Course Schedule and Catalog

Long Title: INTRODUCTION TO INDIAN RELIGIONS

Department: Asian Studies

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Description: This course will survey the four major religions which originated in India, namely Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism. Emphasis will be placed on the study of the scriptures of these religions. Cross-list: RELI 139.

Long Title: INTRODUCTION TO CHINESE RELIGIONS

Department: Asian Studies

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Description: Surveys major Chinese religious traditions of Confucianism, Daoism and Buddhism. Readings will include both philosophical texts, historical and anthropological studies, as well as popular literature. Cross-list: RELI 140.

Long Title: THE ARTS OF CHINA

Department: Asian Studies

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: History of the visual arts of China from Bronze Age to present. Special attention to the artworks' physical and social contexts. Included: funerary art and the imagination of the afterlife, art and imperial cosmology, rise of literati aesthetic, relationship between painting and calligraphy, and the emergences of propaganda avant-garde art in Modern China. Cross-list: HART 170.

Long Title: INTRODUCTION TO ASIAN CIVILIZATIONS

Department: Asian Studies

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Distribution Group: Distribution Group I

Credit Hours: 3

Description: Introduction to the great cultural traditions of Asia, past and present, with emphasis on evolving religious and philosophical traditions, artistic and literary achievements, and patterns of political, social, and economic change. Cross-list: HIST 206.

Long Title: LIFE OF THE PROPHET MUHAMMAD

Department: Asian Studies

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Description: This course will examine the life of the Prophet Muhammad, focusing on its significance for Muslims and for non-Muslims. Readings in The Qur'an, Ibn Hisham, and Haykal. Cross-list: RELI 221.

Long Title: THE ENLIGHTENMENT OF THE BODY

Department: Asian Studies

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Description: Beginning with a historical survey of the American metaphysical tradition, this course turns to a close study of the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California, as a unique window into some of the different ways the tradition has appropriated Asian religions, psychological models of the unconscious, and contemporary scientific paradigms. Cross-list: RELI 231.

Long Title: RELIGIONS FROM INDIA

Department: Asian Studies

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Description: This course will survey the religions of India, namely Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Christianity, Islam, and Sikhism. Emphasis will be placed on the study of scriptures of these traditions and their continuing global relevance, particularly in American history and culture. Cross-list: RELI 232.

Long Title: INTRODUCTION TO INDIAN PHILOSOPHY

Department: Asian Studies

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Description: This course will survey the major schools of Indian philosophy, beginning with the ancient period of Vedic speculation, the formation of the distinct schools during the classical period, and their medieval developments. While the focus will be primarily on Hindu and Buddhist schools, Jain philosophy will also be covered. Cross-list: RELI 234.

Long Title: INTRODUCTION TO TAOISM

Department: Asian Studies

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Description: Beginning with a survey of religious trends in ancient China, we will explore the development of the Taoist philosophy. We will then focus on religious Taoism, particularly the mystical and alchemical traditions. We will conclude by examining the fate of Taoism in post-Mao China and its international legacy. Cross-list: RELI 235.

Long Title: GENDER AND POLITICIZED RELIGION

Department: Asian Studies

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Description: This course examines the emergence of religion-based politics in various Asian countries-particularly Hindu and Muslim-focusing on the women participants in these movements as well as the movements' concern with gender roles in society. We will investigate, for instance, the extent to which women participants have been willing or able to reshape the central ideas of such movements. Cross-list: WGST 240, Equivalency: ASIA 340.

Long Title: MEDITATION, MYSTICISM, AND MAGIC

Department: Asian Studies

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Description: The course moves between Buddhist religious and Western psychological literature, analyzing these as models of human development, as guides to a meditative life or critiques of it, and above all as expressions of deeply rooted cultural proclivities. Reading Freud, Khakar, Milarepa, Norbu, Obeyesekere, Sutric and Tantric literature, Taylor and Wangyal. Cross-list: RELI 250.

Long Title: THE ASIAN AMERICAN EXPERIENCE

Department: Asian Studies

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Description: The history of Asian immigration into the United States, and contemporary issues such as ethnic identity, racism, model minority stereotyping, interracial conflict, family structure, gender roles and relationships, and generational differences. We will analyze and discuss historical, social and literary texts, and documentary and feature films. Students will gain an appreciation of the cultural complexity of the Asian American community.

Long Title: THE KNOWING BODY: BUDDHISM, GENDER, AND THE SOCIAL WORLD

Department: Asian Studies

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: Western thought tends to regard mind and body dualistically, a view with significant impact on religious cultural, gendered and social processes. This course juxtaposes received Western assumptions with Buddhist perspectives (especially Tibetan Buddhist), mapping Western and Buddhist categories onto each other to better understand the implications of each. Cross-list: RELI 323, WGST 323.

Long Title: INTRODUCTION TO TRADITIONAL CHINESE POETRY

Department: Asian Studies

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Description: This course seeks to decode enchanting features of traditional Chinese poetry through examining the transformation of poetic genres, the interaction between poetic creation and political, social and culture changes, and the close association of poetry with art. Thus, this course also serves to understand Chinese culture and history through poetic perspectives. All readings in English translation. Cross-list: CHIN 330, MDST 370.

Long Title: CHINESE FILMS AND MODERN CHINESE LITERATURE

Department: Asian Studies

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Distribution Group: Distribution Group I

Credit Hours: 3

Description: Exploration of modern Chinese literature through the visual imagery of Chinese films. Includes an analysis using literary history and narrative structure to link film adaptations to their original texts, with emphasis on narratology and movie theory. Films, subtitled in English, shown outside of class. All reading in English translation. Cross-list: CHIN 332, MDST 372.

Long Title: TRADITIONAL CHINESE TALES AND SHORT STORIES

Department: Asian Studies

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Description: Learning Chinese literature and culture through reading vernacular stories, fantastic tales, biographies, and philosophical parables. Discussion topics: literature and Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism; literature and history; self and other; fantastic world and reality; women as domestic aliens and aliens portrayed as women, etc. Readings are in English translation. Cross-list: CHIN 334.

Long Title: INTRODUCTION TO CLASSICAL CHINESE LITERATURE

Department: Asian Studies

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Distribution Group: Distribution Group I

Credit Hours: 3

Description: Examination of the basic characteristics of classical Chinese novels, primarily through six important works from the 16th to 18th centuries: Water Margin, Monkey, Golden Lotus, Scholars, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and Dream of the Red Chamber. Cross-list: CHIN 335, MDST 375.

Long Title: GENDER AND POLITICIZED RELIGION (ENRICHED VERSION)

Department: Asian Studies

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Description: This course examines the emergence of religion-based politics in various Asian countries-particularly Hindu and Muslim-focusing on the women participants in these movements as well as the movements' concern with gender roles in society. We will investigate, for instance, the extent to which women participants have been willing or able to reshape the central ideas of such movements. Credit may not be received for both ASIA 240 and ASIA 340. Cross-list: CHEM 425, ESCI 425, WGST 340, Equivalency: ASIA 240.

Long Title: KOREAN LITERATURE AND CULTURE

Department: Asian Studies

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: Exploration of selections from modern Korean literature and Korean films. Includes background survey of Korean history, philosophy and religion. All texts and films in English translation. No previous knowledge of Korean required. Instructor Permission Required.Cross-list: HUMA 344, KORE 344.

Long Title: LINGUISTIC STRUCTURE OF KOREAN

Department: Asian Studies

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Description: Focuses on the origin of Korean and related languages. It explores the way the Korean language evolved and interacted with other East Asian languages, including Chinese and Japanese. The socio-linguistic aspect of these languages will be studied, including the difference in male and female language usage and the honorific systems. Cross-list: KORE 345, LING 345.

Long Title: KOREAN CULTURE AND HISTORY

Department: Asian Studies

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Distribution Group: Distribution Group I

Credit Hours: 3

Description: This course will introduce students to the important elements of Korean history and culture through a reading of modern Korean literature. The class will concentrate on the period from the early 20th century to the present. Special attention will be given to topics such as Korean religion, family life, and literature. Films will be used. All readings in English translation. Cross-list: KORE 346.

Long Title: APOCALYPTIC AND MILLENARIAN MOVEMENTS IN PRE-MODERN ASIA

Department: Asian Studies

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: This course will focus upon the rich and neglected apocalyptic and millenarian tradition of Asia, discussing Hinduism, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism and Eastern Christianity as each of these faiths interact with and react to each other. Readings will be from scriptures and translations covering approximately the period between the first and nineteenth centuries. Cross-list: RELI 354.

Long Title: TRANSNATIONAL CHINA: CHINA AND THE CHINESE DIASPORA

Department: Asian Studies

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: Exploration of the political, economic, and social forces changing the lives of nearly a quarter of humanity, the 1.4 billion people of Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and the diasporic Chinese communities of East and Southeast Asia. Topics include political and economic liberalization, nationalism and urban identity, privatization and consumerism, environmentalism and public goods, and the globalization of communication technologies and Chinese cultural media.

Long Title: THE ORIENTAL RENAISSANCE

Department: Asian Studies

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: This course will explore the European and American encounters with India from seventeenth-century France to twentieth-century America. Particular attention will be given to the translation of Sanskrit texts, the English and German Roman traditions, the depth psychology of C.G. Jung, and the American New Age. Cross-list: RELI 361.

Long Title: THE MARRIAGE OF HEAVEN AND HELL

Department: Asian Studies

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Description: The history of mysticism is marked by symbolic systems and ritual practices suffused with erotic and ethical paradoxes. This course examines such themes in a wide variety of historical contexts, from Plato's dialogues and Blake's poetry to Christian mysticism, Hindu, and Buddhist Tantric traditions, and the modern study of religion. Cross-list: RELI 363.

Long Title: CHINESE MYSTICISM AND MEDITATION

Department: Asian Studies

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Description: The course will investigate the major mystical and meditative traditions in Taoism, Buddhism and Neo-Confucianism. Focus will be placed upon the inner and outer traditions of Taoist alchemy, Buddhist meditation traditions (primarily Chan/Zen and Pure Land techniques), and the influence of these traditions upon Chinese intellectual discourse and the creative arts. Cross-list: RELI 365.

Long Title: FILM, LITERATURE, AND THE JAPANESE PAST

Department: Asian Studies

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Distribution Group: Distribution Group II

Credit Hours: 3

Description: Every day, we retell our past to find meaning in our present. Authors and film directors in Japan have shaped national identities, created moral ideas, made sense of the horrors of war, and articulated new visions of the future-- all through artistic reinterpretations of historical themes. In this class, we will examine both these allusions to the past and the uses to which they have been put in Japanese film and literature over the years.

Long Title: TRADITIONAL CHINESE PAINTING

Department: Asian Studies

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Description: This course examines the significance of the brushwork in traditional Chinese painting as performance, as expression of artistic personality, and as a system of gestures borrowed from the art of calligraphy. We will consider how historically shifting understanding of the brushwork served to express diverse aesthetic, social, and cultural concerns. Cross-list: HART 371.

Long Title: SURVEY OF ASIAN AMERICAN LITERATURE

Department: Asian Studies

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Description: Offered from time to time. Material covered will vary depending on instructor. Cross-list: ENGL 372.

Long Title: THE ASIAN AMERICAN EXPERIENCE

Department: Asian Studies

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Description: Will explore the history of Asian immigration into the United States, as well as contemporary issues such as ethnic identity, racism, model minority stereotyping, interracial conflict, family structure, gender roles, and relationships, and generational differences. We will analyze and discuss historical, social, and literary texts, and documentary and feature films. Students will gain an appreciation of the cultural complexity of the Asian American community.

Long Title: ASIAN RELIGIOUS AND MEDICAL TRADITIONS

Department: Asian Studies

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: Seminar exploring the development of Asian religious traditions--mainly Indian, Chinese and Tibetan--and their medical systems. We'll examine the relationship between body and mind, illness, suffering, treatment, healing and death. We'll also discuss Western clinical interest in and research applications with Asian healing therapies.

Long Title: WOMEN IN CHINESE LITERATURE

Department: Asian Studies

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Description: This course examines women's roles in Chinese literature as writers, readers, and characters, focusing particularly on the tension between women's lived bodily experiences and the cultural experiences inscribed on the female body and how, in the process, women have contrarily gendered patriarchal culture into their own. It will also touch on Chinese women's incorporation of the Western Tradition. Cross-list: MDST 379, WGST 399.

Long Title: INDEPENDENT STUDY

Department: Asian Studies

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Independent Study

Credit Hours: 1 TO 15

Description: Reading or research project to be determined by discussions between student(s) and faculty member(s).

Long Title: INDEPENDENT STUDY

Department: Asian Studies

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Independent Study

Credit Hours: 1 TO 15

Description: Reading or research project to be determined by discussions between student(s) and faculty member(s). Repeatable for Credit.

Long Title: INDEPENDENT STUDY

Department: Asian Studies

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Independent Study

Credit Hours: 1 TO 6

Long Title: THE ORIGINAL BEAUTY OF CHINESE LITERATURE

Department: Asian Studies

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Description: The course will expose students to the best literary works created in the Chinese tradition, both classical and modern, and give them a general introduction to different genres, including poetry, fiction, drama, and philosophical essays. It will improve their language proficiency through reading original texts of Chinese literature. Cross-list: CHIN 422.

Long Title: ISLAM IN SOUTH ASIA

Department: Asian Studies

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: Topics will include emergence of Indian Muslim society; Muslim responses to colonialism and the movement for Pakistan; and the role of Islam in politics in contemporary India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. Requires no prior knowledge of Islam of South Asia. Cross-list: HIST 432, WGST 432.

Long Title: MAGIC ANC POPULAR RELIGION

Department: Asian Studies

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: This course will examine the popular religion in the Middle East from Late Antiquity until the 19th century, focusing on healing practices, astrology, protection, amulets, seasoned/life-cycle rituals, and other popular beliefs common to Islam, Judaism and Christianity. Cross-list: RELI 441.

Long Title: VISUAL CULTURE IN REVOLUTIONARY AND POST REVOLUTIONARY CHINA (ca. 1949-PRESENT)

Department: Asian Studies

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Description: Exploration of propaganda and avant-garde art in modern Chinese visual culture. Issues include: art as social movement, notions of political and artistic avant-garde, structure of authoritarian art, and paradox of counter- discourse. The course will draw on scholarship on Soviet and Third Reich German visual cultures, Euro-American mass culture and avant-garde art. Cross-list: HART 470.

Long Title: JAPANESE ANIMATION: NARRATIVE, HISTORY, AND SOCIETY

Department: Asian Studies

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: Since the 1980s, animation has become a major force in Japanese popular culture, serving as a medium to address the diverse concerns of a high-tech media-focused society. This seminar explores the social, historical, and aesthetic significance of Japanese animation. Topics include gender and sexuality, ecological consciousness and religious imagination, folklore and history, viewership and fandom, the centrality of the fantastic and the grotesque, visions of a media-and technology-saturated society, and the prevalence of apocalyptic motifs and conspiracy theory. Cross-list: HART 472.

Long Title: MIGRATIONS AND DIASPORAS IN THE INDIAN OCEAN

Department: Asian Studies

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Description: 'Migrations and Diasporas in The Indian Ocean World.' presents an enormously varied arena of cultural exchange and interaction spanning coastal regions of Africa, the Middle East, South and Southeast Asia and Australia. This seminar introduces students to this fascinating region by examining societies and empires shaped by voyages of exploration, religious pilgrimages, trading diasporas and forced migration. Cross-list: HIST 489.