The Japan ICU Foundation provides annual grants to projects and programs at ICU that support the international and Christian dimension of the university. All of the grants are initiated at the request of the president of ICU and approved by the trustees of the Japan ICU Foundation.
At the Japan ICU Foundation's Annual Trustees Meeting on March 7-9, 2008, the following proposals from ICU for 2008-2009 were approved by the Foundation:
An exhibition of eighty Japanese woodblock prints by Yoshu Chikanobu ($12,000)
Yoshu Chikanobu's works from 1875-1905 documented the rapid modernization of Japan in the 1870-80's, the resistance to Westernization in the 1890's and the promotion of alternatives perspectives on Japanese history and culture. This exhibition features 80 prints from the Scripps College collection chosen by Professor Bruce Coats. This will be the first major exhibition of Chikanobu prints in Japan.
A two day symposium held in conjunction with the Chikanobu exhibition ($7,000)
With the tentative title, "Meiji Japan: Modernity and Nostalgia," the symposium will explore how Japanese artists and thinkers came to terms with the Westernization of their country, either by promoting, resisting, or seeking some accommodation with the foreign. Leading scholars will be invited from Japan and outside of Japan to present papers, leading to a publication.
"A forum on E-Transformation and the Better Use of Information and Communications Technology in Higher Education" ($13,000).
A continuation of a Center of Excellence component which will lead to a larger conference on a topic related to Educational Technology in 2010 once the new conference facility, now in development, is ready.
A Symposium on Teaching Japanese to Heritage Students ($12,000)
Recent years have seen a surge in the number of "heritage" students studying Japanese. The language and cultural profiles of these students differs both from "returnee" students and from non-Japanese OYRs and degree seeking international students. Funds are requested to allow four leading Japanese language teachers from North America to present survey research results and to share information on ways to teach Japanese heritage students and returnee students.
A workshop on international service-learning in Asia focusing on "Lessons from the Past and Plans for the Future" ($14,000)
The goals of the workshop proposed are to discover positive as well as negative aspects of student exchanges between and among Service Learning Asia Network SLAN (established in 2004) institutions for International Service Learning (ISL) purposes.
Support for ICU's growing partnership with five academic institutions in the Nanjing area ($35,000)
In 2007-2008, the Japan ICU Foundation funded several projects that focused on increasing the collaboration between ICU and its partner institutions in Nanjing, China. Support in 2008-2009 will assist in covering the expenses for the next stage in the ICU-Nanjing University Drama Project and also develop a pilot program for a more long-term ICU-Hiroshima-Nanjing Peace Studies Program.
A Photography Contest and Exhibition for International Students ($5,000).
Photographs taken by study abroad students at ICU and ICU students studying abroad will be judged and exhibited. The winning photographs will be used to print ICU calendars.
The ICU-Nanjing University Project is an ongoing project that involves the collaborative efforts of a group of students from Nanjing University and ICU. In 2007, the students co-wrote, produced and starred in a play that was performed both in Nanjing and Tokyo. Their efforts resulted in international media coverage, and the project has been hailed as a wonderful example of improving relations between Japanese and Chinese.
