A cooperative agreement for a three-year project on cultural pluralism in the context of East and Southeast Asian history and traditions for faculty and academic administrators from fifteen community colleges.

The East-West Center develops a professional and curriculum development project that engages community college faculty and academic administrators in an examination of "the historical dynamics of cultural interaction in China and Southeast Asia," focusing on the arts, literature, religious traditions, knowledge systems, and trade. Participating campuses are organized in geographically based clusters led by Middlesex Community College (MA), Community College of Philadelphia, Johnson County Community College (KS), City College of San Francisco, and Community College of Baltimore County. Project activities open with a ten-day symposium in Honolulu where participants engage in intensive study with leading scholars and develop plans for new courses or curricular revisions. Symposium readings include historical studies of East and Southeast Asia, The Analects of Confucius, and a philosophical examination of the concept of diversity, as well as supplemental readings on the regions drawn from history, politics, philosophy, religion, art, and literature. Over the next two years, Asian studies scholars visit each community college cluster in order to mentor participants as they implement plans developed at the opening symposium. In addition to conducting faculty development workshops, the mentors give public lectures. These activities are supplemented by an online conference featuring project-related research. The project concludes with a two-day conference (site to be determined). In addition to the project director, lead scholars include Thomas Kasulis (philosophy, Ohio State University), Stanley Murashige (art history, School of the Art Institute of Chicago), Morris Rossabi (history, Columbia University), and University of Hawai'i faculty members Roger Ames (philosophy), Paul Lavy (art history), and Barbara Andaya (history). Mentoring scholars are chosen based on the interests and needs of the participants.