Prof. Cheryl Vann Works Summer Workshops Into Honors Courses

Students aren’t the only ones who put their summers to productive use, or even study abroad!
University Honors Program professor Cheryl Vann was one of 20 college faculty from around the country selected to participate in the Japan Studies Association’s Creating Kyoto Workshop this past summer in Kyoto, Japan.
The workshop includes lectures on The Tale of Genji and The Tale of the Heike and noh plays deriving from these works, as well as Japanese Buddhism and Shinto and Japanese women and the arts from medieval times to the 21st century.
In addition to visiting numerous temples and shrines, Professor Vann attended a noh theater performance and a workshop led by Kanze school actor Kawamura Haruhisa. She finished the workshop with a two-day stay at Mt. Koya, the Shingon Buddhist complex founded by Kukai in the 9th century. Professor Vann will share what she learns immediately by incorporating some of this material into the Japan portion of her fall course “Swords, Scimitars, and Six-shooters: Japan, India, and the US in Film and Story.”