Language Conference in Japan Spotlights K Student, Professor

Posted on by Andy Brown

Associate Professor of Japanese Noriko Sugimori and William Shaw ’23 presented a paper titled “Evaluating the Language Policy Effects of Imperial Honorifics in the Japanese Historical Corpus” on June 16 at the annual meeting of the Japan Association for Language Policy at Reitaku University in Chiba, Japan. 

The pandemic prevented Shaw from studying abroad in Japan as a student at K. However, he became the first recipient of the Roselee Bundy Student Travel to East Asia Fund, which enabled him to attend the language policy conference.

The fund, named after the late professor emerita, provides students with benefits to perform SIP research and conference presentations, seek some types of internships, and—in some cases—receive travel expenses, living expenses and archive fees related to distinct research projects in Asia.

For their presentation, Shaw analyzed historical Japanese texts in Chinese and Japanese characters from the eighth century onward using the skills he acquired during his Senior Integrated Project (SIP) under Sugimori’s supervision. As a computer science major with a minor in Japanese and mathematics, Shaw impressed the audience by delivering his presentation entirely in Japanese, which he had studied only at K. He is also a member of the Japanese National Honor Society, along with fellow 2023 graduates Robin Dudd, Madeline Schroeder and Mikki Wong. He will continue his work as a research assistant for Sugimori’s Japanese historical sociolinguistics project this summer.

“The presentation was largely thanks to Dr. Sugimori,” Shaw said. “My part focused on the data-collection aspect and what we found numerically when searching for occurrences of honorific phrases/words in NINJAL’s (the National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics) corpus of historical Japanese. At the conference, Dr. Sugimori explained much of the premise and results of our work, and I explained the graphs and number-side of it. We met frequently on campus to work on it and I practiced my part orally so she could correct my pronunciation and flow.”

Sugimori benefited from the Great Lakes Colleges Association NEH Endowment for this experience in Japan. The fund covers travel to Japan, within Japan or to other East Asian countries as a part of projects related to the study of Japan. The fund is available to faculty members from GLCA and Associated Colleges of the Midwest schools.

Sugimori also received a benefit from the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership (ACSJL) Faculty and Staff Fund, which aims to support K faculty and staff on expanding or initiating new and innovative lines of learning, engagement, advocacy and research around social justice issues.

William Shaw and Professor Sugimori attend language conference in Japan
Associate Professor of Japanese Noriko Sugimori (right) and William Shaw ’23 presented a paper titled “Evaluating the Language Policy Effects of Imperial Honorifics in the Japanese Historical Corpus” at the annual meeting of the Japan Association for Language Policy at Reitaku University in Chiba, Japan.

Donate in Memory of Professor Roselee Bundy

  • If you would like to support K students and give in memory of Professor Bundy, please make a gift online to the Roselee Bundy Student Travel to Asia Fund. For more information, please contact Lindsay O’Donohue at 269.337.7299 or lindsay.odonohue@kzoo.edu.
  • Learn more about Bundy and the academic legacy of K’s Department of East Asian Studies in the winter 2023 edition of LuxEsto.