New and Highlighted Courses (Spring 2025)

Instructor: Hyun-ho Joo

Course Time: Tuesday and Thursday, 2:55pm-4:10pm.

Cross-listed with AAS 2295.

3 credits.

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.

(Society and Culture Rubric)

Instructors: Hyun-ho Joo

Course Time: Tuesday and Thursday, 10:10am-11:25am

Cross-listed with HIST 3021.

3 credits.

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. No prior knowledge of Korean or Chinese is required.

(Society & Culture Rubric)

Instructor: Drisana Misra

Course Time: Tuesday and Thursday, 1:25pm-2:40pm

Cross-listed with SHUM 3022.

3 credits.

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.

 (Society and Culture Rubric)

Instructor: Anne Blackburn

Course Time: Wednesday, 11:15am-1:45pm

Cross-listed with RELST 4020.

3 credits.

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.

(Religion Rubric)

Instructor: Sarah Besky

Course Time: Monday, 12:15pm-1:30pm

Cross-listed with ILRGL 4377

1.5 credits.

This is an events-based course. It is open to both undergraduate (at the 4000-level) and graduate students (at the 6000-level). Students will attend TEN seminars in the South Asia Program seminar series, participate actively in them, and write weekly composed essays on each event. All students must read at least one work by the speaker. Graduate students must complete additional readings.

(Society and Culture Rubric)

Instructor: Abdul Haque Chang

Course Time: Wednesday, 12:20pm-2:15pm

Cross-listed with ANTHR 4514/RELST 4414

2 credits.

TOPIC: Performing Arts, Music and Dance in South and Southeast Asia

This seminar course provides students a comprehensive understanding of South and Southeast Asian cultural, religious, and sacred arts through theoretical, ethnographic, and critical studies from an interdisciplinary perspective. Topics covered include the Indian and Southeast Asian performances of the Ramayana, which have evolved through history, the impact of Dutch colonialism on Indonesian arts, resistance to government control of performing arts, and the influence of Bali’s Hindu traditions. South Asia’s Sufi and sacred musical traditions exemplify the unique affinities between religion, language, history, and culture, encompassing diverse influences from Hinduism and Buddhist sacred traditions, syncretic musical forms, and Islamic Sufi and mystical traditions. Through critical engagement with anthropological theories and texts, the seminar provides an opportunity to explore the intricate interconnections of South and Southeast Asia. 

(Society and Culture Rubric)