ISSUED: 19 August 2019
MEDIA CONTACT: Valerie Owens
SHEPHERDSTOWN, WV — Dr. David Gordon, Shepherd University professor of history, is spending the fall semester at one of Shepherd’s partner institutions, Nanhua University in Chiayi County, Taiwan. Gordon is teaching five classes during the fall—three face-to-face for Nanhua students and two online for Shepherd students.
“I’m definitely excited to be teaching classes at Nanhua University this fall,” Gordon said. “Nanhua is a partner institution with Shepherd, and my being here creates a great chance for the two universities to work together more closely in the future. Hopefully, more Shepherd faculty will be able to follow in my footsteps here and some Nanhua faculty, in turn, will have opportunities to teach Shepherd students in their specialties.”
Gordon said Shepherd encourages student exchanges between the two universities. The partnership allows students from each university who are willing to cover airfare to attend the other university for a semester or a year and pay only tuition at their school. Gordon said Nanhua is a great place for Shepherd students to study.
“Nanhua is located in a beautiful, rural, tropical area, surrounded by fields of pineapples and bamboo,” Gordon said. “Despite this, it’s even closer than Shepherd is to major cities, such as Tainan about 50 miles away. Nanhua has special strengths in such fields as business and artistic design. It has a large number of international students, including many from other parts of Asia, it provides extensive training in Mandarin Chinese for them, and classes are also available in English.”
Gordon will teach The History of Japan, Asian Traditions, and The American Immigrant Experience in Nanhua’s Department of Foreign Languages and Literature.
“If I can be of help to Nanhua’s program by adding a touch of history, which is my field, while attracting some Nanhua students to consider spending a semester or two at Shepherd, this will all be a success,” Gordon said.
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