Demons in Buddhism (ASIAN 2503)
Instructor: Yuanyuan Duan
Course Time: Monday and Wednesday, 10:10am-11:25am
3 credits.
Contrary to the conventionally portrayed image of Buddhism as a peaceful, benign, and nonviolent religion, Buddhist traditions across Asia have long been populated by demons, ghosts, and wrathful deities. This course explores the many faces of the demonic in Buddhism, from Mara—the tempter who sought to prevent the Buddha's enlightenment—to hungry ghosts in the Buddhist purgatory, and fearsome guardian deities of Tantric Buddhism. Through texts, rituals, visual culture, and popular media, students will examine how Buddhists categorized, confronted, transformed, and sometimes worshipped demonic beings. We will ask what kinds of ethical qualities Buddhists associate with demons, what practices are invented to engage them, and how demonic figures have served not only as a means of identifying religious others but also as a mirror reflecting the anger, desire, and ignorance that Buddhism locates within humans themselves. (ASIAN-RL)
The Arts of Hindu Devotion (ASIAN 2952)
Instructor: Kristina Rogahn
Course Time: Tuesday and Thursday, 10:10am - 11:25am
3 credits.
Devotion, or bhakti, has been expressed through art for over one thousand years in Hindu traditions within and beyond South Asia. In this course, students will engage with diverse primary sources for bhakti in both verbal and visual registers. These will include the Bhagavad Gita, poetic hymns of saint-poets, visual representations of gods, temple arts, poster arts, dramatic performance, and film. Students will learn how the history of bhakti relates to that of Hinduism and study its connection to social histories of caste and gender. We will also discuss what happens to devotional art as it crosses the boundaries of nation, culture, and media. (ASIAN-RL)
Imagining Indian Pasts: History, Heritage, and Cultural Memory (ASIAN 3383)
Instructor: Kristina Rogahn
Course Time: Tuesday and Thursday, 11:40am - 12:55pm
3 credits.
Is the Indian past real or imagined? Why might different communities, or successive generations, tell the same history differently? Can history be told through myth, fiction, or popular films? Does it belong to individuals or collectives, and can it be bought and sold? If history is written by the victors, then where can we find unwritten and marginal histories? In this course, students will be introduced to major debates in the fields of Indian historiography, mnemohistory, and memory studies. We will discuss how India’s past has been reimagined over time by pursuing close analysis of primary texts, visual artifacts, and film. Students will become familiar with multilingual genres of history writing in Sanskrit, Persian, and vernaculars like Hindi, Urdu, Marathi, and Tamil. We will also learn about the impact of Christian mission, European colonization, tourism, immigration, heritage industries, and the rise of digital media on practices of cultural memory. (ASIAN-SC)
Objects in Motion: Transoceanic Japan and the Port Cities of Asia (ASIAN 3392)
Instructor: Drisana Misra
Course Time: Tuesday and Thursday, 1:25pm - 2:4f0pm
Cross-listed with ARTH 3392.
3 credits.
What can objects produced in the port cities of the Indo-Pacific world teach us about early modern globalization? Movement into and out of key trade centers in the Indo-Pacific became more interconnected during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In this course we study the peoples, animals, objects, and oceanic forces “in motion” that encountered one another in these contact zones, paying particular attention to how such objects are read as evidence of exchange. With a particular focus on the circulation of Japanese material culture and export artworks, our inquiry enables us to re-examine the conceptual and geographic boundaries of identity and artmaking in the early modern world. By tracing the mobilities of the Japanese diaspora through South and Southeast Asia and the Americas, we examine the emergence of diverse hybrid cultures and the creolization of local and global artistic traditions in Nagasaki, Macau, Manila, Goa, Batavia, Acapulco, and beyond. Alongside these case studies, we develop the methods of close looking, provenance research, and material analysis that illuminate objects whose makers and meanings often sit outside the traditional canon. This course also has a curatorial component: each student researches an object related to Asian port cities held in the Herbert F. Johnson Museum collection. Students prepare an exhibition with the selected objects in the Education Gallery, learning to draft object labels, shape a narrative for visitors, and consider the choices that go into presenting art to the public. (ASIAN -SC)
Animals, Multispecies Kinship, and the Environment in Korean Literature and Film (ASIAN 4725)
Instructor: Ivanna Yi
Course Time: Thursday, 2:00pm-4:30pm
Cross-listed with SHUM 4725.
3 credits.
This course explores more-than-human animals and their relationality with other species, including the human, in Korean literature, culture, and film. We will explore key questions in the environmental humanities as they relate to ecological change in the two Koreas and the DMZ region. How does storytelling make environmental crises, their effects on sentient beings, and the earth itself more visible? How do works of literature and films give voice to changing relationships between humans and the more-than-human world? How have humans labored with, and for, more-than-human animals, and vice versa? The seminar will examine how poets, novelists, filmmakers, artists, nonfiction writers, and critics have envisioned multispecies survival and flourishing as they have responded creatively to biodiversity loss and environmental change.
Extensive Reading in Japanese - Tadoku (JAPAN 2221)
Instructor: Misako Suzuki
Course Time: TBD
1 credit.
Prerequisite: Grade of C+ of higher in JAPAN 1101 or by placement exam.
In this course, students select their own Japanese reading materials and read independently at their own pace using the Extensive Reading (Tadoku) method. Tadoku means reading for enjoyment at a level where students can read smoothly and quickly without relying on dictionaries or translation. Students will meet in the class to read books at or slightly below their fluent reading level. Through this process, over the semester they will gradually build vocabulary and kanji knowledge, improve prediction skills, and develop the ability to read more complex sentences with ease. The primary focus of the class is individual reading and one-on-one consultations with the instructor. Additional activities—such as group discussions, journal writing, and presentations—will also be incorporated.