Richard Wainwright Bodman

Richard Bodman received a B.A. in Far Eastern Languages from Harvard College in 1969. His next two years were spent as an English teacher with the United States Peace Corps in Girishk, Helmand Province, Afghanistan. In the fall of 1971, he entered Cornell University as a graduate student in the field of Chinese literature. His Ph.D. thesis, written under the direction of Prof. Tsu-lin Mei, was on the subject of the Bunkyo hifuron . Following graduation in 1978, he taught classical Chinese...See more

Richard Bodman received a B.A. in Far Eastern Languages from Harvard College in 1969. His next two years were spent as an English teacher with the United States Peace Corps in Girishk, Helmand Province, Afghanistan. In the fall of 1971, he entered Cornell University as a graduate student in the field of Chinese literature. His Ph.D. thesis, written under the direction of Prof. Tsu-lin Mei, was on the subject of the Bunkyo hifuron . Following graduation in 1978, he taught classical Chinese for one year apiece at the universities of Minnesota and Wisconsin. In the summer of 1980, he made his first trip to the People's Republic of China, as part of a delegation of the Chinese Language Teachers Association. In the fall of 1980, he commenced teaching Chinese Language and Asian Studies at St. Olaf College, in Northfield, Minnesota, where he spent the remainder of his career. He assisted St. Olaf in establishing an exchange relationship with East China Normal University in Shanghai and served on the first board of directors of the ASIANetwork consortium. He retired from St. Olaf in the spring of 2006. He subsequently spent the fall semester of 2007 instructing English composition at East China Normal University, Shanghai. Since retirement, he has taught courses on China, Afghanistan, and science fiction and fantasy literature for the Cannon Valley Elder Collegium in Northfield. See less