A new collaboration between Millsaps College and Tunghai University’s International College in Taiwan will open up new opportunities for Millsaps students to pursue studies in Asia beginning in the summer of 2022.
The agreement, which was fostered and carried to completion by Dr. Lynn Raley, associate professor of music at Millsaps, is designed “to develop academic and cultural interchange in the areas of education, research and other activities” and help the institutions “work together toward the internationalization of higher education.”
Raley has high hopes for this new partnership.
“I truly hope we can soon move toward a true exchange, with our students going there for a semester abroad and some students from Tunghai University coming here,” Raley said. “I’m also excited that this will return Mandarin Chinese language study to Millsaps for those students who want to take advantage of it.”
Through this new agreement, students will have the opportunity to complete a five-week program in May and June at Tunghai. Faculty from universities and colleges across Taiwan and the United States will teach 30 different courses, covering a broad range of topics including business, STEM courses, arts and culture, psychology and religious studies.
Raley will teach a course entitled “New Music, Old: The Kaleidoscope of Influences on Taiwan’s New Music.” The course will look at music as a cultural marker, exploring two faces of Taiwanese music — popular (Mando-Pop, Taiyu, Hakka and aboriginal artists) and modern classical composition — placing the music in both the cultural and political contexts of the island.
Students interested in this and other study abroad opportunities available next year can get more details by emailing [email protected].