April 3, 2015
Tourist to traveler: 2015 Kelly Lecture to highlight impact of study abroad
University of Washington English professor Shawn Wong, who has designed and led numerous study abroad classes over the last 18 years, will address the importance of academic travel when he presents the UW Office of Minority Affairs & Diversity’s (OMA&D) 11th annual Samuel E. Kelly Distinguished Faculty Lecture on Thursday, April 16.
His lecture titled “Tourist to Traveler: The Transforming Experience of Study Abroad” will take place at the Samuel E. Kelly Ethnic Cultural Center at 6 p.m., preceded by a reception in the Alder Hall Commons at 5 p.m.
Shawn Wong
The event is free and open to the public. To register, contact cpromad@uw.edu by April 10.
Wong’s lecture will address how he uses study abroad to help students examine questions about topics such as immigration, identity and global citizenship, and why travel is a necessary and relevant way for them to find the answers.
Wong recently returned from leading what was the 20th anniversary of the OMA&D-sponsored Rome Academic Enrichment Program held at the UW Rome Center for 10 days during the break between winter and spring quarters. The course, which offers students credits during a spring quarter class, was attended by 14 students representing all three UW campuses.
OMA&D’s Rome program is its longest-running study abroad course and one of several offered in collaboration with various academic departments that help diverse students gain a global perspective. The 20th anniversary milestone will be celebrated with a special alumni reunion prior to the Kelly lecture and reception. Participants of the program going back to 1995 have been invited to the event.
In addition to Rome, Wong has taken UW programs to Berlin and Istanbul. This fall, he will also travel with the UW men’s basketball team to Shanghai. His classes focus on travel writing and training a student’s eye and ear to not only record images and memories, but to take that raw experience and transform it from what they know to what they learned.
Wong is a professor in the UW Department of English, where he served as chair from 1997-2002. He also was the director of the UW Creative Writing Program from 1995-1997 and the University Honors Program from 2003-2006. His areas of specialization are in creative writing and Asian American studies. His writing has won numerous awards, including a National Endowment for the Arts Fiction Fellowship. Wong’s second novel, ““, was made into a movie titled “Americanese” and released in 2013. He was featured in the Bill Moyers documentary, “Becoming American: The Chinese Experience.”
Wong received his undergraduate degree in English at the University of California at Berkeley and a master’s degree in creative writing at San Francisco State University. He has taught at several colleges and universities since 1972, including Mills College, San Francisco State and the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Inaugurated in 2005, this lecture series honors the late Dr. Kelly, UW’s first vice president for the Office of Minority Affairs (1970). It is dedicated to acknowledging the work of distinguished faculty by spotlighting research focused on diversity and social justice.
