National Taiwan University

This course explores archaeological cultural heritage in East and Southeast Asia and how material remains of past human behavior in this broad region play an active role in shaping human perceptions of self and others in the present day. Archaeological cultural heritage as an academic field and as a profession is rapidly evolving in East and Southeast Asia, with governmental policy making, political motivations such as nation-building and nationalistic agendas, globalization, economic expansion and development, and many other factors shaping choices for how and why archaeological sites, objects, architecture, and landscapes are preserved, protected, and presented. This course focuses on these political roles of archaeological cultural heritage and examines them in conceptual and theoretical terms using a necessarily anthropological, interdisciplinary approach with models and methods from archaeology, critical museology, material cultural theory, postcolonial theory, and memory studies, among others. Case studies from around East and Southeast Asia, including Taiwan, mainland China, Korea, Japan, the Philippines, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia, and Malaysia serve to provide insight into the relationship between archaeological heritage and nationalism to explore such related issues as the domination of Eurocentrism in heritage practice and theory (and see new alternatives arising); heritage's role in identity and ideology; contested ownership; commodification and value; memorialization and "dark heritage" (e.g., post-conflict or post-trauma sites); indigenous and minority rights and stakeholding; the impact of looting and the illicit antiquities trade; and heritage tourism.

This course outlines the East Asian regional development in terms of the political economy, cultural, demographic, and social aspects. Each week focuses on one of the aforementioned aspects. Relevant readings are assigned for class discussion and students are required to actively participate in the discussion. 

This course begins c. 600 C.E. when Arab Muslims emerged to establish a new religion and empire at the intersection of Christian, Jewish, and Zoroastrian faiths, and the Roman and Sasanian Empires in the Middle East. Over the semester, the course studies the construction of Muslim empires, the dynamics of life in Islamic societies during the classical and medieval periods, the fragmentation of Islamic civilization in the 1000s, and the constitution of new empires in the early modern period. This course ends in the late-1700s when a new era of Christian European power permanently changed the Islamic world. Assessment: Attendance (5%), exam on geography (5%), exam on historical terms (15%), exam on reading passages (25%), two short essays (20%) participation in class discussions (15%), final essay (25%).

This course is an introduction to continental philosophy, with special focuses on problems of experience, objectivity and value. The textbook is 'Introduction to Phenomenology' by Dermot Moran. Philosophers who discussed in this course include Franz Brentano, Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger, Hannah Arendt, Emmanuel Levinas, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Maurice Merleau-Ponty.

This course addresses the effective use of cloud technology in digital cultural and creative projects including: versatile digital publishing, website design, web community development, digital imaging, animation, video and media production management. As a specific objective, we emphasize to cap off a team project more than an individual task. This course takes account of the inter-discipline of humanities and information technology through media application. The learning method focuses on problem solving oriented approach. The learning activity designates a hands-on assignment and requires a complete output in the form of publishable presentation.

Japan is a very interesting case study in globalization. It is a homogeneous country that has had a history of isolation not only in the Sakoku days of the Tokugawa Period but up until now in some ways. However, it has also realized the need for globalization, and has been trying to do so through various efforts. This course introduces students to the world of Japan and its contact with, and even merging into, the modern world. The problem of globalizing Japan mirrors the nature of globalization itself in the following ways: (1) If Japan is successful in globalization, it must do so in a number of interrelated sectors including politics, economics, education, finance, culture, society, and communication; and, (2) Moving this traditionally isolationist and inward-looking, homogeneous country toward globalization will need a coordinated effort from the top because the Japanese fear what many fear about globalization: loss of identity and what one can call “Native culture.”

Correct medical knowledge is necessary for a modern intellectual. In this course, experts from various fields are invited to give in-depth introductions on daily life care or health problems that are easy to encounter from the physiological and psychological levels, so that college students can acquire correct medical concepts.

This course rests on the premise that the nineteenth century matters today, for it unleashed and solidified the main forces and ideologies shaping our lives as 21st-century global citizens: Capitalism, Marxism, Feminism, White Supremacy, Anti-racism, Environmentalism, etc. Course readings enable us to grapple with the complexity of this period as well as to rethink contemporary conflicts and crises: Is Whitman’s vision of democracy applicable today? What does the #MeToo movement owe to Charlotte Perkins Gillman? Do we live and work like Bartleby? What do we learn about freedom today by reading a slave narrative published 150 years ago? 

The course introduces East Asia and its political and economic foundation. The course is divided into two parts. First, the course introduces developmental state models and conceptualizes state transformation in East Asia. Second, the course discusses cases of state transformation in contemporary Asia. 

This course offers a survey of Southeast Asian history from the second half of the early modern period to the early twentieth century. The course is centered on a key problem that characterizes the region — the tension between the region's distinctiveness on one hand and its well-known openness to “external” influences on the other. Using updated historical scholarship on the region, the course situates Southeast Asia in the context of developments in world history. The following key themes in Southeast Asian history are presented: (1) indigenous social, cultural and religious systems and their interaction with “extra-regional” influences (2) intra-regional, Asian trade systems and mercantilism (3) “state” and imperial formations (4) European colonization and its effects on local societies (5) local responses to colonialism during the early twentieth century.