Fall 2024
All of these courses will provide an excellent introduction to incoming students to the field of Asian Studies:
Asian Languages & Cultures (ASIAN)
Asian Studies Course – Open to Freshman – Join us!
ASIAN 100: Revolutionary Asia (3 cr.) with Professor tyrell Haberkorn. Level/Breadth: Humanities, Elementary
What is revolution? What does it mean to imagine and make the world anew? What tools and strategies do revolutionaries use as they remake the world? Throughout the twentieth century communists, anarchists, students, and women struggled throughout Asia to make new societies in contrast to existing monarchy, colonialism and authoritarianism. Some revolutions succeeded in capturing state power, such as Mao and the Chinese Communist Party, whereas some failed, such as early anarchists across East and Southeast Asia, and others were brutally repressed, such as the Communist Party of Indonesia. Some succeeded in forging more just societies, whereas others reconsolidated repression.
In this course, we will collectively think through and across the region, from Vietnam to China to Nepal and beyond, and query what different kinds of worlds revolutionaries imagined, built, and were unable to build.
We begin by questioning the meaning of revolution and grounding ourselves in our present and considering what this means for our study of revolutions past and present. Then, Roughly chronological, we begin in the early twentieth century with the globalized imaginings and writings of anarchists in China and Vietnam. We will criss-cross the region by reading primary theoretical, party and movement texts; memoirs of those involved in revolutionary struggles; writings by outside supporters and critics; and academic analysis. As we read and think, we will pay attention to how struggles were imagined and lived, what roles were played by ideology [and which ideologies], and how the individual, movement, power, nation, and globe acquired meaning and were transformed. Who are the figures behind revolutionary ideas and movements? Why are states and other repressive powers so afraid of dissent, and what strategies have they used to suppress movements? What do success and failure mean, how might they be assessed, and do they change over time? Underlying our reading, conversations, and writing will also be a reflection on the very category of our analysis: revolution. What does it mean, and has it changed over time? And, always, the personal inflection of the question: are you a revolutionary?
This course is required for the Asian Languages & Cultures majors including East Asian Studies, South Asian Studies, and Southeast Asian Studies majors.
ASIAN 218: Health and Healing in South Asia (3 credits) with Professor Antony Cerulli. Level/Breadth: Humanities, Elementary
Are you interested in how people in South Asian societies have understood and expressed ideas about health and healing throughout history? Would you like to explore some of the ways that health and illness have been understood in South Asian history, literature, and religions and how ideas about health and illness have driven models of treatment for ailing bodies? If so, this class is perfect for you! We will learn about some of the traditional healing systems of South Asia and study what they have prescribed to cure sickness and maintain good health. All semester we will reflect on how illness sometimes functions as a metaphor for other things in society and how ideas about disease affect people’s experiences of being ill. We will also probe the ways that some people in South Asia have imagined sickness and health in relation to larger social norms and institutions, such as sex/gender, class/caste, and religion.
This course is an elective option for the Asian Languages & Cultures majors including the South Asian Studies major.
ASIAN 236: Asia Enchanted: Gods, Ghosts, and Monsters (3 credits) with Assistant Professor Jamal Jones. Level/Breadth: Com B, Humanities, Elementary
Explores how different cultures in Asia conceive of and relate to the monstrous, ghostly, and divine, both in the past and in the contemporary world. These themes are approached from a range of different disciplinary perspectives, including religious studies, literature, anthropology, and history.
This course is an elective option for the Asian Languages & Cultures majors including East Asian Studies, South Asian Studies, and Southeast Asian Studies majors; and Chinese and Japanese majors.
ASIAN 253: Japanese Popular Culture (3 credits) with Associate Professor Steve Ridgley. Level/Breadth: Humanities, Elementary
An introduction to the culture, life-styles and thought of the Japanese people, with frequent reference to their history, literature and art.
This course is an elective option for the Asian Languages & Cultures majors including the East Asian Studies major; Japanese major, and Japanese Professional Communication certificate.
ASIAN 254: Korean Pop Culture (3 credits) with Assistant Professor Grace Jung. Level/Breadth: Humanities, Elementary
Critically engages with Korean popular culture in order to explore how an arena often dismissed as “mere entertainment” can act as an indicator of cultural values and a producer of cultural meaning. Treats works of popular culture as important economic, political, and social texts and asks us to reflect on how the production and consumption of popular culture shapes, and is shaped by, our lived experiences. Explores what popular culture says about society and, conversely, what society says about popular culture
This course is an elective option for the Asian Languages & Cultures majors including the East Asian Studies major.
ASIAN 255: Introduction to East Asian Civilization (3 credits) with Assistant Professor Anatoly Detwyler. Level/Breadth: Humanities or Social Science, Elementary
Multidisciplinary and historical perspectives on the East Asian civilizations of China, Japan, Korea, Tibet and Mongolia from prehistory to the present, including developments in philosophy, political economy, governance, social structure, kinship, geography, gender relations, literature and art. As a gateway to further East Asian studies, this course also showcases cutting-edge research on East Asia and class visits from UW faculty, along with guided exploration of East Asia-related resources at the Library. The final project involves designing and developing a playable game that is topically based on some specific facet of cultural or historical development involving East Asia.
This course is an elective option for the Asian Languages & Cultures majors including the East Asian Studies major, Chinese and Japanese major, and Chinese or Japanese Professional Communication certificate.
ASIAN 274: Religion in South Asia (3 credits). Assistant Professor Jamal Jones. Level/Breadth: Com B, Humanities, Elementary
Introductory survey of Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Sikhism, etc., and an examination of the cultural, historical, ritual, and philosophical foundations of South Asian religion.
This course is an elective option for the Asian Languages & Cultures majors including the South Asian Studies major.
Asian Languages & Cultures: Languages (ASIALANG)
Our department only offers first semester language class in the fall term. If you have prior experience in the language, you will need to complete a placement test for permission to join another level of language courses.
Beginning Language Students may enroll directly into the following classes:
Chinese – ASIALANG 101: First Semester Chinese (4 credits)
Filipino – ASIALANG 123: First Semester Filipino (4 credits)
Hindi – ASIALANG 133: First Semester Hindi (4 credits)
Hmong – ASIALANG 125: First Semester Hmong (4 credits)
Indonesian – ASIALANG 127: First Semester Indonesian (4 credits)
Japanese – ASIALANG 103: First Semester Japanese (4 credits)
Korean – ASIALANG 105: Elementary Korean I (4 credits)
Persian – ASIALANG 137: First Semester Persian (4 credits)
Thai – ASIALANG 129: First Semester Thai (4 credits)
Tibetan – ASIALANG 135: First Semester Tibetan (4 credits)
Urdu – ASIALANG 139: First Semester Urdu (4 credits)
Vietnamese – ASIALANG 131: First Semester Vietnamese (4 credits)