College of Wooster Hosts Conference in Honor of Dr. Ronald T. Takaki

Pioneering multicultural studies scholar was 1961 Wooster graduate

WOOSTER, Ohio, Aug. 30, 2010 – The College of Wooster’s Center for Diversity and Global Engagement will host a conference in memory of Dr. Ronald T. Takaki, a pioneering scholar of multicultural studies and 1961 graduate of the college, October 8-10, on the Wooster campus. The deadline for advance registration is Sept. 24.

“Remapping the Terrain: ‘Our American Stories’” will focus on developing new strategies and paradigms for teaching concepts of race and ethnic studies to undergraduates at liberal arts colleges and universities.

Plenary speakers include Sumi Cho, professor at DePaul University College of Law; Charles P. Henry, professor and chair of the department of African American studies at the University of California, Berkeley; Johnnella Butler, provost and vice president for academic affairs at Spelman College; and Timothy P. Fong, professor and chair of the department of ethnic studies at California State University, Sacramento.

“Ronald Takaki was truly a pioneer in the area of comparative ethnic studies,” Fong said. “Before, racial and ethnic groups were studied separately from one another. Takaki helped develop a new paradigm that explicitly and accurately compares and contrasts diverse group experiences. To Takaki, diversity is not a problem for the United States; rather, diversity is the essence of the United States.”

Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, in 1939, Takaki “found his vocation while earning a bachelor’s degree in history at the College of Wooster in Ohio,” according to The New York Times.  He went on to earn a Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley, and began his scholarly career at U.C.L.A., where he taught the university’s first African-American history course.

Takaki returned to Berkeley in 1972 and taught there for more than three decades, mentoring scores of young scholars and establishing the first ethnic studies Ph.D. program in the U.S. He wrote more than a dozen books on Asian American history and race and ethnic dynamics in U.S. society and culture, including Iron Cages: Race and Culture in 19th Century America, Strangers from a Different Shore: A History of Asian Americans, and A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America. He died in 2009, at the age of 70.

“As a professor, I have used the works of Dr. Takaki for years and to great good effect in my teaching,” said Grant H. Cornwell, professor of philosophy and Wooster’s president. “Generations of students, in scores of classrooms in universities across the nation and throughout the world, have come to understand the dynamics of race and ethnicity through the critical and creative lens Dr. Takaki provides in his work.”

The Center for Diversity and Global Engagement at The College of Wooster serves as a point of coordination for campus and community initiatives that address diversity in all of its forms on both the local and global levels. Merging student life and curricular development with programming and outreach, the center aims to foster an understanding of the local situated within a broader world context. 

The College of Wooster is an independent liberal arts college, nationally recognized for an innovative curriculum that emphasizes mentored, independent research. Each Wooster senior works one-on-one with a faculty adviser to create an original research project, written work, performance or art exhibit. Founded in 1866, the college enrolls approximately 2,000 students.

Inquiries about the conference may be directed to Dr. Josephine Wright at The College of Wooster, at 330-263-2434.