South & SE Asian Studies

This course examines the intersection of involuntary labor, transnational migration, and sexual exchange, broadly categorized under “human trafficking.” While this issue has gained urgency with the adoption of the United Nations’ Palermo Protocol (2000), historical inquiries reveal that commercial sexual labor has existed in various forms and under different guises throughout history. This course situates contemporary human trafficking within a continuum with historically similar practices, some of which were considered “indigenous” to Asia. This course looks at traditional forms of servitude and sexual exchange in east and southeast Asia, as well as the contemporary transnational migration of women for the sex industry. It engages with historiographic and ethnographic accounts on slavery, dependency, and other forms of servitude in Asia as a necessary background to the examination of modern practices of using women for sexual services.  

The course delves into the social and economic conditions that have historically facilitated the growth of the sex industry, including colonial establishments, and military mobilization, and the so-called “white slave” trade that spurred abolitionist movements by feminist and religious groups in the early 20th century. For contemporary cases, it examines practices that have been associated with human trafficking, such as prostitution and international brokered marriages. The course investigates the possibility of agency among exploited women, potentially challenging the predominant victimhood narrative. It concludes with a discussion on the social norms surrounding payment for intimate relations. 

This survey course covers the history of the Chinese Communist Party and the People’s Republic of China. It covers the pre-1949 revolutionary struggles, socialist transformation and construction in the 1950s, political movements from the late 1950s to the late 1970s, and post-Mao economic and political reforms, up to the consolidation of Xi Jinping’s personal rule. The permeation of the party-state’s power into diverse aspects of social life is one key feature of communist rule, and this entire course closely integrates national and international political events with the daily lives of Chinese people. It examines historical transformations in the fields of economics, culture and the arts, family and gender relations, public health, and environment and ecology during the century, throughout the study of revolutionary wars, political movements, and reforms.