This course is designed for students with some prior knowledge of the language and serves as a systematic review within a cultural context. Practical, conversational usage of the language is stressed as is the culture of China. Prerequisite: CHN 121, three years of high school Chinese or permission of the instructor. 

 

CHN 221 Intermediate Chinese I 4 sh
This course is designed for students who have mastered the basic concepts of the language. Speaking skills and character writing within a cultural context are further developed. Prerequisite: CHN 121 or 122, four years of high school Chinese or permission of instructor. 

 

 

 

This Historical-Cultural course will examine late 19th to mid-20th century texts —novels, poems, short stories, and theatre — of China and Japan and how these representative works reflect the cultural transformations unique to these Far Eastern countries. Satisfies the global/multicultural requirement. Offered fall or spring of alternate years.

 

This interdisciplinary course explores signifficant works of Chinese, Japanese and Korean historical fiction that center on a period in the past, ranging from the Three Kingdoms period (220 CE) to the early 20th century. It uses this fiction and the historical contexts that inform it as foundations for the interrogation of Chinese, Japanese and Korean film, television series and other visual culture. Students combine literary study, historiographyand visual analysis to interrogate themes including gender and power, transnational conflict and consensus, and personal and national loyalty. Counts toward the global/multicultural requirement. Offered fall or spring of alternate years.

 

This course examines representative texts in Asian-American literature, introducing students to the competing forces of ethnic identity, hybridity, generational conflict and assimilation in novels, short stories and poetry by Asian-Americans who are contemplating their identities in America. Studies will begin with 19th Century immigrant literature and continue with literary works, cultural criticism and historic legal developments that reflect the Asian experience in America. Race, gender, interactions with other minority groups and a universe of stereotypes complicate the process acculturation and acquiring the various elements of what we call the American Dream are examined. This course satisfies global/multicultural requirement. Offered fall or spring of alternate years.

 

This course focuses on the environmental issues facing the island nations and the mainland countries of Southeast Asia. The major environmental problems in this region of the world include deforestation, soil erosion, habitat destruction, habitat fragmentation, water pollution from mineral extraction and industry, unsustainable harvesting practices and rising rates of disease. These issues will be examined in the context of climate, topography, vegetation, societal evolution and human history. Emphasis will be placed on the demographic, cultural, political, religious, economic and ecological reasons for the current state of the environment of Southeast Asia. Practical solutions to reduce environmental degradation and promote sustainable development will be examined. This course cannot be used to satisfy a science requirement. Offered spring of alternate years.

 

GST 333 Religion and Art of Asia  4 sh
This course explores the symbiosis of religious thought and expression in the pan-Asian sphere. It investigates the history of religious art and architecture in India, China and Japan and considers Asia’s contemporary material and popular culture as both expressions of and constructions for the sacred.

 

GST 370W Interdisciplinary Zen 4 sh
In this seminar, we will study the ritual and philosophy of Zen and the relationship scholars have noted between Zen and physics and Zen and Japanese arts (such as painting, haiku, calligraphy, and martial arts). To ground our academic study we will practice sitting meditation and visit a local Zen center.    

 

Pearl Harbor and Hiroshima are infamous names in world history. In many ways they represent the end result of a century of conflict and revolution in Asia that centered around Western efforts to force themselves into the mainstream of Chinese and Japanese societies. This course will explore these conflicts and their impact not only on these two important Asian nations, but on all of the countries that ring the Pacific Rim such as Russia, the United States, Canada and Australia.

 

HST 321 China: Empire and Revolution, 1800-1948 4 sh
This course will look at the major developments in Chinese history from the beginning of the nineteenth century until today. Its principal focus will be the impact of the major historical, cultural, intellectual, and philosophical traditions that have affected China over the past two centuries. It will also highlight the major historical events in China during this period - the opening of China during the Opium Wars, the major upheavals caused by China’s interactions with the West in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the collapse of the imperial system in 1911, the warlord era, the Nationalist period of domination
between 1927 and 1949, and the successes and failure of communist rule since 1949. Offered fall and spring.

 

This exploration of the politics of Asia after World War II analyzes political and economic processes in the cases of Japan, China, India and newly industrializing countries.

 

REL 201 Buddhist Traditions 4 sh
This course surveys the religious philosophy, practices and cultural developments of Buddhism from 6th century BCE India to present-day America. In the course of this study we examine Buddhist ideas about the nature of the self, existence, the basis of knowledge, the nature and path to salvation, psychology, ethics, aesthetics, gender, mind-body theory and non-violence issues.

 

 REL 202 Hindu Traditions 4 sh
This course introduces students to Hindu religious traditions and traces their development from Vedic times to the present day. Special emphasis will be placed on the diversity of theological orientations that characterize classical and contemporary Hinduism, and which are articulated across a broad spectrum of textual traditions, ritual expressions, and social practices.

 

REL 356 Chinese "Religions" from Confucius to Mao 4 sh
Chinese “religious” thought and practice can include philosophy, political science, ethics, aesthetics, physical education, medicine and mysticism. This course broadens the category of “religion” as we investigate traditions such as Confucianism, Daoism, Buddhism, Neo-Confucianism, Islam, Christianity and/or popular religion in China. Less familiar ideologies and a critical assessment of Communist texts, images and state rituals will also be considered.

REL 357 Sages and Samurai: Religion in the Japanese Experience 4 sh
This course explores the historical and contemporary role of religion in Japan. It pays particular attention to primary texts in translation and to the visual and ritual expressions of Shintoism, Buddhism, Neo-Confucianism, Christianity and folk religion. In addition, it emphasizes these as vibrant, lived traditions in Japan whose continued relevance can be discerned today.

REL 358 Sites and Rites: Sacred Space and Ritual in World Religions 4 sh
This course explores how real and ideal spaces reflect and shape our perceptions of the sacred. It investigates how geometric principles, utopian ideals, local culture, ritual activities and political agendas reconstruct cosmic order and complicate meaning at some of the world’s most awe-inspiring - and historically contested - places. A final segment on pilgrimage completes the course.

 

REL 360 Hindu Goddesses: From Myths to Movies 4 sh
This course introduces several of the most important Hindu goddesses and considers how they are represented, characterized, and embodied in textual, performance, and ritual traditions. Students in this course will analyze the theologies, mythologies, and poetry connected with particular goddesses, and will explore how individual goddesses are approached in Hindu worship, ritual practice, and festival celebrations.

REL 361 Women, Religion, and Ethnography 4 sh
This course introduces students to contemporary women’s religious lives, ritual performances, and bodily practices across several traditions. Because they foreground the everyday, lived religious experiences of women and offer us access to women’s own voices and perspectives, our primary sources will be ethnographic studies.

 

REL 362 Hindu Textual Traditions: Sacrifice, Duty, and Devotion 4 sh
This course examines a selection of written, oral and performed texts associated with Hindu traditions in their various social, historical and religious contexts. In addition to primary texts drawn from sources such as the Vedas, Upanishads, Puranas, Hindu epics, and the corpus of Hindu devotional poetry, we will analyze ritual, dance, and artistic performance traditions as
well as modern oral narratives.

REL 363 Women in Islam: Veneration, Veils, and Voices 4 sh
This course explores Muslim women’s religious roles, participation and practices throughout the history of Islam and across a variety of cultural contexts. Attention will be paid to the diversity of interpretations concerning textual prescriptions about women in Islam and to women’s own articulations about their religious identities, and to how the ways that women have negotiated their everyday religious lives are intimately related to social location, economic considerations, and political developments.

 

 

 

APS 481 Internship In Asian Studies 1-4 sh.