Asian Studies

The 19th century saw a dramatic reversal of fortunes for Korea. From the longest-ruling dynasty in East Asia (518 years), the demise of the Choson dynasty (1392-1910) precipitated the loss of national sovereignty as Korea was colonized by Japan. Subsequent events - including colonial industrialization, the struggle for independence, and the division of the peninsula into North and South - have only added to the challenge of evaluating the legacies of the Choson dynasty. How did Confucianism influence Korean society? Why did Korea fail to maintain its sovereignty in the nineteenth century? What are the roots of capitalism in Korea? What set North Korea on a different trajectory than the South? This course answers these questions through a survey of the major historical issues that have shaped Korean society and culture from the early modern period through to the present. As well as covering developments in Choson society and Korea's turbulent experience of imperialism, capitalism, nationalism, conflict, and political change, this course also introduces students to the major historical debates that have shaped our knowledge of Korea today.

Japan, as recent history has powerfully illustrated, is one of the world’s most earthquake-prone countries. Today it is also one of the best prepared to face such extraordinary seismic risk. This was not always the case.

Using earthquakes as a window into Japanese society, this course examines when, how, and why contemporary Japan became a nation prepared for disaster as we know it today.  The course explores interconnections between nature, politics, education, economics, ideology, and the built environment in new and exciting ways. It considers earthquakes as events that not only cause suffering and devastation, but occurrences that inspire opportunism and unleash contestation. The themes and questions we explore remain relevant to Japan today.

This course will adopt an interdisciplinary approach and use a range of primary source material to explore topics including vulnerability and resilience; survivor accounts; visual representations of destruction in art and media; relief; reconstruction; political use of catastrophe; commemoration; disaster education and training.

Students will acquire a sophisticated understanding of the following: how earthquakes have been interpreted, explained, and remembered in Japanese culture and society; how governments use disasters and reconstruction processes that follow for political purposes; how and why earthquakes often expose underlying tensions in society and result in competing visions for post-disaster rebuilding and the future. Students completing this course will have a detailed understanding of how disasters have shaped Japanese history, culture, and society.

This new course in the Exploring Taiwan series introduces agriculture and food biotechnology. The course begins with Taiwanese traditional products and methods, such as salt production in salterns and its transformation; rice, a staple food; tea, and exotic fruit crops grown by cultivation technology. Then, the course introduces fermented foods and how microbial fermentation is utilized in food technology, and orients on food safety monitoring and the use of plants metabolites for pharmaceutical purposes. To gain insight on how to develop business ideas and products, the course features a guest speaker CEO from a renowned food company. Students also participate in a factory tour to experience modern plant operation and maintenance, as well as their research and development. 

This course introduces the history of Korean Americans from the early 20th-century to the present. Students explore how major social, political, and economic forces in the United States, Korea, and around the world—such as immigration law, the Great Depression, World War II, the Korean War, the U.S. civil rights movement, feminism, and religion—impact the ways in which Korean Americans develop their identities and communities. Using a variety of sources, including oral histories, autobiographies, photographs, music, and film, the course investigates how Korean Americans have and continue to negotiate the intersections of race, class, gender, ethnicity, nationality, religion, and sexuality.