August 22, 2005

The Freeman Foundation has awarded Lyon College a $20,000 grant to enhance the study of Japanese language, literature, and culture.

The Freeman Foundation funds projects that promote mutual understanding between the people of the United States and Asia. Japan Studies Program at Lyon College has received similar grants from the foundation since 2002.

Mieko U. Peek, instructor of Japanese language and literature at Lyon, said she intends to use the grant to enhance and develop new curricular offerings, for a Japanese speech contest, workshops for local K-12 teachers, a lecture series, and other campus-based programs serving the college and the surrounding community.

Lyon College’s innovative Japan Studies Program is beginning its fourth year. Lyon is one of only four colleges/universities in the state to offer Japanese studies, and Lyon’s is the only one in the eastern half of the state that provides advanced courses, so students learn more than just the language.

The Japan Lecture Series, which is funded by the grant, is in its third year at Lyon.

This year, Dr. Anne Prescott of the East Asian Studies Center at Indiana University will present a program on the koto, a 13-string instrument, on Oct. 27. Dr. Scott Schnell, author of The Rousing Drum: Ritual Practice in a Japanese Community and a professor at the University of Iowa, will visit in March.

The Japan Studies Program is part of Lyon’s commitment to enhance the cultural understanding and global opportunities of Lyon students, Mrs. Peek said.

Mrs. Peek, a native of Kumagaya, Japan, holds master’s degrees from International Christian University in Tokyo and the University of Northern Iowa. Before moving to Batesville, she served as the director of the Japan Studies Program at Louisiana State University in Shreveport.

One of Mrs. Peek’s students, Tristen Dean, won first place in a regional Japanese speech contest in New Orleans last spring.

Please visit http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/mpeek/japanwebpages/ for more information on the developing programs on Japan at Lyon College.