Curricular Development

The LIASE funds earmarked for faculty support intend to encourage the development of new and revised courses in humanities and social sciences to address East Asia and/or Southeast Asia environmental content.

2019-2020 Academic Year


2017-2018 Academic Year

Faculty members who want to add/revise a course module on environmental related issues in East Asia and Southeast Asia in existing courses, or you want to create a new course on this region with strong environmental content, you can apply for LIASE.  The total budget for each year is $5,000 and will be for four years including 2017-18.

Budget guideline:

Faculty stipends

1) Creation of an entirely new course with East Asia and Environmental content, $1,000/per course, if co-taught total $1,500.

2) Creation of a new module or revisions to an existing course by adding East Asia and Environmental content, $500/per course. If the course module is co-taught, the total stipend will be $750.

Student assistance:

Participating faculty can request hiring of undergraduate student assistants.  Students will be paid hourly at the College standard rates and limits.  The proposal should estimate the hours needed for the student work and total budget should not exceed $600/per course, but the faculty is encouraged to combine related courses.

Research expenses

The grant may also reimburse research expenses within $250/course (receipts/invoices required).

Travel:

While the grant does not support general travel expenses, we encourage faculty to seek travel support elsewhere.  In exceptional circumstances, travel allowance up to $500 can be approved on a case-by-case basis pending availability of funds.

Proposal structure:

A brief proposal of 2-3 pages, including:

  • description of the course or course module,
  • curriculum impact in the department/program/college, and whether it fills a particular gap.
  • estimated enrollment, and any prerequisites for this course, and when and how frequent this course will be taught.
  • a list of the course proposing you have recently taught.
  • budget and timeline corresponding to the guidelines above.

Grant deadlines:

Faculty members can submit course proposals on two deadlines, one in the Fall after the Fall Break (10/16 in 2017) and one in the Spring after the Spring Break(3/26 2018).

Grant administration

Proposals should be sent to Yu Zhou, director of LIASE grant (yuzhou@vassar.edu).  An ad hoc committee made up of the directors of LIASE, Asian Studies and the chair of Chinese and Japanese will review the proposals to make decisions on funding based on the proposal.  If you have any questions, please direct them to Yu Zhou.

Obligations of the grantees

At the end of the funding period, participating faculty members will provide a narrative report of the new course/course module including the syllabi, readings, exercises or other student evaluating activities.  Faculty members agree to share this material with others who have received LIASE support, and possibly with the larger academic community, including other institutions that have received LIASE grants from the Henry Luce Foundation.  Participating faculty members are expected to participate in at least one of the LIASE-sponsored curriculum seminars that will be held in the summer to share their work with other faculty members.

Annual Curriculum Workshop