A National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) grant will establish a minor in Asian American Studies and support current ethnic studies courses and programming at Chapman University.

The $150,000 award announced in January is the largest NEH grant in the university’s history and just one of 208 awarded to universities, museums and other organizations across the country. It will further advance the strong 21st century humanities educational experience offered in Wilkinson College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, says Jennifer Keene, Ph.D., dean of Wilkinson.

“The NEH grant will offer critical support for next year’s Engaging the World: Leading the Conversation on Ethnic Studies initiative by helping us develop innovative curriculum that advances the conversation on diversity, equity and justice in our community,” said Keene. “This includes distributing George Takei’s graphic novel about his experiences in a Japanese American internment camp to all students enrolled in the Engaging the World FFC program and bringing him to campus to speak.”

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(Pictured above: Associate Professor Stephanie Takaragawa, Ph.D., leads a panel discussion on Japanese-American incarceration at the 2021 university event Tsunami of Memory. The new Asian American studies minor supported by the NEH will help bring similar events to the university.)