Jamie Mosel, a double major in History and Biology, has been awarded a Fulbright for study and research in Japan for the 2012-13 academic year. Jamie’s Fulbright plans reflect her integrative, interdisciplinary approach to learning. Her program will be anchored by Professor Takayoshi Koike’s invitation to participate in research on plant recovery in forest ecosystems at the University of Hokkaido Silviculture and Forest Ecology Lab. Jamie will also be mentored by Professor Koike in the study of shinrinbigaku, a distinctive Japanese tradition linked to the religion and spirituality of Shintoism that studies forests for their aesthetic value. She’ll also be alert to opportunities that might allow her to learn more of the traditions of the Ainu, an indigenous people whose beliefs and practices regarding the treatment of forests provide another layer of complexity to forest ecology in Japan. These less formal opportunities will expose her to exactly the sort of deep cultural contextualization of the policies and practices of stewardship of the land that has provided such an important motif in her undergraduate program at St. Olaf.

Eric Becklin, a double major in History and Asian Studies, has been awarded a Fulbright for study and research in China for the 2012-13 academic year. Eric proposes to study archaeological artifacts left behind by the thirteenth-century Nestorian Christianity in Quanzhou, China, an important seaport in Southeast China. The Nestorian Church – more accurately but less commonly known as the Church of the East – first appeared in seventh-century China and had a significant presence in the Tang capital of Chang’an. While Tang Nestorianism originated among Persian Christian immigrants who came overland across Central Asia, the Nestorians in the Quanzhou appear to have been part of the maritime trade with Western Asia. Eric will examine the imagery of Nestorian artifacts to recreate a representation of the Quanzhou Nestorian community. He’ll catalog the exhibits at the Quanzhou Maritime Museum, collaborating with Xie Bizhen at Fujian Normal University. Although the Nestorian presence in Tang Chang’an is well studied, Eric’s work will further our knowledge of the later Nestorian presence in a maritime area during the era of Mongol rule.