Co-coordinator

Dennis Hart

Associate Professor
Political Science
dhart@kent.edu
Main Hall 440
Tel: 330-499-9600, ext. 440
www.personal.kent.edu/~dhart

Ph.D. University of Washington, 1991.

Dr. Hart is the Co-coordinator of the Asian Studies Minor. Beginning in June, 2008, Dr. Hart will move to the University of Pittsburgh and serve as Associate Director of their Asian Studies Center.

Dr. Hart's research and teaching interests include nationalism, culture and identity, and East Asian Politics. His current book project is titled Politics and Culture in North and South Korea and will appear with Routledge press.  He has lived, studied, and worked in South Korea for over 8 years.

Dr. Hart has received or been nominated 11 times for a variety of teaching awards, including the Distinguished Teaching Award for Kent State University in 2007. He was included in Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers in 2002 and 2004.

Co-coordinator

James Tyner

Associate Professor
Geography
jtyner@kent.edu
437 McGilvrey Hall
Tel: 330-672-7863

Ph.D. University of Southern California, 1995.

James Tyner’s interests coalesce around migration, gender, race, and urbanization. In his research and teaching, he employs a variety of methodologies (qualitative and quantitative) and theoretical perspectives (post-structural, feminist). He has traveled and conducted research throughout Asia, including the Philippines, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore, Japan, and Hong Kong.

He currently serves as Co-Chair of the Sexuality and Space Specialty Group of the AAG; Board Member of the Population Specialty Group of the AAG; Co-coordinator of the Asian Studies Minor at Kent State; and has affiliate status in the Women's Studies Program at Kent State.

Shawn Banasick

Assistant Professor
Geography
sbanasic@kent.edu
439 McGilvrey Hall
Tel: 330-672-5836

Ph.D., West Virginia, 2001

Shawn Banasick’s research interests include regional political economy, industrial restructuring, labor studies, and social theory.  In particular, he is interested in the social construction of geographic scale in relation to the restructuring of industrial production and work practices.

One of his more recent publications is "Military Bases and Sustainable Economic Development in Okinawa," in the International Journal of Environmental, Cultural, Economic and Social Sustainability.

Dr. Banasick has lived and worked in Japan for five years. He has also received the Distinguished Teaching Award for the College of Arts and Sciences.

Leslie Heaphy

Associate Professor
History
lheaphy@stark.kent.edu
Main Hall
Tel: 330-499-9600

Ph.D. Toledo University

Leslie Heaphy teaches a variety of courses on Asian history for kent State University. These include Chinese Civilization, History of Modern China, History of Japan, and Colloquium: China and Japan.

She was awarded the Distinguished Teaching Award in 2004 for Kent State Stark and she is the director of the Honors Program for Kent State Stark.

Patti Kameya

Assistant Professor
History
Pkameya@kent.edu
Bowman Hall

Ph.D. University of Chicago, 2006.

Dr. Kameya specializes in the cultural and intellectual history of Tokugawa Japan (1600 to 1868). Her research and teaching interests include gender, the formation of national identity, intellectual exchange within Northeast Asia, and the borderlands such as Okinawa and Hokkaido.

She recently presented her research as part of the of the panel "Reclaiming the Marginalized Voice in Japanese History" at the American Historical Association 2005 meeting in Seattle.

Dr. Kameya was awarded the Mellon Dissertation Fellowship. Her dissertation was Paupers, Poets, and Paragons: The Meaning of Eccentricity in Kinsei kinjinden (Eccentrics of our times, 1790)."

Hongshan Li

Associate Professor
History
hli@kent.edu
Tel: 330-339-3391

Dr. Li teaches courses on East Asia and Chinese history, including Chinese Civilization and History of Modern China.

He is the author of many books, including East Asia and the United States: An Encyclopedia of Relations Since 1784,  Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2002, Image, Perception, and the Making of U.S.-China Relations,and China and the United States. He has presented at the American Historical Association (2003, 2004) and University Teaching Council (2003).
 
In 2004, Dr. Li was a recepient of the OYCF Teaching Fellowhship and taught a course at the Advanced Research Center in Wuhan University in Wuhan, People's Repubic of China. He is also the president of the Chinese Historians in the United States.

Judy Wakabayashi

Associate Professor
Modern and Classical Languages
Jwakabay@kent.edu
307F Satterfield Hall
Tel: 330-672-1819

Ph.D. University of Queensland

Dr. Wakabayashi's teaching and research interests include Japanese-English translation, the history of translation in Japan, translation studies, translation pedagogy, and translation theory.  Accredited as an Advanced Translator (Japanese-English) by the National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters in Australia, Dr Wakabayashi is the translator of several non-fiction books and the author of various articles on translation

Her latest publications include: Asian Translation Traditions, Eva Hung and Judy Wakabayashi, eds. Manchester, UK & Northampton MA: St. Jerome Publishing, 2005.
 
"Representations of translators and translation in Japanese fiction." Linguistica Antverpiensia 4, 2005, 155-169.

"The Reconceptualization of Translation from Chinese in 18th Century Japan". In Eva Hung (ed.) Translation and Cultural Change: Studies in History, Norms and Image-projection. John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2005, 119-145.

Jay Lee

Associate Professor
Geography
jlee@kent.edu
McGilvrey Hall
Tel: 330-672-3222

Ph.D. University of Maryland, College Park, 2001.

Dr. Jay Lee's research interest stems from a broader view of theories and applications in geographic information science. His research projects range from specific applications in GIS for communities or regional planning, Internet-based GIS, to ceptual studies such as accuracy/errors of GIS data.

Dr. Jay Lee leads a study tour to China for students. The study tour takes students to Beijing, Xian, Shanghai, Sunzhou, Hangzhou, and Wuxi.

JungHyun Kim

Assistant Professor
School of Communication Studies
jkim23@kent.edu
Tel: 330-672-0285

B.A., Seoul National University, Korea
M.A., Seoul National University
Ph.D., Michigan State University

Interests: Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC), Social and Psychological Effects of New Media Technologies, Internet User Habit and Addiction

Using working experience as a news reported for a major new media company and an Internet business manager for a telecommunication company in Korea, Jung pursued her Ph.D. focusing on new media behavior as well as the impact of new media on individuals and society. Currently, she focuses on investigating how people form as well as how people break unregulated computer/Internet use habits. She also examines how to use virtual self-representation (i.e. avatars) for lessening negative inter-group stereotypes in cyberspace. Jung is currently teaching Communication Research Methods.

Surinder Bhardwaj

Professor (Emeritus)
Geography
Rm. 436 McGilvrey Hall
Tel: 330-672-2046

Ph.D., Minnesota, 1970.
Dr. Surinder Bhardwaj, as associate of the Harvard Pluralism Project, is currently interested in studying the emerging cultural/religious diversity in Ohio. Focus is on the immigrants since 1965 when the US immigration laws greatly changed. He remains interested in research on India's health issues, and pilgrimage as a symbol of identity.

Esook Yoon

Assistant Professor
Political Science
eyoon@kent.edu
Bowman Hall
Tel: 330-672-2060

Ph.D. University of Maryland, College Park, 2001.

EsookYoon's teaching and research interests include: environmental policyand politics, international relations, international political economy,comparative politics, East Asia

Dr. Yoon is currently conducting research at Inha University in South Korea. Her publications include:

Trends of Environmental Cooperation in Northeast Asia, The United Nations University Working Paper, 1999.
Environmental Cooperation in Northeast Asia: Progress to Date in Miranda Schreur's and Dennis Pirages eds. Ecological Security in Northeast Asia, Seoul: Yonsei University Press, 1998.