Courses

What is Southeast Asia? How does this faraway, "exotic," region intersect with our realities? This course introduces key questions in the study of Southeast Asia (which includes Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam) and its diasporas using cinematic, literary, historical and scholarly materials. This introduction to Southeast Asia's historical, religious, literary, visual, and political traditions -- and the ways in which scholars have thought about them -- addresses a variety of themes  including notions of kinship, gender, political conflict, colonialism, media and the arts, sexuality, textual and visual genres, and forms of belief and belonging. Students will have an opportunity to investigate topics of interest to them, in the form of research essays as well as small-scale fieldwork, curatorial, or media projects.

Full details for ASIAN 2208 - Introduction to Southeast Asia

This course will examine various literary, historical, and political responses to the Cambodian genocide, particularly literary testimony by survivors and governmental efforts to bring the perpetrators to justice. The course considers the limited effectiveness of these responses for addressing the causes and effects of genocide despite the vow of "never again." To pursue these questions, students will read selections from novels and poetry written by Cambodian survivors, along with historical accounts of the genocide and analysis attempts by the Cambodian government and the international community to bring the perpetrators to justice.

Full details for ASIAN 2225 - Literature, Politics, and Genocide in Cambodia

Study of the dramatic rise of China through reviewing major developments in contemporary Chinese foreign policy since the establishment of the People's Republic of China (PRC), and concentrating more specifically on major developments in Chinese foreign policy during the 1980s and 1990s. Such a wide-ranging survey of Chinese foreign policy involves not only a consideration of the evolution of China's relations with its major bilateral partners but also an investigation of how China has defined its broader relationship with the international system. In addition, students are asked to consider which causal factors have been of primary importance in motivating Chinese behavior.

Full details for ASIAN 3327 - China and the World