Dr. Marcia Frost is Associate Professor of Economics and East Asian Studies. She earned her B.A. in history from Carleton College, her A.M. in South Asian Regional Studies and her Ph.D. in
Economics from the University of Pennsylvania. She began teaching at Wittenberg in the fall of 2001. In addition to the summer study abroad program On the Silk Road she offers three courses for the East Asian Studies program: The Silk Road, Economies in Transition and The Economy of China. She also teaches Economic Development, Labor Economics, and American Economic History for the Economics Department, and a first-year interdisciplinary seminar From the Steppes of Chinggis Khan on Mongolia.
Dr. Frost brings to the Wittenberg in China: On the Silk Road program her research and living experiences in India, China and Mongolia. She was one of 16 participants in the month-long Fulbright-Hays Summer Seminar in China in 2002, and led the Wittenberg Faculty Development trip along the Silk Road in July 2004. In the summer of 2006 she returned to travel the Silk Road, and was one of 16 participants in the five week long National Endowment for the Humanities Institute The Silk Road: Early Globalization and Chinese Cultural History. In the summer of 2007 she co-directed the Wittenberg in China: On the Silk Road program and taught a course on China’s economy for the CET program in Beijing. In 2010 she explored the eastern links of the Silk Road through faculty development programs in China’s three Dongbei provinces (Manchuria) and both North and South Korea.
Dr. Jennifer Oldstone-Moore is Professor of Religion and East Asian Studies. She earned her A.B. from Swarthmore College, and her A.M. and Ph.D. in the History of Religion from the University of Chicago. She has been at Wittenberg since 2000. Her courses include Daoism and Chinese Popular Religion; Confucianism and its Critics; Monkeys, Samurai and Gods; Religion and Literature in East Asia; Chinese and Japanese Religions: Buddhist Thought and Scriptures; Pilgrimage: Journey to the Sacred; Myths, Dreams and Other Realities; and Religions of the Silk Road.
A Chinese specialist, Dr. Oldstone-Moore has traveled and lived in the People's Republic of China, Taiwan, Korea and Japan, and was a participant in the 2004 Wittenberg Faculty Development trip along the Silk Road. Her research looks at ways that the Confucian tradition persists in modern cultural China. Dr. Oldstone-Moore has a special interet in the Silk Road pilgrimage of Xuanzang, the Chinese monk who in the 7th century traveled the Silk Road to India and back in search of Buddhist scripture; and she delights in the bawdy and irreverent retelling of that story in the novel Journey to the West in which the monk is joined by the magical figures Sandy, Pigsy and the naughty Monkey King. She is looking forward to visiting many sites and telling the stories of the real and fictional pilgrims while traveling with Wittenberg in China: On the Silk Road.
Zhang Xu “Matthew” is the national guide and interpreter for the program. Based in Beijing, Zhang Xu has organized and led tours along the Silk Road for nearly two decades (including the trips with Drs. Smith and Frost in 2004, 2006 and 2007), and has a well deserved reputation for successful experiences working with American academics and students over many years. Zhang Xu has excellent English skills, and was instrumental in developing this program. In addition he is a highly skilled connoisseur of jade; his particular expertise is with Hotan jade.
In addition to his responsibilities to co-ordinate all program activities in China (transportation, housing, police permits, guest speakers, site visits, etc.) and with local guides, he translates, helps students acquire some basic survival Chinese, and lectures on jade. As one of our students wrote, “Matthew is AWESOME!”
