14 courses with the subject EAAS UN, each shown exactly as we captured it from the college's catalog, with every element we hold. Where the wording looks broken, that is our reading of the catalog, not the college's text.
EAAS UN2342Mythology of East Asia4
CC/GS/SEAS: Partial Fulfillment of Global Core Requirement Through close readings of major myths of China, Japan, and Korea, this course provides a survey of significant themes of East Asian culture. Inclusion of selected comparative readings also leads students to reconsider the nature of ‘world mythology,’ a field often constituted by juxtaposing Greek and Latin classics with oral texts collected during anthropological fieldwork. The core materials for this class are from ancient written traditions, but they speak with force and clarity to modern readers, as is underlined by our attention to latter-day reception and reconceptualization of these narratives. This is an introductory, discussion-based class intended for undergraduates. No prior knowledge of East Asian history or culture is required, and all course readings are in English. Satisfies the Global Core requirement.
This course traces the history of Korean cinema and literature from the 1930s to the early 2000s. Particular attention is given to colonialism, national division, war, gender relations, authoritarianism, urbanization, consumer culture, and diaspora. What kinds of familial, social, economic, and political relations do these films and literary works envision? We will link films and literary texts to their historical context, noting how representations of people, places, and ideas have changed over time—from colonialism, through poverty and malaise in the aftermath of the Korean War, to North Korea’s continuing search for autonomy in the world system and South Korea’s current position as global economic power and maker of the “Korean Wave ”
This course surveys modern Korean culture and society through Korean popular cinema. Drawing from weekly screenings and readings on critical film and Korean studies, we will explore major topics and defining historical moments in modern Korean history post-1945. Spring 2026: EAAS UN3217 Course Number Section/Call Number Times/Location Instructor Points Enrollment EAAS 3217 001/13128 Th 4:10pm - 6:00pm 602 Northwest Corner Theodore Hughes 4.00 14/15 Fall 2026: EAAS UN3217 Course Number Section/Call Number Times/Location Instructor Points Enrollment EAAS 3217 001/12160 Th 4:10pm - 6:00pm 602 Northwest Corner Theodore Hughes 4.00 13/15
EAAS UN3263IMAGE-MAKING AND VISUAL CULTURE IN TIBET AND BEYOND, 1900–PRESENT4.00
What does a photograph do when it enters a religiously sacred or geopolitically contested space? Using the Tibetan Plateau as a primary case study and situating image-making practices within Tibetan Buddhist visual traditions, transcultural Himalayan networks, and Chinese media cultures, this interdisciplinary course examines photography, media, and visual culture from the twentieth century to the present, exploring how modernity and mediation functioned as active forces in the region's visual history. Through case studies ranging from studio portraiture and vernacular photography to pictorial magazines and film, students engage in close visual analysis of photographs, archival materials, and multimedia to explore how images were made, circulated, and engaged across religious, political, and technological contexts from the Tibetan Plateau through the Himalayas and East Asia
EAAS UN3310SOCIAL PROBLEMS IN CONTEMPORARY CHINA3.00
In this seminar, we will explore problems in contemporary Chinese society through reading and discussion. We will focus primarily on the market reform period in the People’s Republic of China following 1979, examining topics such as social inequality, gender and sexuality, class, ethnicity and religion, urbanization and migration, the Internet, and population challenges. Since society changes so rapidly in China, I will sometimes assign news reports in addition to the formal readings so that we can discuss current events related to course themes. We will adopt a social scientific perspective to think critically about how individual lives in contemporary China are shaped by the social structures around them, as well as how individuals can take action to change their environment. This course has no formal prerequisites, but background knowledge of Chinese history is desirable
What is “cinema” in the Chinese-speaking world, and how have the aesthetics, politics and practice of cinema evolved over time? In what ways has cinema interacted with its sister arts, such as painting, photography, theatre, architecture, and music? And in what capacities has cinema represented and intervened into the social and political worlds of its production and reception? This course is an introductory course on Chinese cinemas from Mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, featuring landmark films from the 1930s to the present, with emphasis on contemporary films produced in the past three decades. We cover major genres such as melodrama, historical epic, comedy, musical, martial arts and documentary films, and study works by film auteurs such as Hou Hsiao-hsien, Chen Kaige, Ann Hui and Jia Zhangke. Besides the questions mentioned above, topics also include cinema’s approaches to history and memory, and its engagement with questions of gender, ethnicity, class and language politics
This course introduces students to major works, genres and waves of East Asian cinema from the Silent era to the present, including films from Japan, Korea, Mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong. How has cinema participated in East Asian societies’ distinct and shared experiences of industrial modernity, imperialism and (post)colonialism? How has cinema engaged with questions of class, gender, ethnic and language politics? In what ways has cinema facilitated transnational circulations and mobilizations of peoples and ideas, and how has it interacted with other art forms, such as theatre, painting, photography and music? In this class, we answer these questions by studying cinemas across the region sideby- side, understanding cinema as deeply embedded in the region’s intertwining political, social and cultural histories and circulations of people and ideas. We cover a variety of genres such as melodrama, comedy, historical epic, sci-fi, martial arts and action, and prominent film auteurs such as Yasujir? Ozu, Akira Kurosawa, Yu Hy?nmok, Chen Kaige, Hou Hsiao-hsien, and Ann Hui. As cinema is, among other things, a creative practice, in this course, students will be given opportunities to respond to films analytically and creatively, through writing as well as creative visual projects. As a global core course, this class does not assume prior knowledge of East Asian culture or of film studies
EAAS UN3343JAPANESE CONTEMPORARY CINEMA ＆ MEDIA CULTURE4.00
The course will closely examine 1) the various traits of postmodern Japanese cinemas in the 1980s and the 1990s after the phase of global cinematic modernism, 2) contemporary media phenomena such as media convergence and the media ecologies of anime, 3) media activism after the 2011 Tohoku earthquake, and beyond. We will proceed through careful analysis of films, anime, and digital media, while also addressing larger questions of historiography in general
This course places film in relation to a variety of other media forms, including architecture, art, music/sound technology, and printed texts. While not losing sight of the ways in which media (and ideas about media) circulate regionally and globally, this class will pay particular attention to the history of media in Korea from the colonial period (1910-1945) forward
EAAS UN3913LOVE, GHOSTS, AND CANNIBALISM: THE CHINESE SHORT STORY4.00
Focusing on short stories from the 7th-21st centuries, we ask what fiction can tell us about the real concerns that shaped the lives of Chinese writers. How do literary depictions of love/desire relate to social issues surrounding gender, power, and family? What do supernatural characters—hungry ghosts, lofty gods, unruly demons, seductive snakes and fox spirits—reveal about how humans made sense of unusual occurrences? What do motifs of cannibalism and related themes tell us about the socio-political changes China witnessed on its path toward becoming a nation-state?
CC/GS/SEAS: Partial Fulfillment of Global Core Requirement The rise of China has impacted world politics and economy in significant ways. How did it happen? This course introduces some unique angles of self-understanding as suggested by Chinese writers, intellectuals, and artists who have participated in the making of modern China and provided illuminating and critical analyses of their own culture, history, and the world. Readings cover a wide selection of modern Chinese fiction and poetry, autobiographical writing, photography, documentary film, artworks, and music with emphasis on the interplays of art/literature, history, and politics. Close attention is paid to the role of storytelling, the mediating powers of technology, new forms of visuality and sense experience, and the emergence of critical consciousness in response to global modernity. In the course of the semester, a number of contemporary Chinese artists, filmmakers, and writers are invited to answer students’ questions. This course draws on cross-disciplinary methods from art history, film studies, anthropology, and history in approaching texts and other works. The goal is to develop critical reading skills and gain in-depth understanding of modern China and its engagement with the modern world beyond the cold war rhetoric. Our topics of discussion include historical rupture, loss and melancholy, exile, freedom, migration, social bonding and identity, capitalism, nationalism, and the world revolution. All works are read in English translation.
This course is intended to provide a focal point for undergraduate majors in East Asian Studies. It introduces students to the analysis of particular objects of East Asian historical, literary, and cultural studies from various disciplinary perspectives. The syllabus is composed of a series of modules, each centered around an object, accompanied by readings that introduce different ways of understanding its meaning
Introduces students to research and writing techniques and requires the preparation of a senior thesis proposal. Required for majors and concentrators in the East Asian studies major in the spring term of the junior year
