400-699 Advanced Courses - Asian and Middle Eastern Studies

ARAB | CHIN | HNUR | JAPN | KOR

ASIA 425 (JWST 425) – Beyond Hostilities: Israeli-Palestinian Exchanges and Partnerships in Film, Literature, and Music (3):
Focuses on the various collaborations, exchanges, and mutual enrichment between Israelis and Palestinians in the realm of culture, particularly literature and cinema. These connections include language (Israeli Jewish authors writing in Arabic and Palestinian writers who choose Hebrew as their language of expression), collaborating in filmmaking, and joint educational initiatives.
Instructor(s): Dr. Yaron Shemer

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s): FC-GLOBAL, FC-POWER

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s): CON-BN, CON-GL

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s): FC-GLOBAL, FC-POWER

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s): CON-BN, CON-GL

ASIA 427 (PWAD 427) – Cold War Culture in East Asia: Transnational and Intermedial Connections (3):
This course introduces students to the specific contours that the Cold War accrued in East Asia. Focusing on literature and film, it explores what the fall of the Japanese Empire and the emergence of the post-1945 world meant across the region.
Instructor(s): Dr. I Jonathan Kief

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s): FC-GLOBAL, FC-VALUES

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s): APP-LA, CON-BN, CON-CI

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s): FC-GLOBAL, FC-VALUES

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s): APP-LA, CON-BN, CON-CI

ASIA 429 (ANTH 429) – Culture and Power in Southeast Asia (3):
The formation and transformation of values, identities, and expressive forms in Southeast Asia in response to forms of power. Emphasis on the impact of colonialism, the nation-state, and globalization.

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s): FC-GLOBAL, FC-POWER

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s): APP-SS, CON-BN, CON-GL

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s): FC-GLOBAL, FC-POWER

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s): APP-SS, CON-BN, CON-GL

ASIA 431 – Persian Sufi Literature (3):
This course aims to explore Persian Sufism, its foundation, Sufi practices and doctrines, and Sufi themes in literature. By looking at its development, we will examine the nature of Sufism, the controversies and debates, and the influence of Sufism on the literary dimension of the Islamic world.
Instructor(s): Dr. Claudia Yaghoobi

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s): FC-AESTH, FC-GLOBAL

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s): APP-LA, CON-CI, CON-GL

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s): FC-AESTH, FC-GLOBAL

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s): APP-LA, CON-CI, CON-GL

ASIA 435 (PWAD 435) – The Cinemas of the Middle East and North Africa (3):
This course explores the social, cultural, political, and economic contexts in which films are made and exhibited and focuses on shared intra-regional cinematic trends pertaining to discourse, aesthetics, and production.
Instructor(s): Dr. Yaron Shemer

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s): FC-AESTH, FC-GLOBAL

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s): APP-VP, CON-BN, CON-GL

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s): FC-AESTH, FC-GLOBAL

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s): APP-VP, CON-BN, CON-GL

ASIA 436 (JWST 436) – Language, Exile, and Homeland in Zionist Thought and Practice (3):
Employing Zionist and post- and anti-Zionist documents, treatises, and mostly literary and cinematic texts, this class will focus on the relations between language, Jewish-Israeli identity, and the notion of homeland. Previously offered as HEBR 436.
Instructor(s): Dr. Yaron Shemer

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s): FC-GLOBAL, FC-POWER

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s): CON-BN, CON-GL

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s): FC-GLOBAL, FC-POWER

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s): CON-BN, CON-GL

ASIA 440 (HIST 440) – Gender in Indian History (3):
An analysis of the roles of women and men in Indian societies from the early to the modern periods. Topics include the cultural construction of gender and sexuality; beauty and bodily practices; gender and religion; gender and politics; race, imperialism, and gender. Previously offered as HIST/ASIA 556.

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s):

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s): APP-HS, CON-BN

ASIA 441 (HIST 442) – Religion, Co-existence, and Conflict in Pre-Colonial India (3):
This course traces the fascinating history of material, cultural, and theological exchanges and conflicts between individuals belonging to two of the world's major religions: Hinduism and Islam. Throughout the course we will also analyze how modern commentators have selectively used the past to inform their understandings of the present. Previously offered as HIST/ASIA 555.

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s):

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s): APP-HS, CON-WB

ASIA 442 (CMPL 442) – Postcolonial Literature of the Middle East (3):
This course introduces students to postcolonial literature and theory. The main focus in the course is on literary texts and literary analysis. However, we will use postcolonial theory to engage critically with the primary texts within a postcolonial framework. We will explore language, identity, physical and mental colonization, and decolonization.
Instructor(s): Dr. Claudia Yaghoobi

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s): FC-AESTH, FC-GLOBAL, RESEARCH

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s): APP-LA, CON-CI, CON-GL

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s): FC-AESTH, FC-GLOBAL, RESEARCH

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s): APP-LA, CON-CI, CON-GL

ASIA 445 (RELI 445) – Asian Religions in America (3):
A study of intercultural interaction and interreligious encounter focusing on Asian religions in America, 1784 to the present.

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s):

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s): CON-GL, CON-US

ASIA 447 (GEOG 447) – Gender, Space, and Place in the Middle East (3):
Examines gender, space, and place relationships in the modern Middle East. Investigates shifting gender geographies of colonialism, nationalism, modernization, and globalization in this region. (GHA)

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s):

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s):

ASIA 453 – Global Shangri-La: Tibet in the Modern World (3):
An examination of the history, society, and culture of modern Tibet and its imagination in the context of international politics and from a multidisciplinary perspective.
Instructor(s): Dr. Gang Yue

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s):

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s): APP-SS, CON-BN, CON-GL

ASIA 462 (JWST 462) – The Arab-Jews: Culture, Community, and Coexistence (3):
This course is designed to examine Jewish life in Arab lands in the last century by examining culture, language, and the communal life that the Arab-Jews shared with their neighbors.
Instructor(s): Dr. Yaron Shemer

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s): FC-GLOBAL, FC-POWER

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s): CON-BN, CON-GL

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s): FC-GLOBAL, FC-POWER

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s): CON-BN, CON-GL

ASIA 469 (ECON 469) – Asian Economic Systems (3):
Prerequisites, ECON 400, and 310 or 410; a grade of C or better in ECON 400, and 310 or 410 is required. This course provides an in-depth examination of the behavioral principles and performances of five core Asian economic systems: Japan, China, Taiwan/South Korea, North Korea and Thailand.

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s): FC-GLOBAL

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s):

ASIA 471 (WGST 471) – Gender and Sexuality in Middle Eastern Literature (3):
We examine gender and sexuality in literature written by various authors from the Middle East. Our discussions will focus on the significance of sexuality, harems, same-sex desire and homosexuality, construction of female sexuality, masculinity, contraception and abortion, the institution of marriage, gay/lesbian underground subcultures, and social media as sexual outlet.
Instructor(s): Dr. Claudia Yaghoobi

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s): FC-GLOBAL, FC-POWER, RESEARCH

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s): APP-LA, CON-CI, CON-GL

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s): FC-GLOBAL, FC-POWER, RESEARCH

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s): APP-LA, CON-CI, CON-GL

ASIA 482 (RELI 482) – Sex, Gender, and Religion in South Asia (3):
This seminar draws on feminist and philosophical theory, including the works of Plato, Butler, and Foucualt, as well as postcolonial theory, to explore the categories of sex and gender in South Asian religions. We also analyze the moral cultivation of the self in relation to gender identity in South Asia.

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s):

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s): APP-PH, CON-BN

ASIA 483 (CMPL 483) – Cross-Currents in East-West Literature (3):
The study of the influence of Western texts upon Japanese authors and the influence of conceptions of "the East" upon Western writers. Goldsmith, Voltaire, Soseki, Sterne, Arishima, Ibsen, Yoshimoto, Ishiguro.

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s): FC-AESTH, FC-GLOBAL

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s): APP-LA, CON-BN

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s): FC-AESTH, FC-GLOBAL

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s): APP-LA, CON-BN

ASIA 485 (RELI 485) – Gender and Sexuality in Islam (3):
This course approaches constructions of gender and sexuality in Muslim societies in diverse historical and geographical contexts. It focuses on changing interpretations of gender roles and sexual norms. Themes include gender in Islamic law, sexual ethics, masculinity, homosexuality, marriage, and dress.

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s): FC-POWER, RESEARCH

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s): CON-BN, CON-CI

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s): FC-POWER, RESEARCH

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s): CON-BN, CON-CI

ASIA 486 (RELI 486) – Islam and Feminism/Islamic Feminism (3):
This course explores Muslim women scholars, activists, and movements that have, over the course of the past 150 years, participated in the debate about the compatibility and relationship of Islam and feminism. It offers an introduction to feminist debates about religion and patriarchy focusing on Islam as 'other' and juxtaposes it critical analysis of contextual expressions of Muslim and Islamic feminist activists, thinkers, and movements that challenge and change gender norms and practices.

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s): FC-GLOBAL, FC-POWER

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s): CON-BN, CON-GL

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s): FC-GLOBAL, FC-POWER

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s): CON-BN, CON-GL

ASIA 487 (RELI 487) – Mountains, Pilgrimage, and Sacred Places in Japan (3):
This course explores the role that mountains and pilgrimage have played in Japanese cosmology and how they relate to methodology of studying place and space.

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s):

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s): CON-BN, CON-CI

ASIA 488 (RELI 488) – Shinto in Japanese History (3):
This course discusses the development of Shinto in Japanese history and covers themes such as myths, syncretism, sacred sites, iconography, nativism, religion and the state, and historiography.

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s): FC-GLOBAL, FC-PAST

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s): CON-BN, CON-CI, CON-WB

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s): FC-GLOBAL, FC-PAST

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s): CON-BN, CON-CI, CON-WB

ASIA 489 (RELI 489) – Animals in Japanese Religion (3):
Permission of the instructor. This course examines the cultural construction of animals in Japanese myth, folklore, and religion.

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s): FC-GLOBAL, FC-KNOWING

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s): APP-LA, CON-BN

ASIA 489 (RELI 489) – Animals in Japanese Religion (3):
Permission of the instructor. This course examines the cultural construction of animals in Japanese myth, folklore, and religion.

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s): FC-GLOBAL, FC-KNOWING

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s): APP-LA, CON-BN

ASIA 522 – Beauty and Power in the Classical Indian World (3):
This course combines readings in representative literary cultures in Sanskrit and several other literary languages from India's classical period in translation, emphasizing poetry and related aesthetic theories, with scholarly readings on Sanskrit poetics, and the literary history of the period. Seminar format.
Instructor(s): Dr. Pamela Lothspeich

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s): FC-AESTH, FC-KNOWING, RESEARCH

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s): APP-LA, CON-WB

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s): FC-AESTH, FC-KNOWING, RESEARCH

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s): APP-LA, CON-WB

ASIA 536 (HIST 536) – Revolution in the Modern Middle East (3):
This course will focus on revolutionary change in the Middle East during the last century, emphasizing internal social, economic, and political conditions as well as international contexts.

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s):

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s):

ASIA 537 (WGST 537) – Women in the Middle East (3):
Explores the lives of women in the Middle East and how they have changed over time. Focus will change each year.

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s):

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s): APP-HS, CON-BN

ASIA 538 (HIST 538) – The Middle East and the West (3):
This course explores changing interactions between the Middle East and the West, including trade, warfare, scientific exchange, and imperialism, and ends with an analysis of contemporary relations in light of the legacy of the past.

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s):

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s):

ASIA 539 (HIST 539) – The Economic History of Southeast Asia (3):
This course is intended as a broad overview of Southeast Asian economic history from premodern times to the present day.

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s):

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s):

ASIA 545 (ANTH 545) – The Politics of Culture in East Asia (3):
Examines struggles to define culture and the nation in 20th-century China in domains like popular culture, museums, traditional medicine, fiction, film, ethnic group politics, and biography and autobiography.

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s):

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s): APP-SS, CON-BN, CON-GL

ASIA 557 (HIST 557) – Fiction and History in India (3):
This course examines the histories, representations, and cultural perceptions surrounding bandits and rebels in modern India. The representations of bandits and rebels are studied in the light of the emergence of nationalism, shifting notions of gender and masculinity, race relations, and emergence of capitalist structures.

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s):

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s): APP-HS, CON-BN

ASIA 570 (PWAD 570) – The Vietnam War (3):
A wide-ranging exploration of America's longest war, from 19th-century origins to 1990s legacies, from village battlegrounds to the Cold War context, from national leadership to popular participation and impact.

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s):

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s): APP-HS, CON-GL

ASIA 574 (RELI 574) – Chinese World Views (3):
Explores the indigenous Chinese sciences and the cosmological ideas that informed them. Topics include astronomy, divination, medicine, fengshui, and political and literary theory. Chinese sources in translation are emphasized.

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s):

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s): APP-SS, CON-BN

ASIA 581 (RELI 581) – Sufism (3):
Permission of the instructor. A survey of Islamic mysticism, its sources in the Qur'an and the Prophet Muhammad, and its literary, cultural, and social deployment in Arab, Persian, Indic, and Turkish regions.

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s): FC-GLOBAL, FC-PAST

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s): CON-BN, CON-WB

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s): FC-GLOBAL, FC-PAST

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s): CON-BN, CON-WB

ASIA 582 (RELI 582) – Islam and Islamic Art in South Asia (3):
A survey of the formation of Islamic traditions in the subcontinent from the eighth century to the present, with emphasis on religion and politics, the role of Sufism, types of popular religion, and questions of Islamic identity.

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s): FC-GLOBAL, FC-PAST

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s): APP-HS, CON-BN, CON-WB

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s): FC-GLOBAL, FC-PAST

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s): APP-HS, CON-BN, CON-WB

ASIA 583 (RELI 583) – Religion and Culture in Iran, 1500-Present (3):
Iran from the rise of the Safavid empire to the Islamic Republic. Topics include Shi'ism, politics, intellectual and sectarian movements, encounters with colonialism, art and architecture, music, literature.

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s): FC-GLOBAL, FC-PAST

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s): APP-HS, CON-BN, CON-WB

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s): FC-GLOBAL, FC-PAST

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s): APP-HS, CON-BN, CON-WB

ASIA 584 (RELI 584) – The Qur'an as Literature (3):
A nontheological approach to the Qur'an as a literary text, emphasizing its history, form, style, and interpretation.

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s): FC-AESTH, FC-PAST

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s): APP-LA, CON-BN

ASIA 584 (RELI 584) – The Qur'an as Literature (3):
A nontheological approach to the Qur'an as a literary text, emphasizing its history, form, style, and interpretation.

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s): FC-AESTH, FC-PAST

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s): APP-LA, CON-BN

ASIA 587 (RELI 587) – Islam and Sexual Diversity (3):
This course explores sexual norms and practices in Muslim contexts in the premodern and modern periods. It considers theories from sexuality, gender, and queer studies, and focuses on the contextual production of sexual norms, going beyond the sex and gender binary, and reflecting on a diverse range of sexual practices in Muslim communities and societies, analyzing concepts such as power, pleasure, control, as they are mapped onto and lived in diverse Muslim bodies.

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s): FC-POWER, FC-VALUES

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s): APP-PH, CON-BN

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s): FC-POWER, FC-VALUES

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s): APP-PH, CON-BN

ASIA 681 (ARAB 681) – Readings in Islamicate Literatures (3):
Permission of the instructor. Study of selected religious, literary, and historical texts in Arabic, Persian, or Urdu.

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s):

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s):

ASIA 682 (ANTH 682) – Contemporary Chinese Society (3):
Presents recent anthropological research on the People's Republic of China. In addition to social sciences sources, fictional genres are used to explore the particular modernity of Chinese society and culture.

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s):

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s): APP-SS, CON-BN

ASIA 691H – Senior Honors Thesis I ():
Permission of the department. Required for honors students in Asian studies.
Instructor(s): Dr. Robin Visser, Dr. Morgan Pitelka, Dr. Pamela Lothspeich
Offered: Fall

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s): RESEARCH

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s): CON-EE

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s): RESEARCH

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s): CON-EE

ASIA 692H – Senior Honors Thesis II ():
Permission of the department. Required for honors students in Asian studies.
Offered: Spring

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s): RESEARCH

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s): CON-EE

ASIA 692H – Senior Honors Thesis II ():
Permission of the department. Required for honors students in Asian studies.
Offered: Spring

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s): RESEARCH

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s): CON-EE

ARAB–Arab World (in English)

ARAB 432 (ANTH 432) – Science and Society in the Middle East (3):
This class explores science and society in the modern Middle East. Drawing on works from anthropology and history, it investigates how science interacts with, is shaped by, and reflects wider processes and formations such as nationalism, colonialism, religion, subject formation, or cultural production. Previously offered as ARAB 353.
Instructor(s): Dr. Ana Vinea

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s): FC-GLOBAL, FC-KNOWING, RESEARCH

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s): APP-SS, CON-BN

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s): FC-GLOBAL, FC-KNOWING, RESEARCH

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s): APP-SS, CON-BN

ARAB 434 – Modern Arabic Literature in Translation (3):
We will study fiction from several countries in the Arab world with a particular emphasis on recent works. This literature has arisen out of the lived experiences of people in the Arab world, but each work creates a world of its own. What strategies do writers use for this world-making? What relationships might exist between these fictional worlds and their writing contexts? Who is addressed by these works? Previously offered as ARAB 334.
Instructor(s): Dr. Nadia Yaqub

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s): FC-AESTH, FC-KNOWING

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s): APP-LA, CON-BN

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s): FC-AESTH, FC-KNOWING

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s): APP-LA, CON-BN

ARAB 453 – Film, Nation, and Identity in the Arab World (3):
Introduction to history of Arab cinema from 1920s to present. Covers film industries in various regions of the Arab world and transnational Arab film. All materials and discussion in English.
Instructor(s): Dr. Nadia Yaqub

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s): FC-AESTH, FC-KNOWING

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s): APP-VP, CON-BN

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s): FC-AESTH, FC-KNOWING

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s): APP-VP, CON-BN

ARAB 681 (RELI 681) – Readings in Islamicate Literatures (3):
Permission of the instructor. Study of selected religious, literary, and historical texts in Arabic, Persian, or Urdu.

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s):

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s):

CHIN–China (in English)

CHIN 463 – Narrative Ethics in Modern China (3):
By exploring intersections of the narrative and the normative, this course considers relations between text, ethics, and everyday life in 20th-century China by reading texts on aesthetics.
Instructor(s): Dr. Robin Visser

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s): FC-KNOWING, FC-VALUES

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s): APP-PH, CON-BN

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s): FC-KNOWING, FC-VALUES

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s): APP-PH, CON-BN

CHIN 464 – The City in Modern Chinese Literature and Film (3):
This course analyzes historical changes of the city through examining the individual, national, and global identity of Shanghai, Beijing, Taipei, and Hong Kong as reflected in their histories, politics, built environment, ethos, language, and culture.
Instructor(s): Dr. Robin Visser

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s): FC-AESTH, FC-KNOWING

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s): APP-LA, CON-BN

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s): FC-AESTH, FC-KNOWING

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s): APP-LA, CON-BN

CHIN 475 – Confucianism: Origin, History, and Contemporary Relevance (3):
Confucianism is a millennia-long tradition of global reach. By reading and analyzing key ancient Confucian scriptures students will engage directly with philosophical questions of such as the origin of normative values and how to invoke them to solve ethical problems. They will also trace the history of the spread of the cultural and political influence of Confucianism in East Asia and its various receptions and (re-)interpretations in the West.
Instructor(s): Dr. Uffe Bergeton

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s): FC-GLOBAL, FC-VALUES, RESEARCH

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s): CON-BN, CON-WB

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s): FC-GLOBAL, FC-VALUES, RESEARCH

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s): CON-BN, CON-WB

CHIN 476 – Daoism: Origin, History, and Contemporary Relevance (3):
Daoism is a millennia-long tradition of global reach. By reading and analyzing key ancient Daoist scriptures students will engage directly with philosophical questions of such as the origin of normative values and how to invoke them to solve ethical problems. They will also trace the history of the spread of the cultural and political influence of Daoism in East Asia and its various receptions and (re-)interpretations in the West.
Instructor(s): Dr. Uffe Bergeton

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s): FC-VALUES, RESEARCH

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s): CON-BN, CON-WB

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s): FC-VALUES, RESEARCH

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s): CON-BN, CON-WB

CHIN 480 (CMPL 480) – Queering China (3):
This course explores "queer" expressions in Chinese literature and visual culture from 1949 through the twenty-first century. It surveys a combination of all-time classics and lesser-known cultural texts featuring non-heteronormative sexual desire and gender-bending performance. We mobilize queer as a broad site of critique beyond Western models of the concept, asking not only how queer challenges normative bodyminds, but also how it negotiates notions of age, family, race, and the neoliberal order.
Instructor(s): Dr. Keren He

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s): FC-AESTH, FC-POWER

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s): CON-BN

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s): FC-AESTH, FC-POWER

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s): CON-BN

CHIN 545 (CMPL 545) – Chinese Science Fiction (3):
This research seminar contextualizes the contemporary explosion of Chinese science fiction within modern Chinese intellectual history and SF studies worldwide. We read globally influential novels such as The Three-Body Problem and trace several waves of the genre's century-long evolution within Chinese literature. We ask how threats of global annihilation, the exhaustion of environmental resources, discoveries in virology, epigenetics, and innovations in cybernetics intersect with global development, climate migration, decolonization, and structures of race and class.
Instructor(s): Dr. Robin Visser

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s): FC-AESTH, FC-GLOBAL, RESEARCH

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s): APP-LA, CON-BN, CON-CI

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s): FC-AESTH, FC-GLOBAL, RESEARCH

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s): APP-LA, CON-BN, CON-CI

CHIN 551 – Chinese Poetry in Translation (3):
Selected topics in Chinese poetry concentrating on one period or one genre.
Instructor(s): Dr. Li-ling Hsiao

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s): FC-AESTH, FC-KNOWING

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s): APP-LA, CON-BN

CHIN 551 – Chinese Poetry in Translation (3):
Selected topics in Chinese poetry concentrating on one period or one genre.
Instructor(s): Dr. Li-ling Hsiao

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s): FC-AESTH, FC-KNOWING

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s): APP-LA, CON-BN

CHIN 552 – Chinese Prose in Translation (3):
Selected topics in Chinese fiction, historical writing, and prose belles letters, concentrating on one period or one genre.
Instructor(s): Dr. Li-ling Hsiao

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s): FC-AESTH

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s): APP-LA, CON-BN

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s): FC-AESTH

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s): APP-LA, CON-BN

CHIN 562 – Contemporary Chinese Urban Culture and Arts (3):
This course analyzes contemporary Chinese urban art, architecture, cinema, and fiction to elucidate dynamics between the built environment and subjectivity. Students analyze how social, economic, and political factors shape environments, and debate whether new urban spaces create social conflict or new civil possibilities.
Instructor(s): Dr. Robin Visser

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s): FC-AESTH, FC-KNOWING

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s): APP-VP, CON-BN

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s): FC-AESTH, FC-KNOWING

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s): APP-VP, CON-BN

HNUR–India/Pakistan (in English)

HNUR 592 (RELI 592) – Religious Conflict and Literature in India (3):
Historical causes of violence between Hindus and Muslims in modern India. Short stories, poetry, and novels in translation are used to explore how conflicts over religious sites, religious conversion, image worship, and language contributed to a sense of conflicting religious identity.
Instructor(s): Dr. Afroz Taj

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s):

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s): APP-LA, CON-BN

JAPN–Japan (in English)

JAPN 451 – Swords, Tea Bowls, and Woodblock Prints: Exploring Japanese Material Culture (3):
This course surveys Japanese material culture. Each week we will examine a different genre of visual or material culture in terms of its production, circulation through time and space, and modern deployment in narratives of national identity. This course includes regular engagement with the Ackland Art Museum at UNC.
Instructor(s): Dr. Morgan Pitelka

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s): FC-AESTH, FC-PAST, RESEARCH

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s): APP-HS, CON-E4

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s): FC-AESTH, FC-PAST, RESEARCH

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s): APP-HS, CON-E4

JAPN 482 – Embodying Japan: The Cultures of Beauty, Sports, and Medicine in Japan (3):
Explores Japanese culture and society through investigating changing concepts of the human body. Sources include anthropological and history materials, science fiction, and film.
Instructor(s): Dr. Dwayne Dixon

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s): FC-GLOBAL, FC-KNOWING

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s): APP-SS, CON-BN

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s): FC-GLOBAL, FC-KNOWING

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s): APP-SS, CON-BN

JAPN 563 (LING 563) – Structure of Japanese (3):
Prerequisite, JAPN 102 or LING 101. Introductory linguistic description of modern Japanese. For students of linguistics with no knowledge of Japanese and students of Japanese with no knowledge of linguistics.

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s): FC-KNOWING

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s): APP-SS

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s): FC-KNOWING

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s): APP-SS

KOR–Korea (in English)

KOR 447 (CMPL 547) – Documenting Diasporas: Korean Diasporas in Films and Documentaries (3):
In this course, we will explore the multiple, shifting, and often contested diasporic subjectivities represented and produced in Korean diaspora cinemas; these subjectivities encompass various Korean diaspora communities in Asia, Central Asia, Europe, and the Americas.
Instructor(s): Dr. Ji-Yeon Jo

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s): FC-AESTH, FC-KNOWING

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s): APP-VP, CON-GL

Ideas in Action Gen-Ed(s): FC-AESTH, FC-KNOWING

Making Connections Gen-Ed(s): APP-VP, CON-GL