Honors Passport Course to Explore Japan in May 2024 Intersession

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A traditional temple in the city center of Tokyo.

Honors Passport, the Honors College signature study abroad experience, will head to Japan May 12-26, 2024, to join what associate professor of history Kelly Hammond calls "a whirlwind in Japanese culture and history, art history and architectural history." 

"We have curated the trip so that there is something for everyone — from temples and palaces in Kyoto to a baseball game and the Ghibli Studios theme park in Tokyo," she noted. "We look forward to some really great site visits and exploring the particularities of Japanese modernity while traveling around the country."

The course's expedition begins in the Kansai region, the cradle of Japanese tradition, with the exploration of medieval Buddhist temples, a tea plantation and esoteric gardens — all sites harnessed to form the foundation of Japanese national identity in the 20th century. In historic Kyoto, students will encounter the ways in which Westernization and modernization contest the Japanese past. 

Hiroshima is the next heart-stopping city, a witness to both the devastation of atomic warfare and the cultural regeneration that has succeeded it. Honors Passport will also stop at Itsukushima, home to one of the most famous Shinto shrines; Himeiji Castle; and Naoshima, the world-renowned island that has been transformed into a living gallery of contemporary art. The course concludes in Tokyo, whose museums, skyscrapers, temples and urban fabric have emerged as ground zero in the Japanese Cultural Bureau's reframing of the country as a cultural superpower in the age of late capitalism. Exploring these juxtapositions between past and present will provide students with a deeper understanding of the place of Japan in the current geopolitical ordering in the Pacific.

The course is open to all honors students from every college and will be led by two faculty:

Kelly Hammond is an associate professor of East Asian history in the Department of History at the U of A. She received her Ph.D. from Georgetown University in 2015. Hammond specializes in modern Chinese and Japanese history, and her work focuses on Islam and politics in 20th century East Asia. Her first book, China's Muslims and Japan's Empire: Centering Islam in World War II, is forthcoming (UNC Press, fall 2020). Her work has been supported by the Henry Luce Foundation/ACLS China Studies postdoctoral fellowship, the Center for Chinese Studies in Taiwan and the Kluge Center at the Library of Congress. Hammond serves on the editorial board of Twentieth Century China. She is also a fellow in cohort VI of the Public Intellectual Program sponsored by the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations. Her next project is tentatively titled Islam and Politics in the East Asian Cold War.

Kim Sexton is an associate professor of architecture in the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design, where she teaches courses ranging from surveys on the history of world architecture to specialized courses on pre-modern architecture as well as space, and gender theory. Sexton received her Ph.D. in the history of art from Yale University; her research focuses on late medieval and Renaissance architecture. She has edited a pioneering collection of essays on the relationship between architecture and the body, and published essays on early modern obstetrical clinics in Bologna, Italy. Sexton has authored articles in the top journals in architectural and art history, including the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians and Art Bulletin. She currently has a book manuscript on late medieval street porticoes and social performativity under review. Sexton and Honors College Dean Lynda Coon have co-taught interdisciplinary seminars including Medieval Bodies/Medieval Spaces, out of which came a recent co-authored article on early Christian architecture and the cult of athletic martyrs. 

The Honors College has partnered with top faculty scholars to offer Honors Passport, a two-week intersession course that takes students to historically and culturally significant sites around the globe. 

Visit honorspassport.uark.edu to learn more about Honors Passport: Japan and view photos and video footage of past excursions to Peru and to points along the storied Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route through France and Spain.