This seminar is designed for incoming graduate students in the department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, offering a thematic overview of the academic study of Chinese and Japanese history and cultures from the Neolithic period to the 21st century. Over the course of the semester, students will be introduced to different scholarly approaches to the study of East Asian history and culture through a close reading and analysis of the work of leading scholars in the fields of Sinology and Japanology. Together, we will learn about the diverse approaches to the study of China and Japan, from the various subfields of historical studies (such as social, intellectual, legal, and religious history) to other academic disciplines such as religious studies, anthropology, gender studies, and archaeology. We will examine the different methodological frameworks and tools used by past and present scholars and draw on them in order to problematize and enrich our understanding of East Asia. In addition, this seminar will provide incoming students with the relevant skills to produce their own original graduate-level research and present it in a clear and persuasive fashion both orally and in written form. While original-language research for the final project is encouraged, all weekly readings will be in English.

Close reading and interpretation of texts in various styles of classical Chinese drawn from the Han, Wei, Tang, and Song periods. Focus on strengthening students' reading ability in classical Chinese. Attention to questions of style, rhetoric, and syntax.

Introduction to the classical written language, beginning with Shadick, First Course in Literary Chinese. Students with a background in Japanese, Korean, Cantonese, Taiwanese, and other East Asian languages are welcome; it is not necessary to know Mandarin. The course begins from scratch, and swiftly but rigorously develops the ability to read a wide variety of classical and semi-classical styles. Original texts from the 6th century BC to the 20th century AD are studied. This course is taught in English and there are no prerequisites.

If you have ever wondered about the following questions, then this is the right course for you: Is Japan a hyper-feminine nation of smiling geisha and obedient wives? Is it a hyper-masculine nation of samurai and economic warriors? Is it true that Japanese wives control the household? Is it true that Japanese men suffer from over-dependence on their mothers? What do young Japanese women and young men worry about? What does the government think about the future of Japanese women and men? Assuming that expressions of gender and sexuality are deeply influenced by cultural and social factors, and that they also show profound differences regionally and historically, this course examines a variety of texts--historical, biographical, autobiographical, fictional, non-fictional, visual, cinematic, analytical, theoretical--in order to better understand the complexity of any attempts to answer the above questions.

This seminar investigates classical Chinese conceptions of art and beauty as exemplified in philosophy, literature, music, painting, calligraphy, and architecture. All readings will be in English, and no knowledge of Chinese is presumed. Graduate students should see the instructor to discuss requirements for graduate credit.

This course offers a survey of the numinous and supernatural through Japanese fiction, films, drama, comics, and video games from ancient times to the present day. Students will assemble a foundational knowledge of Japanese mythology and folk religion while studying popular narrative traditions representative of their historical eras. By peering into the liminal spaces connecting the living with the dead, students will also develop critical thinking and media literacy through careful investigation into the matters that people of different times and places have perceived as monstrous, alien, and unspeakable. Issues of gender, sexuality, and ethnic minority status will receive special attention as we navigate theories relating to the cultural role and relevance of ghosts. Strong writing skills are recommended, but no prior knowledge of Japan or the Japanese language is required.

Using maps, city-panning, architecture, wall painting, sculpture, and minor arts as evidence, the course will examine the attitudes toward life and death in Han (206 BCE-AD 220) China.

This seminar will study the development of Chinese cities over the past two millennia with respect to their spatial structure, social constitution, economic system, political functions, and cultural representation (including cityscape paintings, maps, and films).As China transitioned from a collection of city-states to a united empire to nation state, Chinese urbanism underwent transformations as drastic as those of the country itself. Cities, which serve as a critical mechanism for the operation of a vast agrarian empire/nation like China , offer a unique vantage point for us to observe and analyze the continuities and discontinuities between dynastic empires as well as the radical transition from empire to modern nation state. Topics include: the city-state system in ancient China; the creation and evolution of imperial capitals; the medieval urban revolution and the subsequent collapse of classic city plans; the development of urban public sphere/public space in late imperial China; the rise of commercial power in urban politics; the negotiation of urban class and gender relations via cultural consumption; the role of cities in the building of a modern Chinese nation state; the anti-city experiment under the communist regime; urban citizenship in the reform era; as well as the expanding urbanization and shifting urbanism of Greater China as reflected in cinematic representations of Shanghai, Hongkong, and Taipei.

Technology from East Asia is ubiquitous in everyday life in the 21st century. You may be reading these very words on a device designed or assembled in Japan, China, South Korea, or Taiwan. The region, now a global center of research and innovation, contains some of the modern world’s most impressive technological and scientific achievements. It also exhibits some of the most distressing—from mass facial recognition surveillance in China to nuclear disaster in Japan. This course explores how this state of affairs has taken shape from the 19th century through the present. Topics include industrialization, military technology, science and the rise of nationalism, the proliferation of consumer electronics, and environmental engineering in a warming world.

This course seeks to introduce students to the diversity of texts, textual practices, and textual communities in Buddhist Asia. We will look at cosmological, historical, narrative, psychological, grammatical, magical, didactic, and astrological genres to gain an understanding of how Buddhist writers from various places and times have expressed their views on the inner workings of the mind, the nature of action, the illusion of phenomena, the role of the ethical agent, the origin of chaos, the persistence of violence, the contours of the universe, and the way to Enlightenment.