Asia
ASIA_V 505A_043 – Critical Approaches to Hong Kong Studies [3.0 credits]
Instructor: Dr. Helena Wu
Term 1, Mondays 2:00pm – 5:00 pm. Classroom: BUCH D315
The course will explore the intersection of cultural studies and Hong Kong studies, and will invite students to engage key debates relating to post-structuralism, post-colonialism, feminism, and postmodernism, but not only, in the field of literary, film and cultural studies. Students are expected conduct critical thinking and practice the use of cultural theories by the end of the course.
ASIA_V 518_033 – New Media and Asia: The Video Essay [3.0 credits]
Instructor: Dr. Colleen Laird
Term 1, Wednesdays 2:00pm – 4:00 pm. Classroom: BUCH B308
This graduate-level course serves as an introduction to videographic criticism as a method of media analysis, public scholarship, and pedagogy, with a particular emphasis on Asian and Asian diasporic media. Through weekly screenings, readings, and hands-on assignments, students explore how video essays can engage with the politics of representation, genre, translation, and transnational flow in Asian media. Assignments guide students through formal experimentation with voice-over, epigraphs, multiscreen layouts, and supercuts, while also encouraging critical reflection on authorship, curatorial practice, and the ethics of citation. Students produce their own video essays, learning to articulate research questions in audiovisual form. Throughout, the course asks how Asian Studies and Videographic Criticism might intersect to reshaping how we listen to, look at, and think about media.
ASIA_V 519_031 – Popular Cultures in Asia [3.0 credits] – Online, Synchronous
Instructor: Dr. Hyung-Gu Lynn
Term 2, Mondays 4:00 – 7:30 pm, online, synchronous.
This seminar will explore a range of concepts and disciplines that are essential to the study of various forms and flows of popular cultures in Asia writ-large and across the globe. While the seminar encourages application of these to specific texts, media, and countries, it will not focus on a specific country, language, or culture within Asia, but accentuate the importance of contextualization within, critical engagement with, and differentiation from existing works, old and new, that attempt to systematize the study of popular culture. The need for graduate students to understand, engage with, and apply in some form theories and methods of textual and contextual analysis is essential in order to navigate the constant waves of new academic publications purporting to provide new analytical insights, whether deductive or inductive, and the ubiquity of various forms of popular culture in mediating and framing reality.
China
ASIA_V 511A_012 – Readings in Chinese Religious Texts [3.0 credits] – Online, Synchronous.
Instructor: Dr. Jinhua Chen
Term 1, Wednesdays, 10:00am-12:00pm, online, synchronous.
Topics of this course will be flexible, adjusting to the interest and background of the students. Selections for readings can be from any important Chinese Buddhist and Taoist texts belonging to any major Buddhist and Taoist traditions of any period. Focus is given to the doctrinal issues implied in a specific genre of Buddhist and Taoist texts. Methodological issues of interpreting Chinese Buddhist and Taoist texts are also to be discussed. In addition to intensive reading of the original texts, students are to be trained in some basic methods indispensable for the research of Sinology in general and Buddhism and Taoism in particular.
By the end of this course students are expected to punctuate original Chinese Buddhist and Taoist texts correctly, translate them appropriately and interpret them both faithfully and creatively.
ASIA_V 508A_017 – Readings in Premodern Chinese History [3.0 credits]
Instructor: Dr. Leo Shin
Term 2, Mondays 3:00pm – 5:30 pm. Classroom: IBLC 264
The goal of this seminar is to introduce students to some of the major problems in Chinese historiography. Emphasis will be placed on issues that are particularly pertinent to the study of later imperial China.
ASIA_V 514B_026 – Topics in Modern Chinese Literature [3.0 credits]
Instructor: Dr. Christopher Rea
Term 2, Tuesdays 1:00pm – 4:00 pm. Classroom: BUCH B216
Course Description: TBA
ASIA_V 570A_034 – Gestation, Birth, and the Body in Classical Chinese Texts [3.0 credits]
Instructor: Dr. Kay Duffy
Term 2, Thursdays 2:00pm – 4:00 pm. Classroom: IBLC 265
The aim of this seminar is to survey sources on and approaches to the body in the Classical Chinese tradition, with a focus on gestation and birth. We will read and discuss primary sources on, as well as scholarly approaches to, topics including birth, gender, the human body, and kinship. All readings will be in English, but students should have knowledge of Classical Chinese and/or a modern East Asian Language (Chinese, Japanese, Korean). This seminar is open to advanced undergraduate students with instructor approval.
Japan
ASIA_V 552A_021 – Queer Theory and Asia [3.0 credits]
Instructor: Dr. Christina Laffin
Term 1, Tuesdays and Thursdays 3:30pm – 5:00 pm. Classroom: BUCH D312
Course Description TBA
ASIA_V 535_033 – Japanese Cinema Studies: Theory and Practice [3.0 credits] – Online, Synchronous
Instructor: Dr. Colleen Laird
Term 2, Tuesdays 10:00am – 12:00 pm. Online, Synchronous
This graduate seminar serves as an introduction to both Japanese cinema studies and foundational film theory. Participants will engage with primary theoretical texts including essays by filmmakers and critics in Japanese, monographs that have historically shaped the field of Japanese cinema studies, scholarship that demonstrates close readings of Japanese films, and the practice of formal sequence analysis. To understand the global context of Japanese cinema throughout motion picture history, participants will be required to watch both Japanese films and films from other national cinemas. Students should be prepared to watch several films per week in addition to time allocated for readings.
Korea
ASIA_V 581B_047 – Recent Research in Korean Cultural Studies [3.0 credits]
Instructor: Dr. Ji-yoon An
Term 2, Wednesdays 2:00pm – 5:00 pm. Classroom: BUCH B312
This course will critique the latest publications in Korean studies, with a focus on cinema and other forms of popular culture. Along with information on current research trends, the course will one text per class, from recently published journal articles to the latest book monographs in the field. Class discussions will be focused on issues related to the author’s scholarly position, structure, argument, primary sources, methodology, and the general topography of the research topic. Although the readings of the course are mainly focused on Korean culture, the course is specifically designed to be practical and helpful for students preparing to write a thesis on culture from any context. There is some flexibility to adjust the readings according to the interests and backgrounds of the students. Students may choose between a new research paper or a rewrite of a previous paper for the final project.
South Asia
ASIA_V 576A_032 – Muslims in South Asia [3.0 credits]
Instructor: Dr. Naveena Naqvi
Term 1, Mondays 2:00pm – 5:00 pm. Classroom: BUCH B312
This is a deep dive into the diversity of Muslim experiences in South Asia across the premodern and modern divide. We will consider prominent historical frameworks for understanding these experiences, including but not limited to social and cultural histories of small communities, large trans-regional networks, and empires–both sultanates and British colonial. We will continually interrogate the archival possibilities and limitations of understanding these histories with the aim of learning how to frame our own research questions. While this course is intended for graduate students, third- and fourth-year undergraduates interested in enrolling should contact the instructor.
ASIA_V 546A_046 – Punjabi Literature and Translation [3.0 credits]
Instructor: Dr. Kiran Sunar
Term 2, Tuesdays 2:00pm – 5:00 pm. Classroom: BUCH B304
This seminar is focused on the translation and analysis of Punjabi poetry across time and place. Equal focus will be given to sites of margin and dissent including women’s poetics and Dalit poetics. The poetics of translation will also be studied from a political lens.
ASIA_V 570B_049 – Classical Persian Epics [3.0 credits] – Online, Synchronous
Instructor: Dr. Alexandra Hoffmann
Term 2, Wednesdays 5:00pm – 7:00 pm, online, synchronous.
This course offers a critical examination of a variety of premodern Persian epics – first and foremost Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh, along with lesser-known epics such as the Kushnameh, the Bahmannameh, or the Faramarznameh. We will meet weekly to read the original Persian text as well as scholarship on various themes present in epic texts, such as gender & sexuality, alterity and race, the demonic, etc.
While this is a graduate seminar, advanced undergraduate students are welcome to join this course with the instructor’s permission. Students are also welcome to audit the course. Full fluency in Persian is not mandatory, but Persian reading abilities should be at least on the intermediate level.
Theories, Methods & Pan-Regional
ASIA_V 516_028 – Race, Indigeneity and Coloniality in Asia and Beyond [3.0 credits] – Online, Synchronous
Instructor: Dr. Sunera Thobani
Term 1, Mondays 4:00 – 5:30 pm, online, synchronous, as well as weekly asynchronous sessions.
This interdisciplinary Graduate Seminar introduces students to major theoretical approaches to the study of race, racialization, Indigeneity and coloniality in Asia and Beyond. We explore key concepts in Critical Race, Indigenous, Anti-Colonial/Decolonization and Post-Colonial Studies; analyze how these concepts deconstruct western theoretical and political frameworks; and evaluate what these theoretical traditions reveal about the shifting relations between ‘Asia’ and the ‘West’ in the global context. Special attention will be paid to how race, Indigeneity and coloniality intersect with gender, sexuality, class, caste and nation in specific Asian contexts.
NOTE: This seminar counts for the pan-Asian theory course requirement for Asian Studies PhD students.
ASIA_V 592_005 – The Profession of Asian Studies (PhD) [3.0 credits]
Instructor: Dr. Bruce Rusk
Term 1, Wednesdays, 5:00pm-8:00pm, Classroom: Buchanan B312
This proseminar introduces skills and knowledge to help graduate students advance through the doctoral program and toward a career in academia or related fields.
Note: This course is required for all Asian Studies PhD students in their first or second year. PhD candidates in Asian Studies a year or two before their expected graduation are encouraged to audit the course. PhD students in other programs may enrol with the permission of the instructor.
ASIA_V 592_036 – The Profession of Asian Studies (MA) [3.0 credits]
Instructor: Dr. Ayaka Yoshimizu
Term 1, Wednesdays, 5:00pm-7:00pm, Classroom: Buchanan D214
This seminar will introduce essential skills for academic and professional work in Asian Studies. It is intended to help students understand the MA program itself, as well as the nature of an academic career, and to give them the skills and practical knowledge necessary to make their own decisions about how best to realize their individual long-term goals.
NOTE: We encourage MA students to take this course.
ASIA_V 598_001 – Asia in Museums and Beyond [3.0 credits]
Instructor: Dr. Fuyubi Nakamura
Term 1, Thursdays, 10:00am-1:00pm, Classroom: Buchanan Room D325
Museums and exhibitions have played significant roles in contemporary society: museums are not only a place of historical memory or cultural heritage, but also a location of interaction where identities are contested and negotiated. This course examines the poetics and politics of representing and exhibiting cultures by studying topics including collecting, colonialism, Indigenous cultures and the issues of classifications. It explores the diversity of visual and material cultures of Asia including art, photography and museums.
Combined with ASIA 498 (a class of 15 undergraduate students). All classes will be held in person in the room indicated or in museum galleries and in person attendance is mandatory for the course. Visits to museums and exhibitions (sometimes off campus) will be an integral part of the course.
1. Combined with ASIA 498 (a class of 15 undergraduate students).
2. In-person attendance is mandatory for the course.
3. Visits to museums will be an integral part of the course.
4. There is a course cost of around $15-20 (museum admission fees).
5. The class will not be recorded.
NOTE: This seminar counts for the pan-Asian theory course requirement for Asian Studies PhD students.
ASIA_V 553A_042 – Indigenous Environmentalism in Asia and Beyond [3.0 credits]
Instructor: Dr. Pasang Sherpa
Term 2, Wednesdays 10:00am – 1:00 pm. Classroom: BUCH D228
This course will examine human-environment relationships through the works of Indigenous scholars from different parts of Asia to understand the position, the context, and the material with which they illuminate Indigenous environmentalism. The assigned readings will be supplemented with multi-media materials from different sources to enhance student learning. By centering Indigenous communities and their experiences throughout the course, students will learn about a rich variety of ways Indigenous environmentalism is embodied, expressed, and experienced.
NOTE: This seminar counts for the pan-Asian theory course requirement for Asian Studies PhD students.
ASIA_V 590_036 – Thinking with the Body: Embodied, Sensory and Non-Representational Methodologies [3.0 credits]
Instructor: Dr. Ayaka Yoshimizu
Term 2, Fridays 1:00pm – 4:00 pm. Classroom: BUCH B312
This course begins with a premise that research is a multisensorial, corporeal activity and approaches scholars’ (our) bodies critically as sites of knowing. While each of our bodies is unique, specific, and differently situated and emplaced, they are also places of inter-corporeal encounters with other human and non-human bodies and objects. We will examine, together and separately, how knowledge is generated through our classed, gendered, racialized, (dis)abled bodies as we move through the street, reading a story and becoming sentimental, being touched by “haptic images,” smelling a particular odor, and being haunted by “ghostly matters.” This is an interdisciplinary course. Students will be exposed to embodied, sensory, and non-representational approaches developed and emerging in various disciplines. Throughout the term we will exercise “sensory embodied reflexivity,” examining how our positionalities, experiences, and relationalities affect the way we make sense of the reality.
NOTE: This seminar counts for the pan-Asian theory course requirement for Asian Studies PhD students.