This course provides an introduction to the religion of Islam. It is designed for students with a general interest in the Islamic world, in religion, or in History. We will examine the theology, history, and main social and legal institutions of Islam. Islam, as a major system of belief in the world, is experienced by Muslims and non-Muslims alike. Consequently, besides studying the basic tenets and texts of the religion, this course will focus on the variety of ways in which Muslims and non-Muslims have understood and interpreted Islam. We will review the debates surrounding the life of the prophet of Islam, Islamic pre-modern and modern history, the Islamic concept of God and society, the role of women, and finally, Islamic government and movements. The course is designed for students with a general interest in the Islamic world, religions, or history. No prior knowledge of Islam or Islamic history is necessary.

Texts

To be provided by instructor. 

Grading

To be provided by instructor.

Introduction to Chinese Culture and Civilization

Course Description:

This course will provide an introduction to major concepts and ideas from Chinese cultural traditions to construct a course inquiry into understanding Chinese culture and society. A guiding principle in this course inquiry will be to investigate the past to help inform the present.   Lectures and discussion will examine key concepts from art, history, language, literature, and thought that greatly shaped, and continue to influence, “Chinese” cultural and geopolitical entities.  

Required Text:  (Available at University Co-op Bookstore)

Charles A. Desnoyers, Patterns of Modern Chinese History (Oxford, 2017)

[Additional readings on Canvas Course Site]

Recommended:

Rana Mitter, Modern China: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford, 2016)

Evan Osnos, Age of Ambition – Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2014)

Statement on Global Cultures Flag:  This course carries the Global Cultures flag. Global Cultures courses are designed to increase your familiarity with cultural groups outside the United States. You should therefore expect a substantial portion of your grade to come from assignments covering the practices, beliefs, and histories of at least one non-U.S. cultural group, past or present.

FLAGS:   GC

Introduction to Korea's history, culture, and civilization from antiquity to the present.  Asian Studies 301M (Topic 10) and 302D may not both be counted.

This course is aimed at providing a broad-based introduction to Japanese history, society and culture, beginning with prehistoric times and continuing to present.  We will follow a chronological format, focusing on understanding how Japanese who lived in different historical periods created particular political, social and cultural systems to realize their beliefs and values.  In addition to the main textbook, course materials will include literature, historical documents, art, and film.

Politics in Japan: GOV 321M/ANS 321M

Global Cultures Flag

TTH 9:30-11:00, UTC 4.104

Patricia L. Maclachlan

Fall 2018

This upper division course surveys key themes in the domestic politics and political economy of postwar Japan.  After briefly exploring the politics and institutions of the pre-war era, we will examine the impact of the American Occupation (1945-52) on the Japanese political economy, the secrets of Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) dominance in postwar elections, voting trends, legislative and policymaking processes, gender politics, and interest group and social movement politics. We will devote our final weeks to the analysis of developments in contemporary Japan, including the movement toward political-economic reform—particularly in the public sector, defense and agriculture.  These and related topics will be examined from a comparative perspective and with reference to relevant political science theories.

Prerequisites:

            6 semester hours of lower-division Government courses.  Graduate students may take this course for graduate credit.

Grading Criteria:

            1.  Quizzes on readings:                                                        15%

            2.  First midterm exam:                                                        20%

            3.  Second midterm exam or short research paper:         25%

            4.  Final examination:                                                           40%

Texts:

1. Robin LeBlanc, Bicycle Citizens: The Political World of the Japanese Housewife. University of California Press, 1999.
2. David Pilling, Bending Adversity: Japan and the Art of Survival.  Penguin Books, 2015.
3. Frances M. Rosenbluth and Michael Thies, Japan Transformed: Political Change and Economic Restructuring. Princeton University Press, 2010.
4. Jacob M. Schlesinger, Shadow Shoguns: The Rise and Fall of Japan’s Postwar Political Machine. Sanford University Press, 1999.

            Additional readings will be provided to students at the beginning of the semester via Canvas.

Politics in Contemporary China

GOV 322M

ANS 322M

Course Description:

This Course is designed as an introductory course in Chinese politics primarily for upper-level undergraduates with a good background in political/social science, but not necessarily any background on China. The aim of the course is to provide a foundation that will enable the

non-specialist to make informed use of China as a case in more general arguments and give the intended China specialist a solid footing from which to pursue more in-depth study of particular topics.

This course primarily focuses on domestic politics in post-1978 China. We start the course by introducing the key institutions and players in order to understand the distribution of political power in China. We then detail various forms of political participation by different individuals, which allow us to understand the political logic and consequences of policymaking and selective policy issues in China. We conclude the course by discussing the political reforms implemented in the last three decades and contemplating the potentials political development in the future. The course consists of lectures and in-class discussions in order to enhance students’ learning.

Prerequisite:

Six semester hours of lower-division coursework in government.

Course Requirement and Grading:

1.         Four (randomly scheduled) quizzes                                                                           15%

2.         First in-class midterm exam:                                                                                      25%

3.         Second in-class midterm exam:                                                                                  25%

4.         Third in-class midterm:                                                                                              25%

5.         Attendance                                                                                                                  10%

Course Materials:

The readings for this course are based on book chapters and articles. All the readings, except for the required textbook, can be accessed through the Canvas website for this class.

Required Textbook:

Lieberthal, Kenneth. 2004. Governing China: from revolution through reform. 2nd ed. New York: W. W. Norton.

Please check back for updates.

Is there a God? Are there reasons to believe or not to believe in a God?

This course surveys and at the same time evaluates arguments for and against the existence of God in Jewish, Christian, and Islamic traditions, along with arguments for Brahman (Hinduism) and Emptiness (Buddhism).

The course takes a global point of view, comparing arguments proferred originally in Arabic, for example, with medieval arguments expressed in Latin and with a collection of arguments originally expressed in Sanskrit.

We will also examine the primary atheistic arguments in the West from Epicurus through Bertrand Russell and in India principally from a philosopher of the eighth century named Kumarila Bhatta.

We will also consider differing concepts of God. An important Buddhist argument purports to prove the Buddha's omniscience. But the Buddhist idea of omniscience differs from the mainstream view of God's omniscience in the West.

Our main focus throughout the course will be on the strengths and weaknesses of each argument.

We will examine passages from a wide variety of thinkers, including Aristotle, Epicurus, Paul, Augustine, Uddyotakara, Kumarila Bhatta, al-Farabi, ibn Sina (Avicenna), Anselm, Udayana, al-Ghazali, ibn Rushd (Averroes), Aquinas, Keśava Miśra, Gangesa, Descartes, Leibniz, Paley, Hume, and Gödel, as well as some contemporary articles illuminating the structure of the arguments.

Description: The Indian Subcontinent can teach us a great deal about diversity in the cultures of the past, as well as the conditions under which that diversity can also disappear rapidly. This course studies both the flourishing and the disappearance of pluralism in the subcontinent between the eighteenth and the twentieth centuries. It begins with ‘caste’ and ‘religion’ in the subcontinent, moves to the gradual consolidation of British colonialism, the redrawing of social, economic, religious, political boundaries and identities and ends with the growth of modern political forms such as political parties, and ends with the cataclysms of Partition in 1947.

Aims: 1) to acquaint students with basic concepts and a basic chronology of events, people, and processes.

2) familiarize students with an understanding of the differences between ‘primary’ and ‘secondary’ sources in the understanding of any past

3) teach students to think critically by exposing them to a variety of perspectives on the past, including some key controversies around each of the themes of the course.

Requirements. On days marked ‘Read’ in the syllabus, students are required to read a compulsory number of pages in a given text in each topic before they come to class. They will be required to purchase/borrow/ rent the following

1) Barbara and Thomas Metcalf, A Concise History of India, (3rd edition) Cambridge University Press, (2012 paperback), ISBN-13 978-1-107-67218-5

2) Rudyard Kipling, Kim (2005 paperback) ISBN-13, 978-0486445083

3) Kushwant Singh, Train to Pakistan (1994 paperback) ISBN-13, 978-080232215

All other readings are on Canvas OR on recommended websites for particular days.

This course explores the connected histories of the geographical regions and economic communities that share the littoral space of the Indian Ocean. Historians have described the Indian Ocean World in relation to varied conceptions of time, space, and cultural location. Economic historians have identified it as a sophisticated and durable system of long-distance exchange that connects Africa and China and all points in between. Historical scholarship set in the intersection between economic and cultural history looks at this vast oceanic region as an area of social and cultural diversity rooted in civilizations such as the ‘Irano-Arabic,’ ‘Hindu,’ and ‘Chinese.’ But such definitions based on rise and fall of civilizations marginalize the significant role of East African societies in the making of the Indian Ocean World. Therefore, recent historiography describes the Indian Ocean as an interregional arena of economy and culture, which stands somewhere between the generalities of the ‘world system’ and the specificities of particular regions. Through an engagement with such historiographical shifts, this course explores the connected histories of Africa in the Indian Ocean World from the early modern to the modern period. Focusing on the histories of trade, labor, and ideas, it will explore the multiple connections that pre-colonial African societies shared with the Middle East, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. It further looks at how European intervention in the commercial networks of the Indian Ocean World from the last decade of the fifteenth century transformed the trade relations between the littoral societies of East Africa and South Asia. However, old trading communities not only survived but found new ways of engaging with commercial activities. This course explores such changes in the Indian Ocean World through thematic discussions on trading communities, labor migration, and shared cultural heritage. Finally, it explores how Africa’s interactions with the Indian Ocean communities changed due to European colonial impositions and during the struggles for decolonization.

Course Objectives:

1)    Oceanic histories, by default, are transnational in nature. One of the primary objectives of this course is to help the students think beyond the national models of historical writing and explore the historical connections between different world regions. It will help students to think about mobility, borders, and spatial imagination associated with the ideas of space and place.

2)    The course will also encourage students to engage with transnational and global histories moving beyond the agendas of area studies. Students will identify key themes in African and South Asian history, which demands an examination of the transregional economic, political, social, and cultural agents. The selected readings will encourage students to explore the imbricated nature of the economic, social, and cultural histories of the field.

3)    As the course explores the history of connected geographies, rise and fall of economic communities, making and unmaking of boundaries, and the mobility of people and disseminations of ideas in the longue durée of historical formation in the Indian Ocean World, students will become familiar with multiple forms historical writing. In doing so, the course will introduce the intersections between different categories of historical analysis. 

4)    Students will learn how to analyze primary source documents and apply this to their written work.Students will learn how to analyze secondary sources, including films and literature, and apply this to their written work.

Course Materials:

All will be provided by the Instructor

Grading Components:

Attendance: 15%

Community project: 10%

Bibliographical project: 15%

Primary source analysis: 20%

Final paper: 40%

Attendance Policy:

            The class attendance will be counted based on a total of 12 weeks. 15 points of the final grade will come from class attendance. For each absence, students will lose 1.25 points out of the total 15 points.  

Community Project:

As part of the community project, students will research on cuisines, clothes, music, and works of literature that tell us a story of historical connection between different regions across the Indian Ocean. Students will write an essay (word limit 500) based on their research. It’s due on the third week of class. The assignment should be typed in Times New Roman, double space.

Bibliographical project:

As the course progresses, each student will prepare a thematic bibliography on a topic of their own choice. This bibliography of secondary readings is meant to help the students develop their final essay. Students are welcome to discuss the bibliography in class or with the instructors during office hours. The bibliography should be prepared according to Chicago Style Sheet. Students will submit the bibliography on October 30 in class.

Primary Source Analysis:

Students will find five primary sources that fit a particular topic/theme discussed in the class. They can be acquired from digital archives or from a local archive/museum/library, etc. First, students must pick a theme to address. Then, students should narrow their topic through a process of secondary and primary research. Details of this process will be discussed in class. The final product will be an analytical essay, which uses the primary and secondary sources to support a student-generated thesis. All submissions should be at least 5 pages long (double-spaced, size 12, and Times New Roman font). Students will submit this essay on November 20 in class.

Final Paper:

Students will submit the final long-essay (10-12 pages, double-spaced, size 12, and Times New Roman font) on December 10. The essay should be a continuation of the primary source analysis essay. The essay should have a clearly stated thesis and a synthetic analysis of the secondary literature on the chosen topic. The bibliographical project and the primary source analysis essay will help the students towards this end. The final essay should exhibit students’ understanding of historiography as we as their critical thinking. Students are encouraged to draw ideas from the class discussions.

Course Schedule:

Introduction to the Indian Ocean World

September 4: Introduction  

Reading:

Edward A. Alpers, The Indian Ocean in World History, New York: Oxford University

Press, 2014. (Chapter 1 & 2) (Available on canvas)  

Film Screening: Caravans of Gold

September 11: Community Project

Part I: Connected Histories and the Material World of the Indian Ocean

September 18: Economic Communities of the Indian Ocean World (1)

Reading:

Edward A. Alpers, The Indian Ocean in World History, New York: Oxford University

Press, 2014. (Chapter 3, 4, & 5) (Available on canvas)

Film screening: Lost Kingdoms of Africa: Great Zimbabwe

Community Project due (submission in class)

September 25: Economic Communities of the Indian Ocean World (2)

Reading:

Edward A. Alpers. “Gujarat and the Trade of East Africa, c. 1500-1800.” The

International Journal of African Historical Studies 9, no. 1 (1976): 22-44.

Thomas Vernet, “East African Travelers and Traders in the Indian Ocean: Swahili Ships,

Swahili Mobilities ca. 1500–1800.” in Trade, Circulation, and Flow in the Indian Ocean World, Palgrave Macmillan, New York, 2015.

Film screening: Maritime History of India

October 2: Commodities and Interaction: Stories of Cotton (1)

Reading:

Pedro Machano and Sarah Fee, “Introduction: The Ocean’s Many Cloth Pathways,” in

Pedro Machado, Sarah Fee, and Gwyn Campbell, eds. Textile Trades, Consumer Cultures, and the Material Worlds of the Indian Ocean: An Ocean of Cloth. Springer, 2018. (Available on canvas)

MacKenzie Moon Ryan, “Converging Trade and New Technologies: The Emergence of

Kanga Textiles on the Swahili Coast in the Late Nineteenth Century,” in Pedro

Machado, Sarah Fee, and Gwyn Campbell, eds. Textile Trades, Consumer Cultures, and the Material Worlds of the Indian Ocean: An Ocean of Cloth. Springer, 2018. (Available on canvas)

Film screening:The Story of India-Spice Routes and Silk Roads

October 9: Commodities and Interaction: Stories of Cotton (2)

Reading:

Gwyn Campbell, “The Decline of the Malagasy Textile Industry, c.1800-1895,” in Pedro

Machado, Sarah Fee, and Gwyn Campbell, eds. Textile Trades, Consumer Cultures, and the Material Worlds of the Indian Ocean: An Ocean of Cloth. Springer, 2018. (Available on canvas)

Julia Verne, “Contemporary Geographies of Zanzibari Fashion.” in Pedro Machado,

Sarah Fee, and Gwyn Campbell, eds. Textile Trades, Consumer Cultures, and the Material Worlds of the Indian Ocean: An Ocean of Cloth. Springer, 2018. (Available on canvas)

Part II: Labor and Migration in the Indian Ocean World

October 16: African Slaves in the Indian Ocean World (1)

Reading:

Gwyn Campbell ed. The Structure of Slavery in Indian Ocean Africa and Asia, London:

Frank Cass, 2004. (Introduction and page 16-51) (Available through Canvas)

October 23: African Slaves in the Indian Ocean World (2)

Reading:

Robert Harms, Bernard K. Freamon, David W. Blight ed. Indian Ocean Slavery in the

Age of Abolition, New Haven: Yale University Press, 2013. (Chapter 2 and 3) (Available through Canvas)

Film screening: The Untold Story of Arab Slave Trade of Africans

Discussion on how to prepare a bibliography

October 30: Indian Indentured Experience: East Africa and African Islands

Reading:

Marina Carter. “Strategies of Labor Mobilization in Colonial India: The Recruitment of

Indentured Workers for Mauritius,” The Journal of Peasant Studies, 19, no. 3-4 (1992): 229-245.

Radhika Viyas Mongia, “Race, Nationality, Mobility: A History of the Passport,” Public

Culture 11, no. 3 (1999): 527-555.

Film screening: Coolies: How Britain Re-Invented Slavery

Bibliographic project due in class.

November 6: Indian Indentured Experiences: South Africa

Reading:

Ashwin Desai and Goolam Vahed. Inside Indian Indenture: A South African Story. Cape

Town: HSRC Press, 2010. (Chapter 1 and 2) (Available on Canvas)

Goolam Vahed and Ashwin Desai. “Indian Indenture: Speaking Across the Oceans,” Man

In India 92, no. 2 (2012): 195-213. (Available on Canvas)

Film Screening: Stealing a Nation  

Discussion on how to select primary source

Part III: Cultures of the Indian Ocean

November 13: Islam Across the Ocean

Reading:

Goolam Vahed, “Constructions of Community and Identity Among Indians in Colonial

Natal, 1860–1910: The Role of the Muharram festival,” The Journal of African History 43, no. 1 (2002): 77-93. (Available online)

Green, Nile. “Islam for the indentured Indian: a Muslim missionary in colonial South

Africa,” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 71, no. 3 (2008): 529-553. (Available online)  

Film screening: From Africa to India: Sidi Music in the Indian Ocean Diaspora

November 20: Dissemination of Culture: India in Africa

Reading:

John C. Hawley, India in Africa, Africa in India: Indian Ocean Cosmopolitanism,

Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2008. (Chapter 4 and 5) (Available through Canvas)

Film screening: Queen of Katwe

Primary source analysis paper due (submission in class)  

November 27: Dissemination of Culture: Africa and India

Reading:

John C. Hawley, India in Africa, Africa in India: Indian Ocean Cosmopolitanism,

Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2008. (Chapter 8 and 9) (Available through Canvas)  

Film screening: Idi Amin Asian Expulsion

December 4: Literary Histories of the Indian Ocean World  

Reading:

Gaurav Desai, Commerce with the Universe: Africa, India, and the Afrasian

Imagination, New York: Columbia University Press, 2013.(Chapter 1 and 2)(Available online on UT library)

Film screening: The Indian Ocean - Retrieving History To Build A Future

Discussion of research drafts

December 10:

The final paper is due by 12:00 noon December 10.

(Submission via email to the instructor)

This course looks at the history and culture of the Himalayan region, including Northeast India, sections of Pakistan and Afghanistan, and Tibet, but especially Nepal. Some understanding of Asian history, politics and religion will be helpful (but not necessary) as our attempt will not be a comprehensive survey of the region. The Himalayas have been the site of a great deal of anthropological attention and as such we will be simultaneously be exploring several key theoretical, historical and methodological issues within the discipline of anthropology as we learn about places and people in the region. Particular attention will be paid to the area as a site for negotiating identity (caste and indigeneity), development politics, the environment, tourism, diasporas as well as the current political tensions in the region. At the conclusion of the class, students should have a stronger idea of the important role this area has played in the political, religious and social imagination of the world and an appreciation of concepts such as ritual theory, social movements, modernity and gender studies.

Health-care professionals, bio-medical researchers, patients, and families in all societies are increasingly faced with ethical issues that arise because of new medical technologies and because of alternative approaches to health and illness. This course focuses on ethical questions such as allocation of medical resources, stem cell research and cloning, organ transplantation, abortion, human experimentation, prolonging life and the right to die, suicide, euthanasia, and the diagnosis and treatment of illnesses such as Alzheimer disease, AIDS, and mental disorders.

This course explores these topics from a global perspective, emphasizing how cultural values and ethical systems define moral issues and inform decision-making about medical care. We will consider ethical theories that have been used in the West to consider medical practice, and compare these with approaches in non-Western cultures such as Japan and India. The course emphasizes the use of case studies to explore issues in medical ethics and to develop the ability to apply ethical theories in ways sensitive to variations in cultural values. 

Students in this course engage in discussion and debate about difficult moral issues and it is likely that members of the class will have different, and sometimes profoundly conflicting, ideas about what is right and wrong. You should feel free to express and support your position; this is an important component of the class.

This is a course about contemporary social and political life in urban South Korea—to use a complex and problematic concept, about Korean modernity.  It focuses on present conditions and their historical background: on capitalism and development from the colonial era (1910-1945) to the present, on the perspectives of workers, white-collar employees, and students over time, on the lifestyles of the new middle class, and on the struggle for democracy and its aftermath.  We will read ethnographies of corporations, factory work, consumption, and activism, as well as accounts of popular culture and changing gender systems and roles.  We will also watch several recent films and examine other visual materials.

GOV 347N, GOV and Politics of SE Asia

Prerequisites (if any)

Students wishing to enroll in this class must have taken a foundational course in government or Asian studies. The course also assumes basic knowledge of world history.

Course Description

This course is designed to introduce students to the politics of Southeast Asia. The course is divided into two parts. The first part focuses on the different political regimes in the region. We will learn about the democracies – and how they compare to the United States. We will also learn about the different institutions employed by dictators to stay in power – personal cult, the military, a party structure, or the royal family (Brunei). In the second part, we will examine whether democracies or dictatorships are better at accommodating ethnic minorities. Note that this course is not about Southeast Asian foreign policy or US-Southeast Asia bilateral relations.

Grading Policy

Your final grade is composed of the following five parts:

1. Quizzes: 20%
2. Midterm Examination: 20%
3. Final Examination: 20%
4. Coding Assignment: 20%
5. Coding-Based Paper Assignment: 20%

Texts

D.R. SarDesai. 2012. Southeast Asia: Past and Present. 7th Edition. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. Note: Student Economy 7th Edition (2015) acceptable.

GOV 390L, Comparative Ethnic Politics

Course Description

This graduate-level course introduces students to the principle concepts, questions, and answers in the subfield of ethnic politics. The readings and discussions will draw on all major regions in the world, including the United States. In this course, we will study the following four sets of topics: ethnic identity; ethnic diversity; ethnic parties; and ethnic accommodation. The objective of this course is fourfold. The first is to acquaint students with the theoretical literatures on ethnic politics. The second is to teach students how to design and evaluate theoretically-oriented research. The third is to train students to carry out various types of assignments that political scientists – or social scientists more broadly – are frequently required to perform. And the fourth is to enable students to move toward a publishable paper.

Grading Policy

Your final grade is composed of the following five items:

1. Attendance and Participation: You are allowed two absences for any reason. Any additional absence beyond that will drop your semester grade by a letter.
2. Weekly Writing Assignments: Abstracts, Essays, and Reviews (25%)
3. Coding Assignment (25%)
4. Mock Grant Proposal (25%)
5. Research Design Paper (25%)

Texts

Adida, Claire L. 2014. Immigrant exclusion and insecurity in Africa. New York NY: Cambridge University Press.

Selway, Joel Sawat. 2015. Coalitions of the Well-Being: How Electoral Rules and Ethnic Politics Shape Health Policy in Developing Countries. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.

International Relations of East and Southeast Asia

GOV 365L/ANS 361

Global Cultures Flag

Fall 2018

Prof. Patricia L. Maclachlan

TTH 12:30-2:00, CLA 0.112

Course Description:

This upper division undergraduate course introduces students to some of the major theories and themes in the post-Cold War—and particularly contemporary—international relations of East and Southeast Asia: “Great Power” (China, Japan, and the United States) contributions and challenges to the military and economic security of the region, the objectives and processes of economic globalization and institutional integration in the Asia-Pacific, the domestic political determinants of international relations, and the future of the liberal institutional order in the region.  Along the way, we will explore the ongoing North Korean nuclear threat, tensions between China and Taiwan, territorial disputes in the East and South China seas, and the fate of the United States’ so-called Asia Pivot.

Prerequisites:

6 semester hours of lower-division Government courses.  Graduate students may take this course for graduate credit.

Grading Policy:

         1.    Quizzes on readings: 15%

         2.    First mid-term exam: 20%

         3.    Second mid-term exam or short research paper:  25%

         4.    Final exam: 40%

Texts:

         1.    Andrei Lankov, The Real North Korea: Life and Politics in the Failed Stalinist Utopia.  Oxford University Press, 2014.

         2.   David Shambaugh, China’s Future. Polity, 2016.

 Additional readings will be provided to students via Canvas at the beginning of the semester.

Urbanization in East Asia has taken place in rapid, massive and turbulent ways. The purpose of this class lies in employing urbanization as an analytical category through which we can examine development, modernization, the politics of accumulation and distribution, state-­‐society relations, urban struggles and activism in East Asia. The class lectures are organized, therefore, around topics rather than by country and city. For more critical examinations, we will also learn and discuss key concepts in Geography and Urban Studies, such as modernity, uneven development, place-­‐making, gentrification, cultural agglomeration, global cities, and urban social movements. Reading various books and articles on urban issues, this course aims to advance the understanding of East Asia’s contemporary dynamics and East Asia in global context. We will supplement our readings by drawing various other materials including maps and illustrations, films, and video clips of TV programs.

Individual instruction for Asian studies majors and nonmajors. Discussion, research, and the writing of papers about various general and specialized Asian subjects.  Prerequisite: Six semester hours of coursework in Asian studies and
written consent of instructor on form obtained from the undergraduate adviser.

This course will provide a general overview of Indian cinema. We will critically examine some of the main genres and themes represented in a variety of commercial Hindi films -- popularly known as "Bollywood". We will analyze how Bollywood films represent issues of gender, class, caste, race, national identity, transnational mobility, and cultural traditions in India and in the Indian diaspora. We will also examine the ways in which the "Bollywood" film industry has evolved in relation to the political, economic, and cultural changes taking place at the global, national and regional levels of Indian society. Background in Hindi language or Indian cinema is not necessary to take this course. All films screened in this course will have English subtitles.

This course examines the South Asian diaspora in United States. We will cover migration of people from India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh to United States and other parts of the world. While studying the history and culture of South Asian America, we will discuss globalization, transnationalism, migration, assimilation, formation of a diaspora, discrimination, and gender and sexuality, all major themes in Asian American Studies. The course is arranged chronologically and thematically. We will start in the nineteenth century following the journey of the first South Asian migrants to US. We will then move on to studying the Bengali and Punjabi immigrants to U.S. and the formation of Bengali-African and Punjabi-Mexican communities. We will study how American immigration laws have facilitated or inhibited South Asian migration to US in the twentieth century. Topics covered include economic and social reasons for migration, adaptation to American life, cultural and religious assimilation, changing family structures, and discrimination and exclusion. We will end the semester by discussing South Asian American life in the twenty-first century. 

Through the semester we will study more than a century of South Asian American history. A primary goal of this course is to highlight the diversity within South Asian America. We will encounter a diaspora whose members belong to different religious, linguistic, economic and social groups. Many came to the United States forcibly to seek economic opportunities lacking at home. Others came enthusiastically with dreams of making it “big” in the land of abundant opportunities. We will also examine South Asian American interactions with other Americans in the fields of social activism and community development.

You are encouraged to participate in South Asian American life in Austin. I will bring to your attention relevant films, lectures, art, music, and dance performances. Assignments for this course will help you in improving writing and communication skills. Our class meetings will be a blend of lectures and discussions.

International aid agencies and modern humanitarians take for granted the poverty of all South Asian women. The question that is seldom asked is how did so many women become so poor? Have women always been poor in the subcontinent? How can we measure poverty and wealth across time and cultures? This course tries to discuss such questions by combining legal, political and social histories of the subcontinent between the seventeenth and the twentieth centuries.

This course carries a Writing Flag. Writing Flag classes meet the Core Communications objectives of Critical Thinking, Communication, Teamwork, and Personal Responsibility, established by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. Writing Flag courses are designed to give students experience with writing in an academic discipline, in this case, History.

The goals of the course are to teach students two distinct and graduated forms of historical writing. One is review: it begins with learning the skills of summary (presenting the main points of another text concisely), and is completed by learning skills of evaluating texts in terms of their ‘sources’, interpretative methods, persuasiveness in comparison with other similar texts. Students will acquire a familiarity with writing reviews of both published and unpublished writing by commenting on the essays published by established authors as well as by their not-yet-published peers. They will learn to ask the same questions of both. A second form of writing students will learn is that of narrative: ie the arranging of documents, events according to a timeline that establishes an unfolding ‘story’. Historical narrative begins with ‘primary’ sources, taken from the time in which they occurred. At each stage of writing they will be asked to develop careful citation practice, develop the ability to give and take peer criticism, and learn to revise multiple drafts. The end result is to ensure that students write a substantial essay which brings both narrative and reviewing skills together with good citation practice.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS:

1) Reading and Writing: Most readings for this course will be available on Canvas or online at University of Austin Library. Students are expected to read the assigned texts ahead of the class, and be willing to discuss their responses to these texts in class without prompting from the Instructor. The success of the class depends largely on the willingness of students to discuss their ideas and questions in class. Each student should bring to class each week a basic list of 3 questions on the readings. After discussion in class, this list of questions is submitted to the instructor and contributes 20 points to the total grade earned by a student. Questions should be about the author’s arguments and methods, or something that catches your attention but is unexplained in the text, etc. When writing, use the questions you have asked on your readings to form the key organizing principles of your paragraphs. The components of an organized essay are a strong thesis statement in the introductory paragraph, clear and consistent paragraphs with clear opening statements in each, succinct conclusion. Good spelling will count as well.

In addition to regular questions, all students will write 1) a 500-word summary of an article (10 points, 2 of these points will be for correct citation of sources acc. To the Chicago Manual)

2) a 8-10 page essay presenting a summary and review of multiple articles and some primary documents ( 20 points)

3) 3 sets of peer-reviews (15 points)

4) a 15-page final essay reviewing a debate on dowry (20 points)

2) Participating in Class-Discussion: (for 15 points) The assessment of oral discussion shifts in its emphasis from the beginning to the end of the semester. IN the beginning, a student’s ability to speak coherently will be sufficient; by the middle, a student’s ability to synthesise old and new readings, to remember the beginning and be able to refer to it in discussion will be

favorably assessed; in the end, bringing all the older readings to bear upon the latest readings or viewing materials and being able to discuss these in a clear and mature fashion will be rewarded.

3) Attendance: Students will be allowed no more than one unexplained absence, unless there is a serious, documented, medical or personal problem.

This seminar examines autobiographies written by prominent figures in Japan from the tenth century to the present and considers how they negotiated their lives and their legacies through the act of self-portraiture. We will look at how these works are informed by both the historical and cultural contexts in which they were written and by the genre itself. Examples include works by highborn ladies-in-waiting and imperial consorts in the premodern era; samurai men who found their class on the verge of extinction in the mid-19th century; and avant-garde artists and filmmakers in the 20th and 21st centuries. In order to consider in depth how the form or medium guides the content of these self-portraits, our objects of study will encompass a wide variety of mediums that go beyond the traditional book form to include paintings, poems, songs, films, and manga.
 
This is a Writing Flag and Global Cultures Flag course. In this class, you can expect to write and revise regularly during the semester, complete substantial writing projects, and receive feedback from your instructor and your peers to help you improve your academic writing. You should expect a substantial portion of your grade to come from your written work. It is also designed to increase your familiarity with practices, beliefs, and histories of at least one non-U.S. cultural group, past or present.
 

Required Materials:

1) Books to Purchase (available at Co-op, or feel free to purchase on your own, but be sure to get the right version):

**Lady Kagerō, The Kagerō Diary: A Woman's Autobiographical Text from Tenth-Century Japan (ca.
974), trans. Sonja Arntzen
**Lady Nijō, The Confessions of Lady Nijō (1307)
**Katsu Kokichi, Musui’s Story: The Autobiography of a Tokugawa Samurai (1843)

**Jun’ichi Saga, Confessions of a Yakuza: A Life in Japan’s Underworld (1989)
**Mishima Yukio, Confessions of a Mask (1949)

Comparing religions is nothing new. Religious people have always compared their beliefs and practices with those of their neighbors, sometimes with a sincere religious interest, sometimes only to claim the superiority of their own religion. When the academic discipline of Religious Studies was established in the late 19th century, scholars sought to compare without favoring a particular religious tradition. They were struck by the fact that the religions of the world seemed to have similar – or completely different – answers to the same existential questions. Some religious expressions (beliefs, practices, literature, art, institutions, etc.) appeared drastically different and others strikingly similar. Some scholars wondered if comparing religions would reveal a common sacred truth that underlay all the diverse forms of religious phenomena, while others warned that assuming such a religious essence was not an analytical but rather a religious assertion. Critics of comparison say that by alleging analogies in other cultures Western scholars impose their own concepts on those cultures, while comparativists insist that because all scholarly categories are comparative, comparison is indispensable. Analyzing those debates, this course will explore the risks and benefits of comparison in the study of religion. We will discuss and evaluate potential goals of a comparative study and develop ways in which it may be conducted both responsibly and productively. Numerous examples from Asian and other religions will enrich the discussions. During the course of the semester, students will also develop individual comparative projects.

Readings: Course packet

Grading:
Attendance/participation: 25%
Reading responses: 20%
Oral presentation: 10%
Research project: 45%