The American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) has awarded Kristine Wirts a Japanese Studies Institute Fellowship on "Incorporating Japanese Studies into the Undergraduate Curriculum." For three weeks this summer Wirts will participate in a series of intensive seminars and lectures that focus on Japanese culture and civilization. Modern Japan will be the main focus though program participants are provided a foundation in pre-modern Japan as well. Past seminars have included such topics as Japanese foreign policy, classical music, social relations and the changing roles of women, Japanese film, calligraphy, war-time Japan, and the philosophical and religious traditions of Japan. Wirts plans to draw on her Japanese studies training to retool the Japanese history segments of her world civilization courses.