Whitman College is one of 11 liberal arts colleges nationally to receive a grant from the Henry Luce Foundation for a junior faculty position and programming in Asian studies.

Established earlier this year, the Luce Fund for Asian Studies is a $12 million, four-year initiative to strengthen the study of Asia at the undergraduate level of American higher education. The Luce Foundation, based in New York, N.Y., invited 20 schools to submit proposals. In addition to Whitman, institutions awarded funding this year include Colorado College, Oberlin College, and Smith College.

Each grant supports salary and benefits for a new professor for a four-year period. Grants also include $10,000 per year for such programs as visiting lectureships, student internships, library acquisitions, and faculty exchanges.

Whitman hopes to fill its Luce Junior Professor of Asian Studies position in time for the 2000-2001 academic year after conducting a nationwide search for candidates, according to dean of the faculty Patrick Keef.

"This new position at Whitman will be filled by a specialist in Asian art history," Keef said. "It will add important substance to our art history major while at the same time lending greater stability and continuity to our Asian studies program in general." In addition to teaching classes on Asian art history, the new Luce professor will take responsibility for introductory and senior seminar classes in Asian studies.

The $10,000 annual activity fund will be used in part, Keef said, to prepare Whitman's extensive Davis Asian Art Collection for more effective exhibition and study. The collection includes several hundred Oriental screens, scrolls, sculptures, figures, and vessels.

"Our emphasis on Asian studies has continued to gain in strength in recent years. We are very excited about this new source of assistance from the Luce Foundation and what it can do for the ongoing evolution of the program," Keef said.

Faculty members currently teaching in Whitman's Asian studies program include Akira Ron Takemoto, Japanese language and literature, and Shu-chu Wei-Peng, Chinese language and literature. Other faculty with special academic interests in Asia are Shampa Biswas, politics; David Deal, history; Charles McKhann, anthropology; and Jonathan Walters, religion. A visiting assistant professor of history, Marianne Kamp, specializes in Islam and Central Asia.