Course:	ANTH 294  Transnational Asia
Professor:	Naoko Kumada
CRN:	15656		Schedule/Location:		Tue  Thurs    3:30 PM – 4:50 PM Olin 204
Distributional Area:		SA Social Analysis D+J Difference and Justice
Credits: 4						Class cap: 20
Crosslists: Asian Studies; Global & International Studies

‘Asia,’ like ‘the Orient,’ has been a term defined in opposition to Europe/’the Occident,’ from the perspective of European cultural and material hegemony. Its cultural mapping as a unitary entity permanently peripheral to the West is, in one scholar’s phrase, derived from ‘The Colonizer’s Model of the World,’ based on the belief that moral, social and material progress flows from the West to Asia and must, as an ethical imperative, continue to. This course is an invitation to reimagine our view of the contemporary world and its future as we challenge deeply embedded assumptions about Asia. We will consider whether and how the idea of Asia has functioned in both imperialist and anti-colonial historiographies and politico-theological frameworks from Japan to Afghanistan. We will balance our discussion of the discursive and critical dimensions of this topic by examining specific developments, trends and episodes in inter-Asian and global circulations of travel, investment, labor migration, and marriage. Further, we will look at the transnational implications of forms of practice as disparate as martial arts and video games against an ancient past of cultural flows from the Silk Roads to the maritime trade routes between China, the Red Sea and East Africa.

 

Course:	HIST 187  The Indian Ocean World: South Asia from a Transoceanic Perspective
Professor:	Rupali Warke
CRN:	15971		Schedule/Location:		Mon  Wed     3:30 PM – 4:50 PM Hegeman 201
Distributional Area:		HA Historical Analysis
Credits: 4						Class cap: 20
Crosslists: Asian Studies; Global & International Studies

Being the ocean with the oldest evidence of transoceanic human activity,  the Indian ocean for centuries has transmitted people across continents, thus serving as an important channel of circulation and exchange. Therefore, the history of the Indian ocean is also the history of the people who traversed it. This class looks at the history of South Asia with a focus on the linkages of South Asia to East Africa, Southeast Asia, and West Asia. Students will explore this peripatetic human history through pathbreaking secondary works and critical primary sources. We will learn how people ‘inhabiting’ the Indian ocean were instrumental in the circulation and exchange of cultural, economic, and socio-political ideas and practices in the Indian Ocean Region. In particular, we focus on the confluence of the African and Asian trends from various eras and their impact on the global Afro-Asian cultures.

 

Course:	LIT 2291  Fictions of Southeast Asia
Professor:	Nathan Shockey
CRN:	15709		Schedule/Location:		Tue  Thurs    11:50 AM - 1:10 PM Olin Languages Center 115
Distributional Area:		LA Literary Analysis in English
Credits: 4						Class cap: 22
Crosslists: Asian Studies

This class explores the vibrant body of literature from and about Southeast Asia and considers the role of fiction in the imagination of modern national and transnational histories. Reading works by local, imperial, immigrant, and diasporic authors, both those written in English and in translation, we will bring a prismatic array of texts into contestation and conversation in order to explore conflicting narratives of colonization, decolonization, war, empire, refugee passages, and the loss of homeland. We will read novels from across Southeast Asia, including the Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, Malay(si)a, Laos, and Cambodia, as well as stories about those places by British, American, and other Asian writers to think about how acts of storytelling have themselves shaped the region’s contours and fractured histories. Topics will include the polyphonic and polyglottal history of Philippine literature, ghostly memories of the Pacific War, conflicting perspectives on the American War, the effects of global capitalism and multinational trade on everyday life, and attempts by first- and second-generation diasporic and immigrant authors to rectify transformations of culture and memory in the United States. Readings may include works by Jose Rizal, Nick Joaquin, Gina Apostol, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Le Thi Diem Thuy, Tash Aw, Pitchaya Subandthad, Jessica Hagedorn, Kao Kalia Yang, Anthony Burgess, Anthony Veasna So, Joseph Conrad, Bao Ninh, Graham Greene, Eka Kurniawan, Kevin Kwan, and Pramaoedya Ananta Toer, among others. This course is part of the World Literature Course offering.

 

Course:	REL 211  Digital Dharma: Buddhism and New Media
Professor:	Dominique Townsend
CRN:	15617		Schedule/Location:		Tue  Thurs    11:50 AM – 1:10 PM Olin 101
Distributional Area:		MBV Meaning, Being, Value
Credits: 4						Class cap: 18
Crosslists: Asian Studies; Experimental Humanities; Global & International Studies

Digital Dharma: Buddhism and New MediaMany high profile figures associated with world religions, such as the Dalai Lama and Pope Francis, have adopted social media to communicate with followers, spread philosophical views, and offer spiritual instructions. In the Buddhist world, teachers use digital technologies to reach huge followings and to disseminate Buddhist texts, practical and ethical instructions, and iconic Buddhist imagery to students across the globe. The engagement with digital media has radically increased due to the pandemic as Buddhist communities have sought ways to convene safely. How have digital technologies reshaped how Buddhist teachers instruct students and attract new disciples, especially since the arrival of COVID-19? How do platforms such Twitter and WeChat constrict or alter Buddhist teacher’s messages, and how do they allow for an unprecedented global reach? What are the social and political risks and benefits of digital expressions of Buddhism? In this course students will analyze the function of digital Buddhist texts and images and investigate the use of digital media as a means for Buddhist teachers and communities to reach large and distant audiences. Recent digital trends will be considered in multiple cultural, political, and historical contexts that takes into account a diversity of Buddhist practices and pedagogies.