This course explores the interactions of Asian peoples — the commodities, social practices, and ideas that they produce — across borders, both political and imagined, and crosses disciplinary borders as well, drawing upon divergent materials from the humanities and social sciences in an attempt to do justice to a complex contemporary context that we have called “Asia in motion.”
More than 700 alumni came back to campus in June for Summer Reunion Weekend. In addition to attending the Logger Barbeque and Reunion Dinner, they took tours of Tacoma, played pickleball, connected with students, learned at Alumni College sessions, and more. The Arches team asked President Isiaah Crawford to discuss why he looks forward to this event every year. Here’s what he had to say:
What does it mean to be a grandmother today? For many, it’s no longer just weekend visits or holiday baking. As Jennifer Utrata, professor of sociology at Puget Sound explains, grandmothers across the country, often assisted by involved grandfathers, are stepping into daily, essential caregiving roles like never before. Her in-progress book manuscript, Keeping the Kids Afloat: Intensive Grandmothering and Family Inequality, uncovers how this quiet shift is transforming family life, and placing new, often invisible demands on an older demographic.
It’s been 83 years since Executive Order 9066 led to the forcible removal of 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry from the West Coast to internment camps during World War II—including 36 students who were attending what was then the College of Puget Sound. But despite the passage of time, there are still many ways the campus community remembers and honors those whose educations and lives were interrupted by the mass forced removal and incarceration.
During the 1939–40 academic year, 16 students of Japanese ancestry formed the Japanese Students’ Club at what was then known as the College of Puget Sound and, as a gift to the school, planted 16 Japanese cherry trees in a “friendship circle” next to Anderson Hall.
Just two years later, on the heels of Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, the U.S. government ordered that the 120,000 Japanese Americans living on the West Coast be removed and incarcerated in internment camps. That number included 36 students at Puget Sound.
As one of the students participating in the inaugural year of Puget Sound’s study-abroad program in Dijon, France, I was dropped into a gastronomically rich region—the heart of Burgundy wine country—for a semester. Of course I valued the academic courses, and being there definitely helped hone my language skills. But those months of exploring the region and having so many meals that demonstrated the melding of food and wine in French culture had a big impact on my future career path as well. That experience helped encourage my return to France to attend cooking school a few years later.
