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General
The Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures (DEALL) in the College of Arts and Sciences at The Ohio State University is one of the largest programs of its kind in the United States. It offers undergraduate degrees in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean language and literature. The graduate program offers the M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in both Chinese and Japanese in the disciplines of literature, linguistics, and language pedagogy. DEALL's undergraduate language programs offer one of the most extensive and diverse curricula in the country. They include innovative programs such as the Individualized Track and the Intensive Track language programs, which are offered throughout the regular academic year, as well as the Intensive Track Summer Language Immersion Programs in Chinese and Japanese. Furthermore, DEALL offers an impressive array of specialized courses in the summer including intensive workshops designed to instruct teachers of Chinese and Japanese in the art of language teaching at both the college and secondary school levels. DEALL faculty also teach many courses in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean literature, linguistics, folklore, culture, and film.
The Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures was established as an academic department in 1970. Prior to that, the Division of East Asian Languages and Literatures, established in 1962, offered the BA in Chinese and Japanese and, starting in 1967, the MA in Chinese literature. The Ph.D. in Chinese was established in 1969, followed by the establishment of Japanese MA in 1971 and in 1988 of the Ph.D. in Japanese. In 2005, the BA in Korean was added. From a division of three professors (William S-y Wang, Eugene Ching and Charles Fillmore), DEALL has grown substantially to having 19 full-time faculty in 2017.
From 1989 to 1991, the Department was awarded an Academic Challenge Grant from the State of Ohio for its innovative and excellent program in Japanese Studies. This grant facilitated Japan related research activities throughout the College of Humanities at the time and provided for the hiring of one Japan specialist in history and another in Japanese literature.
Mission
The mission of the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures is to advance and disseminate knowledge of the languages, literatures, and cultures of East Asia. The Department comprises faculty members whose work ranges across several areas of inquiry; three geographical and cultural regions of East Asia, namely, China, Japan, and Korea; and various periods of history. The Department is committed to maintaining and enhancing its national and international reputation in research, education, and professional service.
The Faculty
DEALL currently has 19 full-time faculty, half of whom are female. It is one of the most active and productive of any East Asian studies faculty in the country, with the publication of over thirty books in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean literature, linguistics and language pedagogy, and numerous articles and conference presentations. It is also the former site of the Journal of the Chinese Language Teachers Association, which was edited by faculty members for nearly fifteen years. As of January 1998, it has hosted the Chinese Language Teachers Association home page, maintained by Prof. Marjorie Chan and co-hosted by the College of Arts and Sciences and the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures. DEALL is also the home of the journal, Modern Chinese Literature and Culture, edited by Kirk Denton. Other Web sites maintained by DEALL faculty include Professor Mari Noda's SPEAC home page for the Summer Program East Asian Concentration, Professor Kirk Denton's MCLC Resource Center, and Professor Marjorie Chan's North American Conference on Chinese Linguistics (NACCL) and Chinese Oral and Performing Literature (CHINOPERL) websites.
Faculty have organized a number of workshops, symposia, and conferences over the years. They have received research grants from such organizations and agencies as the American Council of Learned Societies, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Stanford Humanities Center, the Ohio Humanities Council, and the Social Science Research Council. In addition, several faculty have received Japan Foundation and Fulbright-Hays fellowships, as well as a grants from the Chiang Ching-kuo (CCK) Foundation. One faculty was named a National Foreign Language Center Fellow, and another was selected as one of the University's first Lilly Foundation Fellows. Four faculty have been awarded Fulbrights, two to do research in Japan, and two in China. One faculty member was a visiting scholar at Tohoku University, holding one of the most prestigious positions available for an American scholar of Japanese. One faculty member was a visiting associate professor at both Harvard University and Chung-hsing University (2010). DEALL faculty have been the recipients of China Language and Culture Friendship Award (from the PRC Ministry of Education) and Republic of Korea's Civil Merit Medal of Honor.
A number of faculty are regularly involved in exciting study abroad programs to China and Japan. Faculty are also engaged in consultation with business and industry and evaluation of programs at other universities. Consultations with businesses include the teaching of Japanese or Chinese to employees of Battelle, Borg-Warner, and Honda. Faculty have evaluated programs at Bryn Mawr, Wittenberg, Berkeley, and Connecticut College, among others.