Title: Associate Professor, Humanities Program. Wake Forest
faculty member since 1994.
Education: BA, Cornell (1980); M.Arch., Univ. of Washington
(1986); MA, PhD Pennsylvania (1996)
When did you decide you
wanted to teach?
I’ve wanted to be a teacher
since I can remember. Both of my
parents were teachers. My father
was a sociologist at Boston University, and my mother was an early childhood
educator. I received my first
taste for teaching as an exchange student in Japan. The teachers appointed me an “honorary” teacher, gave me a
desk in the teacher’s room, and set up a schedule of guest appearances in classrooms
at my host brother’s junior high school.
I felt like a star!
What made you decide to
come to Wake Forest? What makes you stay?
Wake Forest’s commitment to
East Asian Studies and its vision for a curriculum with a strong international
component initially drew me here.
The excellent faculty, the great teaching opportunities I’ve experienced
since then in Art, Theatre, Communication, International Studies, Urban
Studies, and Sociology, and the highly motivated students in my courses have
made Wake Forest a great teaching and learning environment for me.
How did you become
interested in Chinese, Japanese, and East Asian cultures?
When I was in second grade, I
enrolled in a Sunday school program at the local Unitarian Church. Our topic for the year was Asian
culture, and our teacher led us through an incredible “journey” to foreign
lands through experiential exercises.
We constructed a giant Chinese dragon, and stenciled intricate Burmese
shadow puppets, putting on a dragon dance and a puppet show. The following year my father took the
family on a sabbatical around the world, including four weeks in Japan and a
side trip to Hong Kong. I fell in
love with Japan, and after a frustrating experience being unable to communicate
with the young woman in Tokyo who was assigned daycare duty for me and my
younger brother, I vowed to learn the language and come back to Japan some day.
My interest in Asian Studies
deepened in junior high, when I enrolled in a Sunday program in Chinese
language for children of native speakers.
In my senior year of high school I received a scholarship from Kawasaki
Heavy Industries for an exchange program with Youth For Understanding in
Tajimi, Japan, and renewed my love affair with the country, its people, and
culture.
Following completion of my undergraduate work at Cornell University
in Asian Studies, Anthropology and Linguistics, I pursued a Masters in
Architecture at the University of Washington and a Doctorate in City and
Regional Planning at the University of Pennsylvania, focusing in my research on
Japanese architecture and planning, the urban history of Tokyo, and Japanese
cultural studies.
What aspect of East
Asian culture have you adapted to fit your life that you find most helpful?
Probably the most benefit I
have received from my long-term exposure to East Asian culture and the
friendships I have developed is an expanded world view and an understanding of
the relative strengths and weaknesses of American culture. I hope that I have become more sensitive
and receptive to alternative ideas and viewpoints and more patient with
others. My five years in Japan has
certainly led me to a much deeper
appreciation of Japanese values, including those of harmony, integrity, the
steadfastness of friendships, and the aesthetic pursuit and appreciation of beauty.
What do you enjoy doing
when you’re not teaching?
In addition to being an
exercise nut, I love the outdoors, and enjoy hiking, swimming, and
sailing. As an amateur
architect, I also enjoy designing, and am currently renovating a room in my
home and creating a Japanese-style tea room.
Where would you most
like to travel and why?
I would most like to travel
to Bali and to the South Pacific and French Polynesia. These cultures have provided so much
inspiration to artists and sculptors.
I’ve read about their architecture and lush, tropical setting, and am
hoping to be inspired as well!