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.
What is ritual? Tantric Buddhism employs ritual in radical ways to work towards the goal of enlightenment in this very lifetime. This course provides an introduction to the principles of tantric ritual, including themes of guru devotion, rites of consecration, vows of secrecy, and visualization practice. In particular, the course guides students in contemplating what it means to imagine oneself as a deity as a means of attaining enlightenment. The importance of ritual to the practice of Tantric Buddhism invites us to reflect upon the larger significance of "ritual" for understanding tantra, Buddhism, and religion at large. The course culminates in an in-class colloquium aimed at defining ritual in dialogue with tantric materials.
The three major East Asian languages, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, are becoming increasingly popular in American K-16 schools. EAS 480/580 is for advanced undergraduate students and graduate students who wish to become language educators and/or specialists in one of these languages. The first half of the semester focuses on linguistic issues and pedagogical challenges specific to teaching the three East Asian languages (e.g., tones and syllabic features, writing systems,), and we then continue with sociocultural and sociopolitical dimensions of East Asian language teaching.
Though China and Japan share many civilizational traits, they have produced radically different political systems. Using the intellectual prism of "nationalism", this course explores how Japan and China have reacted to the "every people a polity" principle (nationalism).
This course explores the mutual impact of culture and nature - how the natural environment has shaped culture, and how humans have impacted the natural environment (and to take this full circle, how human-induced changes in the natural environment subsequently impact societies). The relatively rapid and thoroughgoing transformations in East Asia over the past century allow us an ideal setting to explore the interaction between culture and nature. Focusing largely on China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam, this course explores how the relatively new field of environmental history opens new dimensions of historical inquiry.
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.
An examination of American interaction with Japan and China since the Opium Wars, with special attention given to economic, cultural, and military relations and conflicts.
This course explores the Weberian thesis on the relation between culture and capitalist economy by investigating East Asia and its connection with global capitalism. Special attention will be paid to the formation of the dominating East Asian intellectual and religious traditions such as Confucianism and Buddhism and their impact on business ethics and practices in China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam. Reading of translations of primary texts and case studies of East Asian entrepreneurs will be emphasized. To be able to make enlightened judgments about the depth and scope of East Asian thought and capitalist culture, we need to situate the current subject in the global context. As conceived in this course, the following topics will be covered with greater emphasis: 1. The formation of global capitalism and the role of East Asia 2. Life and thought of influential East Asian thinkers 3. Impact of their thoughts on East Asian business culture 4. Cultural and ethical aspects of East Asian economy and business.
The origin and florescence of Chinese culture and civilization from an archaeological perspective. An in-depth survey of Chinese prehistory and early history from the early Pleistocene to the third century BC.
The origins and subsequent development of prehistoric cultures in China, Japan, Korea, Mongolia, Siberia and Southeast Asia. Broad concepts such as cultural change and environmental adaptation are stressed in order to draw parallels among these geographically and culturally diverse regions.