Course Schedule

CHN 517 – Advanced Modern Chinese

Study of advanced modern (Mandarin) Chinese through readings in modern literature. for non-native speakers. Native speakers may not take this course. Graduate-level requirements include more translations and additional reading.

CHN 565 – Chinese/English Translation: Theory and Practice

Introduction to the theory and practice of English-to-Chinese and Chinese-to-English translations including study of the role of translation in China-West encounters and learning the craft of translation. Graduate-level requirements include much longer and more difficult assignments.

EAS 556 – Humanities and the Global Creative Economy

Cross Listed

The course investigates ways in which humanities engage in the global creative economy. It examines key concepts such as creativity, aesthetics, and contemporaneity in humanities, and examines how they become inseparable to the rise of the global creative economy, whether through culture industries, digital media, creative spaces, artistic activisms, or urban development. It focuses on the connections and intersections between aesthetics and art, knowledge and information, and creative economies around the world. Examples of the creative economy include cities from Asia, America, Europe, and Africa. This course is suitable for students who are interested in humanities, global studies, media arts, e-society, visual culture and media studies, urban planning, economics, business, and even those dealing with intellectual property laws.

Graduate-level requirements include longer papers, additional readings and research, reading reports, additional meetings with instructor, and significant longer presentations in class.

EAS 584 – History of East Asian Buddhism

Buddhism in China, Korea and Japan with emphasis on the relationship between East Asian Buddhist thought and practice and the various historical contexts in which they emerged. Graduate-level requirements include assigned readings in primary Chinese or Japanese sources and in modern Chinese and/or Japanese secondary sources, together with a research paper based in part on such sources.

EAS 587 – Assessment in Second/Foreign Language Learning

Cross Listed

The primary objective of this course is the development of language teachers' assessment literacy, which includes knowledge of key assessment principles and skill in creating or adopting assessment tools and procedures for the language classroom. Participants in this course will develop their knowledge and skills related to assessing all skill areas in the language classroom, including productive skills (writing, speaking), receptive skills (reading, listening), and assessing grammar and vocabulary. Grading and student evaluation will also be important topics of consideration and exploration in this course. Designed specifically for in-service (and pre-service) language teachers, the course combines theory with practice by covering essential principles of effective classroom assessment and the development of effective assessment tools for classroom use. Participants completing this course will become more assessment literate and better able to evaluate student performance in their classrooms fairly and effectively.

EAS 593 – Internship

Specialized work on an individual basis, consisting of training and practice in actual service in a technical, business, or governmental establishment.

EAS 595A – Graduate Colloquium

The exchange of scholarly information and/or secondary research, usually in a small group setting. Instruction often includes lectures by several different persons. Research projects may or may not be required of course registrants.

EAS 596C – Special Topics in East Asian Studies

he development and exchange of scholarly information, usually in a small group setting. The scope of work shall consist of research by course registrants, with the exchange of the results of such research through discussion, reports, and/or papers.

JPN 512 – Advanced Japanese Linguistics

Cross Listed

Advanced readings in Japanese and English on specific topics in Japanese linguistics. Graduate-level requirements include a substantial term paper and a class presentation based on that paper.

JPN 522 – Advanced Practice in Japanese

Reading and discussion in Japanese of a variety of advanced-level materials, including newspaper articles, short stories, and poetry. Graduate-level requirements include extra readings and extra translation project.

JPN 547 – Incorporeal and Ambiguous Bodies: Monstrous and Ghostly Tales in Premodern Japanese Literature

This discussion-centered, research seminar examines strange and ambiguous bodies prominently featured in premodern Japanese literature. Reading literary works in translation from the 8th to the 19th century, we will engage with a variety of rich depictions of ambiguous and mysterious bodies, including mythical creatures, vengeful spirits, shape-shifting foxes, strange apparitions, and incorporeal or invisible figures. Our topics of investigation include how ambiguous bodies challenge and reinforce social boundaries; the significance of gender dynamics in premodern sexuality; how the trauma of war is inscribed onto bodies; political authority over corporeal and incorporeal bodies; and the transformation of sacred spirits into the everyday grotesque. We will read a wide range of primary materials in translation, including mythologies, official historical records, literary tales, Buddhist didactic stories, women's diaries, and war-tales. We will also engage with scholarship on the cultural history of the body, religious beliefs, and theories of the monstrous, in addition to various theoretical frameworks related to post-colonial thought and gender studies.

JPN 562C – The History of Modern Japan, Meiji to the Present

Cross Listed

This course offers students an in-depth look at the history and historiography of Modern Japan (1868-Present), with a special emphasis on the relationship between empire and everyday life in Japan's modern experience. The course is divided into four chronological units spanning the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and students will have the opportunity to crowdsource their reading materials from a list of recommended and representative books within each unit. Class discussions will provide an overview of the latest English-language scholarship on Japan's modernity to familiarize advanced undergraduates and graduate students with the styles of research and interpretation that inform our understanding of history today.

JPN 586 – History of Japanese Religions: Medieval

Cross Listed

Selective survey of the history of religions in Japan from the 11th century through the 16th. Topics covered may include the medieval worldview; apocalyptic thought and related practices; Pure Land Buddhism; Zen; and proselytization and religious competition in medieval Japan. Graduate-level requirements include oral presentations and longer, more in-depth papers.

CHN 510B – The Anthropology of Contemporary China

Cross Listed

The course introduces students to the anthropological literature on contemporary China. It examines various social and cultural aspects of everyday life such as family, body, sexuality, consumption, citizenship, urbanization, and property ownership. Graduate-level requirements include an extra meeting per week; extra readings; longer and research papers with minimum source requirements.

CHN 515 – Advanced Modern Chinese

Study of advanced modern (Mandarin) Chinese through readings in social science texts for non-native speakers. Native speakers may not take this course. Graduate-level requirements include more translations and additional reading.

CHN 522 – Introduction to Classical Chinese

Introduction to pre-20th-century Chinese styles through readings in classical Chinese literature. Graduate-level requirements include additional assignments relating to translation skill and research methodology.

CHN 583 – Confucianism: The Classical Period

Cross Listed

CHN 596G – Modern Chinese Literature

The development and exchange of scholarly information, usually in a small group setting. The scope of work shall consist of research by course registrants, with the exchange of the results of such research through discussion, reports, and/or papers.

EAS 579 – Second/Foreign Language Teaching and Learning

Cross Listed

This class is intended to prepare students to teach a second/foreign language. It will provide students with the essential foundations in language teaching methodology and theory, pedagogical grammar, curriculum and materials development, classroom management, and formal and informal assessment techniques. In addition, students will gain practical knowledge through video practicum components, which allow them to watch and reflect on actual classroom teaching. Students will complete this program with the pedagogical knowledge and practical understanding necessary to be confident and effective language teachers.

EAS 596A – Topics in East Asian Buddhism

The development and exchange of scholarly information, usually in a small group setting. The scope of work shall consist of research by course registrants, with the exchange of the results of such research through discussion, reports, and/or papers.

JPN 505 – Classical Japanese

An introduction to the pre-modern Japanese literary language (termed hereafter Classical Japanese (CJ)), approached through the translation of texts from the 8th to 13th century into English. There will be an introduction to the language - its history, structure, and relationship to Modern Japanese (MJ) - after which it will proceed through in-class reading and translation of prepared passages taken from the literary texts specified below. Certain classes will be set aside for quizzes as well as seminar discussion of specific topics. Graduate-level requirements include a research paper based on a translation project (involving extra group and individual meetings with the instructor in the second half of the semester).

JPN 511 – Introduction to Japanese Linguistics

Cross Listed

Phonology, morphology, syntax, pragmatics, and sociolinguistics of the Japanese language. Graduate-level requirements include a substantial term paper and a class presentation based on that paper.

JPN 521 – Advanced Practice in Japanese Language

Reading and discussion in Japanese of a variety of advanced-level materials, including newspaper articles, short stories, and poetry. Graduate requirements include extra readings and an extra translation project.

JPN 562B – The History and Culture of Edo Japan (1600-1868)

Cross Listed

This course offers students an in-depth look at the history and historiography of Edo Japan (1600-1868). Each week explores a different key theme in the social and cultural atmosphere of Japan under Tokugawa rule to provide a holistic view of life during the "Great Peace." Topics include the emergence of order from a time of instability and upheaval, exchange and tensions with the outside world and between social groups, and the political stakes of Edo's flowering popular culture. Class discussions will also provide an overview of the latest English-language scholarship on the Edo period to familiarize advanced undergraduates and graduate students with the styles of research and interpretation that inform our understanding of Japanese history today. We will pay particular attention to the major epochs in historiography and how their unique concerns influenced the diverse meanings attributed to Edo Japan over the last half century.

JPN 585 – History of Japanese Religions: Ancient

Cross Listed

A selective survey of Japanese religious history from earliest times through the 11th century. Topics covered may include prehistoric religions; the development of Shinto; Nara-period state Buddhism; tantric Buddhism in the Heian period; and spirit possession and exorcism. Graduate-level requirements include oral presentations and longer, more in-depth papers.