Q1. Your fondest memory/memories of DEALL during your chairmanship?
Q2. Your expectations for DEALL’s future?
Q3. Other reminiscences, messages, or comments?
William S-Y. Wang
Your years as DEALL chair: 1962-1963
Q3. Reminiscences
My years at OSU, though brief, were a very significant period in my academic career. I was appointed as an Assistant Professor in the Department of English. Shortly after I arrived, I was approached by Dean Todd Furniss and given the mission of building a department of Linguistics and a department of East Asian Languages and Literatures. These two departments started as divisions, and had a productive and synergistic relationship.
The first colleague I brought in was my close friend, Charles J. Fillmore, and shortly after, another close friend, Ilse Lehiste, joined us. Charles, Ilse, and I were fellow students in the same laboratory at the University of Michigan. I introduced the first courses in general linguistics and in Chinese, and in the following year, Charles offered courses in general linguistics and in Japanese. In addition to several exciting colleagues who joined us later, including Terry Langendoen and Terry Kaufman, we also had excellent graduates who went on to distinguished careers. They included Mantaro Hashimoto (橋本萬太郎) and Anne Yue (余蔼芹), a couple who married at my home on Olentangy Blvd, as well as Sandra Thompson, née Annear. The interaction among us was warm and extremely nourishing.
I thoroughly enjoyed carrying out this mission of building the two divisions until I was called to the University of California at Berkeley as a Professor of Linguistics. Berkeley has a double allure for me because my father studied there, and because, for a long time, I have been a fan of Y. R. Chao (赵元任), who was teaching there. As it turned out, Charles joined me at Berkeley soon after. We frequently reminisced about OSU, where we spent happy and important formative years.
Timothy Light
Your years as DEALL chair: 1980-1986
Q1. Your fondest memory/memories of DEALL during your chairmanship?
My strongest memory of DEALL was exhaustion. But that was mitigated a bit by DIETHER’s recognizing us in future rising budgets
Q2. Your expectations for DEALL’s future?
DEALL is already recognized as a (=THE) premier American institution in language teaching of EA LGS. MY GUESS IS TODAY THAT MUST INCLUDE A LOT MORE AND WILL CONTINUE TO GROW.
We may not ever be ranked with the older and more famous. But those who see the clearest
Will know!!
Q3. Other reminiscences, messages, or comments?
In looking back over the past 30 or 40 years my time at OSU REMAINS THE MOST SATISFYING OF MY CAREER. MOST OF THAT IS OWING TO HAVING WONDERFUL COLLEAGUES!!!
Shigeru Miyagawa
Your years as DEALL chair: 1988-1991
Q1. Your fondest memory/memories of DEALL during your chairmanship?
Let me begin by telling you that the 11 years I spent in DEALL were the most exciting years of my career. I started my career there, learned a few new tricks, and made many new friends. We experienced a huge growth in the 1980s while I was there, which was fun.
I remember fondly the many students I got to work with. They taught me as much as — actually more than — what I taught them. With mentoring from people like Tim Light and Galal Walker, I learned something about language pedagogy, and the work I did with the language program was exhilarating. Along with language, I was asked to teach the culture course. That laid the foundation for my later work on Visualizing Cultures with the Pulitzer-Prize winning historian, John Dower, at MIT. I worked with 20 or more graduate students closely; they made it possible for me to write my first book. My first Ph.D. was Takako Aikawa, who is now at MIT as a Senior Lecturer in Japanese. Many others have gone on to wonderful careers in academia and beyond.
Q2. Your expectations for DEALL’s future?
DEALL has been a leader in training academics who are superb language instructors. I expect this role to continue. I also expect DEALL to engage, as it has before, in innovations to push the boundaries of pedagogy for language teaching and learning.
Q3. Other reminiscences, messages, or comments?
It was sad that the DEALL 50th Anniversary could not take place. But by the sheer effort that went into planning it, you brought all of us together, and I thank you.
Thomas Kasulis
Your years as DEALL chair: 1993-1995
Q1. Your fondest memory/memories of DEALL during your chairmanship?
I arrived at OSU in 1991 as a professor in Comparative Studies. I reluctantly interrupted my research projects in 1993, however, to accept the Dean’s request to chair DEALL for two years. He needed my administrative expertise to oversee an overdue curricular and organizational overhaul. After we streamlined the curriculum and administrative procedures, the faculty turned to the DEALL mission statement. In it we placed a heightened emphasis on the theme of performance as construed in its widest sense of communication, teaching, or artistic expression through language. That mission statement later buttressed our argument for hiring Chan Park in a time of university cutbacks, solidifying our Korean program when the College had been questioning its future. In retrospect I am glad I overcame my initial reluctance in accepting the chairmanship. It enabled me to collaborate with a wonderful group of colleagues and to help DEALL crystalize its goals at a critical point in its history.
Q2. Your expectations for DEALL’s future?
With East Asia’s expanding presence in global affairs, it is more critical than ever for our students to understand the region. Such an understanding involves using the study of language and culture to engage East Asia and not merely to learn about it. So I would expect DEALL to continue to perform collaborative learning across boundaries, whether those boundaries be disciplinary, institutional, or international.
Q3. Other reminiscences, messages, or comments?
A humorous artifact from the past. In updating DEALL’s course offerings, our committee puzzled over why two lower numbered courses on traditional Chinese literary topics had higher numbered courses as prerequisites. We eventually learned that when some courses were originally approved decades earlier, Chinese numerology guided their numbering.
Name: Galal Walker
Your years as DEALL chair: 1995-1996
Q1. Your fondest memory/memories of DEALL during your chairmanship?
In 1995, I was asked and then told to serve as Chair until we could find someone who would fill the position properly. So, I was very happy to make the connection with Jim Unger, who was attracted to OSU from the University of Maryland. During my time in the Cunz Hall office, it seemed that DEALL had the potential for developing a “performance” oriented East Asian Humanities program through the work of Professors Shelley Quinn in Japanese and Marjorie Chan in Chinese so I was pleased to initiate the hire of Dr. Chan Park from the University of Hawaii who was the ideal person to introduce the Korean element to this concept. Dr. Mark Bender, a DEALL PhD, was also contributing to this aspect in the area of minority literature. The College Dean was against hiring our own PhD for the traditional reasons, but he was convinced by arguments of DEALL faculty and the new Chair Jim Unger that Mark and DEALL were a unique fit for both programmatic and practical (i.e., enrollments) reasons. These were encouraging developments.
During the time I was Chair of DEALL, the OSU College of Humanities was headed by Dean Kermit Hall, who despite being a legal scholar was enthusiastic about the Humanities, especially Humanities studies that involved other cultures. The College under Dean Hall encouraged program development, new ideas, and seeking outside funding–assisted by financial aid and budgeting policies that let department budgets accommodate new programs and visions. We all saw a future of growth and development in East Asian studies and acted in that spirit. During these years, Dean Hall managed to convince the University to move most of the foreign languages and cultures department to Hagerty Hall, a more central location on the Oval. Debbie Knicely became the DEALL administrator and has contributed immeasurably to the affective and effective aspects of our daily lives. For me the optimism lasted until Dean Hall left for a provost position in North Carolina and the College was provided deans from History and English. The College of Humanities was tamed and eventually diminished in order to conform to the ideas of competing parts of OSU and the administration’s infatuation with corporate organizational models (Enron, Sears, Victoria’s Secrets anyone?) for academic success and development.
Q2. Your expectations for DEALL’s future?
The immediate future of DEALL is challenging. Initiatives and programmatic innovations have been moved out of the departments and international connections are not supported. Promising programs such as SPEAC (the summer program for training East Asian language teachers) were destroyed by impossible budgetary demands at the College level. Pursuing outside funding was discouraged in terms of budgetary demands placed on departments which made program development impossible while sustaining academic programs. I have recently been told by the OSU Research Office that the US Defense Department has a deciding influence on with whom we can work on projects and which funding sources we can seek. Having worked on projects with the Defense Department as an advisor for a couple of decades, I find this a discouraging development.
However, things can change. There’s the hope…if we want to fight for it.
Name: J. Marshall Unger
Your years as DEALL chair: 1996-2004
For the curious, it’s James, for an uncle, not John, for an early Chief Justice (or George the great Secretary of State). When I started publishing in 1971, there was already a J. M. Unger in the Bibliography of Asian Studies, so I have always used J, Marshall in print. (The other guy is Jonathan Mark Unger, a Chinese sociologist at ANU in Canberra whom I eventually met.)
Q1. Your fondest memory/memories of DEALL during your chairmanship?
Over eight years, I accumulated innumerable memories—some pleasant, some not so pleasant, but “fond” is hard to pin down. If I try to think of things that give me a feeling of having accomplished something positive, the time I hired Mark Bender comes to mind. I had to persuade our formidable Dean Kermit Hall that Mark was the right choice for the job even though all his degrees were from OSU, which some people felt was disqualifying. Mark has more than lived up to my expectations. I was also thrilled that Mari Noda did such a great job as my successor.
Q2. Your expectations for DEALL’s future?
The future is too uncertain at the moment to predict much of anything. I certainly hope DEALL thrives in the years ahead, particularly its graduate programs.
Q3. Other reminiscences, messages, or comments?
General Stillwell (“Vinegar Joe”), an astute student of Asia and avid learner of Chinese, famously quipped, Illegitimi non carborundum. I recommend that as a motto for DEALL.
Name: Mari Noda
Your years as DEALL chair: 2004-2008 and 2009-2013
Q1. Your fondest memory/memories of DEALL during your chairmanship?
DEALL grew qualitatively during the years that I was chair, despite some challenges imposed by budget reallocations. My fondest memory span over the entire time that I served as chair, as I was able to oversee a number of promotion cases. For a long time, DEALL was a department with a single full professor. Then full professors were brought in from the outside to chair and prepare the department for the next phase. During those years, one DEALL faculty was promoted to full. I was happy to add seven more during my chairpersonship. Each of these and other promotion cases brought a sense of stride and pride for the unit.
Q2. Your expectations for DEALL’s future?
DEALL now has a different imbalance, where we have but one Assistant Professor. If we can turn that into a new opportunity, I believe the department can thrive in the very different environment we have stepped into. Through programmatic innovations directed at clear and concrete objectives, DEALL can make its mark again.
Q3. Other reminiscences, messages, or comments?
A few more moments that come to my reminiscing mind include: claiming Hagerty Hall as the home of language departments and as a global hub on campus in 2004; Saying a difficult good-bye to Professor William Tyler in 2009; Seeing through the switch from quarter to semester system in 2011; Trying to be entrepreneurial with limited results in 2013.
Name: Richard Torrance
Your years as DEALL chair: 2008-2009
Q1. Your fondest memory/memories of DEALL during your chairmanship?
I was Acting Chair for only one year during the time the elected Chair, Mari Noda, was doing research in Japan. I was gratified that Debbie Knicely and my colleagues in DEALL helped me get through several crises, from which we emerged and were able to return the department in stable condition to Mari’s capable leadership.
Q2. Your expectations for DEALL’s future?
The university is facing an unprecedented convergence of economic, political, and health emergencies, but these should pass. Given the strong interest in Korea, China and Japan and DEALL’s excellent faculty, the department should be able to maintain its leadership position in the teaching and research of East Asian languages and literature.
Q3. Other reminiscences, messages, or comments?
The death of William Tyler was a great loss for our department. I remember it with sadness. I was kind of proud of holding the shortest faculty meetings on record, though these days I miss our in-person faculty meetings.
Name: Mark Bender
Your years as DEALL chair: Autumn 2013 to present
Q1. Your fondest memory/memories of DEALL during your chairship?
I have enjoyed seeing many faculty projects progress, and some big projects come to fruition. It is exciting to see people passionately involved in their research and teaching over a span of years. I have been especially delighted in the many accomplishments of DEALL graduate and undergraduate students. I have come to realize that DEALL really has so much to offer in so many meaningful ways.
Q2. Your expectations for DEALL’s future?
I expect DEALL to continue to administer to the needs of students interested in East Asia. I hope that we will continue to have a diverse faculty and student body who will contribute in their various ways to this society and the world. I hope that DEALL continues as a multi-dimensional research department with a strong mission in teaching language, linguistics, literature, and culture. I appreciate the role that donors have played in making the DEALL mission possible.
Q3. Other reminiscences, messages, or comments?
My terms as chair have been one continuous learning experience. Every day presents new challenges and opportunities for growth in my perspectives on life in the university. I never contemplated that I would be chair, but it has been very rewarding. I also feel grateful that I have been able to keep up with my research and fieldwork.