Centre College's Stewart Lowery of Newport News travels to China

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Stewart Lowery (second from right) on a semester abroad trip to China with Centre College

DANVILLE, KY (08/16/2011)(readMedia)-- Stewart Lowery of Newport News, a senior at Centre College, is accompanying professor Kyle Anderson to Xian, China, to film a documentary on a Chinese calligraphy master, thanks to a fund that supports international student travel for increasing global knowledge.

In the documentary, the students and professor will explore "dysgraphia," or forgetting how to write in one's language. Texting and typing on laptops is endangering an important part of Chinese culture - people are forgetting the characters they learned as children. This form of amnesia is especially alarming to calligraphers, many of whom believe that, in Chinese culture, writing is an art form and a spiritual exercise.

Lowery, who left August 2 with Anderson and another student, is spending three weeks in Xian interviewing the master and others about calligraphy and dysgraphia. They plan to show the film at conferences and film festivals.

Anderson, an Arthur Vining Davis Foundations Post-Doctoral Teaching Fellow, became involved in the project after meeting a calligraphy master on a recent trip to China. He came to Centre in 2010 in part because he knew he could obtain funding to conduct research abroad, and that he could enlist undergraduates to assist him. Producing a documentary film about a calligraphy master seemed like a natural idea, given that Chinese is the oldest continuous writing system in the world.

"This is an amazing opportunity for me, and I'm sure it is also going to be an exciting experience for my students," says Anderson. "It's the sort of experience usually reserved for graduate students."

Lowery is one of many beneficiaries of Centre's commitment to global education. Eighty-five percent of Centre students study abroad at least once in cities across the globe - now including Shanghai - and that percentage ranks second among liberal arts colleges. Centre runs its own programs, which makes study abroad accessible to all students, regardless of family income, and the College provides free passports and guarantees a study abroad experience to every interested student.

Founded in 1819, Centre College is ranked among the U.S. News top 50 national liberal arts colleges. Forbes magazine ranks Centre 24th among all the nation's colleges and universities and has named Centre No. 1 among all institutions of higher education in the South for two years in a row. Centre alumni, known for their nation-leading loyalty in annual financial support, include two U.S. vice presidents and two Supreme Court justices.