Three faculty members in the Asian Studies Department are publishing books this fall:

• Jianfen Wang has edited Performed Culture in Action to Teach Chinese as a Foreign Language: Integrating PCA into Curriculum, Pedagogy, and Assessment (Routledge, 2022) with Professor Junqing (Jessie) Jia of Hamilton College. This book explores best practices in implementing the Performed Culture Approach (PCA) in teaching Chinese as a foreign language (CFL).

• Jeff Richey has expanded his 2013 book, Confucius in East Asia: Confucianism’s History in China, Korea, Japan, and Viet Nam, which now is available in a second, revised edition from Columbia University Press as part of the Association for Asian Studies (AAS)’ Key Issues in Asian Studies series. The new version incorporates analysis of Confucianism’s impact on how East Asian societies have responded to recent events such as the global coronavirus epidemic, the Summer Olympics in Tokyo, and recent legal developments and social media trends.

• Lauren McKee also is publishing a volume in the AAS’ Key Issues in Asian Studies series, Japanese Government and Politics (Columbia University Press, 2022). Her book takes a comparative approach to Japanese politics, covering topics such as political parties and elections, civil society, bureaucracy, and foreign relations, and shows that strengthening democratic institutions is an ongoing struggle throughout much of the world, including Japan.

Congratulations to these faculty authors!