81 courses with the subject ASIA, 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.
ASIA 102Introduction to Asian American Studies1
(Same as ANST 102 ) Why are Asians in America? What does it feel like to be Asian in America? Who counts as Asian in the first place? This introduction to Asian American Studies explores the different systems of power that shape Asian migration, racialization, and resistance in the US. We focus on sites of encounter–the plantation, the internment camp, the military base, the interrogation room, the refugee camp, the orphanage, the spa, and the protest–where the meeting of bodies and ideas can reveal how modes of difference-making emerge and endure within and across local contexts. Students engage in articles, legal cases, policy reports, film, art, music and poetry to understand how the experiences of Asians in America are tied to historical systems of power and the ways in which Asians have grappled with their experiences on their own terms. Amy Chin. Two 75-minute periods. Course Format: CLS
(Same as HIST 104 ) This course provides an introduction to the history of East, South, and Southeast Asian migrations and settlement to the United States from the late 18th century to the present. Major themes include labor, migration, community formation, U.S. imperialism, religion, legal exclusion, racial segregation, gender and sexuality, cultural representations, and political resistance. Students engage with Asian American voices and key concepts in ethnic studies, as we explore the incredible diversity of experiences that make up Asian American history. Throughout, the course challenges students to contend with the category “Asian American” and argues that Asian American stories are crucial to understand U.S. history and American race relations more broadly. Ashanti Shih. Open only to first-year students; satisfies the college requirement for a First-Year Writing Seminar. Two 75-minute periods. Course Format: CLS
This course provides students with basic conversational and grammatical patterns, assuming that the students have no or little previous background knowledge of Korean. The objective of the course is to equip students with communicative skills in speaking, listening, reading, and writing at a basic level in Korean; students learn how to express simple ideas such as attributes, identities, locations, time, daily activities, weekend plan, desires, as well as how to combine simple ideas in various ways. The medium of the class is mainly Korean, and English translation is given when it is necessary. Students learn Korean alphabet system in the first semester. Jihye Seong. Yearlong course 105- ASIA 106 . Five 50-minute periods. Course Format: CLS
This course provides students with basic conversational and grammatical patterns, assuming that the students have no or little previous background kowledge of Korean. The objective of the course is to equip students with communicative skills in speaking, listening, reading, and writing at a basic level in Korean; students learn how to express simple ideas such as attributes, identities, locations, time, daily activities, weekend plan, desires, as well as how to combine simple ideas in various ways. The medium of the class is mainly Korean, and English translation is given when it is necessary. Students learn Korean alphabet system in the first semester. Jihye Seong. Yearlong course ASIA 105 -106. Five 50-minute periods. Course Format: CLS
(Same as RELI 107 ) The Buddha, the pilgrim, the seeker, the monk, the scholar, the temple. In this six-week Intensive we travel with and through these themes and characters to explore Buddhist lives present and past. Our readings include primary and secondary texts. Michael Walsh. First six-week course. One 2-hour period. Course Format: INT
(Same as HIST 109 ) This course provides a contextualized understanding of Taiwan’s past and present by exploring its history from around 1600 to the present. What makes Taiwan unique is not only its importance in the global semiconductor supply chain and its role in geopolitics, but also its rich history of cross-regional interactions and diverse cultures. Course themes include Dutch, Japanese, and Chinese colonialism, the wars of the 19 th and 20 th centuries that involved Taiwan, and how these events factor into discussions on Taiwan’s position in the world. The course also covers Taiwan during the Cold War, the Taiwanese people’s efforts in pursuing democracy, and the ongoing tensions between Taiwan and China. Students investigate the dynamics between empires, nation-states, settlers, and indigenous peoples, as well as how history, memory, politics, democracy, and social movements have shaped and continue to shape Taiwanese identity. Yu-chi Chang. Two 75-minute periods. Course Format: CLS
ASIA 110Great Understanding is Broad & Unhurried: Sage Voices from China’s Past and Rethinking the Good Life1
(Same as RELI 110 ) The first part of this course title comes from the 4 th century BCE philosopher, Zhuangzi. In this class we read primary texts of some of China’s greatest teachers and discover their relevance in today’s world. Without domesticating their ideas, we explore a range of readings including Zhuangzi, Laozi, Confucius, classical poetry, Buddhist sutras, the Yijing , Mengzi, and Liezi, among others. Michael Walsh. Two 75-minute periods. Course Format: CLS
ASIA 111Social Change in South Korea Through Film1
(Same as SOCI 111 ) This course explores cultural consequences of the dramatic transformation of South Korea, in four decades, from a war-torn agrarian society to a major industrial and post-industrial society with dynamic urban centers. Despite its small territory (equivalent to the size of the state of Indiana) and relatively small population (50 million people), South Korea became one of the major economic powerhouses in the world. Such rapid economic change has been followed by its rise to a major center of the global popular cultural production. Using the medium of film, this course examines multifaceted meanings of social change, generated by the Korean War, industrialization, urbanization, and the recent process of democratization, for lives of ordinary men and women. Seungsook Moon. Two 75-minute periods. Not offered in 2026/27. Course Format: CLS
ASIA 125Tradition & Creativity in Japanese Culture1
(Same as JAPA 125 ) This First-Year Writing Seminar offers an opportunity to engage critically and creatively with East Asian classics. Students journey through the history of Japan by exploring texts from the eighth to the nineteenth century, covering genres as varied as poetry, novels, diaries, warrior tales, drama, and film. We examine how these works have transcended national boundaries and media formats, continuing to shape cultural imagination today. Special attention is given to the techniques of rewriting, remediation, and reenactment—staples of Japan’s artistic traditions. Alongside lectures and class discussions, students will cultivate their voices as critics and creators through close readings, collaborative glossing and annotation exercises, creative projects, academic essays, and a group presentation, recasting the Japanese past as a source of invention and self-reflection. Pier Carlo Tommasi. Two 75-minute periods. Course Format: CLS
(Same as MUSI 136 ) This course examines the development and practices of musical styles in diverse locales around the world from an ethnomusicological perspective. We study the intersection of musical communities and social identity/values, political movements (especially nationalism), spirituality, economy, and globalization. We explore these general issues through case studies from Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Justin Patch. Two 75-minute periods. Not offered in 2026/27.
(Same as RELI 140 ) Working with an ancient Chinese cosmological schema, the luoshu , a nine-squared square, and the old adage that ‘heaven is round, earth is square,’ this class is divided into nine sections – territory, city, temple, gods, family, texts, body, food, and people. Through these nine categories we explore both alternative and traditional ways of thinking through China’s imperial and modern histories. One of our class objectives is to better understand how acts of imagination influence and shape social formations. Throughout the semester we use the themes at hand to improve our writing skills. Michael Walsh. Open only to first-year students; satisfies the college requirement for a First-Year Writing Seminar. Two 75-minute periods. Course Format: CLS
(Same as RELI 152 ) Buddhist, Daoist, and Confucian practices over the last two thousand years had at least as much influence on East Asian peoples and the state than any other social, political, or historical form. In this course we explore many of these practices as well as read primary and secondary sources to better understand how these influences played out historically and continue today. While the course is comparative – bringing in examples from different East Asian regions – we focus most of our attention on China. Michael Walsh. Open to all students except seniors. Two 75-minute periods. Not offered in 2026/27. Course Format: CLS
(Same as HIST 158 ) This course introduces the history of modern East Asia (China, Japan, and Korea) by examining regional interactions and global connections. We discuss how East Asia serves as a geographic, cultural, and analytical framework for historical inquiry. The course begins in the eighteenth century, a period marked by major political, social, and cultural transformations and challenges in East Asia. The course traces the region’s engagement with the world, the rise of nation-states, reforms and revolutions, imperialism and colonialism, warfare, trade network, gender and sexuality, and social movements, among other topics. By contextualizing these themes, we explore how the past has shaped, and continues to shape, modern East Asia. Yu-chi Chang. Two 75-minute periods. Not offered in 2026/27. Course Format: CLS
(Same as RELI 180 ) Yoga: Is it physical or mental? Is it religious, secular, spiritual? Is it ancient or modern? We all know what yoga looks like—or at least we think we do—but while yoga has become an indelible part of transnational physical culture, many of us would struggle to explain what it is or where it comes from. What many in the U.S. call yoga—a postural activity that takes place largely in classes and that is practiced by certain social groups—takes root in a whole range of religious traditions in South Asia, develops in conversation with Western practices and ideologies, and experiences a firm relocation in India in the twentieth century while continuing to proliferate in the West. Interrogating the contemporary history of yoga requires confronting questions about religion, colonialism, body culture, and capitalism. Engaging with early and premodern articulations of yoga means coming into contact with South Asia’s religious traditions and superlative intellectual history. Students in this course achieve two analytical objectives: they are able to relate sources of yoga (written and visual texts, as well as experiences) to a historically and geographically broad set of conceptions about what yoga is and does; and they are able to make arguments about the idea and practice of yoga that are grounded in primary evidence, supported by secondary scholarship, and enriched by an awareness of historical, social, and cultural contexts. Nell Hawley. Two 75-minute periods. Course Format: CLS
ASIA 185The Bhagavad Gita: Conversation and Revelation1
(Same as RELI 185 ) Since its emergence some two thousand years ago, the Bhagavad Gītā (“the song of the blessed one”) has become a cornerstone of Hindu traditions all over the world. The Gita’s life begins as series of chapters in the Sanskrit epic Mahābhārata, when the great warrior Arjuna refuses to fight in a battle that is unfolding before him—a battle that would require him to kill his own relatives, teachers, and loved ones. In response, Krishna—who is Arjuna’s charioteer and closest friend, and who also reveals himself to be God—persuades Arjuna to fight by offering an extraordinary account of divinity, devotion, action, detachment, concentration, ritual, ethics, and social theory. The primary aims of our course are to read closely and interpret the Gita itself. We pay special attention to context, whether that means placing Krishna’s complex discourse in the context of early South Asian religious currents—Hindu, Buddhist, Jain—or making sense of the Gita as a work of literature within the larger narrative of the Mahābhārata. Indeed we may wonder what genre, or genres, the Gita belongs to: Where is it a song or a poem? Where is it a discourse or an instruction? Where is it a story? Where is it descriptive, and where is it prescriptive? We pay special attention to places where the Gita creates intellectual and emotional currents that can seem to run against one another: Is detachment the thing, or is it devotion? Dualism or nondualism? Nonviolence or violence? Finally, in the latter part of the course, we discuss how the Gita has come to be the globally popular text that is is today. Nell Hawley. Two 75-minute periods. Course Format: CLS
This team-taught Intensive focuses on change and continuity within various regions of Asia, and this vast regions’ interrelationships with the rest of the world. As they explore topics such as the history, religion, literature, politics, and popular culture of Asia, students are challenged to think in critical and informed ways about Asia and its place in the world. Because the course is taught by three members of the Asian Studies Program on a rotating basis, its exact content varies depending on the instructors’ expertise. Comparative thinking across regions of Asia (East Asia, South Asia, and Southeast Asia) and the perspectives of multiple disciplines are brought to bear on the core topics that anchor each iteration of the course. During the first section of the course, students are introduced to three compelling topics or issues currently attracting attention among scholars working in the field of Asian Studies. Each of the three co-instructors provide an overview of one of these topics, and facilitate discussion among students. Next, students select one of the topics to explore in greater depth. Under the guidance of one of the course instructors, they carry out independent research projects related to that topic. Finally, students present the findings of their work during a research symposium. ASIA 194 offers an introduction to the region, and provides a foundation for students interested in taking more specialized courses in Asian Studies. Students from all departments and backgrounds are welcome to take this course. No prior knowledge of Asian language or culture is required. Amy Chin, Ashanti Shih and Yu Zhou. Fubing Su.
Permission of the instructor for seniors. Two 75-minute periods. Course Format: INT
Offered
Spring
ASIA 205Intermediate Korean1.5
The objective of the course is to equip students with communicative skills in speaking, reading, and writing at the intermediate level in Korean, such as expanding simple ideas into imposing various kinds of the speaker’s stance (e.g., judgment, inference, and evaluation or subjective assessment of the ideas entertained, and expressing more complex relations between events, such as cause, reason, purpose, condition, concession, intention, background, etc). Skills for simple narration and written report are enhanced. The medium of the class is mainly Korean, and English translation is given when it is necessary. Jihye Seong. Yearlong course 205- ASIA 206 . Five 50-minute periods. Course Format: CLS
The objective of the course is to equip students with communicative skills in speaking, reading, and writing at the intermediate level in Korean, such as expanding simple ideas into imposing various kinds of the speaker’s stance (e.g., judgment, inference, and evaluation or subjective assessment of the ideas entertained, and expressing more complex relations between events, such as cause, reason, pupose, condition, concession, intention, background, etc). Skills for simple narration and written report are enhanced. The medium of the class is mainly Korean, and English translation is given when it is necessary. Jihye Seong. Yearlong course ASIA 205 -206. Five 50-minute periods. Course Format: CLS
(Same as ANST 208 ) The Pacific euphemistically called “America’s Lake” has been a site of US empire building and Indigenous and Asian resistance against US military expansion. This course examines demilitarization movements in the Pacific through visual and material culture. We analyze historical and ongoing processes of military basing, nuclear testing, tourism, sex work and logistics industries among others to better understand the relationship between demilitarization and decolonization in the Pacific. Through different forms of visual representation and material objects, this course engages oceanic indigenous voices, island feminism, bomb survivor narratives and global demilitarization activism. Students grapple with how militarism becomes invisible in American daily life, the colonial foundations in which this invisibility is produced through American and Asian imperialisms, and how demilitarization movements are reimagining what genuine security and safety can look in our world without militarism as a governing ideology. Amy Chin. Two 75-minute periods. Not offered in 2026/27. Course Format: CLS
ASIA 209Understanding the World through Korean Popular Culture1
(Same as SOCI 209 ) Since the dawn of the 21 st century, South Korean popular culture has garnered growing global attention especially among young people across various countries. Its examples range from K-dramas, K-pop music, K-beauty (cosmetics) and K-food to film and E-sports. Audiences and fans commonly consume these cultural products for leisure and entertainment. At the same time, the transnational production, circulation and consumption of the popular culture also reveal important features and underlying dynamic of the world in which we are living. By using selected examples of Korean popular culture, this course illuminates the following features and dynamic: 1) Societies dominated by celebrities, 2) Capitalist economies selling desires and fantasies, 3) Cultural identities, food, and tourism 4) Neoliberalism as a dominant mode of ruling. Seungsook Moon. Two 75-minute periods. Not offered in 2026/27. Course Format: CLS
ASIA 214The Tumultuous Century: Twentieth Century Chinese Literature1
(Same as CHIN 214 ) This is a survey/introduction to the literature of China from the late Qing Dynasty through the present day. Texts are arranged according to trends and schools as well as to their chronological order. Authors include Wu Jianren, Lu Xun, Zhang Ailing, Ding Ling, Mo Yan and Gao Xingjian. All major genres are covered but the focus is on fiction. A few feature films are also included in association with some of the literary works and movements. No knowledge of the Chinese language, Chinese history, or culture is required for taking the course. All readings and class discussions are in English. Haoming Liu.
One course in language, literature, culture or Asian Studies, or permission of the instructor. Not offered in 2026/27. Course Format: CLS
ASIA 216Food, Culture, and Globalization1
(Same as SOCI 216 ) This course focuses on the political economy and the cultural politics of transnational production, distribution, and consumption of food in the world to understand the complex nature of cultural globalization and its effects on the national, ethnic, and class identities of women and men. Approaching food as material cultural commodities moving across national boundaries, this course examines the following questions. How has food in routine diet been invested with a broad range of meanings and thereby served to define and maintain collective identities of people and social relationships linked to the consumption of food? In what ways and to what extent does eating food satisfy not only basic appetite and epicurean desire, but also social needs for status and belonging? How have powerful corporate interests shaped the health and well being of a large number of people across national boundaries? What roles do symbols and social values play in the public and corporate discourse of health, nutrition, and cultural identities. Seungsook Moon. Seungsook Moon.
ASIA 223The Gothic and the Supernatural in Japanese Literature1
(Same as GNCS 223 and JAPA 223 ) This course introduces students to Japanese supernatural stories. We interpret the hidden psyche of the Japanese people and culture that create such bizarre tales. We see not only to what extent the supernatural creatures - demons, vampires, and mountain witches - in these stories represent the “hysteria” of Japanese commoners resulting from social and cultural oppression, but also to what extent these supernatural motifs have been adopted and modified by writers of various literary periods. This course consists of four parts; female ghosts, master authors of ghost stories, Gothic fantasy and dark urban psyche. Hiromi Dollase.
One course in language, literature, culture or Asian Studies, or permission of the instructor. Two 75-minute periods. Not offered in 2026/27. Course Format: CLS
ASIA 224Japanese Popular Culture and Literature1
(Same as JAPA 224 and MEDS 224 ) This course examines Japanese popular culture as seen through popular fiction. Works by writers such as Murakami Haruki, Yoshimoto Banana, and Murakami Ryu, etc. who emerged in the late 1980s to the early 1990s, are discussed. Literary works are compared with various popular media such as film, music, manga, and animation to explore how popular youth culture is constructed and reflects young people’s views on social conditions. This course emphasizes discussion, and theoretical readings are assigned. Hiromi Dollase.
One course in Japanese language, literature, culture, Asian Studies or Media Studies, or permission of the instructor. This course is conducted in English. Two 75-minute periods. Not offered in 2026/27. Course Format: CLS
ASIA 227Chinatowns1
(Same as HIST 227 and URBS 227 ) The course explores the layered histories of Chinatowns in the United States, as they have defined, reflected, and adapted to the changing experiences of Chinese Americans over the last century and a half. First constructed in the era of gold and railroads, Chinatowns have continually served as lively centers for trade, kinship, and transnational community. They have anchored political movements against anti-Chinese sentiment, as well as brought solace, from Chinese Exclusion to COVID-19. These ‘ethnic enclaves’ have been policed, destroyed, and developed according to the fears and fantasies of other Americans, who have imagined Chinatowns as thriving sites for vice, plague, and also tourism. Yet, many Chinese Americans-including women, mixed-race families, Christian converts, queer ‘bachelors,’ herbalists, and architects-led complicated lives that have continually challenged the cultural and physical boundaries of Chinatowns. With new waves of immigration and suburbanization, what even is a ‘Chinatown’ in the twenty-first century? We explore these layers through historical texts, maps, oral histories, film, fiction, and a visit to NYC Chinatown. Ashanti Shih. Two 75-minute periods. Not offered in 2026/27. Course Format: CLS
This course considers such topics as memory, identity, liminality, community, and cultural and familial inheritance within Asian-American literary traditions. May consider Asian-American literature in relation to other ethnic literatures.
(Same as ANST 232 ) This course examines the methodology of oral history as employed by Asian American women and oral histories of Asian American women. It expands what we understand to be traditional oral history to include, testimonies, political speeches, speaking tours, lullabies, pop music and podcasting. We use sound and story as an object to study subaltern methods of capturing and articulating these stories. Students are able to conduct an oral history project of their own. Amy Chin. Two 75-minute periods. Course Format: CLS
(Same as RELI 233 ) The Buddha and his followers have had a profound influence on Asian cultures for more than two millennia. In this class we explore a variety of Buddhist imaginaries and practices beginning with ones that emerged in the first centuries after the historical Buddha, and tracing the development of these practices throughout Asia with an emphasis on China. We engage themes such as suffering, death, monastic institutionalism, the role of women and gender, the challenges of Euroamerican colonialisms, and the tensions between textual ideals and everyday practices. Michael Walsh. Two 75-minute periods. Not offered in 2026/27. Course Format: CLS
(Same as DRAM 234 ) This course showcases the wealth of theater and performance traditions that exist beyond the Euro-American canon. Taught on a rotating basis by members of the Drama Department faculty, each semester features a different tradition of theater practice. Possible topics include, but are not limited to: Caribbean Theater; South Asian Theater; West African Theater, and Latinx Theater. Amanda Culp.
(Same as RELI 235 ) More than two thousand years ago the Han dynasty emperor Yuandi (r. 48-32 BCE) stated at the beginning of his reign: “We make it a point to establish personally our ancestral temple, because this is the ultimate power to build up our authority, eliminate the sprouts of rebellion, and make the people one.” The ‘ancestral state’ ( zuguo ) has always been an authoritarian one. The ancestral temple has always rendered China – both as imagined, mythologized, and contemporary – as religious. We begin our class then with the controversial assumption that China is a religious state precisely because it is a modern, nation-state. How can this be, and what is the connection to Emperor Yuandi’s assertion? Wang Hui, one of China’s most eminent, contemporary scholars, poses another type of question: “What is the nature of the historical emergence or construction of modern Chinese identity, ideas of geography, and senses of sovereignty?” This question is critical to better understanding China’s past and present. Might we also understand Wang’s question as a type of religious question despite the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) historical repudiation of religion? (After all, a history of the past is a history of the present.) And, if we can, what might this even mean, and what advantages or disadvantages might this offer us in further deepening our understanding of China today? Michael Walsh. Two 75-minute periods. Course Format: CLS
ASIA 237Theorizing Pandemic Media and Their Afterlives0.5
(Same as MEDS 237 , PHIL 237 , and STS 237 ) This course is based on a forthcoming book, Theorizing Pandemic Media and Their Afterlives, that I co-authored with Ruoyu Li, a Vassar alumna and my former student, now starting as an Assistant Professor in the Program on Peace and Conflict at Colgate University. The course begins from the observation that the COVID-19 pandemic was conceived, narrated, and visualized as a “numerical” crisis. In contrast to other pandemics (including the 1919 Spanish Influenza, which was represented as a spillover from the WWI battlefield, and HIV-AIDS, which was blamed on socially endangering behaviors), COVID-19 was hailed as an absolute statistical exception. We critically look at how the unprecedented proliferation of COVID-19 dashboards, coupled with the literacy universally required to decode their data visualizations, has conditioned the experience of living and dying under COVID-19, across different geographies, social and educational backgrounds, genders and generations, as well as political regimes. Theorizing the Dashboard as the premiere pandemic mass media enables us to analyze a new set of biopolitical practices that bestowed both care and abandonment by numerically targeting distinct populations of the world. We read the work of theorists of biopower and necropower, including Michel Foucault, Giorgio Agamben, Roberto Esposito, and Achille Mbembe, as well as scholars such as Belinda Kong, who has claimed that “the pandemic” is the foremost bio-securitizing and bio-orientalist discourse of the third millennium, and Bishnupriya Ghosh, whose concept of epidemic media as “biotechnical forms” make viral infections not only legible but actionable. These readings not only give students the opportunity to reconnect with the most globally shared trauma of this generation, but also enable them to appraise the COVID-19 pandemic as a specific form of geospatial and biostatistical “world-making,” whose military legacies have transformed how we live and relate to each other today. Giovanna Borradori. First six-week course. Two 75-minute periods. Course Format: CLS
ASIA 238Environmental China: Nature, Culture, and Development1
(Same as ENST 238 , GEOG 238 , and INTL 238 ) In recent decades, China has become the world’s largest manufacturing and export nation, the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, a global leader in green technology, and both a key rival and major trading partner of the United States. How did China come to occupy these seemingly contradictory roles, and what do they reveal about its position in the global environment? This course examines China as a vast and diverse land where one of the world’s oldest civilizations continues to evolve. As the most populous nation on earth, China has long adapted to and transformed its environment, developing enduring cultural traditions regarding nature—some reemerging amid rapid modernization. Employing a political-ecological approach, the course investigates the roots of China’s environmental challenges as shaped by historical, cultural, political, economic, and social forces, both internal and external to the country, and by the global movements of socialism and capitalism over the past 150 years. It also explores emerging solutions and the broader lessons China’s experience offers for a more sustainable world. Yu Zhou. Two 75-minute periods. Course Format: CLS
(Same as HIST 239 ) This course delves into the origins, implications, and ramifications of warfare in China from the nineteenth to the twentieth centuries. The course explores historical events such as the conflicts between the Qing and British Empires, the Taiping Rebellion/Civil War, the Boxer Rebellion, the Second Sino-Japanese War, the involvement of the United States in China during World War II, and the Chinese Civil War between the Nationalist and Communist Parties. In studying these events, we address key questions: How have China’s internal conflicts and wars with other empires and countries driven various political and societal transformations? What was life like during wartime, and how can we understand war as an everyday experience? What roles do memories and narratives of warfare play in contemporary China? We investigate everyday experiences of people, including mass mobilization, displacement, violence, and trauma. Additionally, we look at how warfare shaped gender concepts, nationalism, popular culture, identity, and memory. Students use course materials and archival resources to develop a final project of their choice in either a written or multimedia format. Yu-chi Chang. Two 75-minute periods. Not offered in 2026/27. Course Format: CLS
(Same as ANST 241 and HIST 241 ) This course focuses on Asian American women as key historical actors and the use of gender analysis to re-examine major themes in Asian American history: immigration, labor, communtiy formation, cultural representations, feminist political organizing, sexuality, and marriage and family life. We also touch on the “queering” of Asian American history, as well as ideas of masculinity and the intersections of sexuality and racialization for Asian American men. Course materials emphasie Asian American women’s voices and include memoirs, poetry, film, oral histories, and artwork in addition to traditional academic texts. Students explore different types of archives and methodologies to evelop a final reserch project of their choice. Ashanti Shih. Two 75-minute periods. Not offered in 2026/27. Course Format: CLS
(Same as HIST 249 and STS 249 ) Why has science been considered a “tool of empire”? How has scientific knowledge shaped and been shaped by colonial experiences? How did Indigenous and local peoples variously participate in and resist encounters with colonial science? This course explores these questions as we survey the relationship between science and empire from the early nineteenth century to the present. Rather than take a comprehensive approach, students engage with a series of case studies from around the globe that touch on various scientific disciplines and practices–such as anthropological exhibitions across the British empire, American colonial medicine in the Philippines, scientific forestry in Japanese-occupied Korea and Taiwan, and mapping in postcolonial India–to learn how science has been used both for imperial control and as a means of envisioning postcolonial futures. Other major themes include scientific exploration; collecting and classifying; race, gender, and sexuality; Indigenous knowledge; postcolonial science; and, finally, the contemporary conversation around “decolonizing’ the sciences and scientific institutions. Throughout the course, students engage with visual, material, and textual sources, including visits to campus collections. Ashanti Shih. Two 75-minute periods. Course Format: CLS
ASIA 250Across Religious Boundaries: Understanding Differences1
The study of a selected topic or theme in religious studies that cuts across the boundaries of particular religions, allowing opportunities for comparison as well as contrast of religious traditions, beliefs, values and practices. Nell Hawley.
(Same as INTL 251 and WFQS 251 ) Women have long been the silent figure at the center of debates on nation-building; the object to be saved in the event of catastrophe, pillaged in the event of war, exalted in the efforts to populate and nourish the nation. This course takes as its premise the intersections between key terms “migration,” “citizenship” and “feminism” and looks at ways women and gender nonconforming people work against this objectification to make themselves heard and form community in new spaces. Through a study of literature, film and theoretical texts, we explore the ways communities and activist groups are shaped and influenced by feminist networks across the globe, and the ways individuals define themselves in relation to concepts of feminism and nationhood. Close readings of personal and fictional narratives that center on gender and migration are paired with material on the relevant socio-political and historical contexts, in an effort to encourage critical reflection on how certain discourses surrounding both migration and feminism are racialized and gendered. We look at the consequences of repeating or ignoring those ideological underpinnings, as well as ways people are working against these norms. We consider fictional narratives, testimonials and media coverage as we follow the journeys of people traveling through Africa and Central America, across the Mediterranean through the Middle East and Asia in no small part because of current rising tensions and real peril surrounding these highly trafficked migratory thoroughfares. We pair analysis of cultural material with a body of theoretical work aimed at providing students with a toolbox of global feminist scholarship. Seungsook Moon.
One prior course in WFQS or permission of the instructor. Two 75-minute periods. Course Format: CLS
Offered
Spring
ASIA 252Asian Literature in English1
(Same as ENGL 252 ) This course introduces students to the literary history of Asian novels and short stories written in English. While Asian Anglophone literature rose to prominence in the latter half of the 20th century, in the wake of myriad national independence movements in Asia, its development is inextricable from 19th-century British and American colonial histories. Beginning here, we first examine the literary implications of British colonialism in the Indian subcontinent, Hong Kong, and the Malay peninsula, and American imperialism in the Philippine archipelago. We consider how the novel genre—a form first arising in Western Europe several centuries earlier—has been reconfigured by preexisting regional literary traditions in Asia. Turning to the post-independence era, we engage the literary debates surrounding national allegory, writing in English versus Asian vernaculars, cultural hybridity, the sociolinguistic articulation of “Global Englishes,” and contemporary Asian globalization. While the majority of this course’s authors come from nations with long histories of English-language writing, such as India, Pakistan, the Philippines, Singapore, and Malaysia, the expanded circulation of Asian literature in English within the contemporary world-literary marketplace means that we also engage writing from Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, and elsewhere. Throughout this course, we reflect on how the porous boundaries of Asian literature in English complicate other literary archives and interpretative frameworks linked to postcolonial studies, world literature, transpacific studies, and Asian American literature. Texts may include Tash Aw’s We, the Survivors , Mohsin Hamid’s Moth Smoke , Gina Apostol’s Insurrecto , Anita Desai’s Clear Light of Day , Llyod Fernando’s Scorpion Orchid , Sonny Liew’s The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye , Pitchaya Sudbanthad’s Bangkok Wakes to Rain , Glenn Diaz’s The Quiet Ones , Hoa Pham’s The Other Shore , Ninotchka Rosca’s State of War , Vaddey Ratner’s In the Shadow of the Banyan , and Hwee Hwee Tan’s Mammon Inc . Alden Sajor Marte-Wood. Two 75-minute periods. Not offered in 2026/27. Course Format: CLS
(Same as POLI 254 ) This course offers a historical and thematic survey of Chinese politics, with an emphasis on the patterns and dynamics of political development and reforms since the Communist takeover in 1949. In the historical segment, we examine major political events leading up to the reform era, including China’s imperial political system, the collapse of dynasties, the civil war, the Communist Party’s rise to power, the land reform, the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution, and the initiation of the reform. The thematic part deals with some general issues of governance, economic reform, democratization, globalization and China’s relations with Hong Kong, Taiwan and the United States. This course is designed to help students understand China’s contemporary issues from a historical perspective. For students who are interested in other regions of the world, China offers a rich comparative case on some important topics such as modernization, democratization, social movement, economic development, reform and rule of law. Fubing Su. Two 75-minute periods. Course Format: CLS
(Same as POLI 255 ) What does it mean to understand issues of governance and politics from the perspective of non-elite, or subaltern, groups? How do subalterns respond to, participate in, and/or resist the historically powerful forces of modernity, nationalism, religious mobilization, and politico-economic development in postcolonial spaces? What are the theoretical frameworks most appropriate for analyzing politics from the perspective of the subaltern? This course engages such questions by drawing on the flourishing field of subaltern studies in South Asia. While its primary focus is on materials from South Asia, particularly India, it also seeks to relate the findings from this area to broadly comparable issues in Latin America and Africa. Himadeep Muppidi. Two 75-minute periods. Not offered in 2026/27.
(Same as ART 256 ) This course covers the history of Chinese art from the Neolithic to the early 20 th century. We examine a wide array of traditional art forms such as jade, silk, porcelain, ritual bronzes, ink painting, Daoist architecture, Confucian murals, and Peking opera. We also trace the transfer of foreign elements into Chinese art and aesthetics in the wake of China’s interactions with various entities across Asia. Following in the footsteps of monks, merchants, ambassadors, and warriors, we explore the artistic innovations they helped disseminate across the Chinese empire. Why do we find Persian textiles and Roman glass in ancient Chinese tombs? How do we account for discoveries of Chinese ceramics as far as Madagascar? What was the impact of Sino-Japanese exchanges on painting and garden design? How did the arrival of Buddhism transform Chinese material culture? What changes did Chinese painting undergo under Mongol patronage? Through such inquiries, we view and discuss Chinese art in the context of an increasingly global Afro-Eurasia. Students also delve into Chinese aesthetic concepts through select readings of primary sources such as poems, decrees, diaries, legal documents, and hymns. Petya Andreeva.
ART 105 or ART 106 , one Asian Studies course, or permission of the instructor. Two 75-minute periods.
Offered
Fall
ASIA 260Buddhist Art and Visual Culture1
(Same as ART 260 ) This course explores the birth, evolution, and transmission of Buddhist images across Asia from the 3rd century BCE to the 19th century. We delve into the rich visual and material cultures of Buddhist communities in the Indian subcontinent, China, Japan, Korea, Mongolia, Siberia, and Southeast Asia. With a strong emphasis on cross-cultural exchange, the course examines Buddhist art in the context of other religions and against the backdrop of war, trade, and migration. We learn to read Buddhist images and decipher their meaning and function across various media and modes of making, including murals, monasteries, cave complexes, dance rituals, gardens, and personal adornment. How do we account for the rise of Greco-Buddhist art in India? When and how did Buddhist art and patronage take root in China? What was the role of Zen architecture in the Japanese shogunate? Why do we find Buddhist architecture in imperial Russia? How did the female image in Buddhism change over time and across different cultural spheres? These are just some of the questions we pursue as we analyze the role of Buddhist art in the formation of trans-Asia networks of exchange. Petya Andreeva.
ART 105 - ART 106 or a 100-level Asian Studies course, or permission of the instructor. Two 75-minute periods. Not offered in 2026/27. Course Format: CLS
ASIA 262India, China, and the State of Post-coloniality1
(Same as POLI 262 ) As India and China integrate themselves deeply into the global economy, they raise issues of crucial importance to international politics. As nation-states that were shaped by an historical struggle against colonialism, how do they see their re-insertion into an international system still dominated by the West? What understandings of the nation and economy, of power and purpose, of politics and sovereignty, shape their efforts to join the global order? How should we re-think the nature of the state in the context? Are there radical and significant differences between colonial states, capitalist states and postcolonial ones? What are some of the implications for international politics of these differences? Drawing on contemporary debates in the fields of international relations and postcolonial theory, this course explores some of the changes underway in India and China and the implications of these changes for our current understandings of the international system. Himadeep Muppidi. Two 75-minute periods. Not offered in 2026/27.
(Same as POLI 263 ) The study of world politics is marked by a rich debate between rationalist and critical approaches. While rationalist approaches typically encompass realist/neo-realist and liberal/neo-liberal theories, critical approaches include social constructivist, historical materialist, post-structural and post-colonial theories of world politics. This course is a focused examination of some of the more prominent critical theories of international relations. It aims to a) familiarize students with the core concepts and conceptual relations implicit in these theories and b) acquaint them with the ways in which these theories can be applied to generate fresh insights into the traditional concerns, such as war, anarchy, nationalism, sovereignty, global order, economic integration, and security dilemmas of world politics. Himadeep Muppidi. Two 75-minute periods. Not offered in 2026/27.
(Same as FILM 266 ) This course examines contemporary Asian horror. Using a variety of critical perspectives, we deconstruct the pantheon of vampires, monsters, ghosts, and vampire ghosts inhabiting such diverse regions as Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong, and the Philippines to explore constructions of national/cultural identity, gender, race, class, and sexuality. We ground these observations within a discussion of the nature of horror and the implications of horror as a trans/national genre. Sophia Harvey.
FILM 175 or FILM 209 , and permission of the instructor. Two 75-minute periods plus outside screenings. Not offered in 2026/27. Course Format: CLS
ASIA 269Arts of India1
(Same as ART 269 ) For thousands of years, the Indian subcontinent has been home to numerous empires and a hotspot for trade and cross-cultural exchange. This course explores the artistic traditions and aesthetic systems that emerged in the Indian subcontinent from the middle of the first millennium BCE to the end of British colonial rule in the mid-20 th century. We cover a range of art forms, including Buddhist rock-cut architecture and murals, Hindu and Jain sculpture, Indo-Islamic court architecture and miniature, photography and prints as means of dissent and propaganda under British rule, to name but a few. We study how art in India reflected and shaped political and social movements, and how it generated debates and ideologies throughout Indian history. Starting with the premise that Indian art never existed in a cultural or conceptual vacuum, the course also emphasizes the place of India and the Indian Ocean in land and maritime trade networks in Afro-Eurasia. At times, we examine objects and monuments that defy the canon’s often narrow definitions of Indian art, tracing in it cultural elements from China, Persia, and other Asian empires. Petya Andreeva.
ART 105 or ART 106 or any 100-level Asian Studies course. Two 75-minute periods. Not offered in 2026/27. Course Format: CLS
ASIA 271Chinese Economy1
(Same as ECON 271 ) As the world’s second-largest economy, China has undergone immense structural change and growth in the last 40 years. China’s transformation into what it is today is unprecedented and unique. Understanding what drove China’s economic rise on the international stage is essential for at least three reasons. First, the world economy is increasingly reliant on China’s role in global trade. Second, China’s experience may provide insights into economic development for developing economies. Third, with increasing geopolitical and economic competition with the West, understanding the nature and development of the Chinese economy provides insights into potential solutions to this conflict. This course examines the drivers of China’s explosive economic growth, as well as the challenges it faces in the future. The course is structured as a survey on the following topics: China’s economic institutions and policy-making infrastructure, Chinese industrial policy, the development and role of China’s financial system, and the role of China in global trade. Additional topics are added based on current events and/or student interest. Harrison Shieh.
ECON 102 or permission of the instructor. Two 75-minute periods. Not offered in 2026/27. Course Format: CLS
ASIA 273Critical Ethnic Studies Curricula for Secondary Schools1
(Same as ANST 273 and EDUC 273 ) In this intensive, Vassar students work with the professor on developing curricula for a new Grades 9-14 AAPI Digital Textbook that is being produced and published by UCLA’s Asian American Studies Center. The larger textbook uses AAPI history and experiences as a lens to understand American history, emphasize understanding the world through multiple perspectives, and demonstrate the ability to collaborate and resolve conflicts across many facets of difference and diversity towards shared goals for the common good. Chapters in the textbook are organized around the four foundational themes : Global Capitalism and Migration; Empire and War; Community Foundations and Activism; Race, Power and Identity. Our group is tasked with developing accompanying lesson plans and activities for the chapter on Chinese garment workers in New York. As well, we consider developing curricula for a similar nascent project on SWANA studies for high schoolers. Students are expected to travel to NYC for meetings with the historians writing the chapter. Maria Hantzopoulos. Individual conferences with the instructor. Not offered in 2026/27. Course Format: INT
(Same as EDUC 275 and INTL 275 ) This course provides an overview of comparative education theory, practice, and research methodology. We examine educational issues and systems in a variety of cultural contexts. Particular attention is paid to educational practices in Asia and Europe, as compared to the United States. The course focuses on educational concerns that transcend national boundaries. Among the topics explored are international development, democratization, social stratification, the cultural transmission of knowledge, and the place of education in the global economy. These issues are examined from multiple disciplinary vantage points. Leonisa Ardizzone.
EDUC 235 or permission of the instructor. Two 75-minute periods.
Offered
Spring
ASIA 278Arts of Japan1
(Same as ART 278 ) This course surveys Japanese art from prehistory to the end of the Meiji era (1868-1912). We examine various artworks and media, such as funerary objects, murals, scroll paintings, jewelry, textiles, gardens, and theatrical arts. Detailed visual analysis and critical readings of primary texts lead us to a range of topics, including the rise of Zen aesthetics, Sino-Japanese cultural exchange, urban fashion and print culture in the Japanese shogunate, the role of illustration in Japanese literary culture, and the place of women as patrons, pioneers and centerpieces of propaganda and consumption in premodern Japan. Petya Andreeva.
ART 105 or ART 106 or any 100-level Asian Studies class. Two 75-minute periods. Course Format: CLS
Offered
Spring
ASIA 280Gender and Genre in Hindu Literature1
(Same as RELI 280 and WFQS 280 ) Literature is prime territory for thinking about gender in Hindu traditions as an expansive, contested, interrogative category. When it comes to Hinduism, we find some of the most intricate, profound reflections on gender in sources that are highly aware of the social and emotional realities of human life: epics, narratives, poems, and performance genres. Inspired by Mrinalini Sinha’s challenge to “distinguish between merely exporting gender as an analytical category to different parts of the world and rethinking the category itself in light of those different locations,” (2012) this course asks how works of Hindu literature develop and convey their own theories of gender and sexuality. What tensions do they explore? Where do they seem to prescribe, and where do they seem to question? How do the specifics of literary forms and Hindu practices allow them to do that? The course is organized by literary genre, with students exploring early, medieval, and contemporary sources. Themes include: epic masculinity, devotional voices, heroines, ritual possession, and narratives of gender affirmation. Nell Hawley. Two 75-minute periods. Course Format: CLS
Two units of Asian Studies Program or approved coursework and permission of the program director. Course Format: INT
Offered
Fall or Spring
ASIA 293Asian Art in 100 Objects0.5
(Same as ART 293 ) This intensive offers students an opportunity to study Asian art with real objects. Together, we critically analyze potteries, bronzes, ceramics, stone carvings, and other art forms from China, Japan, and Korea. This shared experience provides an in-depth examination of objects that are often studied for their visual qualities alone. Second six-week course. Two 75-minute periods. Not offered in 2026/27. Course Format: INT
(Same as SOCI 295 ) Approaching film as a complex audiovisual text that represents social change in South Korea, this intensive course interprets a collection of films selected by participating students and the instructor throughout the semester. Seungsook Moon. Two 75-minute periods. Not offered in 2026/27. Course Format: INT
The goal of this course is to equip students with proficiency in all four language skills, speaking, listening, reading, and writing, beyond the intermediate level. Students are expected to be able to and command a lengthy narrative discourse on personal experience. The medium of the class is mainly Korean, and English translation is given when it is necessary. Jihye Seong. Two 75-minute periods. Course Format: CLS
ASIA 311Trauma, Memory, and Justice: Quests of Modern East Asia1
(Same as HIST 311 ) How do historical events continue to shape the political, social, and personal landscapes of contemporary China, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan? This seminar explores the emotional and intellectual frameworks that have molded both collective and individual memories of humiliation, violence, trauma, and accountability. Key topics include the construction and manipulation of historical memory, the role of museums in representing memories of warfare and imperialism, gender violence during WWII and the associated social stigma, wartime conduct and war crimes trials after WWII, political violence and transitional justice, the pursuit of democracy rooted in historical memory, industrial disease and environmental justice, memories of earthquakes and tsunamis, and the efforts of grassroots organizations and non-state actors to preserve memory. For the final project, students choose a topic of interest from the course themes. The project may take the form of a website, film, video essay, podcast, or another creative format focused on a historical event or issue of their choice. Yu-chi Chang. One 2-hour period. Not offered in 2026/27. Course Format: CLS
ASIA 314History of Asian American Social Movements1
(Same as ANST 314 and HIST 314 ) This seminar uses primary and secondary sources to explore the history of social movements by and for Asian Americans. After brief discussion of early forms of resistance and organizing, the course focuses primarily on social movements during and after the “Asian American movement” arose in the long 1960’s. Topics include struggles for ethnic studies. Yellow Power and recognition for “Brown Asians,” antiwar, Redress (reparations for Japanese American WWII incarceration), fair working conditions, Asian American feminisms, gay marriage, environmental justice, and anti-Asian violence and #StopAsianHate. Throughout the course, we ground Asian American activists and their ideas in their transnational dimensions,including Third World Liberation and anticolonial ideaologies, and we explore their solidarities with other liberation movements such as Civil Rights, Black Power, and Indigenous sovereignty. For the final project, students work together to create our own archive and interpreation of Asian American student activism at Vassar College. Ashanti Shih. One 2-hour period. Course Format: CLS
(Same as HIST 321 ) This course explores both the conceptual and physical making of regions bordering modern China, such as Yunnan, Tibet, Xinjiang, Mancuria, and Hong Kong. Beginning with diverse human activities in th eighteenth century, the course investigates the processes of space-making in relation to expanding imperial projects and modern nation-state ideologies that rendered these regions remote borderlands, while simultaneously binding them to a unified territorial imagination. Course themes include representations of the environment and peoples; travels and expeditions under imperialism; experiences of colonization and decolonization and the interplay of ethnicity, warfare, and other forms of violence. Building on these perspectives, the course examines how literary writings, travel accounts, and mapping practices contributed to conceptualizations of geogrphic space at China’s edge, and how these have influenced contemporary Chinese discourses of ethnicity, territory, and sovereignty. Yu-chi Chang. One 2-hour period. Course Format: CLS
ASIA 335Life-Writing & Autofiction in Japan: From Classical Diary to Contemporary Novel1
(Same as JAPA 335 ) What does it mean to engage in life-writing, and how do various literary forms convey personal experiences across time and culture? This seminar explores the art of autobiographical inscription in Japan, from ancient diaries to contemporary autofiction, tracing how individual narratives are shaped by historical, geographical, social, and literary contexts. Through close readings, we examine recurring themes such as fictionality, truth-telling, and the ethical dilemmas inherent in any story of self. These explorations allow us to reconsider the boundaries of “autobiography” within and beyond Eurocentric paradigms and delve into how authors—past and present—wrestle with the possibilities and contradictions of life-writing. In doing so, students are guided to think critically and self-reflexively about their own perspectives, experiences, and creative engagements. (Note that there are no language prerequisites, as all readings are either in English or available in translation. This course welcomes students from diverse majors, backgrounds, and interests, fostering an inclusive and interdisciplinary dialogue.) Pier Carlo Tommasi.
One course in Japanese language, East Asian literature and culture, Asian Studies, or Medieval and Renaissance Studies, or permission of the instructor. One 2-hour period. Not offered in 2026/27. Course Format: CLS
ASIA 338Labor and Working-Class Culture in Asian America1
(Same as ANST 338 ) This seminar examines the labor and working-class culture of Asians in America since the mid-19th century. From early indentured labor migration to the Americas to the development of transnational service work, we focus on the role of Asian labor in the making of global capitalism. We explore labor migration, workplace culture, union organizing, leisure, and family dynamics through history, ethnography, law and visual culture. Key theoretical tensions to be discussed include the relationship between freedom and coolie labor, the proletarian status of small business owners, and the Asian body in immaterial labor. Subjects of labor to be studied include gold mining, canning, gardening, domestic work, laundry, restaurants, garment work, nail salons, call centers and surrogacy. Amy Chin. One 2-hour period. Not offered in 2026/27. Course Format: CLS
(Same as FILM 339 ) This course is designed to introduce students to the dynamic and diverse contemporary film texts emerging from Singapore and Thailand. The course focuses on the themes of urban spaces and gender and sexuality. The course reading material is designed to provide (1) theoretical insights, (2) general socio-cultural and/or political overviews, and (3) more specific analyses of film texts and/or filmmakers. Sophia Harvey.
FILM 209 and permission of the instructor. Two 75-minute periods plus outside screenings. Not offered in 2026/27.
ASIA 345Violent Frontiers: Colonialism and Religion in the Nineteenth Century1
(Same as RELI 345 ) What is the relationship between religion and colonialism and how has this relationship shaped the contemporary world? During the nineteenth century the category of religion was imagined and applied in different ways around the globe. When colonialists undertook to ‘civilize’ a people, specific understandings of religion were at the core of their undertakings. By the mid-nineteenth century, Europe’s territorial energy was focused on Asia and Africa. Themes for discussion include various nineteenth-century interpretations of religion, the relationship between empire and culture, the notion of frontier religion, and the imagination and production of society. Michael Walsh. Not offered in 2026/27.
(Same as SOCI 347 and STS 347 ) Technological development is not “simply a matter of advances in science and technology, but a product of complex entanglements among knowledge, technical capability, politics, and culture” (Jasanoff 2005, 290). Thinking of science and technology in Asia in particular brings to mind images of unparalleled development, the futuristic, the optimistic, the dystopian, and disaster simultaneously. This seminar examines key topics at the intersection of science, society, and the state in contemporary Asia. We will analyze questions like how are cutting edge technologies employed in governance in different Asian states? How has science been used to craft imaginaries of the self and the nation in Asia? Are the dynamics of technological development in Asia unique, and how do they shape Asian nation’s position on the global stage? By delving in-depth into different international cases from across the Asian continent, we examine how science and technology shape—and are shaped by—structures of inequality, social identities, states’ governance strategies, and society’s counter-movements against the state. Weekly topics include, but are not limited to, pandemic management and public health, genetic nationalism, biopolitics, coercive environmentalism, contending with nuclear disaster, models of technological innovation, surveillance capitalism, scientism in policy making, internet politics, and human-robot co-existence. National contexts include China, Japan, Korea, Russia, Ukraine, Singapore, India, and Indonesia. Abigail Coplin. One 3-hour period. Not offered in 2026/27. Course Format: CLS
(Same as RELI 355 ) Are places inherently sacred or are they made that way through human action? In this seminar we examine the relationship between spatial and temporal orientation and connect this to the fundamental importance of sacrality in human action and existence. We explore comparatively how space is produced, maintained, and made sacred. We also investigate how social groups and nation-states work to produce spaces of control within which their citizens must reside. Some of our questions include: What is the relationship between power and sacrality, between nation-state and a state of being? How are places made sacred through human action? To what extent is sacrality a process of emplacement? What role does sacredness play in local and global geopolitical environments? Michael Walsh. One 2-hour period. Course Format: CLS
Permission of the instructor. One 2-hour period. Not offered in 2026/27. Course Format: CLS
ASIA 359Art of the Silk Roads: Making, Meaning, and Mobility from China to Europe1
(Same as ART 359 ) Focusing on intercultural exchange, this seminar explores the movements of artworks and artisans across premodern Afro-Eurasian trade networks known collectively as the “Silk Roads.” The course embraces a wide temporal and geographical scope: from the Iron Age to the 16th century, major Silk Road settlements flourished across modern-day China, India, Afghanistan, Mongolia, the Russian Far East, Central Asia, the Iranian plateau, the Caucasus, Eastern Europe, and Northeast Africa. We trace and analyze the dissemination of objects and images, as well as the transmission of ideas, aesthetic concepts, religions, ideologies, and governance models across the land and maritime routes linking these cultural spheres. In so doing, we explore how trade, war, diplomacy, climate change, and migration were continuously shaping the artistic, sociopolitical, and economic landscapes of Silk Road empires and communities. The course material also leads us to critiques of colonial frameworks and Euro-centric terminologies in the historiography of the Silk Roads, largely shaped by accounts of European travelers and invaders. Throughout the course, we study the premodern patterns of globalization in Afro-Eurasia and the role of art in this growing interconnectedness. Petya Andreeva.
Permission of the instructor. One 2-hour period. Course Format: CLS
Offered
Spring
ASIA 361Youth in Japanese Literature1
(Same as JAPA 361 ) This course explores the topic of youth and adolescence in Japan. It examines how Japanese modern history, society and culture are presented differently in literary works when the perspective of youth is employed. Key topics of family, sexuality, modernization and civilization emerge to the surface. Issues that young people face are different in each period of time. However, the young commonly try to deal with the idea of “development” into mature adulthood or socially expected manhood and womanhood. Young people’s ideals, disillusionment, frustrations, and struggles are examined through selected literary and cinematic works. Readings include works by Natsume Soseki, Higuchi Ichiyo, Kawabata Yasunari, Mishima Yukio, Yasuoka Shotaro, and Murakami Haruki. We also expand our horizon to film, music and anime, as well. Hiromi Dollase.
One 200-level course in language, literature, culture or Asian Studies, or permission of the instructor. One 2-hour period.
Offered
Spring
ASIA 363Decolonizing International Relations1
(Same as POLI 363 ) Colonial frameworks are deeply constitutive of mainstream international relations. Issues of global security, economy, and politics continue to be analyzed through perspectives that either silence or are impervious to the voices and agencies of global majorities. This seminar challenges students to enter into, reconstruct, and critically evaluate the differently imagined worlds of ordinary, subaltern peoples and political groups. We draw upon postcolonial theories to explore alternatives to the historically dominant explanations of international relations. Himadeep Muppidi.
Permission of the instructor. One 2-hour period. Not offered in 2026/27.
ASIA 365Imagining Asia and the Island Pacific1
(Same as ANTH 365 ) Does “the Orient” exist? Is the Pacific really a Paradise? On the other hand, does the “West” exist? If it does, is it the opposite of Paradise? Asia is often imagined as an ancient, complex challenger and the Pacific is often imagined as a simple, idyllic paradise. This course explores Western scholarly images of Asia (East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia) and of the island Pacific. It also traces the impact of Asian and Pacific ideas and institutions on the West. Each time offered, the seminar has at least three foci, on topics such as: Asia, the Pacific and capitalism; Asia, the Pacific and the concept of culture; Asia, the Pacific and the nation-state; Asia, the Pacific and feminism; Asia, the Pacific and knowledge. Martha Kaplan.
Previous coursework in Asian Studies/Anthropology or permission of the instructor. One 3-hour period. Not offered in 2026/27. Course Format: CLS
ASIA 366Seminar in Transcending the Limit: Literary Theory in the East-West Context1
(Same as CHJA 366 ) This course examines various traditional and contemporary literary theories with a distinct Asianist—particularly East Asianist—perspective. At least since the eighteenth century, Western theoretical discourse often took into serious consideration East Asian literature, language and civilization in their construction of “universal” theoretical discourses. The comparative approach to literary theory becomes imperative in contemporary theoretical discourse as we move toward ever greater global integration. Selected theoretical texts from the I Ching , Hegel, Genette, Barthes, Derrida, Todorov, and Heidegger as well as some primary literary texts are among the required readings. Haoming Liu.
One literature course or permission of the instructor. All readings are in English. One 3-hour period. Course Format: CLS
Offered
Fall
ASIA 367Chinese Linguistics1
(Same as CHIN 367 ) This course offers a systematic and comprehensive introduction to the history and nature of the Chinese language in terms of its phonology, morphology and syntax in comparison with English. It also highlights the construction and evolution of Chinese characters and explores social dimensions of the language such as language planning and standardization, relations of Mandarin with the dialects, and interactions between Chinese and other languages. Topics also include unique linguistic devices in the Chinese rhetoric and figure of speech. Classes are conducted and readings are done in English or bilingually. Students with background in Chinese can choose to do projects in Chinese at their appropriate levels. Wenwei Du.
Two courses in a combination of language, linguistics, literature, culture, or Asian Studies, or permission of the instructor. Two 75-minute periods. Not offered in 2026/27. Course Format: CLS
ASIA 369Masculinities: Global Perspectives1
(Same as SOCI 369 and WFQS 369 ) From a sociological perspective, gender is not only an individual identity, but also a social structure of inequality (or stratification) that shapes the workings of major institutions in society as well as personal experiences. This seminar examines meanings, rituals, and quotidian experiences of masculinities in various societies in order to illuminate their normative making and remaking as a binary and hierarchical category of gender and explore alternatives to this construction of gender. Drawing upon cross-cultural and comparative case studies, this course focuses on the following institutional sites critical to the politics of masculinities: marriage and the family, the military, business corporations, popular culture and sexuality, medicine and the body, and religion. Seungsook Moon.
Previous coursework in Sociology or permission of the instructor. One 2-hour period. Not offered in 2026/27.
ASIA 370Early Chinese Literature: Spring and Autumn: Tradition According To Zuo and the Book of Odes1
(Same as CHIN 370 ) This intensive course reads selections from early Chinese literature including the Book of Odes, and Spring and Autumn: The Tradition According to Zuo, two of the five Confucian classics whose composition dates between 11th and 6th centuries BCE. Poems of later ages which bear clear traces of influence and borrowings may also be added to complement the reading and discussions of the archaic works. Crucial secondary literature and reference works are introduced. Requirements: texts to be read in the original; students should have near native proficiency in modern Chinese, elementary knowledge of literary Chinese a plus. Students are required to do research on assigned texts by using reference books and secondary sources. Memorization, identification and parsing of assigned passages or odes are also required. Haoming Liu.
Near native proficiency in modern Chinese. Basic knowledge of literary Chinese preferable. One 3-hour period. Course Format: INT
Offered
Fall
ASIA 375The Archive Project: Uncovering Japanese Books and Prints at the Loeb1
(Same as JAPA 375 ) This Intensive Course offers a rare opportunity for students to engage with Japanese artifacts from the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center and produce original public-facing scholarship (in the form of catalog information) to enrich the museum’s database. By the end of the semester, students are prepared for wider explorations in the field of Japanese Studies and beyond. They also gain a deeper appreciation of current curatorial practices, as the course spotlights the vital work of curators, librarians, dealers, and other non-professorial experts, fostering an awareness of the broader community involved in the study and preservation of these antiquarian materials. Pier Carlo Tommasi.
JAPA 306 or the equivalent. Individual conferences with the instructor. Course Format: INT
Offered
Fall
ASIA 379War and Adoption1
(Same as ANST 379 and HIST 379 ) This intensive seeks to explore the links between war and adoption in Asia and the US. The consequences of US wars in Asia and the Pacific have been multifaceted and reverberating for adoptees through the formation of new families, institutions, and subjectivities-topics of which we are just beginning to study and theorize. Yet adoptees are more than their conditions of adoption. Through this intensive, we analyze the historical and legal origins of transnational adoption, the relationships between veteran fathers and first mothers, state, religious and civic institutions that facilitated adoptions, as well as the individual lives of adoptees. In particular, we aim to highlight the diversity of adoptee narratives through historical monographs, memoirs, films, photography, graphic novels, comics, oral histories, and performances. It will take a multidisciplinary historical approach to understanding the militarized aspects of adoption in the US by honing in on the interstitial figures that emerge out of war: the orphan, waifs and mascots, the adoptee, American GI fathers, social workers, Asian first/birthmothers. Robert Brigham and Amy Chin. One 2-hour period. Not offered in 2026/27. Course Format: INT
ASIA 388Cosmic Disruptions: Myths and Festivals in India1
(Same as RELI 388 ) Stories and celebrations interrupt our sense of time, ourselves, and the usual order of things. They scoop us out of everyday life, plunge us into something beyond ourselves, and invite us to rethink what has become familiar. In India, myths and festivals work together to create chaos from order and order from chaos—on human and celestial levels at once. This course explores the disruptive currents of major Hindu festivals and the myths that are connected with them. We ask: How do fiercely resourceful deities relate to their (often heroic, devoted) antagonists? How do profound expressions of grief and suffering run alongside joy and triumph in celestial realms and on earth? What are the many ways, subtle and overt, in which festivals and their myths upset the social order? How do large-scale rituals and narratives alike prompt us to see the earthly landscape of India from a cosmic perspective, allowing us to perceive rivers, cities, mountains, and animals as genuinely divine parts of our world? By way of investigating these broader questions, students examine a series of Hindu festivals from different regions of India that mark the lunar calendar—topics may include Onam, Navaratri, Annakut, Shivaratri, Holi, the Kumbh Mela, and the Aravan festival—and the myths that lay the groundwork for these disruptive, regenerative events. Nell Hawley. One 2-hour period. Course Format: CLS
