This course is designed to provide a general introduction to the field of Asian Studies and to familiarize students with its primary regions: East Asia, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. Each of these regions is complex, rich in history and diverse cultures, and important in the global community. Introduction to Asian Studies provides students with a framework with which they can understand each major area in terms of aesthetic expression, cultural and linguistic groups, economics, geography, history, politics, philosophy, and religion.

Transfer Coursework at the 1000 level. Departmental approval may be required.

Transfer Coursework at the 2000 level. Department approval may be required.

A survey of the peoples and cultures of India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Sikkim, and Sri Lanka. Emphasis is placed upon the social organization and cultural history of the diverse peoples who have inhabited the Indian Triangle.

Introduction to Chinese Linguistics is designed to help Chinese learners understand Chinese grammar in a systematic manner as well as gain a theoretical perspective on Chinese language structure, give linguistic students a sense of how Chinese languages, in particular, Mandarin Chinese works and help (future) Chinese instructors gain the meta-linguistic knowledge in teaching Mandarin language. This course will be conducted in the form of lectures and student-led discussions. At the end of this course, students are expected to build a schema on Chinese language structure, gain a better pragmatic knowledge of Chinese language and have a better understanding of Chinese socio-cultural conventions in its language usage.

Study of contemporary Japanese culture and society.

This course will engage the interdisciplinary field of anime, globalization, and cultural policy studies to better understand the broader relationship between popular media, culture and politics. We will engage with select anime texts and articles to better understand how anime has developed into a global medium, and further analyze these texts through readings that deal with Japan's postwar development. Students will develop a better understanding of the history of Japanese anime as well as the global market flows that influenced the current development of anime into a massive international phenomenon. 

Feudal Japan examines Japanese culture, history, and society from the dawn of the Samurai class until its demise in the last half of the nineteenth century. During this period, Japan evolved from a highly warlike society to one in which peace prevailed for more than 250 years. Topics to be covered include geography, prehistory, class/caste development, religion, warfare, urban development, theatre, fine arts, social control, and western contact. No prerequisites.

Critical survey of Chinese Cinema taught in English with historical coverage but focusing on contemporary (post-80s) cinema, covering a range of genres including art films, comedies. Melodramas, science fiction, and historical films from Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. A key question we address is how cinema becomes "national," highlighting the geopolitical and historical issues that inhere in the global circulation of films and their interpretation. Students will learn skills in film analysis and criticism with a view of problems of cross cultural analysis and key themes in modem Chinese culture, including the meaning of revolution, shifting gender roles. and the relation between politics and art.

This course is a general introduction to the modern Chinese fiction, poetry, and prose from the early twentieth century to the present. 

Courses offered by visiting professors. Course may be repeated up to unlimited credit hours.

Special topics course as designed by visiting or permanent Asian Studies faculty or affiliates. For description, consult the academic program. Course may be repeated up to unlimited credit hours under separate title.

Special topics in Asian studies. Course may be repeated up to unlimited credit hours.

Internship Studies in Asian Studies

This course, focusing the visual and material culture of China from the prehistoric to the medieval period, is to interrogate the dynamics between art, politics, and rituals. Students will investigate how ancient Chinese made use of a variety of mediums for different social and political purposes and how a myriad of motifs conveyed symbolic meanings.

Independent study in Asian studies. Course may be repeated up to unlimited credit hours.

Honors thesis.

For especially qualified seniors with approval of the faculty director and the Office of Academic Enrichment. Students must have a minimum of a 3.400 overall grade-point average and a 3.500 grade-point average in the major.

Semester abroad. Course may be repeated up to unlimited credit hours.

Junior year abroad. Course may be repeated up to unlimited credit hours.

Junior year abroad. Course may be repeated up to unlimited credit hours.

Transfer coursework at the 5000 level. Departmental approval required.

Special topics. Course may be repeated up to unlimited credit hours.