA Administrator The RSEA Program, which now regularly has as many as eighty-five or more affiliated students each academic year, operates on a shoestring budget funded by FAS administration. With little more than $6,000 per year (one-third of which goes towards the Inner Asian and Altaic Studies Ph.D. program administered through our office) we must support the entire operation of the RSEA program, including telephone, fax, postage, office supplies, and photocopying, as well as the expenses entailed in providing the extensive informational materials prepared annually for RSEA students. The RSEA office receives no funding at all from the University specifically to support any of the social events we feel are such an important part of the program's responsibility towards its students - including our annual orientation reception, informal picnics, fall and spring parties for students and faculty, holiday gatherings for students stranded in Cambridge, reception for prospective incoming students, Commencement celebrations, etc. - as well as to provide whatever financial assistance we can to the activities of HEAS, and to fund the annual Joseph Fletcher Awards, which recognize the most outstanding of the year's A.M. theses. For these purposes we must rely on the generosity of those among our graduates who may be in a position to make financial contributions to RSEA, mostly through the annual fundraising activities of the GSAS Alumni Association. We hesitate to ask for support from RSEA alumni/ae, especially as so many of you have already provided the University with your own "pound of flesh" through high tuition payments, but we would be very grateful if any of you who are able to respond to the annual GSAS appeals for donations might request that your contributions go specifically to RSEA. Of course, it is also possible to send contributions directly to RSEA, with checks made out to Harvard University. Rest assured that any contributions we receive are valued greatly, are critical to the support of our student events, and are committed solely to the direct benefit of students currently in the RSEA program. We also appeal to you to keep RSEA updated with your current contact information, and with your news and any comments or questions you may have, by mail, fax, telephone, or email. Our full contact information is listed on page 5 of this edition of Asia Notes. Also, check out the RSEA website at http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~rsea/ for the latest information on the program. I would also like to add my personal greetings to the hundreds of you who've passed through the portals of RSEA during my years of association with the program - thanks to you all for making my job such a rewarding one, and do keep in touch. Best wishes to all!
RSEA alumni can now keep in touch with an electronic mail forwarding service provided by the Harvard Alumni Association. Alumni who register for this free service receive a permanent "post.harvard.edu" address that redirects email to the registrant's most current email address. Even as you change jobs and internet service providers, you will not have to change your email address with friends and family again. In addition, a post. harvard account allows you to search the alumni records for friends and colleagues who have also registered. It is a great way to keep in touch! Additional information is available online at www.haa.harvard.edu. Inquiries or registration problems can be referred to Susan Peterson at 617-496-0559, or susan_peterson@harvard.edu. Harvard Graduate School Alumni Association
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Home -- (c) Harvard East Asia Society -- last updated: 2001-10-15 -- Problems? Webmaster Home ▪ About ▪ Contact ▪ Asia Notes ▪ Conference ▪ Events ▪ Links |
In
July, 1998, Alan Wagner replaced Susan Bourneuf, who had served as the Staff
Assistant to the Regional Studies - East Asia program for almost two years
before accepting an open position at Cabot House, an under-graduate house located
in the Radcliffe Yard. Alan is a 1998 graduate of the Harvard Divinity School,
where he studied Eastern religions, with a particular emphasis on Buddhism.
