2019 Award Recipient

Ms. Waka Takahashi Brown

Humanities Category

Manager and Instructor for Stanford e-Japan
Stanford University
Stanford, CA

Waka Takahashi Brown is the Manager and Instructor for Stanford e-Japan, a distance-learning course sponsored by the Stanford Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education (SPICE) and currently supported by the Yanai Tadashi Foundation. Stanford e-Japan was initially supported by the United States-Japan Foundation. Through Stanford e-Japan, Waka has engaged Japanese high school students from throughout Japan in an intensive study of U.S. society and culture. Since its first session in 2015, Waka has taught seven cohorts of Stanford e-Japan. In addition, Waka also served from 2003 to 2005 as the inaugural Coordinator and Instructor of the Reischauer Scholars Program (RSP), a national distance-learning course on Japan for high school students across the United States. The RSP was also initially supported by the United States-Japan Foundation.

Since joining SPICE in 2001, Waka has authored numerous curriculum units. In 2004, Waka won the national Franklin R. Buchanan Prize from the Association for Asian Studies for the curriculum unit, Religions and Philosophies in China: Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism, which she authored; and in 2008, Waka won the Buchanan Prize for a second time for the curriculum units, Chinese Dynasties: Parts I and II, which she co-authored. In addition to these units, Waka has authored or co-authored curriculum units on Indonesia, the Beijing Olympics, the Baltic States, Ukraine, Islamic art, Chinese railroad workers in North America, and ethnic minority groups in China, among many others.

She has presented teacher seminars nationally for the National Council for the Social Studies, the National Consortium for Teaching about Asia, the Symposium on Asia in the Curriculum, the East Asia Regional Council of Overseas Schools, and the European Council of International Schools.

Prior to joining SPICE, Waka worked at the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center at Stanford University. She also taught Japanese at Silver Creek High School in San Jose for two years. Additionally, Waka served as a Coordinator for International Relations (CIR) on the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Program from 1995 to 1997.

Waka obtained both her undergraduate and graduate degrees from Stanford University. As an undergraduate, Waka majored in International Relations with concentrations on Asia and Eastern Europe. She studied in Kraków, Poland, during her sophomore year. Waka obtained her Masters in Education from the Stanford Teacher Education Program, obtaining credentials to teach Japanese, English, and Social Studies, as well as a Cross-Cultural Language and Academic Development (CLAD) certification.

Waka shares: “As a Japanese American growing up in Kansas in the 1970s and 80s, and then as a Japanese American woman working in Japan, I’ve felt the need and immediacy for fostering cross-cultural understanding for my entire life. I feel extremely fortunate that I am able to work toward this goal through my professional work. My students and their knowledge and passion humble me. I am constantly in awe of them and their accomplishments. It is a true honor to receive the Elgin Heinz Award, and I am grateful for the opportunity to use these funds to foster connections between the future leaders in U.S.–Japan relations.”