Asian Languages and Cultures Classes

This course introduces students to foundational legends, epics, novels, and poetry from across Asia. Studying core texts from the Arab World, India, China, Korea, and Japan will provide windows into the ancient cultures that produced these works. We will also examine these tales' enduring power today. We will analyze the many changes these tales underwent as they spread across Asia and appeared in diverse media including visual arts and film. Texts include: The Journey to the West, The Arabian Nights, The Tale of Genji, and The Ramayana.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

This course explores the historical development of Buddhist thought and practice across Asia by tracing how communities of monks, scholars, and philosophers sought to understand and embody the path to liberation. Including studies of major schools and figures in Buddhism, including Nāgārjuna, Vasubandhu, and Buddhaghosa, students examine how diverse Buddhist traditions emerged from shared questions about mind, self, causality, and the nature of awakening. Along the way, the course cultivates key academic skills in textual interpretation, argumentation, and historical contextualization. Students learn to analyze philosophical ideas within their religious and cultural settings, compare perspectives across regions and time periods, and engage critically with both primary sources and modern scholarship. By combining close reading with cross-cultural inquiry and philosophical reasoning, students gain insight not only into the development of Buddhism but also into the broader processes by which ideas travel, transform, and shape worlds. The course provides both newcomers and those with prior background a rigorous and rewarding foundation for further study in religion, philosophy, or intellectual history.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

The sense of being out of place in one's society or one's nation, estranged from one's self or the world - this is the feeling that has motivated many of the narratives of modern Japanese fiction. Through stories of precocious adolescents, outcast minorities, vagabond women, disillusioned soldiers, and rebellious youth, this course examines the social implications of narrative fiction (including film, anime, and manga) within the context of modern Japanese history. While introducing methods of literary analysis and developing a familiarity with major works of Japanese fiction, the course aims to cultivate an understanding of how stories can be used to engage and think abou the quandaries of modern society. We will explore the way these narratives express marginal experiences, rethink the foundations of human and societal bonds, and articulate new ways of being in the world. Works covered include stories by Tanizaki Jun'ichiro, Kawabata Yasunari, Oe Kenzaburo, Mishima Yukio, and Murakami Haruki, as well as films by Akira Kurosawa, Koreeda Hirokazu, and Otomo Katsuhiro. No knowledge of Japanese required.

General Education Requirements:
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

This course provides an interdisciplinary introduction to Uyghur history, culture, and the arts. It examines Uyghur literature, society, music, and language in their Central Asian, Turkic, Islamic and modern Chinese contexts. Course materials offer critical perspectives on minoritized identities, cultural representation, state suppression, and forms of resistance and resilience.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Fine arts

Course Materials

This discussion-based course is entirely focused on Bruce Lee, the movie actor and leading martial arts icon of the 20th century. Using American Studies and Critical Race Studies to frame and interpret the construction of racialized and gendered bodies, we will discuss Bruce Lee in terms of his biography, identities, politics, philosophy, and filmography (performative masculinity, anyone?). We will take time to appreciate the entertainment value and athleticism that Bruce Lee brought to his work, and we will distinguish the commercialized, commodified Bruce Lee--from t-shirts to posters to action figures--from the serious historical figure who symbolized the spirit of cultural independence and political sovereignty around the world. We will watch all four films in class starting with “Enter the Dragon,” and explore relevant scholarship in Bruce Lee Studies.

General Education Requirements:
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

When Jesuit missionaries first entered China in the 16th century, what did the Chinese people they met think of these strange, celibate men from the “Far West”? What prompted Jesuits to travel across the globe to live and die among foreigners in the first place? What shared values cemented the first friendships between Chinese and Europeans? And on what issues did Chinese and Europeans disagree or struggle to gain one another’s trust? Students in this seminar will study an array of literary, religious, cartographical, and visual materials from China and Europe in the period between 1500-1800, reflect on their own interactions with cultural "others," and collaborate to curate a museum-style exhibit. No knowledge of Chinese required.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WC

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

Russia’s relations with the West often overshadow its deep connections with its eastern neighbors. From the 17th century onward, Russia - and later the Soviet Union - developed strategic approaches to control Siberia and the so-called Far East and assert its power in the Pacific, where it confronted other regional powers, such as China, Japan, and Korea.Given the current shifts in the global political order, understanding the historical connections between Russia, China, Japan, and Korea is more important than ever. This course examines the complexities of these relationships, with a particular emphasis on foreign policy.Key course themes include imperial Russian expansion into the Pacific region; colonization of indigenous populations; modernization projects (the Trans-Siberian Railway as a geopolitical tool); the clash of imperial interests in the Far East; the Russo-Japanese War; the 1917 revolution and its effect on China, Korea, and Japan; the White Movement in the Far East; the Soviet Union and Mongolia; the Pacific front during WWII; the Korean War and later relations with South and North Korea; Sino-Soviet relations in the 1960-80s; and the fragile partnerships after the fall of the Soviet Union.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

America’s most long-lasting impact overseas has often come through environmentalmanipulations. This course will start in the early 20th century examining U.S. consumption ofbananas, coffee, and oil and centering the people and landscapes that produced thosecommodities. Next, we will examine how Americans have shaped landscapes and communitiesoverseas through warfare: we will visit battlefields and “militarized landscapes” in Normandy,Hiroshima, Korea, and Vietnam -- but also, surprisingly, in Hanford, Washington, Love Canal,New York, and hundreds of PFAS sites around the U.S. To tell global stories of Americanempire, we will zoom in on interwoven local ecosystems and communities, mostly overseas,often in Asia, but some within U.S. borders. We will also examine how nature shaped and oftenlimited or foiled the U.S. “superpower.” Nature was often exploited and reconfigured, bombedand bulldozed, but it was no passive actor.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

In the 21st century, a major challenge facing the planet is the accelerating loss ofbiodiversity around the world. This course will examine the explosion of national parks aroundthe world in the last century to protect biodiversity, and investigate the shift from “fortressconservation” models of protected areas, which often displaced Indigenous and localcommunities, to more recent community-based models of conserving nature. The first part of thiscourse will focus on examples of national parks in the US, Africa, and Asia. The second part ofthe course will examine community-based programs around the world, especially success stories.A key focus of the course will be a class project working with Nepal’s Chitwan TharuCulture Museum (at their request) to make a display on “parks and people” for their museum,which borders Chitwan National Park, Nepal’s oldest park. Students will examine primarymaterials from interviews and historical documents but also will do zoom interviews withcommunity members and NGO workers in Nepal. Nepal has seen its share of fortressconservation but also pioneering models of community-based management strategies.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

This course explores the art, architecture, and religious institutions of Central Asia and its environs from the 3rd millennium BCE to end of the 9th century CE. We will explore such topics as the migration of peoples, ideas, and visual culture; the importation and exportation of royal and religious images; the rise and spread of Zoroastrianism from its roots in Central Asia to its apogee as the state religion of the Sasanian Empire; among many other topics. We will cover the migration of the Indo-Iranian peoples from Central Asia into Iran and India, the Bactria-Margiana archaeological complex, the empires and kingdoms of the Hindu Kush, the Parthian Confederacy, and the rise of the Sogdian merchant elite. At the end of this course students will have a firm understanding of the peoples, cultures, and artistic styles of this pivotal region. This course requires no prior knowledge of art, archaeology, religion, or of Central Asia and is open to all students eager to learn about the land between the Caspian and China.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Fine arts

Course Materials

Since the last century, Asia has experienced rapid urbanization. It is now home to over half of the world's most populated cities. By 2010, the urban population in the Asia-Pacific region has surpassed the population of the United States and the European Union combined. In this course, we will focus on cities in East, Southeast and South Asia. We will first contextualize the rapid urbanization in the region's changing political economy, and identify urban issues that are unique to this region. We will further explore different theoretical approaches to understand Asian cities; several of them challenge mainstream urban theories rooted in the experiences of West European and North American cities. Upon the completion of this course, students will acquire substantive knowledge on contemporary trends of urban development in Asia, and develop familiarity with related ongoing theoretical debates. In addition, students will conduct individual research projects to develop deeper and more concrete understanding of the contemporary urbanization processes in Asia.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

What aspects of texts are selected and translated? How is translation conducted, contained, and transformed in larger cultural, social, and historical contexts? What kinds of power dynamics and ideology are involved in the process of translation? This course is to develop a critical awareness of the practice of Chinese-English translation as a cross-cultural dialogue. It will critically examine major concepts and issues such as equivalence, faithfulness, invisibility, etc. Along with different translation theories, the course will follow the chronological order of Chinese literature being translated at different historical periods. Students will learn theories of translation and do hands-on practice in translation. Prerequisite(s): CHIN 305 or its equivalent.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WP
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

Buddhism is increasingly well-known in the USA, but what is it, and how does Buddhism encourage people to organize and think about their lives? Organized on the basis of the Eightfold Noble Path, with a focus of 'morals, the Buddhist psychology of mind, and meditation,'  this course offers an introduction to the personalities, teachings, and institutions of Buddhism. Beginning in India at the time of the Buddha, this course focuses on Theravada Buddhism, asking students to think historically, philosophically, and anthropologically. Many Friday sessions will be dedicated to an exploration of the variety of Buddhist meditative techniques.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WP
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

This course introduces the basic issues and concepts of Asian American Studies. We begin by looking at the birth of Asian American Studies as a field in response to student protests in the late 1960s. We then proceed to an overview of Asian American history beginning with U.S. imperialism in Asia and moving up to the present moment. For the remainder of the course, we'll focus on particular topics such as: the model minority myth; anti-Asian violence; multiracial Asian American identity; and Asian American activism. The approach of this course is interdisciplinary; it draws on theoretical and methodological insights from academic disciplines such as history, ethnic studies, and sociology.

General Education Requirements:
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

This course introduces the cultures and societies of China, Japan and Korea from the earliest times to the present day. Primarily an introductory course for beginners in East Asian civilization, this course considers a variety of significant themes in religious, political, economic, social and cultural developments in the region.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WP
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

Reading Plays guides students in close readings of dramatic literature, in particular of plays that are typically left out of the traditional theatrical canon. In this edition, students will learn about the socio-historical context of each play, and in-class exercises will introduce them to the foundation of script analysis: they will examine the play’s given circumstances, dialogue, dramatic action, characters, and style. Students will read a new play every week; assignments include weekly in-class writing exercises and short critical papers. Some playwrights we may explore are: Ayad Akhtar, Jaclyn Backhaus, Christopher Chen, Mashuq Mushtaq Deen, Prince Gomolvilas, David Henry Hwang, Naomi Iizuka, Rajiv Joseph, Hansol Jung, Haruna Lee, Kimber Lee, Young Jean Lee, Qui Nguyen, Jiehae Park, Lloyd Suh, Kristina Wong, Lauren Yee, and Chay Yew.

General Education Requirements:
Internationalism OR U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Fine arts

Course Materials

How do technologies—from early writing tools to artificial intelligence—shape the way we read, write, and think? This course traces three thousand years of innovation in China, from oracle bones and paper to printing, the Chinese typewriter, Unicode, and AI. By exploring China’s major contributions to writing, literature, and the humanities, students gain historical perspectives for critically evaluating today’s algorithmic technologies, their ethical implications, and their impact on learning and human creativity.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

Did Confucius really say all those things? What does it mean to call something "zen"? The popularity of mindfulness and meditation made "Eastern Philosophy" fashionable, but what exactly does that entail? This class will be an introduction to classical Chinese philosophy, focusing on Confucianism and its rivals (Daoism, Mohism, Buddhism). Many schools of thought in East Asia offered competing views on how to live a good life; we will explore these views and chart how they responded to each other. We'll also see how Chinese thoughts were received and developed by Korean and Japanese philosophers and assess ongoing influences of these philosophies in East Asia and beyond. Texts with English translations.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

Whether the twenty-first century will be dominated by the "rising Asia" has spurred recurring debates in policy and academic circles. But what is Asia? How can we understand this diverse region where more than half of the world's population resides? In this course, we will first deconstruct the idea of Asia as a cartographic entity to excavate the layered social-cultural meaning and geographical diversity of the "Asias." We will also place the "Asias" in a global context to reveal how contemporary Asia anchors the changing world political economy and cultural imaginations outside the West. We will begin with important theoretical debates on (East) Asian development that prevailed in the 1980s and 1990s, including discussions about the colonial past, the path-dependency of development and uneven industrialization, regional disparities and mega-urbanization. We will then use these debates as the foundation to explore the contemporary globalizing Asia. What are the important connections between Asian countries, and with other parts of the world? What are the roles of the "Asias" in international governance and geo-politics? Can China replace the United States as the dominant geo-economic power? These are the questions we will explore in this course.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WP
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

This course surveys the history of Japanese film from the "golden age" of Japanese cinema to the contemporary transnational genre of anime. While introducing methodologies of film analysis and interpretation, it develops knowledge of how major works of Japanese film and animation have expressed and critiqued issues of modern Japanese society. In doing this, we trace the development of two related archetypes: the middle-class salaryman and the adolescent girl (shojo). These figures - as well as their incarnations as cyberpunks and mecha-warriors, sex workers and teen rebels - help us explore Japanese film's engagement with the strictures of middle-class society, the constrained status of women, fantasy and escapism, sexuality and desire. Weekly screenings and discussion will be supplemented by readings in film theory and cultural criticism. Directors include Ozu Yasujiro, Akira Kurosawa, Oshima Nagisa, Miyazaki Hayao, Anno Hideaki, and Hosoda Mamoru. No prior knowledge of Japanese required.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

How are masculinity and femininity defined and transformed in modern and contemporary Chinese culture? How is the social construction of gender related to a larger social context? Through a rigorous analysis of the content and structure of modern and contemporary novels and films, this course examines the literary representation of gender and sexuality and its relation to tumultuous social transformations. Themes to be explored include: May Fourth enlightenment, anti-Japanese war, Socialist construction, the Cultural Revolution, and the liberalization of the post-Mao era. This course seeks to help students develop critical views of Chinese society and culture from a gendered perspective and gain familiarity with major authors, genres, and literary movements. This course assumes no prior knowledge of China or Chinese, and all reading materials are in English.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

This course examines the art and visual culture of China from the Neolithic era to the twenty-first century. Lectures and readings will teach methods of formal visual analysis as well as provide the opportunity for students to think critically about how scholars write the artistic history of the region. Through this class, students will engage with a broad array of media, from jade carvings, Buddhist cave painting, architecture, calligraphy and monumental landscape paintings to ceramics, imperial palaces, and contemporary installations. While examining the intended meanings and functions of these objects and spaces, we will discuss the varied contexts and value systems that have informed visual production in China.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Fine arts

Course Materials

This course aims to investigate the complex relationship between language and identity in Japanese, Asian American, and other diasporic communities. Language plays a significant role in conveying one's identity, as do other semiotic means such as clothing. By exploring scholarship that considers language as it relates to identity, students will discover how speakers/writers use their agency in expressing their identity and how identity emerges as a social and cultural phenomenon. They will learn about multiple interrelated factors that affect how speakers/writers view and use language such as race, ethnicity, nationality, and multilingualism. No knowledge of Asian languages is required.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

When it comes to gender and English, people often think about third-person pronouns (they, she, he, ze, etc.), what others call you. In contrast, Japanese language speakers choose from a variety of first-person pronouns, what you call yourself. Some follow societal norms while others subvert them. This course examines how individuals and media creators make such linguistic choices (not just pronouns, but other expressions as well), and how these choices are fluid and based on such diverse factors as age, region, trend, rhetoric, and ideology. A very basic knowledge of Japanese is required, but all readings will be in English. Prerequisite: JAPA102 or permission of instructor.

General Education Requirements:
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

Asia and the Pacific Islands host more of the world’s Indigenous people than any other continent -- roughly 260 million out of 370 million worldwide (70 percent). In addition, Indigenous people in Asia generally make up the continent’s “poorest of the poor,” facing systemic disadvantage including limited access to healthcare, education, land, capital, and labor, as well as weaker political representation. In this course, we examine the lived experience of indigenous people in the Asia-Pacific through three analytical frames: their relationship to the state and the global order, their relationship to territory and the environment, and challenges to cultural survival. Along the way, we discuss colonialism and settler colonialism, colonial and contemporary representations of indigenous people, the challenges to both cultural and political survival of indigenous people posed by state formation, the challenges of resource extraction and globalization, conservation as a form of colonialism, and the creation of an indigenous diaspora. The course includes guest speakers and field trips.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

Russia’s relations with the West often overshadow its deep connections with its eastern neighbors. From the 17th century onward, Russia - and later the Soviet Union - developed strategic approaches to control Siberia and the so-called Far East and assert its power in the Pacific, where it confronted other regional powers, such as China, Japan, and Korea. Given the current shifts in the global political order, understanding the historical connections between Russia, China, Japan, and Korea is more important than ever. This course examines the complexities of these relationships, with a particular emphasis on foreign policy. Key course themes include imperial Russian expansion into the Pacific region; colonization of indigenous populations; modernization projects (the Trans-Siberian Railway as a geopolitical tool); the clash of imperial interests in the Far East; the Russo-Japanese War; the 1917 revolution and its effect on China, Korea, and Japan; the White Movement in the Far East; the Soviet Union and Mongolia; the Pacific front during WWII; the Korean War and later relations with South and North Korea; Sino-Soviet relations in the 1960-80s; and the fragile partnerships after the fall of the Soviet Union.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

This course addresses the art and visual culture of Japan from the late nineteenth century through the twentieth century, a period of Japanese history marked by dramatic cultural, political, and social change.  The concepts of 'modernism' and 'modernity' were crucial elements in this change, sparking revolutionary shifts in the conception of art, empire, and identities (both personal and national) in Japan that would persist into the 21st century. Our class will discuss at length the visual arts from the 1850s to 1945, a time that saw foundational cultural, political, and social transformation in Japan as the nation developed from fledgling global power into a ultranationalist military hegemon in Asia; we will also consider artistic practices in the postwar era to understand the "crisis of the modern" that developed in the decades after the war as artists struggled to find their individual and national voices. Drawing on a diverse array of artistic forms and visual media, including painting, prints, sculpture, architecture, fashion, anime (Japanese cartoons), film, and photography, we will explore how themes such as trauma, nationalism, imperialism, war, protest, hybridity, and performativity have intersected with shifting notions of modern artistic and national identities inside and outside Japan. Prerequisite(s): No prerequisites required; First Years are welcome.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Fine arts

Course Materials