Asia

This course is a survey of East Asian history from the earliest time to the present. The course is restricted to those aspects of East Asian history that enable us to understand the complexities and diversities in the historical experience of three East Asian countries: China, Japan, and Korea. This course concentrates on how three East Asian societies have achieved their own economic, political, social, and cultural developments, sometimes by way of mutual inspiration, influence or actual interaction with each other, and, later, with a broader world.

This course is a detailed and systematic exploration of East Asia. The course helps students to appreciate rich histories, diverse societies, and their intricate connections in the East Asian region, particularly China, Japan, and North and South Korea. It examines areas of security, politics, society, culture, identity, and economy that pertain to the East Asian countries nationally and regionally. Students will reflect on legacies of imperialism and colonialism from the past, challenges of nationalism and authoritarianism at present, as well as post-war efforts in economic and trade liberalization, democratization, anti-democratization, and modernization. This course serves as a gateway into other courses on Asian studies at SUA.

This course explores the geography, history, culture, society, government and economies of Southeast Asia. Focusing on the historical background of Southeast Asian societies, the course examines the ethnic and religious composition of the region, colonialism, nation-building and economic development, efforts at regional cooperation such as ASEAN, and some of the major choices and controversies that Southeast Asians face today.

This course is a historical survey of East Asian-American relations from around 1800 to the present, with special emphasis on the origins and changes of American thinking about three East Asian countries: China, Japan, and Korea. It also examines American interests in East Asia.

This course is a survey of modern China from around 1600 to the present. The course helps students to understand the origins, processes, and outcomes of the revolution in 20th century China. The course analyzes the complex and contradictory process of revolution, including the Communist Revolution and the many other revolutions that have transformed Chinese society and politics.

This course provides a survey of China’s economic development under the centrally planned socialist system since 1949, and the on-going economic reform since 1978. China’s role in regional economic growth and its economic relationship with the world economy are also be addressed.

Many scholars have argued that the whole idea of Asia is an invention, since geographically speaking the separation of Asia from “Europe” (or West, in a strict sense) makes little sense. This is the point of departure for this course, which will examine constructions and representations of East (Asia) and West, as ideas, in significant scholarly and literary works, and films, both Euro-American and Asian. The course examines each work in its relationship to its historical circumstances in order to convey a sense of changes historically in such constructions and representations.

Home to over half the world’s population, the 24 countries of South, Southeast, and East Asia present diverse political worlds. This course is intended to provide students with a detailed understanding of the diverse political systems and issues in (and between) Asian countries. It examines colonial legacies, struggles for democracy, the challenges of military and populist rule, ethnic politics, development, armed resistance, regional cooperation, and more. Students are expected to develop deeper knowledge of and appreciation for politics in Asian countries. Far from being a story of top-down power politics, students will also learn about grassroots struggles and forms of resistance. Above all, this course emphasizes diverse political contexts across Asia’s political landscapes.

This course investigates the economic performance and development of the economies of Pacific Asia; covering Japan, Asian NIEs (Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, and Singapore), ASEAN-4 (Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines), China and Vietnam. Through this class, students will gain factual knowledge on the economic characteristics of and policies on these economies’ structural change, economic growth, and development; and the economic relationship among these economies as well as between this region and the world economy in the era of globalization. The emphasis of this course is on the application of proper economic analytical tools to examine the effectiveness of various development strategies and policies on each economy’s development process. The applicability of the development experiences of these economies to other developing countries will also be briefly discussed.

This course introduces historical complexities and issues, and various constraints that have shaped the lives and struggles of East Asian women from the “pre-modern period” to the present, in their dealings with the questions of their own culture and, later, modernity. Literary works and films will be widely used. 

This course examines historical issues and problems of family, women and revolution in modern Chinese history through their representations in literature and films, both Chinese and foreign, with the emphasis on the analysis of the Chinese revolution through family and women narratives. The course considers literature and film in their relation to historical circumstances. Film and literature have been selected to cover a multiplicity and complexity of class, ethnic, gender, generational, and regional perspectives.

This course is intended as an advanced survey of the People’s Republic of China from its beginnings in 1949 to the present. The survey will cover internal developments in Chinese socialism and its global context as well as developments in Chinese society and culture since 1949.

This is a multidisciplinary course designed to generate a critical and comparative understanding of both the history and contemporary state of Asian America. Particular emphasis is placed upon issues of globalization, labor and refugee migrations, racial discrimination and nativism in U.S. society, and Asian American challenges to structural forms of exclusion.

This course is designed for students to gain a critical understanding of key contemporary social issues as expressed in the cinema of Pacific Asia, a center of global cultural production. Mainstream Hollywood films have retained a dominant position in global markets, including Asia, and are an important factor in transnational filmmaking. On the other hand, films produced in Japan and Korea, in particular, have become important sources of "borrowing" by Hollywood filmmakers. By and large, however, Hollywood films continue to reiterate stereotypical images of Pacific Asia. In lieu of rehearsing these tropes, this course incorporates the voices of independent Asian American filmmakers.

The course explores diverse approaches to questions such as: What do we mean when we talk about cinematic realism, subjective reality, and objective reality? How do we make sense of and understand the connotations and contradictions inherent in the ways social relations and history are expressed in popular cinema? What is the relationship between national and transnational cinema in Pacific Asia? What role does cinema play within broader social, economic, and political contexts, and how does cinema reinforce or challenge structural desires and fantasies? What is the relationship between cinematic representations of gender, ethnicity, sexuality, and material reality? In other words, this course will focus on the relationship between cinematic narratives and the societies in which they are produced and/or consumed.  

The course aims to study the ideology and Programs of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869-1948) on peace and non-violence, in the context of British colonial rule. The emphasis of the course is on concepts such as colonialism, imperialism, nation, community and nationalism, in the light of historical, religious and political environment. Students will learn to analyze primary and secondary sources as well as pre-conceived notions using multidisciplinary approaches.

A product of the Indian reform and nationalist movements, Gandhi’s philosophy highlighted the importance of peace, human dignity and social inclusion. This has allowed other societies elsewhere to adopt his methods to resolve political, economic, and social disputes. Gandhi stirred the social conscience of his nation and the world through his use of non-violence (ahimsa) and active civil disobedience.

This course is a survey of modern Japan from the mid-19th century to the present, with emphasis on historical issues that have led to diverse understandings and interpretations. The course focuses on the development of modern ideology, social relationships, and economic and political institutions in a global context. The course takes the development of Japanese capitalism in the global economic system as the central event of modern Japanese history and of Japan’s changing place in the world during the 20th century.

This course satisfies the advanced writing skills course requirement.

This course engages students in an examination of how indigenous peoples of Oceania have been deeply engaged in global cultural, political, and economic processes since the time of their earliest encounters with representatives of the West. This class incorporates classic and contemporary studies from Anthropology and Pacific History together with the voices and views from islander writers and artists. Social science perspectives are helpful for understanding natural and cultural environments, cultural history and change, language issues, and current socioeconomic and educational issues facing the Islands today. Writers and artists can show how islanders are active in shaping their views of themselves, and the larger political-economic processes in which they participate. By combining these two points of view, the class will examine the tensions between cultural traditions and globalization and how we, as outsiders and as islanders, come to know and empathize with the peoples of Oceania.

This course sets out to analyze the historiography of the Pacific War with particular reference to problems of memory, interpretation, authentication, and politicization of history. During the course of the semester students are introduced to a wide range of primary and secondary materials drawn from both national and sub-national sources. These are supplemented by cinematic representations of the Pacific War that have become an important channel for the preservation of historical memories.

This course approaches the study of human rights regimes in contemporary East Asia from a comparative perspective and within a global framework. Among the topics covered will be: (1) the relationship between state and international organizations in shaping human rights regimes; (2) the activities of subnational agencies and citizen-based advocacy groups; and (3) case studies in human rights as reflected in, for example, the emergence of social welfare provision, and the rights of patients, indigenous and national minorities.

This course provides a multidisciplinary glimpse into a great range of violent wars – past and present – in one of the world’s most diverse and exciting regions. It is divided into three parts: historical conflicts, post-independence conflicts, and sources of peace. The course will emphasize how different forms of conflict have distinct causes and how different forms of conflict resolution must be tailored to fit each war. Students will consider how cultural factors condition conflict as well as conflict resolution, how the state provides and undermines security, how civilians experience different wars, and the possibilities and limitations of peace negotiations.