When there is no room to eat at Putnam's, pick up a brown bag and head over to 280 Park Hall for the Asia at Noon lecture series taking place at lunchtime, every other Friday this year.
The brown-bag lunch lecture series was started by Thomas Burkman, Ph.D., a former director of the Asian Studies Program, and is heading into its tenth year.
"It is the primary forum for sharing Asian Research at UB," Burkman said. "It is a place where undergraduates, graduates and faculty get together and talk to each other."
This year's series began with a lecture by Elaine Howard Ecklund, assistant professor of sociology, entitled "Korean American Evangelicals: New Models for Civic Life."
"I began this work because Asian Americans are one of the two fastest growing immigration groups," Ecklund said. "I'm interested in studying civic societies and civic life; things like community participation and political participation."
He explained that he wanted to choose an immigrant group that would currently be second-generation adults.
Ecklund defines being evangelical as having "a particular view of the Bible as being authoritative, something that directs their lives, and being concerned with salvation and conversion."
According to Ecklund, Asian Americans and Korean Americans in particular are the largest non-white ethnic group in American seminaries. About 60 to 70 percent of Korean immigrates to this country are evangelical.
"I studied two churches - one that I called Grace, was an ethnic-only church composed just of Korean Americans and another, which I called Manna, is led mainly by Korean Americans but also had presence from other racial groups," Ecklund said.
Ecklund's research is comprised of interviews, nine months of participant observation and surveying, as well as visits to various field sites.
"I was particularly interested in looking at different types of congregations and the identities people formed in those organizations, and how they linked with practices," Ecklund said.
Her research shows the differences between the mindsets of the two churches concerning the relationship between ethnicity and religion. Ecklund also found that both churches had influence over their members' civic identities.
According to Ecklund, the ethnic church wanted to practice a "non-ethnic Christianity." Observations were made that members of that church never spoke about their ethnicity and criticized others for doing so, believing that they are less likely to be faithful when they have a focus on culture in church.
"They were very concerned about reaching out to the local community, but the unconscious schema that they had about the connections between religion, race and class impeded their civic participation," Ecklund said.
The multicultural church was found to have performed more community service than the ethnic church during a 12-month period.
"They chose to emphasize their ethnic and class identity. The schema in the multiethnic church was different...being multiethnic actually tied to Christianity," Ecklund said.
The findings of Ecklund's research may be found in a book of the same title as the lecture.
"I was surprised how Korean American Christians joined with Black American Christians...Scholars need to be more concerned with cooperation over conflict," Ecklund said.
Wooksoo Kim, an assistant professor in the school of social work, found it interesting that there was a difference among Korean churches when she feels that church is important to most Korean Americans.
"She studied this new phenomenon and it gives new perspectives about Korean church," Kim said.
Julia Burke, a junior Asian studies major, found the topic to be very important and stimulating.
"I thought the presentation was very interesting. She was really articulate," Burke said.
According to Kristin Stapleton, Ph.D., Director of Asian Studies, Asia at Noon is an interdisciplinary program that draws on the interest of faculty and students from across the University.
"One goal is to provide resources for people interested in Asia to get together and share their ideas and experiences," Stapleton said.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
