Last week, thousands of conference goers from all over the world came to Columbus for the Association of Asian Studies annual conference and associated conferences, including the American Association of Teachers of Japanese (AATJ) and Chinese Oral and Performing Literature (CHINOPERL) conferences. 

In addition to hosting scores of panels, presenting many papers, and organizing fun activities like musical performances and cultural exhibits, DEALL faculty and graduate students collaborated with colleagues at other institutions and learned from their peers. 

The highlight of the week was undoubtedly Professor Emeritus Mari Noda's keynote address and lifetime achievement award at the AATJ conference. A long time leader in the field of Japanese language studies, Prof. Noda was recognized for her decades of work developing textbooks and other instructional resources as well as training countless future Japanese teachers.