What can a tour of Asian cities teach us about early modern globalization? We will learn the fundamentals of good writing by learning about the key port cities of the Indo-Pacific in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Our exploration will trace the bustling activities, scandals, and diplomatic endeavors in cities such as Nagasaki, Macau, Manila, Batavia, Acapulco, and beyond. We will write about the people and peoples "in motion" who encountered one another in these contact zones, including multi-ethnic pirates; Asian merchants in the Americas; samurai in Southeast Asia; and exiled Japanese Christians. By the end of the course, you will have deepened your understanding of the course material and the writing process through weekly "Quite Writes" and five formal essays.

Full details for ASIAN 1109 - FWS: Connected Cities in Asia, 16th-18th Centuries

This First-Year Writing Seminar is about Asian Literature, Religion, and Culture and provides the opportunity to write extensively about these issues.  Topics vary by section and instructor.

Catalog Distribution: (WRT-AG)

Full details for ASIAN 1111 - FWS: Literature, Culture, Religion

This course provides an introduction to Korean culture and history from early times to the present. We will examine major historical time periods and cultural forms of the Korean peninsula, with a focus on the Chosŏn dynasty (1392-1910) and the twentieth century. The course is designed to give students an overview of the transformations of Korean civilization in the context of the East Asian cultural sphere and globalization. We will engage with a wide range of texts and media across time periods, including films, primary historical sources in translation, literature, and music videos. Key themes and topics of the course include the formation of South and North Korea's identities, the rise of Neo-Confucianism, Japanese colonization and (post) colonialism, the construction and performance of gender, the Korean War and postwar reconstruction, environmental degradation, and developments in popular culture.

Catalog Distribution: (ALC-AS, HST-AS) (CA-AG, HA-AG, LA-AG)

Full details for ASIAN 2218 - Introduction to Korea

In 1868, samurai revolutionaries and their allies seized the reins of power and established a new capital they called Tokyo. Against all odds, this fragile regime survived and made Tokyo a center of power that would transform both Japan and the world. This survey of Japanese history explores the rise and fall of Japan as a modern imperial power; its foreign relations; its economic and scientific development from "feudalism" to futuristic technologies; and Japan's many modern revolutions, from the rule of the samurai to Westernization and democracy, from democratic collapse to fascism and World War II, and from Japan's postwar rebirth to the present. We will examine not only big events but also everyday life, including gender and sexuality, family and schools, and art and popular culture.

Catalog Distribution: (GLC-AS, HST-AS) (CA-AG, HA-AG)

Full details for ASIAN 2222 - From Samurai to Superpower: Japan in World History II

People outside China often talk about "China's rise," the changes in world economics and politics that come from the increase of the economic power of the People's Republic. From a domestic perspective, though, China's rise represents a promise to regular people that they will lead richer lives, both literally and figuratively. This course will examine the nature and history of that promise as it is experienced through literature, film, and other cultural texts. Why and how do PRC citizens want to get rich, and what happens when they don't? How does economic class shape identity in contemporary China? Can parts of the population be happy outside of the pursuit of material wealth?

Catalog Distribution: (ALC-AS) (CA-AG, LA-AG)

Full details for ASIAN 2232 - Introduction to China: Getting Rich in Modern China

For millennia, Buddhist monks, merchants, pilgrims, diplomats, and adventurers have moved around the Indian Ocean arena circulating Buddhist teachings and powerful objects. In doing so they helped create Buddhist communities in the places we now refer to as southern China, India, Sri Lanka, and Southeast Asia. The course explores these circulatory histories by focusing on case studies in each of four historical periods: premodern (esp. early second millennium A.D.); the era of 19th-century colonial projects; mid-20th-century nation-state formation in South and Southeast Asia; and contemporary (early 21st century) times. Drawing together materials from Indian Ocean studies, Buddhist studies, and critical studies of colonialism, modernity, and nation-state formation, this course attends to the ways in which changing trans-regional conditions shape local Buddhisms, how Buddhist collectives around the Indian Ocean arena shape one another, and how trade, religion, and politics interact.

Catalog Distribution: (HST-AS) (HA-AG)

Full details for ASIAN 2248 - Buddhists in Indian Ocean World: Past & Present

This course will explore religious traditions in South Asia (Pakistan, India, and Sri Lanka) and East Asia (China, Japan, and Korea) including Hinduism, Buddhism (South Asian and East Asian), Sikhism, Confucianism, Daoism, and Shintō. We will also encounter a wide range of religious expressions, including myth, ritual, pilgrimage, mysticism, meditation, and other spiritual technologies.

Catalog Distribution: (ALC-AS, HST-AS) (CA-AG, HA-AG, LA-AG)

Full details for ASIAN 2250 - Introduction to Asian Religions

This course offers an anthropological approach to the study of religious traditions and practices in South Asia: India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Nepal. The course begins with a short survey of the major religious traditions of South Asia: Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, and Islam. We look to the development of these traditions through historical and cultural perspectives. The course then turns to the modern period, considering the impact of colonialism, nationalism, and globalization upon religious ideologies and practices. The primary focus of the course will be the ethnographic study of contemporary religious practices in the region. We examine phenomena such as ritual, pilgrimage, possession, devotionalism, monasticism, asceticism, and revivalism through a series of ethnographic case studies. In so doing, we also seek to understand the impact of politics, modernity, diasporic movement, social inequality, changing gender roles, and mass mediation upon these traditions and practices.

Catalog Distribution: (ALC-AS, SCD-AS) (CA-AG, D-AG, LA-AG)

Full details for ASIAN 2254 - South Asian Religions in Practice: The Healing Traditions

In August 1945, Japan was a devastated country; its cities burned, its people starving, its military and government in surrender. World War II was over. The occupation had begun. What sort of society emerged from the cooperation and conflict between occupiers and occupied? Students will examine sources ranging from declassified government documents to excerpts from diaries and bawdy fiction, alongside major scholarly studies, to find out. The first half of the course focuses on key issues in Japanese history, like the fate of the emperor, constitutional revision, and the emancipation of women. The second half zooms out for a wider perspective, for the occupation of Japan was never merely a local event. It was the collapse of Japanese empire and the rise of American empire in Asia. It was decolonization in Korea and the start of the Cold War. Students will further investigate these links in final individual research projects. 

Catalog Distribution: (GLC-AS, HST-AS) (CA-AG, HA-AG)

Full details for ASIAN 2258 - The Occupation of Japan

Japanese pop culture—anime, manga, video games, music and more—has been a major phenomenon with massive worldwide popularity for the last three decades. In this course, we will explore a wide range of Japanese pop cultural forms, exploring the interactions between different media, Japanese pop culture as global pop culture, and a variety of modes of analyzing visual and audio materials. We will also see how pop cultural works themselves, in their content and form, engage with questions of gender, technology, fandom, nation, and the environment. No prior knowledge of Japanese language, culture, or history required. All readings and screenings will be available in English or with English subtitles.

Catalog Distribution: (ALC-AS) (CA-AG, LA-AG)

Full details for ASIAN 2260 - Japanese Pop Culture

Can we identify a distinctive Asian food and food culture? Challenging attempts to define heterogenous gastronomic practices as authentic reflections of a static Asian identity, this course discusses how food, diet, and cuisine have been integral to shaping boundaries of culture, identity, and nation across geographical and temporal divisions in Asia. We will examine how people use daily and visceral food experiences to imagine themselves as members of a given community, be it a nation, ethnicity, class, gender, or religion, while also examining how food practices constantly challenge that fixation and redraw these categories. Through examining a wide range of materials in diverse disciplines, ranging from reading historical and anthropological studies to watching "food porn" and TV cooking shows, we will discuss topics related to cookery and the media, colonialism and culinary modernity, food production and consumption, gender and cooking, food and (trans)nationalism, diaspora and globalization of food as well as eating and inequality.

Catalog Distribution: (GLC-AS) (CA-AG)

Full details for ASIAN 2272 - Food and Asia

Trade in and to Asia proved to be a key force in creating our modern "globalized" world. The Indian Ocean and the China Seas converged on Southeast Asia, where a cosmopolitan array of ships from every shore plied their trade, set sail, and returned with the monsoon winds. People, goods, and ideas also traveled on camelback across the undulating contours of the Gobi Desert, connecting India, the Near East and Central Asia with China, Korea, and Japan. This course introduces students to the raw ingredients of things in motion, poised interactively in time and space, as material worlds collide. Wood, bamboo, bronze, clay, earthenware, ink, spices, textiles and tea - students will navigate sites of encounter at the Herbert F. Johnson Museum from pre modern to the present.

Catalog Distribution: (ALC-AS) (CA-AG, LA-AG)

Full details for ASIAN 2285 - Introduction to Asian Art: Material Worlds

This course explores the evolution of Orientalism, focusing on how East Asia has been perceived in the West and in East Asia. By analyzing a range of cultural and literary works spanning the genres of travelogue, poetry, fiction, film, opera, photograph, painting, illustration, etc., the course critically examines the Orientalist dichotomy between the West and the non-West and analyzes the internalization of Orientalism in East Asia in constructing the marginalized other. In addition, through a combination of reading, writing, and in-class discussion, the course investigates the historical conditions surrounding the production and dissemination of Orientalist representations of East Asia and their relevance in the contemporary world.

Catalog Distribution: (HST-AS)

Full details for ASIAN 2295 - Orientalism and East Asia

This course explores the history of imperial China between the 3rd century b.c.e. and the 16th century c.e. with a focus on the following questions: How did imperial Chinese states go about politically unifying diverse peoples over vast spaces? How did imperial Chinese approaches to governance and to relations with the outer world compare with strategies employed by other historical empires? How did those approaches change over time? How did major socio-cultural formations — including literary canons; religious and familial lineages; marketing networks; and popular book and theatrical cultures — grow and take root, and what were the broader ramifications of those developments? How did such basic configurations of human difference as Chinese (civilized)-barbarian identity, high-low status, and male-female gender operate and change over time?

Catalog Distribution: (HST-AS, SCD-AS) (D-AG, HA-AG)

Full details for ASIAN 2740 - Imperial China

By posing seemingly simple questions such as what is love and who has the right to love, this introductory-level lecture course surveys how love has been experienced and expressed from the pre-modern period to the present. Through case studies of familial and conjugal love in Africa, Asia, the US, Europe, and South and Latin America, the course will examine the debates about and enactment's of what constitutes the appropriate way to show love and affection in different cultures and historical contexts. Among the themes we will explore are questions of sexuality, marriage, kinship, and gender rights. A final unit will examine these themes through modern technologies such as the Internet, scientific advances in medicine, and a growing awareness that who and how we love is anything but simple or universal.

Catalog Distribution: (HST-AS, SCD-AS) (D-AG, HA-AG)

Full details for ASIAN 2930 - A Global History of Love

This course examines the long, complicated history of Korea's relationship with China, focusing on the period from the fourteenth century to the present. Rather than having a nation-bound interpretation of history, the course explores how Korea's national identity–from the Chosŏn dynasty, through the colonial period, to the contemporary era of the two Koreas–has been shaped and negotiated in close relation to its interactions with China. By addressing various issues in Korean history that reflect Korea's strong ties and conflicts with China, the course not only offers a comprehensive understanding of Korean history from a broader comparative perspective but also contributes to the transnational history of East Asia.

Catalog Distribution: (HST-AS)

Full details for ASIAN 3021 - History of Korea-China Relations

In 1610, Nahua chronicler Chimalpahin wrote that a group of Japanese merchants had made landfall in Mexico, bringing with them writing desks, folding screens, porcelain, and silk. During this period, Japanese warlords, merchants, and converts began to engage in overseas exploration, journeying from Acapulco to Rome and traversing the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. At the same time, these actors engaged in colonial expansion, invading Korea, settling in parts of Southeast Asia, colonizing the island of Ezo (Hokkaidō), and dominating the Ryukyuan islands (Okinawa). We will disentangle the complex and obscured role of the Japanese archipelago in early modern globalization through decolonial and archipelagic thinking. In each session, we will apply the readings to a primary source, such as an edict, a world-map folding screen, a set of playing cards, or an anti-Christian tale, that will serve as a focal point for the respective theme of the session. By grounding our interpretations in a diverse array of primary sources, you will develop an interdisciplinary skillset in visual, literary, and historical evidence and gain robust knowledge of transoceanic exchange. You will also contribute to a digital humanities project that will create a visual database of motifs found on Japanese folding screens depicting the arrival of the Portuguese.

Catalog Distribution: (ALC-AS)

Full details for ASIAN 3022 - Japan and the Age of Discovery

This course will explore the origins and early developments of a movement in Indian Buddhism known as the Great Vehicle. We will intensively examine a small slice of this movement's voluminous literature so as to better understand its call for a new spiritual orientation within Buddhism. Topics of discussion will include the career of the bodhisattva, the lay/monk distinction, attitudes of Mahayanists toward women and other Buddhists, and the development of Buddhist utopias and transcendent buddhas. 

Catalog Distribution: (ALC-AS) (CA-AG, LA-AG)

Full details for ASIAN 3341 - Mahayana Buddhism

The course will survey in translation a selection of major works of poetry, drama, and aesthetic theory and criticism from the Sanskrit literary tradition of ancient India. Beginning with selections from the Sanskrit epic Ramayana, traditionally regarded as the "first poem" in the Indian tradition, we will turn tosurvey prominent examples from the ongoing tradition of epic poetry, the rise of romantic and heroic drama through the works of the fifth century Gupta poet Kalidasa and his successors, and the extensive corpus of Sanskrit and Prakrit lyric poetry from the 2nd to the 12th century AD.

Catalog Distribution: (ALC-AS) (CA-AG, LA-AG)

Full details for ASIAN 3366 - Poetry of Classical India

This course explores the practice, theory, and methodology of humanities research, critical analysis, and communication through writing and oral presentation. We will study the work and impact of humanists (scholars of literature, history, theory, art, visual studies, film, anthropology, gender and sexuality studies), who pose big questions about the human condition. By reading and analyzing their scholarship—critiquing them and engaging their ideas—we will craft our own methods and voices. Students will refine their research methods (library research, note taking, organizing material, bibliographies, citation methods, proposals, outlines, etc.) and design their own independent research project.

Catalog Distribution: (ALC-AS) (CA-AG, LA-AG)

Full details for ASIAN 3375 - Humanities Scholars Research Methods

China is often thought of as being isolated from the outside world. It is imagined as existing in historic seclusion, and, following the establishment of the People's Republic, as pursuing a path of autarky. Such separation has then only been somewhat modified by the set of economic reforms that Deng Xiaoping first instituted in the late 1970s. In this lecture we will seek to turn such conventional wisdom on its head through examining "what China is" via a consideration of transnational currents within the country's development. However, the course's primary focus will not be upon the past, but rather the present and attempting to determine just where the point of intersection between China and the rest of the world is. Coming to terms with such an issue will provide those who enroll in the class with a deeper, more nuanced, understanding of China's rise and this trend's implications for the rest of the world. We will accomplish this task through a combination of surveying the existing literature on China and transnational politics, and considering new theoretical perspectives on both.  

Catalog Distribution: (GLC-AS, SSC-AS) (CA-AG, SBA-AG)

Full details for ASIAN 3395 - What is China?

Surveys the modern history of Southeast Asia with special attention to colonialism, the Chinese diaspora, and socio-cultural institutions.  Considers global transformations that brought "the West" into people's lives in Southeast Asia.  Focuses on the development of the modern nation-state, but also questions the narrative by incorporating groups that are typically excluded.  Assigns primary texts in translation. 

Catalog Distribution: (HST-AS) (HA-AG)

Full details for ASIAN 3396 - Transnational Local: Southeast Asian History from the Eighteenth Century

Do modern times (which are experienced and conceptualized in varied ways) pose distinctive problems and opportunities for Buddhists? How are Buddhist teachings drawn into forms of social and political critique, activist and advocacy projects, and theorizing about human communities and social processes? In the 20th and 21st centuries, how do Buddhist teachings and practices inform practical and conceptual approaches to human flourishing? Drawing on thinkers from several parts of Asia and the Americas, this seminar highlights how persons work creatively with Buddhist teachings. We shall explore how Buddhist teachings are interpreted to address painful circumstances, as well as how such hermeneutics may offer new (and sometimes liberatory) ways of seeing selves, others, and communities.  Writers and artists considered in this seminar interpret Buddhist teachings and practices in relation to capitalism, race, gender, sexuality, environmental ethics, and nationalism.

Catalog Distribution: (ALC-AS) (CA-AG, LA-AG)

Full details for ASIAN 4020 - Buddhist Moderns: Visions of Human Flourishing

This is an events-based course. Students will attend ten seminars in the South Asia Program seminar series. The work of scholars, filmmakers, and artists presenting research in the series spans the region and its diasporas (e.g., India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Bhutan, and Indian Ocean worlds). Topics considered will cross the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Students will attend these events and engage with the material presented in short response papers and supplemental readings. The objective of this course is to offer students, whether they are familiar with the region or not, new perspectives on the lived experiences of South Asia. Students will also become familiar with interdisciplinary area studies as an intellectual project.

Full details for ASIAN 4377 - Issues in South Asian Studies

Supervised reading and research on the problem selected for honors work.

Full details for ASIAN 4401 - Asian Studies Honors Course

The student, under faculty direction, prepares an honors essay.

Full details for ASIAN 4402 - Asian Studies Honors: Senior Essay

Intensive reading under the direction of a member of the staff.

Full details for ASIAN 4404 - Supervised Reading

This course explores how religious beliefs and practices in Southeast Asia have been transformed by the combined forces of colonialism, nationalism, and globalization. By examining both diversity and resurgence in one of the world's most rapidly modernizing regions, we aim to understand the common economic, social, and political conditions that are contributing to the popularity of contemporary religious movements. At the same time, we also consider the unique ideological, theological, and cultural understandings behind different religions and movements. Through this process we also rethink conceptions of modernity.

Catalog Distribution: (SCD-AS) (D-AG)

Full details for ASIAN 4413 - Religion and Politics in Southeast Asia

Topics will address South Asian culture and literature and change in relation to curricular needs within the Department of Asian Studies.

Full details for ASIAN 4414 - Topics in South Asian Culture and Literature

Tea is a ubiquitous commodity across time and cultures. The craze for tea has become a global phenomenon. The goal of this course is not only to elucidate the exchanges and transmissions that gave rise to the phenomenon, but also to unpack the definition of tea culture through the exploration of objects and rituals. How are tea objects related to rituals, etiquette, and movement? What do tea objects reveal about craftsmen/craftswomen and collectors? How are the objects related to religious, political, social, and economic environments of their times? Lastly, what is the importance of tea culture in shaping national and cultural identity in modern East Asia?

Catalog Distribution: (ALC-AS, GLC-AS) (CA-AG, LA-AG)

Full details for ASIAN 4424 - Objects, Rituals, and Tea

This course will explore the culture and society of Choson Korea (1392—1897) through a variety of historical, literary, and visual representations. Following the major political, social, and cultural transformations that shaped Choson Korea, such as Confucianism and the introduction of the patriarchy; changes to relationships among family, class, and gender; the Hideyoshi invasion and the collapse of the Ming dynasty; and the flourishing of commerce and foreign trade, we will examine a variety of discursive practices for constructing individual and collective identities and analyze how these identities changed over time in relation to shifting historical conditions in Choson Korea.

Catalog Distribution: (ALC-AS, HST-AS)

Full details for ASIAN 4426 - Narrating Choson Korea: History and Memory

This course serves as a survey of major issues within Chinese politics and foreign policy and constitutes the capstone seminar for CAPS students. It is intended to give students an opportunity to explore aspects related to Chinese politics, economics, and society that they may have touched upon in other China-focused courses at Cornell, but have not been able to examine as fully, and with the degree of care, that they would like. In this regard, the substance of the course will be developed through an iterative process between the instructor and the seminar participants. We will spend the first part of the course doing a series of recent influential readings on contemporary China and developing initial research projects. The second half of the class will be organized around student led presentations of research projects (accompanied by relevant academic, media, and policy readings).

Catalog Distribution: (ALC-AS, GLC-AS) (CA-AG, LA-AG)

Full details for ASIAN 4435 - Making Sense of China: The Capstone Seminar

Theories of modernization have inspired, informed, and plagued histories of middle and late imperial China. For the Song-Qing eras (roughly 10th-19th centuries), comparative studies have variously found and sought to explain modernization emerging earlier than in Europe, an absence of modernization, or alternative paths of modernization.  Regional models have argued for pan-East Asian systems and patterns of modernization. Global models have argued that China had a vital role in European development as a provenance of modernizing institutions and ideas, as a source of exploited resources, or otherwise as an integral part of global systems. In this course we explore these historiographical debates and develop critical perspectives, including approaches to escaping Eurocentric and teleological frameworks.

Full details for ASIAN 4461 - China's Early Modern

This interdisciplinary seminar examines the relationship between literature and the environment in an East Asian and global context. We will explore key questions and approaches in the fields of ecocriticism and the environmental humanities as they relate to ecological change in Korea, China, and Japan. How does literature make environmental crises, their effects on sentient beings, and the earth itself more visible? In what ways does storytelling give voice to changing relationships between humans and the more-than-human world? The seminar will engage the significant conceptual contributions Indigenous thinkers from Asia and the Americas have contributed to ecocriticism as we examine how poets, novelists, filmmakers, artists, nonfiction writers, and critics have responded creatively to environmental change.

Catalog Distribution: (GLC-AS) (CA-AG)

Full details for ASIAN 4477 - Ecocriticism, Indigeneity, and East Asia in Global Context

This seminar explores how patterned cloths serve as a symbolic medium, functioning on multiple levels of understanding and communication. As spun, dyed, and woven threads of consequence, textiles can be seen to enter into all phases of social, economic, political, religious, and performance processes, often assuming unusual properties and attributes. As bearers of talismanic messages, signifiers of rank, and as the recipients of influences from maritime trade and touristic demand, textiles are read between the folds of complex exchange mechanisms in South and Southeast Asia.

Catalog Distribution: (ALC-AS, HST-AS) (CA-AG, HA-AG, LA-AG)

Full details for ASIAN 4487 - Threads of Consequence: Textiles in South and Southeast Asia

This seminar investigates the emergent concept of the Black Pacific, an area that scholars across multiple disciplines in recent years have begun to shed new light on. This course is designed to encourage an exploration of various methods including autobiography, video, film and others. This seminar seeks to examine the histories of African descendants to Asia via the Pacific rim and consider the ways in the varying concepts of Blackness itself may look different if we center our gaze on the trans-Pacific world. The term "Mapping" in the course title is in response to the often-overlooked encounters between peoples of African and Asian descent and the presence of African descendants in this region.

Full details for ASIAN 4669 - Mapping the Black Pacific(s): Afro-Asian Encounters

A "glitch" is when something goes "wrong" in digital media—sometimes, however, it is precisely when something "fails" that can tell us about the structures and forces that underlie that media. In this course we'll be exploring a wide variety of examples of how media creators, artists, hackers, game developers, Deaf and disability activists, and other marginalized groups from across the world (with a particular focus on Japan) have used "glitches" to tell us something new about the digital, looking at works ranging from electronic literature to online horror stories to experimental video games and installation art.

Catalog Distribution: (ALC-AS)

Full details for ASIAN 4703 - The Glitch: Errors, Disability, and the Edges of Digital Media

An explosive period of artistic experimentation occurred in China following the end of the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). The new artistic practices that were developed from the late 1970s onwards—from painting to sculpture, installation, performance, video—quickly came to be known as "contemporary Chinese art." This course charts its development with a historiographic attention to the ways in which it has been narrativized by domestic and international critics, curators, and art historians. Analyzing artworks, exhibitions, and translated texts, we will explore major trends and discursive issues to reflect on how we tell the story of this art in its domestic and global contexts.

Catalog Distribution: (HST-AS) (HA-AG)

Full details for ASIAN 4844 - The Rise of Contemporary Chinese Art: Narratives in the Making of New Art

This course presents theories of language teaching and learning, and shows how they apply to Asian language course structure, classroom instruction, and assessment techniques.  Students will observe classes taught by experienced teachers, discuss language learning theory and practice, and design and implement their own class activities. 

Full details for ASIAN 5505 - Methodology of Asian Language Learning and Teaching

Do modern times (which are experienced and conceptualized in varied ways) pose distinctive problems and opportunities for Buddhists? How are Buddhist teachings drawn into forms of social and political critique, activist and advocacy projects, and theorizing about human communities and social processes? In the 20th and 21st centuries, how do Buddhist teachings and practices inform practical and conceptual approaches to human flourishing? Drawing on thinkers from several parts of Asia and the Americas, this seminar highlights how persons work creatively with Buddhist teachings. We shall explore how Buddhist teachings are interpreted to address painful circumstances, as well as how such hermeneutics may offer new (and sometimes liberatory) ways of seeing selves, others, and communities.  Writers and artists considered in this seminar interpret Buddhist teachings and practices in relation to capitalism, race, gender, sexuality, environmental ethics, and nationalism.

Full details for ASIAN 6020 - Buddhist Moderns: Visions of Human Flourishing

In 1610, Nahua chronicler Chimalpahin wrote that a group of Japanese merchants had made landfall in Mexico, bringing with them writing desks, folding screens, porcelain, and silk. During this period, Japanese warlords, merchants, and converts began to engage in overseas exploration, journeying from Acapulco to Rome and traversing the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. At the same time, these actors engaged in colonial expansion, invading Korea, settling in parts of Southeast Asia, colonizing the island of Ezo (Hokkaidō), and dominating the Ryukyuan islands (Okinawa). We will disentangle the complex and obscured role of the Japanese archipelago in early modern globalization through decolonial and archipelagic thinking. In each session, we will apply the readings to a primary source, such as an edict, a world-map folding screen, a set of playing cards, or an anti-Christian tale, that will serve as a focal point for the respective theme of the session. By grounding our interpretations in a diverse array of primary sources, you will develop an interdisciplinary skillset in visual, literary, and historical evidence and gain robust knowledge of transoceanic exchange. You will also contribute to a digital humanities project that will create a visual database of motifs found on Japanese folding screens depicting the arrival of the Portuguese.

Full details for ASIAN 6022 - Japan and the Age of Discovery

This is an events-based course. Students will attend ten seminars in the South Asia Program seminar series. The work of scholars, filmmakers, and artists presenting research in the series spans the region and its diasporas (e.g., India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Bhutan, and Indian Ocean worlds). Topics considered will cross the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Students will attend these events and engage with the material presented in short response papers and supplemental readings. The objective of this course is to offer students, whether they are familiar with the region or not, new perspectives on the lived experiences of South Asia. Students will also become familiar with interdisciplinary area studies as an intellectual project.

Full details for ASIAN 6377 - Issues in South Asian Studies

Topics will address South Asian culture and literature and change in relation to curricular needs within the Department of Asian Studies.

Full details for ASIAN 6602 - Topics in South Asian Culture and Literature

Covers practical bibliographical skills and research methods necessary to accomplish quality research in the field of Southeast Asian Studies. During the semester we will explore resources available at the Cornell University Libraries, those provided through Library subscription, and resources available elsewhere.

Full details for ASIAN 6613 - Southeast Asian Bibliography and Research Methods

Tea is a ubiquitous commodity across time and cultures. The craze for tea has become a global phenomenon. The goal of this course is not only to elucidate the exchanges and transmissions that gave rise to the phenomenon, but also to unpack the definition of tea culture through the exploration of objects and rituals. How are tea objects related to rituals, etiquette, and movement? What do tea objects reveal about craftsmen/craftswomen and collectors? How are the objects related to religious, political, social, and economic environments of their times? Lastly, what is the importance of tea culture in shaping national and cultural identity in modern East Asia?

Full details for ASIAN 6624 - Objects, Rituals, and Tea

This seminar explores how patterned cloths serve as a symbolic medium, functioning on multiple levels of understanding and communication. As spun, dyed, and woven threads of consequence, textiles can be seen to enter into all phases of social, economic, political, religious, and performance processes, often assuming unusual properties and attributes. As bearers of talismanic messages, signifiers of rank, and as the recipients of influences from maritime trade and touristic demand, textiles are read between the folds of complex exchange mechanisms in South and Southeast Asia.

Full details for ASIAN 6644 - Threads of Consequence: Textiles in South and Southeast Asia

Theories of modernization have inspired, informed, and plagued histories of middle and late imperial China. For the Song-Qing eras (roughly 10th-19th centuries), comparative studies have variously found and sought to explain modernization emerging earlier than in Europe, an absence of modernization, or alternative paths of modernization.  Regional models have argued for pan-East Asian systems and patterns of modernization. Global models have argued that China had a vital role in European development as a provenance of modernizing institutions and ideas, as a source of exploited resources, or otherwise as an integral part of global systems. In this course we explore these historiographical debates and develop critical perspectives, including approaches to escaping Eurocentric and teleological frameworks.

Full details for ASIAN 6661 - China's Early Modern

This interdisciplinary seminar examines the relationship between literature and the environment in an East Asian and global context. We will explore key questions and approaches in the fields of ecocriticism and the environmental humanities as they relate to ecological change in Korea, China, and Japan. How does literature make environmental crises, their effects on sentient beings, and the earth itself more visible? In what ways does storytelling give voice to changing relationships between humans and the more-than-human world? The seminar will engage the significant conceptual contributions Indigenous thinkers from Asia and the Americas have contributed to ecocriticism as we examine how poets, novelists, filmmakers, artists, nonfiction writers, and critics have responded creatively to environmental change.

Full details for ASIAN 6677 - Ecocriticism, Indigeneity, and East Asia in Global Context

The history of systems theory involves complex stories of technoscientific change and knowledge production on a global scale. In recent years, scholars have increasingly moved away from the field's predominantly North American and European focuses to study instead how systems theory's thinking of dynamic interrelations, and the related area of cybernetics research on self-organization and recursivity have developed in major Asian societies. This course first explores the epistemological foundations of systems theory before studying its major developments and historical case studies in the PRC, Taiwan, Singapore, and Malaysia. We will then examine systems theory and cybernetics' impacts on questions of technocratic governance, biopolitics, economy, gender and sexuality, and cultural and aesthetic production.

Full details for ASIAN 6681 - Systems Theory and Asia Critique

Surveys the modern history of Southeast Asia with special attentions to colonialism, the Chinese diaspora, and socio-cultural institutions. Considers global transformations that brought "the West" into people's lives in Southeast Asia. Focuses on the development of the modern nation-state, but also questions the narrative by incorporating groups that are typically excluded. Assigns primary texts in translation.

Full details for ASIAN 6696 - Transnational Local: Southeast Asian History from the Eighteenth Century

This seminar investigates the emergent concept of the Black Pacific, an area that scholars across multiple disciplines in recent years have begun to shed new light on. This course is designed to encourage an exploration of various methods including autobiography, video, film and others. This seminar seeks to examine the histories of African descendants to Asia via the Pacific rim and consider the ways in the varying concepts of Blackness itself may look different if we center our gaze on the trans-Pacific world. The term "Mapping" in the course title is in response to the often-overlooked encounters between peoples of African and Asian descent and the presence of African descendants in this region.

Full details for ASIAN 6699 - Mapping the Black Pacific(s): Afro-Asian Encounters

A "glitch" is when something goes "wrong" in digital media—sometimes, however, it is precisely when something "fails" that can tell us about the structures and forces that underlie that media. In this course we'll be exploring a wide variety of examples of how media creators, artists, hackers, game developers, Deaf and disability activists, and other marginalized groups from across the world (with a particular focus on Japan) have used "glitches" to tell us something new about the digital, looking at works ranging from electronic literature to online horror stories to experimental video games and installation art.

Full details for ASIAN 6703 - The Glitch: Errors, Disability, and the Edges of Digital Media

An explosive period of artistic experimentation occurred in China following the end of the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). The new artistic practices that were developed from the late 1970s onwards—from painting to sculpture, installation, performance, video—quickly came to be known as "contemporary Chinese art." This course charts its development with a historiographic attention to the ways in which it has been narrativized by domestic and international critics, curators, and art historians. Analyzing artworks, exhibitions, and translated texts, we will explore major trends and discursive issues to reflect on how we tell the story of this art in its domestic and global contexts.

Full details for ASIAN 6844 - The Rise of Contemporary Chinese Art: Narratives in the Making of New Art

Guided independent study for graduate students.

Full details for ASIAN 7704 - Directed Research

This course explores how religious beliefs and practices in Southeast Asia have been transformed by the combined forces of colonialism, nationalism, and globalization. By examining both diversity and resurgence in one of the world's most rapidly modernizing regions, we aim to understand the common economic, social, and political conditions that are contributing to the popularity of contemporary religious movements. At the same time, we also consider the unique ideological, theological, and cultural understandings behind different religions and movements. Through this process we also rethink conceptions of modernity.

Full details for ASIAN 7713 - Religion and Politics in Southeast Asia

This course will introduce foundational knowledge of Bangla language and elements of culture from Bangladesh and West Bengal to anyone interested in Bengal, e.g. those planning to travel to Bangladesh and West Bengal, India.

Full details for BENGL 1100 - Elements of Bangla-Bengali Language and Culture

Enables students to read and comprehend basic Bangla texts as well as speak and write in the language.

Catalog Distribution: (FL-AG)

Full details for BENGL 1122 - Elementary Bangla-Bengali II

Continuing focus on reading, writing, and conversational skills, this course is designed to advance students' oral competence and enhance comprehension skills through reading, conversations, and listening.

Catalog Distribution: (FL-AG)

Full details for BENGL 2202 - Intermediate Bangla-Bengali II

Continuing instruction in Bangla at the advanced level focusing on conversation, interview, and discussion skills.

Catalog Distribution: (FL-AG)

Full details for BENGL 3302 - Advanced Bangla-Bengali II

This course will introduce basic Burmese language and elements of Burmese culture to anyone who would like to learn about the country.

Full details for BURM 1100 - Elements of Burmese Language and Culture

This course focuses on building up confidence in speaking and understanding spoken Burmese at the beginner level. Emphasis is put on language you will need if you visit the country, and significant practical skills are learned along with essential information on some customs and traditions of Burmese culture. Some of the assignments are completed online using interactive video and audio materials.

Catalog Distribution: (FL-AG)

Full details for BURM 1122 - Elementary Burmese (Myanmar) II

This course continues instruction of intermediate Burmese. It will focus on improving oral expression, reading and interpretation of written texts, and further development of listening skills using language learning materials based on authentic audio-video clips. Some of the assignments are completed online using interactive video and audio materials.

Catalog Distribution: (FL-AG)

Full details for BURM 2202 - Intermediate Burmese (Myanmar) II

All materials used in the course are authentic Burmese stories, current event reports, radio plays, etc. The particular materials used in any given year may vary depending on the proficiency level of the students. For students who are involved in Burma/Myanmar related research, their projects may also become part of the course.

Catalog Distribution: (FL-AG)

Full details for BURM 3302 - Advanced Burmese (Myanmar) II

This course will further advance the student's reading skills and, if needed, writing as well. Burmese texts of advanced-level complexity will be read, analyzed, and translated to English. A certain amount of discussion in Burmese is also part of the course, but the primary objective is to learn to read and understand the typical texts that appear on websites about current events, cultural trends, news from around the world, as well as short literary works by contemporary authors. Heritage speakers of Burmese as well as students who are learning Burmese as a foreign language are welcome. Reading materials are selected depending on the needs and interests of the students and differ from year to year.

Full details for BURM 3310 - Advanced Readings in Burmese (Myanmar) II

For beginners only, providing a thorough grounding in conversational and reading skills. Students with any previous background or training in the language will need to take the Mandarin Placement Test to determine which Chinese course will best suit their needs.  

Catalog Distribution: (FL-AG)

Full details for CHIN 1102 - Beginning Mandarin II

Continuation of CHIN 1109. Intended primarily for students whose family language is Mandarin but who have had little or no formal training. The focus is on reading, writing and speaking, as well as culture, and current events in the Chinese speaking community.

Catalog Distribution: (FL-AG)

Full details for CHIN 1110 - Beginning Chinese Reading and Writing for Students of Chinese Heritage II

A continuation of  CHIN 1121. This course helps students develop basic skills in Mandarin Chinese, at a moderate pace. For non-heritage learners only.

Catalog Distribution: (FL-AG)

Full details for CHIN 1122 - Beginning Mandarin for Professional Students II

A continuation of  CHIN 1123 . This course helps students develop basic skills in Mandarin Chinese, at a moderate pace. For non-heritage learners only. 

Catalog Distribution: (FL-AG)

Full details for CHIN 1124 - Beginning Mandarin for Professional Students IV

Continuing instruction in written and spoken Chinese with particular emphasis on consolidating basic conversational skills and improving reading confidence and ability.

Catalog Distribution: (FL-AG)

Full details for CHIN 2202 - Intermediate Mandarin II

If your long-term goal is to move past the intermediate Chinese learning plateau and gain the ability to participate fully in the Chinese-speaking world, this course is the next step you need to take. This course uses a combination of short essays written by well-known Chinese writers and news articles from a wonderful news platform and focuses on how to read and write effectively through 1) learning both semi-formal and formal vocabulary, modern idiomatic expressions, advanced sentence structures and the major features that characterize advanced Chinese; 2) exploring the different aspects of Chinese culture or events that interest you; 3) completing a book or a magazine in Chinese as the course project applying what students learn during the semester. This course helps students further solidify their foundation for advanced-level study in Chinese, as well as enhance their awareness of and overall competence in cross-cultural communication.

Catalog Distribution: (FL-AG)

Full details for CHIN 2210 - Intermediate Chinese Reading and Writing for Students of Chinese Heritage II

Continuing instruction in spoken and written Mandarin Chinese via text and authentic multimedia materials. 

Catalog Distribution: (FL-AG)

Full details for CHIN 3302 - High Intermediate Mandarin II

Equivalent to CHIN 3302. Continuing instruction in spoken Chinese and in various genres and styles of written Chinese.

Catalog Distribution: (FL-AG)

Full details for CHIN 3352 - High Intermediate Mandarin II: CAPS in Beijing

Reading, discussion, and composition at advanced levels.

Catalog Distribution: (FL-AG)

Full details for CHIN 4412 - Advanced Mandarin II

This course aims to help students achieve an advanced level of performance both in speaking and writing through reading authentic Chinese materials, watching TV shows, various writing exercises, and class discussions on social and cultural topics on contemporary China. Classical Chinese will be introduced in this course through supplementary readings.

Catalog Distribution: (FL-AG)

Full details for CHIN 4428 - High Advanced Mandarin II

Equivalent to CHIN 4412 .  Reading, discussion, and composition at advanced levels.

Full details for CHIN 4452 - Advanced Mandarin II: CAPS in Beijing

This course is designed for students who have satisfactorily finished CHIN 4427 or the equivalent.  The focus of the course is on formal Chinese, and the main aim of this course is to help students achieve an advanced level of Chinese performance, so that they may combine Chinese with their work in their majors.  The course material will be formal Chinese writings by native speakers, mostly for native speakers, related to students' majors and fields of interest.  In addition, classical Chinese will also be introduced through readngs as a means to enhance students' understanding of the language.

Catalog Distribution: (FL-AG)

Full details for CHIN 4454 - High Advanced Mandarin II: CAPS in Beijing

Students read from early Classical Chinese texts and learn to use advanced sources for solving textual problems.

Catalog Distribution: (ALC-AS) (FL-AG)

Full details for CHLIT 2214 - Introduction to Classical Chinese II

Students choose a faculty member to oversee this independent study. The student and the faculty member work together to develop course content.

Full details for CHLIT 4422 - Directed Study

Students choose a faculty member to oversee this independent study. The student and the faculty member work together to develop class readings.

Full details for CHLIT 6622 - Advanced Directed Reading

Designed for students who have no prior background in Hindi and wish to develop some basic speaking and written skills. This course offers a balanced treatment of speaking, listening comprehension, reading, and writing skills. By the end of the Elementary Hindi sequence, students will beable to (1) converse and comprehend conversations on topics such as personal needs and social activities; (2) listen and communicate main ideas of simple stories and conversations in Hindi; (3) read aloud/pronounce and write in Hindi-Urdu scripts at a satisfactory speed; (4) familiarize themselves with the language through the meaning cultural contexts and background.

Full details for HINDI 1122 - Elementary Hindi II

HINDI 2202 is the continuation of HINDI 2201. The main emphasis in this course is to reinforce the linguistic functions learned in HINDI 2201, and to build comparatively more complex functions suitable for intermediate level in Hindi. Students' competence in all four language skills will be improved in order to perform higher level tasks and function.

Catalog Distribution: (FL-AG)

Full details for HINDI 2202 - Intermediate Hindi II

Throughout this course sequence all aspects of language learning are practiced; listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Video materials are used and the emphasis is on the conversational aspect of the language.

Catalog Distribution: (FL-AG)

Full details for HINDI 2204 - Intermediate Hindi Reading and Writing for Heritage Students II

This is a continuation of HINDI 3301. Selected readings in modern Hindi literature. Continued work on fluency in speaking Hindi on an advanced level. There will be a combination of different reading materials from literature, journals, newspapers, and many social, entertainment, and political magazines in Hindi. Discussions will be based on those readings and articles, hence giving opportunities to express views and opinions in a fluent and effective manner.

Catalog Distribution: (FL-AG)

Full details for HINDI 3302 - Advanced Hindi II

This course is for students with no previous knowledge of Indonesian or Malay language. Students will learn enough phrases to be able to handle very simple interactions, express very simple needs, and behave appropriately in Indonesian settings. Cultural information will be taught in English. Indonesianists of Cornell share fun information about their fields of expertise regarding Indonesia.  80% of the course, the Bahasa Indonesia language component, will be practiced.

Full details for INDO 1100 - Elements of Indonesian Language and Culture

Gives a thorough grounding in basic speaking, listening, reading and writing skills.

Catalog Distribution: (FL-AG)

Full details for INDO 1122 - Elementary Indonesian II

Develops all four skills: reading, writing, speaking, and listening comprehension.

Catalog Distribution: (FL-AG)

Full details for INDO 2202 - Intermediate Indonesian II

Practical language course at a high intermediate and low advanced level in which students read and discuss selected materials on issues of their academic interests, write essays, and make oral presentations.

Catalog Distribution: (FL-AG)

Full details for INDO 3302 - Advanced Indonesian II

A critical academic language course at a higher advanced level that sharpens students' proficiency of integrated language skills from an advanced high or above level, based on the ACTFL proficiency benchmarks. Students read, discuss, debate and explore hypotheses on issues from specialized disciplines to broader abstract ideas.

Full details for INDO 4402 - Advanced Indonesian for Research II

Gives a thorough grounding in all four language skills-speaking, listening, reading, and writing-at the beginning level. The laboratory provides explanation, analysis, and cultural background. Daily lectures are conducted entirely in Japanese.

Catalog Distribution: (FL-AG)

Full details for JAPAN 1102 - Elementary Japanese II

This course provides widely applicable language proficiency as an integrated Japanese course, which develops all four language skills (speaking, listening, reading, and writing) at the post-elementary level.

Catalog Distribution: (FL-AG)

Full details for JAPAN 2202 - Intermediate Japanese II

For students who have learned basic Japanese skills and would like to develop higher skills in reading, writing, speaking, and listening.

Catalog Distribution: (FL-AG)

Full details for JAPAN 3302 - High Intermediate Japanese II

Develops reading, writing and oral communication skills at the advanced level.

Catalog Distribution: (FL-AG)

Full details for JAPAN 4402 - Advanced Japanese II

This is a Japanese course to develop both oral and written communication skills focusing on a variety of current events and social phenomena in Japan.

Catalog Distribution: (FL-AG)

Full details for JAPAN 4422 - Special Topics

Students choose a faculty member to oversee this independent study. The student and the faculty member work together to develop class readings.

Full details for JPLIT 6625 - Directed Readings

Full details for JPLIT 6628 - Advanced Directed Readings

Gives a thorough grounding in speaking and reading.

Catalog Distribution: (FL-AG)

Full details for KHMER 1122 - Elementary Khmer II

Continuing instruction in spoken and written Khmer. Intermediate level of reading Khmer.

Catalog Distribution: (FL-AG)

Full details for KHMER 2202 - Intermediate Khmer II

Continuing instruction in spoken and written Khmer; emphasis on enlarging vocabulary, increasing reading speed, and reading various genres and styles of prose.

Catalog Distribution: (FL-AG)

Full details for KHMER 3302 - Advanced Khmer II

Continuation of KOREA 1101. Designed to help students acquire the 4 skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing) of the Korean language and to become familiar with its culture. Basic knowledge of Korean grammar, vocabulary, expressions and cultural points will be given during the lab. The students will then have an opportunity to practice the learned knowledge in lectures. The goal of this course is to refine their survival skills in Korean. By the end of the semester, students will be able to engage in simple conversations with native Koreans on subjects familiar to them in all time frames (present, past, and future): school life, family and friends, traffic and transportation, vacation, food and restaurant, hobbies, etc. Korean typing skill is required.

Catalog Distribution: (FL-AG)

Full details for KOREA 1102 - Elementary Korean II

Continuation of KOREA 1109. Focuses on communicative skills in speaking, listening, reading and writing by introducing a wide range of linguistic resources. Students will command daily conversation in different cultural contexts and develop an ability to summarize and reflect on literary texts and films both in oral and written modes. Students will be able to create a discourse regarding topics such as birthday, campus life, family, shopping and hobbies. Also, students will write and revise their own work regularly to improve linguistic accuracy and reduce error production.

Catalog Distribution: (FL-AG)

Full details for KOREA 1110 - Elementary Korean Reading and Writing II

Continuation of KOREA 2201 .  The course helps students develop further communicative competence by understanding and producing complex linguistic structures and pragmatically appropriate expressions in cultural contexts. Students will use linguistic tools to describe and express their stance, justification, attitudes, evaluation and complex clausal relations. Students will command a lengthy discourse regarding various topics such as holidays, birthday, cultural differences, doctor-patient talk and job interview.

Catalog Distribution: (FL-AG)

Full details for KOREA 2202 - Intermediate Korean II

Continuation of KOREA 2209. Designed for Korean heritage students who can understand and speak Korean, but especially need to refine their reading and writing skills. Students will acquire concrete knowledge of grammar to use in everyday conversation, and will minimize their spelling errors in writing, through frequent discussion and composition about Korean culture, society and history. They will become confident in reading paragraph-length readings in Korean, be able to write their reflections on the passages that they have read, and speak with ease when participating in the classroom discussions. Various projects will enhance students' overall linguistic and intercultural competence. Korean typing skill is required.

Catalog Distribution: (FL-AG)

Full details for KOREA 2210 - Intermediate Korean Reading and Writing II

Continuation of KOREA 3301. Students will continue to refine their high-intermediate language skills. Authentic published materials and documentary video-clips will be introduced in order for students to be exposed to an advanced level of Korean. Students will discuss and write an essay on topics regarding Seoul, South Korea and North Korea, housing in Korea, customs and superstition of Korea, Korean folk tales and proverbs, Korean culture of community, and Korea during the Japanese colonial period. Students are given the opportunity to do research on Korean culture and society following an academic research format and give an oral presentation in class.

Catalog Distribution: (FL-AG)

Full details for KOREA 3302 - High Intermediate Korean II

Continuation of KOREA 4401. Designed for students to acquire advanced language skills (speaking, listening, reading and writing) through Content-Based Instruction and Project-Based Language Learning. Students will gain profound knowledge in various fields on Korea through discussion and composition: Current issues in Korean society, Korean people's thoughts and mind, tradition, history and culture. With frequent discussions and compositions on various contemporary news articles, documentaries, and a novel, students are encouraged to become Intercultural Communicative Citizens and learn the contents through the language. The expected student outcome is to gain confidence in the academic level of discussions and compositions by critical thinking and analyzing. Korean typing skill is required.

Catalog Distribution: (FL-AG)

Full details for KOREA 4402 - Advanced Korean II

This course is intended for beginners of the Nepali language. The emphasis is given on continuation of learning basic grammar structures, and the four basic skills of language learning: speaking, listening, reading, and writing, using culturally up-to-date materials and texts.

Full details for NEPAL 1122 - Elementary Nepali II

Intermediate instruction in spoken grammar and verbal comprehension skills, with special attention to developing technical vocabularies and other verbal skills appropriate to students' professional fields.

Catalog Distribution: (FL-AG)

Full details for NEPAL 2202 - Intermediate Nepali Conversation II

Systematic review of written grammar and reading comprehension, with special attention to the technical vocabularies, necessary writing skills, and published materials typical of advanced students' professional fields.

Catalog Distribution: (FL-AG)

Full details for NEPAL 2204 - Intermediate Nepali Composition II

Reading of advanced texts, together with advanced drill on the spoken language.

Catalog Distribution: (FL-AG)

Full details for NEPAL 3302 - Advanced Nepali II

This course introduces students to Punjabi, a major language of northern India and Pakistan. Beginning with the study of the Gurmukhi script, the course offers an intensive study of the speaking, reading, and writing of the language. This is approached through the theme-based syllabus, a discussion in small groups and paired activities on the cultural background of Punjab and Punjabi culture.

Full details for PUNJB 1122 - Elementary Punjabi II

Further develops students' skills in Punjabi, a major language of northern India and Pakistan. Continuing with the study of the Gurmukhi script, the course offers an intensive study of the speaking, reading, and writing of the language. This is approached through the theme-based syllabus, a discussion in small groups and paired activities on the cultural background of Punjab and Punjabi culture.

Full details for PUNJB 2202 - Intermediate Punjabi II

An introduction to the essentials of Sanskrit grammar. Designed to enable the student to read classical and epic Sanskrit as soon as possible.

Catalog Distribution: (FL-AG)

Full details for SANSK 1132 - Elementary Sanskrit II

Readings from Sanskrit dramas and literary commentary.

Catalog Distribution: (FL-AG)

Full details for SANSK 2252 - Intermediate Sanskrit II

Selected readings in Sanskrit literary and philosophical texts.

Full details for SANSK 3302 - Advanced Sanskrit II

Topics vary by semester in relation to student needs.

Full details for SANSK 5510 - Graduate Studies in Sanskrit

This course will introduce the basic Sinhala language elements and elements of Sri Lankan culture for those who are interested in the field of language and culture. Also for those planning to travel to Sri Lanka, heritage students, etc.

Full details for SINHA 1100 - Elements of Sinhala Language and Culture

Semi-intensive introduction to colloquial Sinhala, intended for beginners. A thorough grounding is given in all the language skills; listening, speaking, reading, and writing.

Catalog Distribution: (FL-AG)

Full details for SINHA 1122 - Elementary Sinhala II

This course further develops student competence in colloquial Sinhala, attending to all the language skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing. In addition, this course prepares students for the transition to literary Sinhala.

Catalog Distribution: (FL-AG)

Full details for SINHA 2202 - Intermediate Sinhala II

This one-semester course further develops students' comprehension of written Literary Sinhala, using sample materials from a variety of genres prepared by the instructor, as well as excerpts from texts relevant to graduate student research (when appropriate).

Catalog Distribution: (FL-AG)

Full details for SINHA 4400 - Literary Sinhala II

This course will introduce very basic functional uses of Tagalog/Filipino language and elements of Filipino culture to interested students like heritage learners and those who are planning to travel briefly to the Philippines to participate in a short project or study abroad program in the country.

Full details for TAG 1100 - Elements of Tagalog-Filipino Language and Culture

Gives a thorough grounding in basic speaking and listening skills with an introduction to reading and writing.

Catalog Distribution: (FL-AG)

Full details for TAG 1122 - Elementary Tagalog-Filipino II

Develops all four skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing.

Catalog Distribution: (FL-AG)

Full details for TAG 2202 - Intermediate Tagalog-Filipino II

Continuing instruction on conversational skills but with emphasis on reading and writing. Selected core readings in contemporary Tagalog literature are used, but students, in consultation with the instructor, may select some of the class materials.

Catalog Distribution: (FL-AG)

Full details for TAG 3302 - Advanced Tagalog-Filipino II

Introduces students to the basic grammatical and syntactical skills required to function adequately in a Tamil-speaking environment. Of particular interest to students planning to conduct scholarly research or fieldwork in that region of the world. Introduces students to the rich culture of the Indian subcontinent where Tamil is spoken.

Catalog Distribution: (FL-AG)

Full details for TAMIL 1122 - Elementary Tamil II

This course introduces basic spoken Thai and various aspects of Thai culture for short-term visitors.  Through active, participatory learning this course cultivates a working knowledge of the Thai language and develops a cultural "intuition" that is meaningful and functional for achieving a smooth transition and successful experience in Thailand.  This course is for students who are personally interested in Thai culture as well as those participating in university projects in Thailand.

Full details for THAI 1100 - Elements of Thai Language and Culture

This beginning level course provides a solid grounding in all four language skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) with an emphasis on reading and writing. The aim is to enable learners to continue the process of thinking in Thai and learning to converse and "get around" in certain basic situations in daily life with an additional of basic literacy skill.

Catalog Distribution: (FL-AG)

Full details for THAI 1122 - Elementary Thai II

Continues to develop and comprehensively extends the four language skills acquired at the Elementary level (listening, speaking, reading, and writing).

Catalog Distribution: (FL-AG)

Full details for THAI 2202 - Intermediate Thai II

Develops conversational skill along with reading and writing skills at a High Intermediate level.

Catalog Distribution: (FL-AG)

Full details for THAI 2204 - Intermediate Thai Composition and Conversation II

Develops advanced speaking skill with emphasis on selected readings in Thai from various fields, for example, History, Anthropology, Government, Economics, Agriculture, as well as other professional schools.  The readings are supplemented with visual materials such as video clips and films.

Catalog Distribution: (FL-AG)

Full details for THAI 3302 - Advanced Thai II

Reading of significant novels, short stories, and poetry written since 1850 and other classical works.

Catalog Distribution: (ALC-AS) (FL-AG)

Full details for THAI 3304 - Thai Literature II

This is an introductory course. It focuses on developing basic abilities to speak as well as to read and write in modern Tibetan, Lhasa dialect. Students are also introduced to modern Tibetan studies through selected readings and guest lectures.

Full details for TIBET 1112 - Elementary Modern Tibetan II

Introduces students to the grammar of Classical Literary Tibetan as found in Indian treatises translated from Sanskrit into Tibetan, as well as indigenous Tibetan philosophical works. The course progresses through a sequence of the basic rudiments of the language, including an introduction to the script and its romanization, pronunciation (central Lhasan dialect), normative dictionary order, and the basic categories of grammar. Following these preliminaries, students proceed to guided readings in Tibetan literature designed to introduce them to the formal approach of Tibetan lexical semantics with an emphasis on the role of verbs in determining argument realization options. Over the duration of the course, students encounter new vocabulary (and associated Buddhist concept hierarchies) and increasingly complex sentence structures. This course thus provides a solid foundation for the later exploration of other genres of literature and styles of composition.

Catalog Distribution: (FL-AG)

Full details for TIBET 1122 - Elementary Classical Tibetan II

This two-semester class is designed to assist students who already have the equivalent of at least one year of Tibetan language study. The course is intended to build on this foundation so that students gain greater proficiency in reading a variety of classical Tibetan writing styles and genres, including (especially in the second semester) texts relevant to their research.

Full details for TIBET 2202 - Intermediate Classical Tibetan II

For those whose knowledge is equivalent to a student who has completed the first-year course. The course focuses on the further development of their skills in using the language to engage with practical topics and situations, such as seeing a doctor, reading news, writing letters, and listening to music.

Full details for TIBET 2212 - Intermediate Modern Tibetan II

This class is designed to assist students who already have the equivalent of at least two years of Classical Tibetan language study. The course is intended to build on this foundation so that students gain greater proficiency in reading a variety of classical Tibetan writing styles and genres, including texts relevant to their research.

Full details for TIBET 3302 - Advanced Classical Tibetan II

For those whose knowledge is equivalent to a student who has completed the second-year course. The course develops students' reading comprehension skills through reading selected modern Tibetan literature. Tibetan is used as the medium of instruction and interaction to develop oral fluency and proficiency.

Full details for TIBET 3312 - Advanced Modern Tibetan II

This class is an introductory class for beginners. This course will teach students how to listen, speak, read and write Urdu through vocabulary, grammar, oral and written activities, with an emphasis on reading and writing basic Urdu. The course begins by introducing the alphabet and their combinations. In addition to learning the script we will also introduce the basic knowledge and background on Urdu culture.

Catalog Distribution: (FL-AG)

Full details for URDU 1125 - Introduction to Urdu Script

This course is designed to develop competence in Urdu reading and writing for students with a first-year knowledge of Hindi and knowledge of Urdu script. The goal of this course is to improve listening, speaking, reading and writing abilities in Urdu. By the end of the course, students will have the ability to read articles, write short stories and translate Urdu writings. This course may be taken concurrently with Intermediate Hindi.

Catalog Distribution: (FL-AG)

Full details for URDU 2226 - Intermediate Urdu Reading and Writing II

This course is designed for anyone wishing to gain some basic Vietnamese language skills and learn various elements of Vietnamese culture. Those who are planning to take short trips to Vietnam will find this course particularly useful.  Due to the flip classroom nature of the course, it is intended for sophomores and up.

Full details for VIET 1100 - Elements of Vietnamese Language and Culture

This course gives a thorough grounding in basic speaking, listening, reading, and writing skills in Vietnamese.

Catalog Distribution: (FL-AG)

Full details for VIET 1122 - Elementary Vietnamese II

Continuing instruction in spoken  and written Vietnamese with special emphasis on expanding vocabulary and  reading ability.

Catalog Distribution: (FL-AG)

Full details for VIET 2202 - Intermediate Vietnamese II

Continuing instruction in spoken and written Vietnamese. The course emphasizes on enlarging vocabulary and increasing reading speed by reading various genres and styles of prose. 

Catalog Distribution: (FL-AG)

Full details for VIET 3302 - Advanced Vietnamese II