College of Alameda has been selected as one of 15 colleges in the nation to participate in a National Endowment of Humanities grant, Thinking through Cultural Diversity: Bridging Cultural Differences in Asian Traditions. The three-year project will involve “fifteen community colleges organized in five geographic clusters, and will place different understandings of culture and plurality in dialogue with the aim of deepening engagement with issues of cultural interaction, civility, and diversity in a global context.
With a focus on China and Southeast Asia, the project will explore how the arts, literature, knowledge systems, religious traditions and trade serve as cultural bridges; how different conceptions of personhood and community afford distinctive resources for engaging issues of cultural plurality; and how Asian perspectives on cultural difference might complement those that are prevalent in American undergraduate classrooms. Participants in the project will work collaboratively to develop curricula and research related to Asian cultures and societies and the project theme of cultural diversity.”
College of Alameda will work in a geographic cluster with City College of San Francisco and Mission College. The project will focus on Southeast Asia, specifically Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. The project is organized around a progressive series of activities beginning in Summer 2012 with an 8-day summer symposium hosted at the East-West Center in Honolulu.
For more information, please contact Dr Kerry Compton, Vice President of Student Services, at kcompton@peralta.edu or 510-748-2204 or President Jannett Jackson at 510-748-2273 or jjackson@peralta.edu.
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