FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -- 12/15/99 | Contact: Diana Smith, 719-389-6138  

COLORADO SPRINGS -- Grants from the Henry Luce Foundation's Fund for Asian Studies will create new faculty positions at Colorado College and 10 other liberal arts colleges, including Bard, Oberlin, Reed, Smith, and Whitman colleges. CC's grant will incorporate an Asian art history component into the already rich Asian studies program.

The new faculty member is anticipated to start next fall. The search committee will be looking for a specialist in East Asian art and intellectual history who will teach art history and interdisciplinary courses. The search will be complete by April.

Each award will cover the salary and benefits of a new junior professor for four years. The award also includes an annual program fund of $10,000 to enhance each school's Asian studies program. Grants are made on the condition that each school will implement the position on a permanent basis after the Luce support expires. The Luce Fund for Asian Studies fosters the study of East and Southeast Asia and reinforces the general curriculum at selective American liberal arts colleges.

Awards were based on the quality, creativity, and promise of each proposal as well as the school's existing institutional resources and long-range strategy for Asian studies.

These grants are the first awarded through the new Luce Fund for Asian Studies, a four-year, $12-million initiative created earlier this year by the foundation. The Henry Luce Foundation was established in 1936 by the late Henry R. Luce, co-founder and editor-in-chief of Time Inc. It supports programs in American art, East Asia, higher education, public affairs, theology, and women in science.

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