Course Schedule

CHN 101 – Elementary Chinese

Introduction to modern spoken and written Chinese (Mandarin) for non-native speakers. Native speakers may not take this course.

CHN 102 – Elementary Chinese

Introduction to modern spoken and written Chinese (Mandarin) for non-native speakers. Native speakers may not take this course.

CHN 201 – Intermediate Modern Chinese

Grammar, reading, and conversation in the modern (Mandarin) language for non-native speakers. Native speakers may not take this course.

CHN 202 – Intermediate Modern Chinese

Engagement: Community Partnership · Engagement: Civic and Community Responsibility

Grammar, reading, and conversation in the modern (Mandarin) language for non-native speakers. Native speakers may not take this course.

CHN 245 – Chinese Popular Culture

Gen Ed: Diversity Emphasis · Gen Ed: Tier 2 Humanities · Gen Ed Attribute: Diversity and Equity · Gen Ed Attribute: World Cultures and Societies · Gen Ed: Exploring Perspectives, Humanist

This course introduces four basic aspects of Chinese popular culture: mass media, everyday life, folklore, and arts. It examines how the development of mass media (print culture, radio, film, television, music, the internet, and social media) reflects changes of Chinese culture, society, and politics since the early 20th century. Moreover, the course discusses how popular culture is practiced in everyday life by exploring such topics as work and employment, labor and migration, leisure and consumption, housing, individual creativity, collective justice, gender, sexuality, and arts.

CHN 301 – Third-Year Chinese I

Advanced conversation, grammar, reading and writing in modern Chinese for non-native speakers. Native speakers may not take this course.

CHN 305 – Global Kung Fu Cinema

Study of Kung Fu Cinema in its relations to the Chinese martial arts tradition with a focus on the context of its rise from a niche film genre to a global cultural phenomenon.

CHN 410B – 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.

CHN 415 – 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.

EAS 160A1 – The Worlds of Buddhism

Gen Ed: Diversity Emphasis · Gen Ed: Tier 1 Traditions and Cultures/160 · Gen Ed Attribute: Writing · Gen Ed Attribute: World Cultures and Societies · Gen Ed: Exploring Perspectives, Humanist

An introduction to Buddhism as both a global religion and an array of cultural traditions, with emphasis on its various forms and development in South, Southeast, and East Asian cultures & history.

EAS 160A3 – Chinese Civilization

Gen Ed: Diversity Emphasis · Gen Ed: Tier 1 Traditions and Cultures/160 · Gen Ed Attribute: World Cultures and Societies · Gen Ed: Exploring Perspectives, Humanist

This course offers an introduction to the Chinese civilization from the earliest times to the end of the 18thcentury. It will cover major historical eras and events, as well as the traditions of thought and practices running through them. Literary and artistic genres will be introduced as means to better understand larger social trends. Students will practice close reading and analysis of historical documents, literary compositions, and cultural artifacts. Through these hands-on engagements, they will get to know the diverse voices and perspectives within the Chinese tradition and explore their contemporary relevance. Absolutely no previous experience with the study of China is necessary. At the same time, we hope to bring new perspectives to those who already have some familiarity with Chinese history and culture.

EAS 201 – Myth, Memory, Mind: Introduction to Traditional East Asia

Gen Ed: Diversity Emphasis · Gen Ed: Tier 2 Humanities · Gen Ed Attribute: Diversity and Equity · Gen Ed Attribute: World Cultures and Societies · Gen Ed: Building Connections

What would it be like to visit China, Japan, and the Korean Peninsula in premodern times? What is East Asian Studies? This course offers an introduction to the histories, cultures, languages and scripts, religions, and literatures of traditional East Asia. It also invites students to participate in the interdisciplinary knowledge production that is East Asian Studies. While we explore what has been historically shared among these East Asian societies, our emphasis is on how East Asia has always been diverse and heterogeneous. We encourage students to debunk the popular myths about East Asia--particularly premodern East Asia--as an exotic and homogeneous place. This will not only inform our understanding of today's East Asia in its historical context, it will also prompt us to actively address the historical legacy of orientalism.

EAS 222 – Introduction to Zen Buddhism

Cross Listed

This course is designed to introduce students to the history,teachings,and practice of Zen Buddhism in China,Japan, Korea and the United States. The course will discuss Zen from a variety of perspectives but will center around the question of the meaning of history. Zen is a tradition of Buddhism that claims to have inherited and to pass on, in an unbroken historical transmission from patriarch to patriarch, the living experience of the Buddha's enlightenment. The course will discuss how Zen's conception of its history is related to its identity as a special tradition within Buddhism, as well as its basic teachings on the primacy of enlightenment, the role of practice, the nature of the mind, and the limitations of language.

EAS 240 – Imagining the Buddha: Images of Buddhism in Asia and the West

Cross Listed · Gen Ed: Diversity Emphasis · Gen Ed: Tier 2 Arts · Gen Ed Attribute: Diversity and Equity · Gen Ed Attribute: World Cultures and Societies · Gen Ed: Exploring Perspectives, Artist

What does it mean to imagine the Buddha? This course guides students in narrating the lives of Buddhist images by tracing their creation and movement in Asia as well as in cultural encounters within Europe and the U.S. Today art critics continue to discuss "Buddhist" elements in the work of iconic artists like Georgia O'Keefe and Mark Rothko, Tibetan mandala coloring books are being used for stress relief, and "Zen" aesthetics inform a broad range of fashion and design platforms. This course provides tools for critically reexamining the categories of "East" and "West" within this cultural moment. Through creative processes such as drawing, writing, and conversation, students interact with diverse imagery such as Chinese painted caves, Himalayan esoteric portraits of enlightened reality, and Japanese temple complexes. They interpret Buddhist texts describing the construction of buddha bodies in art, ritual, and in the mind. Students also engage with the work of contemporary performance artists inspired by Buddhist ideals of discipline and impermanence. Reflecting upon these experiences, students uncover how the categories of "East' and "West" have obscured the understanding of Buddhist art, artists, and communities. They document the ways in which power dynamics of colonialism and Orientalism have been integral to making these categories. In response to their findings, students work together to generate a virtual exhibition reimagining images of Buddhism and telling their stories.

EAS 250 – Hidden Histories of Asian Pacific Americans

Gen Ed Attribute: Diversity and Equity, US · Gen Ed: Exploring Perspectives, Humanist

Asian American Studies is an interdisciplinary field that arose out of the shared concerns of students of Asian and Pacific Islander descent in the United States. Seeing that their universities had neglected Asian Pacific American (APA) perspectives, these students sought courses and research on the contribution of APAs to the United States. Accordingly, this course will introduce neglected and overlooked histories and perspectives of APAs. In the process, we will explore key issues in Asian American politics, racial formation, and culture. Themes includes identity, migration, class, gender, sexuality, panethnicity, youth culture, and social movements. Moreover, the process of unearthing hidden histories will provide practice for students of nearly any background to identify patterns of missing information and to formulate strategies to rediscover it.

EAS 376 – Communist China: History and Narrative

Cross Listed

This course looks at history of post-1949 China from two different perspectives. Students will read "proper" historical texts: political and intellectual essays, government documents, social reports, and scholarly historical monographs. These will be juxtaposed to different forms of narrative construction: movies, novels, and autobiographical accounts. With this integrated approach, the course examines the history of the People's Republic of China but also the continuous interplay between historiography and politics, history and memory, popular culture and learning.

EAS 390 – Asian and Pacific Religions in American Spirituality

Cross Listed · Writing Emphasis Course

Throughout the modern development of what has been called "spirituality" in the United States, Asian Pacific Americans along with Asian and Pacific Islander religions have been integral. In the mid-nineteenth century, Asian Pacific American (APA) immigrants brought their religions, and towards the end of the nineteenth century non-APAs enthusiastically brought APA religious teachers to the mainland United States. In the twentieth century, this mixture of APA people and religions continued to reach new communities and develop into independent US-based religions; eventually, these influenced the emergence of more individualistic, non-traditional forms of religion - popularly called 'spirituality.' These lines of influence crisscrossed over the decades, leading to a complex mixture of interests, investments, discourses, and depictions of different racial groups. As a result, this course's examination of Asian and Pacific religions in US-based spirituality engages questions about its definition in distinction to the term 'religion' and in relationship to the social dynamics of race. The course explores its presence in diverse locations such as medicine, theatre, environmental activism, and children's video games.

EAS 391 – Preceptorship

Specialized work on an individual basis, consisting of instruction and practice in actual service in a department, program, or discipline. Teaching formats may include seminars, in-depth studies, laboratory work and patient study.

EAS 491 – Preceptorship

Specialized work on an individual basis, consisting of instruction and practice in actual service in a department, program, or discipline. Requires faculty member approval, preceptor application on file with department.

EAS 498 – Senior Capstone

A culminating experience for majors involving a substantive senior project that demonstrates a synthesis of learning accumulated in the major, including broadly comprehensive knowledge of the discipline and its methodologies. Student must be in last semester of Senior year to take the class.

EAS 498H – Honors Thesis

Honors Course · Writing Emphasis Course

An honors thesis is required of all the students graduating with honors. Students ordinarily sign up for this course as a two-semester sequence. The first semester the student performs research under the supervision of a faculty member; the second semester the student writes an honors thesis.

JPN 101 – Elementary Japanese

Beginning conversation, grammar, reading and writing in modern Japanese.

JPN 102 – Elementary Japanese

SUN# JPN 1102 - Beginning Japanese II

Beginning conversation, grammar, reading and writing in modern Japanese. Students not in a University of Arizona Japanese class the previous semester must take a placement test.

JPN 201 – Intermediate Japanese

SUN# JPN 2201 - Intermediate Japanese I

Intermediate conversation, grammar, reading and writing in modern Japanese. Students not in a University of Arizona Japanese class the previous semester must take a placement exam.

JPN 202 – Intermediate Japanese

Intermediate conversation, grammar, reading and writing in modern Japanese. Students not in a University of Arizona Japanese class the previous semester must take a placement exam.

JPN 245 – Japanese Popular Culture: Manga, Anime, and So Much More!

Gen Ed: Diversity Emphasis · Gen Ed: Tier 2 Arts · Gen Ed Attribute: Writing · Gen Ed Attribute: World Cultures and Societies · Gen Ed: Exploring Perspectives, Artist

This course will explore contemporary Japanese society by investigating its colorful, dynamic, and rich output of visual culture. More specifically, we will look at manga, cinematic anime, and items of material culture, illustrating how these examples of popular art teach us about the various aspects of life in Japan.

JPN 301 – Advanced Japanese

Advanced conversation, grammar, reading and writing in modern Japanese.

JPN 362A – The Culture of Food and Health in Japan

Cross Listed · Gen Ed: Tier 2 Individuals and Societies · Gen Ed Attribute: Writing · Gen Ed Attribute: World Cultures and Societies · Gen Ed: Building Connections · Writing Emphasis Course

How do we know what is good for us, who gets to decide, and how does "healthy" change over time? This seminar explores these basic questions through the lens of Japanese food culture: the dietary trends, choices, and ideas of proper consumption that help shape the relationship between people's bodies and the world around them. We will discuss how and why "eating right" became such an important issue in Japan from the seventeenth century to the present and ask what the everyday experience of eating can tell us about the core themes, concepts, and events in Japanese and East Asian history. By putting Japanese foodways in conversation with global gastronomy, we will investigate what makes food cultural and what makes it historical. This course welcomes undergraduates of all interests and majors, and no prior knowledge of Japanese language or history is required. Additional materials in East Asian languages will be made available upon request.

JPN 421 – Advanced Practice in Japanese Language

Reading and discussion in Japanese of a variety of advanced-level materials, including newspaper articles, short stories, and poetry.

JPN 436 – Japanese Sociolinguistics

Cross Listed

Introduction to Japanese sociolinguistics: questionnaire studies, variation analysis, ethnography of communication, conversation analysis, interactional sociolinguistics, and language and social interaction.

JPN 446A – Power, Sexuality, and Aesthetics in Early Japanese Literature

Gen Ed: Diversity Emphasis · Writing Emphasis Course

Survey of pre-modern Japanese literature, with readings in English translation: Court literature, to 1330.

KOR 101 – Elementary Korean I

This is the first of two half courses making up a full-year elementary level Korean course that is designed for learners of Korean with no previous (or very limited) knowledge of the language. The objective of the course is to help students to be active Korean language users who are linguistically and culturally equipped to communicate successfully in the 21st century. In order to do so, this course is designed around the five Cs: Communication, Cultures, Connections, Comparisons, and Communities. The course will be conducted using a communicative language teaching approach integrating all four language skills - listening, speaking, reading, and writing - and the five Cs by utilizing the required textbook, workbook, and authentic materials.

This course will first introduce the Korean Alphabet Hangul as well as the sound system of standard Korean. It will focus on writing the Korean alphabet and reading basic words, phrases, and sentences correctly. The latter part of this course will focus on grammatical patterns such as basic sentence structures and word order, assuming that students have no previous (or very limited) knowledge of Korean. In addition, students will be exposed to everyday life situations likely to be encountered in contemporary Korean society.

KOR 201 – Intermediate Korean I

This course is the first part of the intermediate level Korean, and is designed for learners of Korean who have taken KOR 102, second part of Elementary Korean or had basic knowledge in Korean. The objective of the course is to help students to be active Korean language users who are linguistically and culturally equipped to communicate successfully in the 21st century. In order to do so, this course is designed around the five Cs, communication, cultures, connections, comparisons, and communities. The course will be conducted using a communicative language teaching approach integrating all four language skills - listening, speaking, reading, and writing - and the five Cs by utilizing the required textbook, workbook, and authentic materials.

Emphasis is placed on the fundamentals of listening, speaking, reading, and writing. In addition, students will be exposed to everyday life contexts (e.g., language use, culture, etc.) likely to be encountered in contemporary Korean society.

KOR 251 – Introduction to Korea through Films

Gen Ed: Diversity Emphasis · Gen Ed: Tier 2 Humanities

This course offers a thematic introduction to Korea using film as a window to Korean society. Korea has experienced a compressed modernity in reaction to complex international dynamics, which include colonialism, the Cold War, and globalization. Its rich historical and social particularities have been a valuable source for cultural products such as film production. Film enables us to see beyond our own experiences and reflect on our world and other people's lives through various aesthetic mediations. Through the medium of film, students will be able to learn about the country through vivid imagery. This course will also allow students to understand important issues related to class, gender, capitalism, and democracy that our contemporary world is facing using Korean films to illustrate these key concerns.

KOR 275 – History of Korea through 1945

Cross Listed · Gen Ed Attribute: World Cultures and Societies · Gen Ed: Exploring Perspectives, Humanist

This survey-level course introduces students to the history of Korea from early times through 1945. From ancient civilization to the end of Japanese colonial rule, the course examines key moments, figures, and themes that speak to the varied experiences of the people who inhabited the Korean peninsula. Students will explore, apply, and reflect on the humanities perspective by learning about the historical continuities and transformations in Korean society, culture, politics, and government across time. Through a combination of diverse modalities of learning including in-person lectures and discussions and online assignments students will be immersed in humanities methods (esp. history) that connect close readings of primary sources with their historical context. Core questions of the class are related to Korea's place in East Asia, the formations of political orders, the making of identities and cultures from above and below, and the continuities and transformations in Korean society over time.

KOR 301 – Third-Year Korean I

This is the first half of a third-year Korean course designed for students who have successfully completed KOR 202 or have an equivalent intermediate knowledge of Korean. The objective of the course is to facilitate fluency as students expand their knowledge of Korean and become active Korean language users who are linguistically and culturally equipped to communicate successfully in the 21st century. Utilizing the required textbook, workbook, and authentic materials with this aim in mind, this course is designed around the five Cs, communication, culture, connections, comparisons, and communities. Emphasis is placed on the fundamental language skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing, and the course will be conducted using a communicative language teaching approach integrating all four skill areas. It is expected that, by the end of the semester, students will be able to read and communicate fluently on a variety of topics relevant to Korean society.

KOR 319 – Shamans, Martyrs, and Heretics: Religion and the Korean Peninsula

Cross Listed

South Korea today is a religiously pluralistic society, where no single religion claims a significant majority. On the other side of the border, North Korea has banished religion or so people claim. How did this contemporary religious landscape of the Korean peninsula emerge? This course journeys through the history of Korea's philosophical thoughts and religious traditions in tandem with social, political, and cultural transformations on the peninsula from the early kingdoms through the contemporary era, including the Korean diaspora today. Religious and philosophical traditions this course will examine include shamanism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Christianity, and new religious movements, as well as modern political movements with religious personalities.

KOR 352 – Class, Gender, and Family in Korea

Gen Ed: Tier 2 Individuals and Societies · Writing Emphasis Course

This course aims to allow students to learn about Korea using the three focuses of class, gender, and family. Reading ethnographic literature will be a tool to understand how class, gender, and family have been formed in Korea. Korea has transformed from one of the world's poorest agriculturally based countries to a postindustrial country in a very short time period. More than 80% of the entire population redefined itself as middle class, which shows Korean people's strong desire for upward mobility. Family has played an important role in realizing upward mobility and forming a middle-class identity. The gender-division of labor based on the separation between public and private spheres has functioned as an effective system for fast economic development while deepening gender discrimination. Marginalization of women has resulted in the abnormal growth of the private sphere where an extremely competitive education system and real estate speculation have been formed as family strategies for upward mobility. The particularity of Korean modernity can be found in the process of the interwoven formation of class, gender, and family.

KOR 391 – Preceptorship

Specialized work on an individual basis, consisting of instruction and practice in actual service in a department, program, or discipline. Requires faculty member approval, preceptor application on file with department.

KOR 391H – Honors Preceptorship

Honors Course

Specialized work on an individual basis, consisting of instruction and practice in actual service in a department, program, or discipline. Teaching formats may include seminars, in-depth studies, laboratory work and patient study.

KOR 401 – Advanced Korean Language Study I

4th Semester (or beyond) Second Language

This is the first half of the advanced Korean course. This course delves deeper into the intricacies of the Korean language, focusing on advanced grammar, vocabulary, and cultural nuances. Throughout this course, students will immerse themselves in advanced reading materials, engage in in-depth discussions, and create well-structured written compositions, all aimed at fostering proficiency in the four language skills: speaking, listening, reading, and writing. In addition to linguistic competence, this course will also equip students with the cultural knowledge and intercultural communication skills necessary to navigate diverse Korean-speaking contexts, from academic and professional environments to everyday social interactions.

KOR 491 – Preceptorship

Specialized work on an individual basis, consisting of instruction and practice in actual service in a department, program, or discipline. Requires faculty member approval, preceptor application on file with department.

KOR 491H – Honors Preceptorship

Honors Course

Specialized work on an individual basis, consisting of instruction and practice in actual service in a department, program, or discipline. Teaching formats may include seminars, in-depth studies, laboratory work and patient study.

CHN 102 – Elementary Chinese

Introduction to modern spoken and written Chinese (Mandarin) for non-native speakers. Native speakers may not take this course.

CHN 102 – Elementary Chinese

Special Exam Credit Only

Introduction to modern spoken and written Chinese (Mandarin) for non-native speakers. Native speakers may not take this course.

CHN 251 – New Chinese Cinema

Cross Listed

Introduces students to contemporary Chinese films and studies the role of cinema as historiography and ethnography.

EAS 160A1 – The Worlds of Buddhism

Gen Ed: Diversity Emphasis · Gen Ed: Tier 1 Traditions and Cultures/160 · Gen Ed Attribute: Writing · Gen Ed Attribute: World Cultures and Societies · Gen Ed: Exploring Perspectives, Humanist

An introduction to Buddhism as both a global religion and an array of cultural traditions, with emphasis on its various forms and development in South, Southeast, and East Asian cultures & history.

EAS 160A5 – Languages and Cultures of East Asia

Gen Ed: Diversity Emphasis · Gen Ed: Tier 1 Traditions and Cultures/160 · Gen Ed Attribute: Writing · Gen Ed Attribute: World Cultures and Societies · Gen Ed: Exploring Perspectives, Social Scientist

This course will explore the social, historical, and linguistic aspects of the languages and cultures of East Asia and how they have changed over time, drawing from anthropology, linguistics, sociology, and history.

EAS 376 – Communist China: History and Narrative

Cross Listed

This course looks at history of post-1949 China from two different perspectives. Students will read "proper" historical texts: political and intellectual essays, government documents, social reports, and scholarly historical monographs. These will be juxtaposed to different forms of narrative construction: movies, novels, and autobiographical accounts. With this integrated approach, the course examines the history of the People's Republic of China but also the continuous interplay between historiography and politics, history and memory, popular culture and learning.

EAS 391 – Preceptorship

Specialized work on an individual basis, consisting of instruction and practice in actual service in a department, program, or discipline. Teaching formats may include seminars, in-depth studies, laboratory work and patient study.

EAS 391H – Honors Preceptorship

Honors Course

Specialized work on an individual basis, consisting of instruction and practice in actual service in a department, program, or discipline. Teaching formats may include seminars, in-depth studies, laboratory work and patient study.

EAS 491 – Preceptorship

Specialized work on an individual basis, consisting of instruction and practice in actual service in a department, program, or discipline. Requires faculty member approval, preceptor application on file with department.

EAS 491H – Honors Preceptorship

Honors Course

Specialized work on an individual basis, consisting of instruction and practice in actual service in a department, program, or discipline. Teaching formats may include seminars, in-depth studies, laboratory work and patient study.

JPN 101 – Elementary Japanese

Beginning conversation, grammar, reading and writing in modern Japanese.

JPN 102 – Elementary Japanese

SUN# JPN 1102 - Beginning Japanese II

Beginning conversation, grammar, reading and writing in modern Japanese. Students not in a University of Arizona Japanese class the previous semester must take a placement test.

JPN 220 – Nature, Gods, and Zen: Religion in Japanese Society

Cross Listed · Gen Ed: Diversity Emphasis · Gen Ed: Tier 2 Humanities · Gen Ed Attribute: Diversity and Equity · Gen Ed Attribute: Writing · Gen Ed: Building Connections

This course analyzes the history of religions in Japan and the ways in which "Japanese religion" is portrayed in the contemporary world. In particular, the course examines how issues of race, ethnicity, and equity manifest in Western representations of Japanese religion, which is often essentialized, exoticized, and interpreted through a series of cultural stereotypes as the perpetual "Other" in relation to the West. In order to approach this central theme, the course adopts the disciplinary perspectives of Religious Studies, History, and Asian Studies, all of which will be synthesized through a number of writing exercises to allow for a robust analysis of Japanese religious history and practices in the original context of Japan as well as their portrayals in the West, as evident in such outlets as newspaper articles, travel guides, blogs, and YouTube clips, among others. By taking this course, students will be able to integrate multiple disciplinary perspectives to write analytically on the historical significance of Japanese religion as well as questions of race, ethnicity, and equity in representations of Japanese religion in various contexts.

KOR 101 – Elementary Korean I

This is the first of two half courses making up a full-year elementary level Korean course that is designed for learners of Korean with no previous (or very limited) knowledge of the language. The objective of the course is to help students to be active Korean language users who are linguistically and culturally equipped to communicate successfully in the 21st century. In order to do so, this course is designed around the five Cs: Communication, Cultures, Connections, Comparisons, and Communities. The course will be conducted using a communicative language teaching approach integrating all four language skills - listening, speaking, reading, and writing - and the five Cs by utilizing the required textbook, workbook, and authentic materials.

This course will first introduce the Korean Alphabet Hangul as well as the sound system of standard Korean. It will focus on writing the Korean alphabet and reading basic words, phrases, and sentences correctly. The latter part of this course will focus on grammatical patterns such as basic sentence structures and word order, assuming that students have no previous (or very limited) knowledge of Korean. In addition, students will be exposed to everyday life situations likely to be encountered in contemporary Korean society.

KOR 102 – Elementary Korean II

This is the second of two half courses making up a full-year elementary level Korean course is designed for learners of Korean with a very limited knowledge of the language. The course will be delivered using a communicative language approach to teaching all four language skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. In addition, the five Cs (Communication, Culture, Connections, Comparisons, and Communities) will be used to facilitate learning. By combining the contents of the textbooks and workbooks with carefully chosen authentic learning materials, this course will strive to assist students to be proactive in their learning of the Korean language.

This course will encompass six of the most common contexts that learners of Korean will encounter in daily life: The Weekend, In Seoul, Birthdays, At a Professor's Office, Living in a Dormitory, and Family. By exploring given dialogues along with related vocabulary and grammatical points, students will learn how they can interact with Korean speakers in each setting. Students will also be introduced to various cultural aspects such as National Holidays in Korea, How to Get Around in a Korean City, Age and Birthdays, Korean Music, Traditional Attire, and How to Address others in the Korean Hierarchical System. In addition, this course will provide students with an opportunity to practice different ways to conjugate verbs as well as to utilize casual connectives.

KOR 245 – K-pop, Webtoons, Ethnic Food, and More: Understanding Korean Popular Culture

Gen Ed: Diversity Emphasis · Gen Ed: Tier 2 Individuals and Societies · Gen Ed Attribute: World Cultures and Societies · Gen Ed: Exploring Perspectives, Humanist

In this course, we will explore our contemporary world through the lens of popular culture that has saturated our everyday life. In so many ways, we are spectators, be it movies, TV shows, popular music, animation, video games, etc. Sometimes, we go beyond being just spectators and actively engage in producing, circulating, and re- creating such cultural forms as fans or users. How does popular culture affect the way in which we see our world and define who we are? How do the values of cultural industries become the dominant economic logic of our era? How does popular culture interact with politics? This course will allow us to explore these questions. The focus on Korea will offer us unique contexts in which we situate our questions and answers. We will use our personal experiences as motivation to delve deeper into this topic and consider an extensive range of Korean pop culture from music to drama, cinema, online gaming, and Internet culture.