Kenyon College

German professors Gary L. Baker(Denison), Mareike Herrmann (College of Wooster), Paul Gebhardt (Kenyon) and Leo Riegert, Jr. (Kenyon) collaborated electronically and in person to revise an already existing course on German identity and immigration. The team introduced new materials to reflect changes since the course was last taught, particularly the rise of right-wing nationalist movements in Germany and Austria, and integrated additional literary/cultural texts into the course.

Kai Xie, Assistant Professor of Japanese (Kenyon College); Yumiko Tashiro, Visiting Assistant Professor of Japanese (Kenyon College); Sachiko Kondo, Lecturer in Japanese (Oberlin College); Miho Suzuki, Lecturer in Japanese (Oberlin College); and Ann Sherif, Professor of Japanese (Oberlin College) will collaborate to bring Shiegeko Sasamori, a survivor of the Hiroshima atomic bomb explosion, to Oberlin and Kenyon for public talks about her experience and peace-building activities.

Professor Hsiu-Chaung Deppman (Oberlin), Mellon Post-Doctoral Fellow Xin Zhang, and Professor Chengjuan Sun (Kenyon College) co-organized an international symposium at Oberlin College on February 28-March 2, 2019, to bring together scholars, scientists, musicians filmmakers and writers from China, Italy, and the US to discuss the impact of art on public discourse.

Anna Audinyan (Kenyon) and Michael Furman (College of Wooster) expanded their gaming program to assist students in gaining broader knowledge of Russian or former Soviet cities to complement the intermediate Russian curricula at both colleges.

Six Japanese professors and instructors from Denison, Kenyon, and Oberlin josted class visits, lectures, and artist workshops with kamikiri artist Hayashiya Niraku and Professor Kazumi Hatasa (Purdue University).

Professors Clara Román-Odio (Kenyon), Juan Armando Rojas Joo (Ohio Wesleyan), and Dosinda Alvite (Denison) coordinated their syllabi in three courses to provide enrichment activities for all their students on the topic of Latinx cultural production including a poetry reading, a lecture on Latina art, and a theater performance.

Professors Anna Aydinyan (Kenyon) and Tatiana Filimonova (Wooster) created a quiz game to increase their students’ cultural knowledge about Russian and former Soviet cities hosted at the College of Wooster.

Professors Mary Jane Cowles (Kenyon) and Laura Burch (Wooster) invited actor Tim Mooney to present a performance and lectures on the works of Molière to their classes and the broader communities on their campuses.

Professors of Chinese from Denison, Kenyon, Oberlin, and Wooster held a day-long seminar to present their materials and syllabi for teaching advanced Chinese language. They used this meeting to make plans for new initiatives and increased communication between the four departments. A second meeting and workshop in developing coursework and teaching strategies in advanced Chinese, including the initiation of the proposed 2018-19 collaborative distance language course, took place on January 27, 2018.