Karen Oster

Chair of Performing Arts Karen Oster uses her experiences at the East-West Center to take the DRAMA out of Drama by infusing her Introduction to Acting and Through Another Window course with Asian philosophical practices.  Through meditation, readings, and group activities, Professor Oster builds community and transforms learning.

Through Another Window Syllabus

Introduction to Chinese Culture: Through Another Window

Professor Oster discusses how her work at the East-West Center influenced a shift in perspective.

Specifics on how Eastern Philosophy is infused in her courses

Peter Hershock

This lecture Valuing Diversity: Buddhist Reflection on Equity and Education and discussion at the Harvard Divinity School features Peter Hershock, director of the Asian Studies Development Program at the East-West Center in Honolulu. Trained at Yale University and the University of Hawai’i in both Western and Asian philosophy, Hershock makes use of Buddhist thought and practice to address such contemporary issues as technology and development, education, human rights, and the role of values in cultural and social change.

The lecture highlights themes and ideas Peter first presented at the EWC-ASDP NEH workshop in 2012.

His recent NEH lecture delivered at Middlesex Community College in February 2013 is Buddhism in Contemporary China.  Click on the title for extended notes of the talk.  Video of the presentation is forthcoming.

Julien Farland

As a member of the first year team to attend the East-West Center’s Asian Studies Development Program’s (ASDP) Infusing Asian Studies into the Curriculum Summer Institute, Professor of Philosophy Julien Farland discusses the importance of ASDP and how it has influenced his work at Middlesex.

Suggested readings in Asian philosophy are below.  These readings provide an introduction for assignments in philosophy, literature, history, and others.  To understand Asia, students must first understand the philosophy the culture is grounded in.  These readings help supply that grounding.

Analects of Confucius

Introduction to Daodejing

Asian Texts – Asian Contexts

Yuan Dao: Tracing Dao to its Source

In the Beginning…

The First Group

Reasons for Globalizing

This video series provides a rich resource for instructors interested including curriculum modules on understanding the culture of Asia.

The Wisdom of Faith with Huston Smith and Bill Moyers:

All religions, at their core, are the same: this remarkable claim is made by Huston Smith, bestselling author and professor of comparative religion at Syracuse University, M.I.T., and the University of California, Berkeley.  Smith learned about Chinese language, culture, and religion while growing up near Shanghai, and from his life long study, he explains how the intertwining of opposites is key to understanding the great religions of China: Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism. Smith shows that Eastern religions provide an emphasis on direct experience and a method for attaining that.

His book The World’s Religions has sold more than 2 ½ million copies worldwide since 1959, and is considered one of the defining treatises on the subject. In this series of conversations with renowned journalist Bill Moyers, Smith provides thoughtful insights into the world’s largest religions with these compelling episodes: Hinduism and Buddhism, Confucianism, Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and A Personal Philosophy.  Taken at their best, they provide universal truths that unite and define the human spirit.

Explore Non-Western musical forms through the work of Chinary Ung and his piece for solo viola Khse Buon performed by Mark Berger.  In the attachment below, Mark has set the context for the piece, helping us understand the cultural intersections.

This curriculum unit would work well for music, literature, theatre, and art classes.

Khse Buon

The curriculum video of Mark performing Khse Buon will be up soon.

Carmen Peralta & Mark Berger

Carmen Peralta, Chair of the Music Performing Arts Department and Concert Pianist, and Mark Berger, Instructor of Music and Violist, discuss how to incorporate World Music into your courses through the Sonata and Rhondo forms. Check out the videos and curriculum tips and background information.

Globalization isn’t just a recent phenomenon.  Classical musical forms have been influenced by many different cultures.  Take Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Sonata in G Major from the EnlightenmentRevoutionary Period.  This musical form gives insight into the cultural norms of Europe and a new America.

The Sonata

Theme and Variation Form

Mozart’s Rondo alla turca has clear Turkish influence.

Rondo Form

Rhondo Explanation:  Rondo

“Music sets us in motion—dancing, marching, or just tapping our toes. The combination of music and motion can also lead to an emotional response, making one feel romantic, patriotic, or just happy or sad,” says Thalia Wheatley (pictured left), assistant professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Dartmouth, from the Communicating Emotion article below.

Articles and reports that may be of interest for you and your students:

Communicating Emotion: How Music and Movement Can Make This Happen

Paola Zamperini

Gail Mooney