Volume 4 - Issue 12 - AS OUR PATHS CROSS, WE BECOME BROTHERS AND SISTERS

Sep 14, 2026

Volume 4, Issue 12 features campus coverage from the AsianStudies Program, highlighting faculty profiles and international teaching interests. Content includes a Men’s Center sponsor trip to India and Nepal, describing the early experience in New Delhi and a Golden Triangle itinerary. The issue also introduces new faculty members, including a Japanese language and literature professor and a scholar teaching courses on Gandhi, nationalism, and Islamic movements. It further promotes engagement through Asian Studies on Facebook and includes a student narrative reflecting on life and learning in China.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages8

Reading Time20 min

AccessFree to download

Men’s Center Sponsors India-Nepal Trip

CSB/SJU Welcomes New Faculty

Asian Studies on Facebook!

I Love China

Volume 4, Issue 12 “AS OUR PATHS CROSS, WE BECOME BROTHERS AND SISTERS” -OKINAWAN PROVERB November 2009 AsianStudies Program Back Row from left to right: Gar Kellom, Katie Davis, Ashleigh Leitch, Sarah Mahowald, Michael Wallace, Peter Hoxmeier. Front row from left to right: Brittaney Johannes, Jessica Nelson, Nick Kurtz. Photo courtesy Michael Wallace. Men’s Center Sponsors India-Nepal Trip Michael Wallace Stepping out of the New Delhi airport, I was immediately bathed in heat and the noise of busy streets, both of which still permeated the nighttime city. It was refreshing to be outside, even in the heat, and away from the inquisitive officials in the airport. This was the start of my monthlong experience in India and Nepal last summer. The trip was led by Gar Kellom, the director of the Men‟s Center at St. John‟s, and included 11 other students of various years from both CSB and SJU. The first week of the trip was spent touring Delhi, Agra and Jaipur, three major cities in India known as the Golden Triangle. (cont. on page 7) Photo courtesy Sophouen Chhin Dr. Yuko Shibata is the first Assistant Professor of Japanese in the hundred-fifty-year history of College of Saint Benedict and Saint John‟s University. Upon her arrival this fall 2009, she has been teaching a modern Japanese literature course entitled “Radical Fantasies: Contemporary Japanese Women Writers,” with a cross-listing with Gender and Women‟s Studies. She is also teaching the first-and second-year Japanese language courses that aim to simultaneously develop all four linguistic skills: speaking, listening, reading, and writing. In the spring of 2010, she will offer the third-year Japanese language course. She received a Ph.D. in East Asian Literature at Cornell University in August 2009. The title of her dissertation is “Transnational Images of Hiroshima and Nagasaki: Knowledge Production and the Politics of Representation.” She has earned degrees and worked in three different areas of the world. After graduating from Tsuda College, Tokyo, with a B. A. in International and Cultural Studies, she worked as a journalist for nine years for one of the leading newspaper companies in Japan, The Asahi Shimbun. There she covered a wide range of transnational, racial, gender, class, and cultural issues, and published four team-authored books as well as countless articles in The Asahi Shimbun, AERA, Shukan Asahi, and The Asahi Evening News. Following this, she obtained an M. A. in Literary and Cultural Studies at the University of Hong Kong and taught business and advanced Japanese language courses to professional students at the ConsulateGeneral of Japan at Hong Kong, and the Hong Kong Trade Development Council. She hopes that her academic, cultural, and experiential backgrounds can help to enhance the dynamism, strength, and diversity of the CSB/SJU community. Dr. Sushmita Hodges is teaching a course on Gandhi, Nationalism and Islamic movements in India this semester at CSB/SJU. A native of India, Dr. Hodges lived in New Delhi until graduate school, when she moved to the United States. She earned a B.A. with honors in history Photo courtesy Flat Classroom Conference from Lady Shri Ram College in New Delhi and an M.A. in history from Delhi University as well as an M.A. in history and a Ph.D. in social science from Ball State University. Dr. Hodges has taught at Indiana University South Bend and is currently a world history teacher in the Upper School at St. Paul Academy (SPA) in Saint Paul, Minnesota. She also teaches a summer course on the South Asian immigrant experience in the U.S. at Hamline University. At the university level Hodges has taught courses in Labor Studies, 20th Century World History and Race, Class, Gender. At SPA she teaches world history with a focus on global—especially non-Western—perspectives. She has developed the school‟s first course in Multicultural Studies and new senior electives in Honors World History and t

FAQs

What trip is highlighted in this issue?

The issue features a Men’s Center sponsor trip to India and Nepal, starting with an arrival experience in New Delhi and noting an early touring schedule across major cities.

Who is introduced as a new faculty member specializing in Japanese literature?

Dr. Yuko Shibata is described as the first Assistant Professor of Japanese, teaching a modern Japanese literature course and Japanese language courses across multiple levels.

How does the Asian Studies Program encourage student involvement?

The program announces it is available to students via a Facebook group, inviting more students to join and access the program online.

Sep 14, 2026

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