This course offers a thematic introduction to the history of martial arts in China. Throughout the semester, we will explore the social, political, and cultural contexts of martial arts practice, from the classical period to the 21st century. The course will take an interdisciplinary approach to situating martial arts practices in history through an examination of religious, literary, and visual sources, against the backdrop of theoretical approaches from across gender studies, anthropology, and cultural theory. The course will be divided into three units. The first unit will focus on the cultural background that led to the emergence of martial arts practices in the pre-modern period. We will examine classical discourses on the human body and its cultivation and the role of medical practices and religious institutions, such as the Shaolin Temple, in the development of martial arts regimens. In the second unit, we will discuss the spread and popularization of martial arts practices in late imperial and modern Chinese society through a close reading of literary sources, such as wuxia novels and other works of fiction. In addition, we will explore the modernization and re-invention of martial arts in the late 19th centuryand early 20th century, when China attempts to re-establish itself as a modern nation. The third and final unit will be devoted to the global impact of Chinese martial arts in contemporary popular culture. Through a discussion and analysis of Kung Fu films, as well as video games, we will explore the role of martial arts narratives and practices in the construction of gender, cultural, and national identity and the various ways in which they are used by the current Chinese regime to assert its influence in the global arena. No knowledge of Chinese is presumed, and all readings will be available in English on the Canvas website in PDF form. Graduate students may take this course as EALC6926 and should see the instructor to discuss requirements for graduate credit.

In this course we examine buildings, remains of buildings, sites, tombs, and the contents of all of them in Mongolia. We read primary sources about the architecture (in translation) and we read excavation reports and descriptions as means of understanding the implications of permanent construction on grasslands, steppe, and desert, and on terrain traversed by nomads and semi-nomads. In this course, Mongolia is the landmass that is today Inner and Outer Mongolia.
The course has no prerequisites. However, most students will have had at least one course in the art or history of Mongolia or a region that borders it. Most students will be able to read at least one East Asian language or Russian. Students who can read languages other than English will be encouraged to do research using those languages.

Who (or what) where the samurai? What does it mean to say that Japan had an "Age of the Samurai"? In popular imagination, pre-modern Japan has long been associated with its hereditary warrior class. Countless movies have explored the character and martial prowess of these men. Yet warriors constituted but a tiny portion of the societies they inhabited and ruled, and historians researching medieval Japan have turned their attentions to a great range of subjects and to other classes (elite and commoner alike). This class is designed to acquaint students with the complex and diverse centuries that have been called the "Age of the Samurai"-roughly, the years between ca. 1110 and 1850. In the course of the semester, we will explore the central themes in the historiography of warrior society, while introducing some of the defining texts that have shaped our imagination of this age (from laws to epic poems, from codes of conduct to autobiographies).

The list of issues shaping the US-China relationship is extensive. Trade and investment, the status and future of Taiwan, China’s expansion into the South China Sea and its relationships with East and Southeast Asian neighbors, the Belt and Road Initiative and China’s expanding influence in the United Nations and other multilateral institutions, human rights, the status of Hong Kong, concerns about Xinjiang, technology transfer, intellectual property and cyberespionage, the status of people-to-people engagement in fields like education, health and cultural exchange and many others are all ongoing points of discussion between the two great powers. Understanding these issues in the present day requires exploring how these issues evolved over the decades and even centuries of engagement between the United States and China. Are there similarities between America’s Open-Door policy of the late 19th century and its position on trade with China today? What are the prospects for Taiwan policy given the complicated diplomatic history surrounding the recognition of the People’s Republic in the 1970s? When and why did human rights come to be a defining issue in the US-China relationship and how has it evolved over time? How have people-to-people exchanges been understood to undergird the relationship? How are 21st c. flashpoints, such as technology competition and cyberespionage, impacting the traditional list of tensions, such as Taiwan, maritime conflicts, and geopolitics in East Asia? What are the consistent through lines in America’s policies toward China and what has changed?
This course will look at a series of issues that are at the center of the US-China relationship through an historical lens, providing students with insight into the forces that have shaped positions on both sides. Students will develop an understanding of key issues in the diplomatic relationship the United States and China today and their deep historical roots. No previous study of Chinese history is required for this course, but students will be expected to engage enthusiastically with the course material.

This seminar explores evolving understandings of the Chinese economy from ancient times to the nineteenth century. We will read and discuss important work in Chinese economic history both to understand the trajectory that has led to China’s contemporary economic position and to situate China’s economic development within world history. Discussions will focus on how China emerged as the world’s leading economy by the year 1000 and how changes in agriculture, industry, markets, and money led the Chinese economy into the modern age. The course will proceed chronologically, and the sources for discussion will include scholarly articles and monographs, and primary materials—texts, images, and archeological excavations. Graduate students will engage with the principal scholarly debates in the field and finish the seminar with a nuanced understanding of the field’s historiography. Knowledge of Chinese is not necessary.

Be it shrine maidens, gods of death, and bodhisattvas fighting for justice; apocalypse, the afterlife, and apotheosis... the popular Japanese illustrated media of manga and anime are replete with religious characters and religious ideas. This course uses popular illustrated media as a tool for tracing the long history of how media and religion have been deeply intertwined in Japan.

Be it shrine maidens, gods of death, and bodhisattvas fighting for justice; apocalypse, the afterlife, and apotheosis... the popular Japanese illustrated media of manga and anime are replete with religious characters and religious ideas. This course uses popular illustrated media as a tool for tracing the long history of how media and religion have been deeply intertwined in Japan.

Be it shrine maidens, gods of death, and bodhisattvas fighting for justice; apocalypse, the afterlife, and apotheosis... the popular Japanese illustrated media of manga and anime are replete with religious characters and religious ideas. This course uses popular illustrated media as a tool for tracing the long history of how media and religion have been deeply intertwined in Japan.

Be it shrine maidens, gods of death, and bodhisattvas fighting for justice; apocalypse, the afterlife, and apotheosis... the popular Japanese illustrated media of manga and anime are replete with religious characters and religious ideas. This course uses popular illustrated media as a tool for tracing the long history of how media and religion have been deeply intertwined in Japan.

Be it shrine maidens, gods of death, and bodhisattvas fighting for justice; apocalypse, the afterlife, and apotheosis... the popular Japanese illustrated media of manga and anime are replete with religious characters and religious ideas. This course uses popular illustrated media as a tool for tracing the long history of how media and religion have been deeply intertwined in Japan.