The Weatherhead East Asian Institute is proud to announce that Roberta Martin has received the 2015 Ronald G. Knapp Award for Distinguished Service to Asian Studies in New York State from the New York Conference on Asian Studies (NYCAS).
From the NYCAS Press Release:
“The New York Conference on Asian Studies (NYCAS) has named Dr. Roberta Martin as the recipient of the 2015 Ronald G. Knapp Award for Distinguished Service to Asian Studies in New York State.in recognition of her outstanding work as the founder of the Asia for Educators program and many other initiatives to promote the study of Asia in New York state and beyond. The award was presented at the annual NYCAS meeting hosted by Vassar College on October 16 and 17, 2015. Kristin Stapleton, executive secretary of NYCAS, who nominated Martin for the award, noted that Martin’s career exemplifies what NYCAS seeks to recognize via the Knapp Award: “Roberta Martin is a leader among a small group of scholars who work tirelessly and effectively to create connections between academics, teachers, and the public in order to improve education about Asia and build a broader public understanding of Asian history and cultures. Her energy and organizational skills are truly inspirational.”
Roberta Martin is director of the Asia for Educators program (AFE) at Columbia University, a position she has held since 1979. AFE encompasses the East Asian Curriculum Project for the precollege educators and the Columbia Project on Asia in the Core Curriculum for the undergraduate level. Dr. Martin is also one of five founding directors of the National Consortium for Teaching about Asia (NCTA) and head of its Columbia Coordinating Site. Dr. Martin is an associate editor of Education about Asia, a publication of the Association for Asian Studies (AAS). She also served as chair of the Committee on Teaching about Asia (CTA) of the AAS from 1993 to 1996 and as a member of the Association’s Committee on Educational Issues and Policies from 1995 to 1998. She has served as a member of the advisory board of ASIANetwork, been a member of the board of trustees of the New Jersey Council for History Education, and has served on review committees of the National Endowment for the Humanities, Education Division, and as a consultant to the New York City Board of Education, the New York State Department of Education, the Social Science Education Consortium, the National Council for History Standards, Annenberg/CPB, McGraw-Hill, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Prentice Hall, and Houghton-Mifflin publishers, among others.
Dr. Martin is producer of the Asia for Educators website and of the web modules on that site. Her primary attention now is focused on ways to utilize distance technology to provide teachers and their students with professional development opportunities and cutting edge content on East Asia in formats that are readily accessible to their interests and time constraints. Her research in the past focused on education in China and recruitment into the Chinese Communist Party. She is the author of Party Recruitment in China (East Asian Institute Occasional Papers, 1981) and “Socialization of Children in China and Taiwan,” which appeared as an article in China Quarterly and as a chapter in Comparative Education, ed. Altbach et al. (Prentice Hall, 1982); and “Party Building after Mao,” in Contemporary China. Dr. Martin is also executive editor of numerous publications,some of which include her authored contributions, such as Masterworks of Asian Literature in Comparative Perspective: A Guide for Teaching; Asian Case Studies in the Social Sciences: A Guide for Teaching; and Asia in Western and World History: A Guide for Teaching (M. E.Sharpe); Contemporary Japan: A Teaching Workbook; China: A Teaching Workbook; and Central Themes for Teaching about China. She is also the producer of two video series: “Japanese History” and “Literature and the Confucian Tradition” (Annenberg/CBP); and chair and editor of two surveys: “National Survey on Asia in American Textbooks” (1993) and “Is There a Place for Japan and Asia in American Schools?” (1990). Dr. Martin holds a BA from Smith College, an MA from Columbia Teachers College, and a PhD in Chinese politics from Columbia. She has also studied in Geneva and Taipei and taught at Columbia, Fordham, and, for the past decade, in the Social Studies program at Teachers College.
Established in 1965, NYCAS is among the oldest of the nine regional conferences of the Association for Asian Studies (AAS), the largest society of its kind in the world. It is dedicated to promoting scholarship and interest in Asian Studies in New York State. NYCAS sponsors an annual conference for teachers and scholars interested in Asia, disseminates Asian Studies materials and information about Asia to its members and to the general public, and promotes cooperative activities with other organizations involved in scholarship and teaching about Asia. The Knapp Award was created in 2013 to honor its longterm executive secretary, Dr. Ronald G. Knapp, an emeritus SUNY Distinguished Professor at The State University of New York College at New Paltz. The scholarly career of Dr. Knapp is notable for excellence not only in research and teaching, but also in service to fellow Asianists across New York State. The Knapp Award thus recognizes outstanding contributions in support of Asian Studies in the state. Contributions that this award seeks to recognize may include, but are not limited to, such activities as the development of teaching materials, museum exhibitions, or research guides to help New York teachers and researchers interested in Asia; projects to better incorporate Asian Studies into school and university curricula; and service to organizations devoted to strengthening knowledge of Asia in the state of New York. Nominations should be submitted to the NYCAS President (currently Dr. Patricia M. Welch of Hofstra University) and will be considered when received. Awards are presented that NYCAS annual meeting.”
The NYCAS website may be found at http://www.asianstudies.buffalo.edu/nycas/.
