Asian Studies

This course examines Buddhist writing culture from the perspectives of religious art and history of Chinese calligraphy. It will guide students to explore the theories, research methods and practice of Buddhist calligraphy through examining the calligraphy of Dunhuang manuscripts, Buddhist stone sutras, stone stele inscriptions from various ancient archaeological sites. The master calligraphers and Buddhist scribes will be examined. In addition to workshop demonstrations by the teacher, students will acquire the basic techniques, methods and practice of writing with brush. It will enable students learning how to write calligraphy mindfully with tranquility as the quintessence of Buddhist mental cultivation and modalities of writing cultures. They will also appreciate the essence of Buddhist texts, such as the Heart-sūtra and Diamond-sūtra.

South Asia today is not only geo-politically significant but has risen to global prominence as an important locale for burgeoning economic growth and development, cultural production and nation building. This course provides a theoretical framework and empirical illustrations to make this complex region both accessible and better understood. The teaching is multi-disciplinary, providing a unique mix of sociological and anthropological approaches to the region.

One of the main features of Asian politics and government is the complex nexus of ethnicity, religion, and the state. This course focuses on the colonial formation and postcolonial continuation of these ethno-religious features of politics, known as the politics of identity in Asia. The course explains some major ethnic and religious conflicts in Asia; their impacts on national politics, party systems, state structures, and government policies; and the role of the state in this regard.

What is the sound of Korea? This course explores Korean diasporic music and sound from Korean traditional folk songs (minyo) to BTS (K-Pop). This interdisciplinary course looks at Korean music, sound, and culture through historical, political, and cultural lenses, exploring them as visual and sonic narratives without boundaries. The course provides fresh perspectives by utilizing performances, music videos, archives, urtext music scores and bilingual text (Korean and English). Furthermore, students engage broadly not only with music and sound but also with Korean visual arts, philosophies, film, and literature.  

This course reviews and discusses the history of the notion of philosophy (as tetsugaku) within the history of modern Japan. In doing so, difficult questions relating to the very notion of philosophy itself will be asked. What is philosophy and what can make it “Japanese”? Is all philosophy done on Japanese shores “Japanese philosophy”? Otherwise, are there certain core or essential characteristics that make philosophy Japanese? In tackling these questions, the course seeks to learn more about the history of philosophical thought in modern Japan and seeks to reach a deeper understanding of the notion of philosophy itself. 

In the early 21st century, there were three techno-economic and strategic cores—Europe, North America, and East Asia, with East Asia being the fastest growing and most dynamic. Although the three regions are of approximately equal economic size, East Asia has been surging forward. East Asia includes China, the world's fastest growing continental economy and second largest economy; Japan, the third largest economy, the second largest source of global capital, and technological leader; South Korea, a technological leader, and Southeast Asia. East Asia is also becoming increasingly important militarily. East Asian strategic issues affect even geographically distant great power relations, including the trans-Atlantic relationship. 

This course focuses on the international relations of this crucial region. It begins by tracing the legacy of the Sino-Centric tributary system, a relatively hierarchical international relations system quite different from the anarchical Westphalian system. Then, it considers the impact of Western Imperialism; the rise and fall of Japanese Imperialism, and the Cold War. The remainder of the course focuses on the post-Cold War decade of the 1990s; the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997-98; the rise of regional multilateral institutions; the influence of historical memory on regional politics; East Asia under unipolarity; the rise of China and its complex relations with Japan and the US; China -Japan relations, and more generally, Asia’s relationship with Europe. The course concludes by considering several scenarios for Asian regional politics and this region's place in, and impact on, the global system over the next decades.

This course deals with political, economic, intellectual and cultural events that occurred in the history of Asia from 1945-1989. The course covers the following topics: 

• The First Indochina War (1945-1954): the Cold War comes to Vietnam 

• The two Vietnams (1954-1964): The Democratic Republic of Vietnam and the Republic of Vietnam 

• The Second Indochina War (1964-1975): Vietnam in the Center of the Cold War  

• Cambodia and Laos (1945-1979): Decolonization and Cold War 

• Indochina at Peace? (1975-1989): Cambodia and Laos 

• Indochina at Peace? (1975-1989): Vietnam 

• Thailand and Myanmar (1945-1989) 

• The Philippines (1945-1989) 

• Indonesia (1945-1989) 

• The Cold War in Southeast Asia as an Intelligence War 

• Southeast Asia after the end of the Cold War 

This course introduces new trends in Chinese cultural studies. Through examining the evolving discourse of animal representations and their roles in Chinese history, it provides insight on how human-animal agencies evolved in time. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, this course covers different fields and endeavors to connect animal studies to broader political questions such as religions, knowledge production and state-building. With a special focus on the Song, Ming, Qing, and Republican periods, this course pays close attention to literary sources regarding animal welfare during these eras.