Write About Asia is a recurring, annual writing workshop offered by the East Asia Resource Center at the University of Washington in conjunction with the Seattle Asian Art Museum’s (SAAM) Gardner Center for Asian Art and Ideas and its seasonal Saturday University Lecture Series, during which participants delve into new themes with a different speaker each week. Challenging, thought-provoking, and sometimes surprising, this long-running and always popular lecture series incorporates audience discussion as experts from around the world join us to share their insights on Asia throughout time.
Write About Asia was offered following each SAAM public lecture in Winter/Spring 2025. The sessions were facilitated by Mary Roberts. During the workshop, time was given to solitary writing in response to the morning lecture. The workshop nurtured educators as writers through self-reflection and group discussion, and took place after each lecture from 12:30 PM to 1:30 PM.
University Lecture titles
Sep 14, 2024 10:00 AM – “What Does This All Have to Do with Coconuts & Rice?”: José Maceda, Arts/Cultural Institutions and Filipino Avant-Garde.
Oct 12, 2024 10:00 AM – Resonance of Silk and Bamboo: A Musical Legacy of Millennia.
Nov 9, 2024 10:00 AM – Discovering Bhutan: Navigating Tradition and Modernity in a Changing Cultural Landscape.
Dec 14, 2024 10:00 AM – Silk Road Environmentalism and the Arts
Feb 8, 2025 10:00 AM – Mexican “Muralismo” in Contemporary Japanese Arts and Literature
Mar 8, 2025 10:00 AM – Plumage and Power, Decadence and Decay: Fashioning Lady Curzon, Vicereine of India
Apr 12, 2025 10:00 AM – Performing Identity in Contemporary Art of Mongolia
May 10, 2025 10:00 AM – Paper Reliquaries: Calligraphy and Mourning in Japanese Buddhist Death Rituals
Jun 14, 2025 10:00 AM – Magic Materiality, and Miniatures in First Millennium BCE West Asia. Note: this session took place in the Plestcheeff Auditorium at the Seattle Art Museum (not at the Seattle Asian Art Museum).
Schedule for each Saturday University Lecture + Write About Asia:
- 10:00 AM to 11:30 AM: Saturday University public lecture.
- 11:30 AM to 12:30 PM: Solitary writing in response to the lecture and to a prompt provided by the program leader.
- 12:30 PM to 1:30 PM: Writing workshop with the Write About Asia group, during with educators shared their writing with each other.
Location
The University Lecture and the following Write About Asia Workshop took place at the Seattle Asian Art Museum.
Important: Participation to the public lecture was mandatory and free for Write About Asia participants.
Benefits
Free admission to the lecture and four free WA OSPI clock hours are available for attending each workshop and fulfilling online discussion requirements.
Write About Asia was offered at no cost to current, in-service teachers, and is sponsored by the East Asia Resource Center (EARC) in the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington, with funding from a Freeman Foundation grant in support of the National Consortium for Teaching about Asia (NCTA).