Courses
This course offers a comprehensive overview of Korean history, politics, and culture encompassing premodern, modern, and contemporary times. Through primary and secondary materials, students will learn about the formation of Korea as a complex interplay of dynastic changes, wars, colonialism, rapid modernization, migrations, and minority and diasporic politics. We will approach the study of Korea through a cultural studies perspective, paying close attention to systems of power, ideology, gender, race, and class.
Distribution Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences
AS Foundational Abilities: Culture and Aesthetics (FA3), Citizens and Society (FA4)
This survey course introduces students to major events and themes addressed in Korean literature and film such as: Japanese colonialism, modernity, capitalism, the Korean War, rapid industrialization, postmodernity, immigration, transnational adoption, and more. Students will examine the role of literature and film in the development of the nation and the depiction of the Korean and Korean-diasporic subject as a complex set of intersecting social identities that contend with race, class, and gender.
Distribution Area: Humanities
AS Foundational Abilities: Writing and Communication (FA1), Culture and Aesthetics (FA3), Citizens and Society (FA4)
Writing Intensive
This seminar introduces students to the phenomenon of migration in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan from theoretical, empirical, and comparative perspectives. The objectives of the course are to understand the 1) historical context behind present-day migrations in East Asia; 2) different patterns of migration flows and their consequences on receiving countries; 3) various theoretical frameworks for migration. The course is divided into three parts. In the first part, the course will examine theoretical approaches to migration, structured around the question of whether East Asia as a region represents a distinct model of migration. In the second, students will explore the empirical cases in greater detail by comparing and contrasting the different types of migrations. The third part addresses the responses to migration by host governments and societies and the implications of migration on citizenship and identity. Recommended Course Background: any class related to the history or politics of Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and/or China.
Distribution Area: Humanities
AS Foundational Abilities: Culture and Aesthetics (FA3), Citizens and Society (FA4)
EN Foundational Abilities: Creative Expression (FA3), Engagement with Society (FA4)
This course aims to inspire students to explore the impacts, meanings, and explanations of social transformation in contemporary China, via the lens of documentary photography. The photographic images of selective topics will include the products of photojournalism and documentary photography, and several documentary films, by both Chinese and non-Chinese photographers. While one picture is worth thousand words, one picture may also provoke countless interpretations. Students are strongly encouraged to read broadly about different aspects of social transformations in contemporary China, and to select and curate their own subjects of photo images. The spirit of comparative study of documentary photography of China and other parts of world will be strongly encouraged. Active class participation is imperative. A small exhibition on the campus will be organized by the Spring semester. The course is designed for upper division undergraduates. Cross-listed with Sociology and International Studies (CP).
Distribution Area: Social and Behavioral Sciences
AS Foundational Abilities: Writing and Communication (FA1), Culture and Aesthetics (FA3)
Writing Intensive
This course is a broad survey of what leadership looks like in China. The main through-line of the course is the how China’s leaders navigate the often challenging terrain between constraints and incentives, on the one hand, and opportunities to apply their own individual agency. We will explore the state as the arena in which all this takes place over time (to explore continuity and change) and across space (to explore adaptation and innovation). The course does not presume prior knowledge of China or Chinese language, but students new to the study of China are encouraged to pay special attention to the cumulative nature of the course and invest in the readings, particularly in the first four weeks. Although some of the themes of this course may minimally overlap with/reinforce other Chinese politics courses offered at JHU, the approach to this class will be significantly different.
Distribution Area: Social and Behavioral Sciences
AS Foundational Abilities: Culture and Aesthetics (FA3), Citizens and Society (FA4)
China’s turbulent 20th century was marked by social and political upheavals, wars, and economic hardship. Women writers played an important role in documenting these events. How did women experience and understand their historical context? How were their experiences and interpretations different from (or similar to) those of their male counterparts? This course will search modern China’s mind through women’s writings. Students will read works by women writers of the “long 20th century” (roughly 1890s-2020s) including, but not limited to, Ding Ling, Xiao Hong, Zhang Ailing, and Zhang Jie. We will engage in close readings of their literary works in context of their life experiences, considering key themes such as women’s identity and agency, nationalism, revolution, and social reform as well as new and changing gender norms. Basic knowledge of modern Chinese history helpful but not required.
Distribution Area: Humanities
AS Foundational Abilities: Culture and Aesthetics (FA3), Citizens and Society (FA4)
EN Foundational Abilities: Creative Expression (FA3), Engagement with Society (FA4)
The global political and security landscape of the 21st century will be shaped by the rivalry between two superpowers -- China and the U.S. For the foreseeable future, the geographic focus of that contest will be Southeast Asia and the surrounding maritime space, particularly the South China Sea. Southeast Asia is a complex, highly differentiated region of ten-plus nations, each with its own unique history and relationship with China. This course will introduce Southeast Asia as a key region -- geographically, economically, and strategically -- often overlooked by policymakers and scholars. It will also focus on the craft of national security strategy as the best tool for understanding the multi-sided competition, already well underway involving China, the U.S., and the Southeast Asian states.
Distribution Area: Social and Behavioral Sciences
AS Foundational Abilities: Culture and Aesthetics (FA3), Citizens and Society (FA4)
EN Foundational Abilities: Creative Expression (FA3), Engagement with Society (FA4)
We will read arguments, anecdotes and stories, beginning with the philosophers of the ancient period, including the imaginative paradigms of the Daoist writer Zhuangzi, and continue with the strange writings allied with shamanism and goddess-worship. We will continue with the fantastical writers of the medieval world and finish with anecdotes of the strange from the Ming and Qing. Because this is a language as well as a literature class, in addition to literary content and social history as background, we will emphasize grammar and vocabulary. Class preparation will require language exercises, translations, readings in English and there will be a final translation/research paper.
Prerequisite(s): (AS.373.115 AND AS.373.116) OR (AS.373.111 AND AS.373.112) OR (AS.378.115 OR AS.378.116) or Instructor permission.
Distribution Area: Humanities
AS Foundational Abilities: Culture and Aesthetics (FA3)
Eurasia, stretching from the Western Europe across Russia, Central Asia, and China to the Pacific, is by far the largest continent on earth, with a massive share of global population, economic output, and key natural resources. It has been traditionally Balkanized. Yet since the late 1970s, due to China’s modernizations, the collapse of the Soviet Union, and a series of global geo-economic shocks, the nations of this Super Continent have become increasingly interactive, creating fluid new trans-regional political-economic patterns that remain remarkably unexplored. This course explores the critical junctures that made Eurasia the dynamic, growing colossus that it is becoming today, as well as the global implications, from a unique problem-oriented perspective. It looks first at the developmental and political challenges confronting China, Russia, and key European states as the Cold War waned, how the key nations coped, and how they might have evolved differently. It then considers the new challenges of the post-Cold War world, and how national and local leaders are responding today. Particular attention is given, in this problem—centric approach, to the challenges that growing Eurasian continental connectivity, epitomized in China’s Belt and Road Initiative, are creating for US foreign policy and for the grand strategy of American allies in NATO, Japan, and Korea. Note: Some familiarity with Eurasian history and/or politics is recommended
Distribution Area: Social and Behavioral Sciences
AS Foundational Abilities: Writing and Communication (FA1), Culture and Aesthetics (FA3), Citizens and Society (FA4)
Writing Intensive
Utilizing an interdisciplinary approach, this course examines the role that gender and sexuality play within primarily the South Korean polity and in Asia. Drawing on queer studies, feminist studies, and critical Asian studies, the class will offer a foundational framework from which to analyze how social constructs around gender and sexuality play a major part in the marginalization of communities and their access to rights and representation. We will explore questions of kinship, family, love, and intimacy as they pertain to the larger thematics of the course.
Distribution Area: Social and Behavioral Sciences
AS Foundational Abilities: Writing and Communication (FA1), Culture and Aesthetics (FA3), Citizens and Society (FA4)
Writing Intensive
Urban China has gone through two major social transformations since 1949: the embrace of a central planning socialist system between early 1950s and late 70s, and the embrace of neo-liberal market economy in the so-call “socialism with Chinese characteristics” since 1980. While the political regime remains the same over time, many profound changes have occurred in economic life, social life, cultural life, spiritual life and civil life. What really happened in the social transformation of urban China? What would explain those changes? How did people in different walk of life deal with those huge and deep social transformation? To address these concerns, we will exam a list of issues. Topics includes changes in population and demographic characteristics, employment structure and job market, workplace and residential communities, income and wealth distributions, segregation impacts of urban household registration systems, urban consumption patterns, courting cultures and dressing codes, spiritual practices, and social mobility and social stratifications. In the realm of public policies, we will pay special attentions to the issues of transportation, housing, medical service, public education, social insurance, and environmental protection. We will also study the characteristics of contentious politics and how social conflicts of power, interest, justice, cultural and belief were processed in urban China.
Distribution Area: Social and Behavioral Sciences
AS Foundational Abilities: Writing and Communication (FA1), Citizens and Society (FA4)
Writing Intensive
Drawing on critical race theory, and gender and sexuality studies, this course provides the analytical framework necessary to grapple with how belonging and difference are produced, manifested, and challenged within Korea’s citizenry. Students will gain knowledge on modern Korea and its diasporas and examine its construction as one rooted in a history of empire, nationalism, militarism, and neoliberalism.
Distribution Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences
AS Foundational Abilities: Writing and Communication (FA1), Culture and Aesthetics (FA3), Citizens and Society (FA4), Democracy (FA4.1)
Writing Intensive
This course explores the transformation of labor relations in China over the past century. It will cover the origins of the labor movement, the changes brought about by the 1949 Revolution, the industrial battles of the Cultural Revolution, the traumatic restructuring of state-owned enterprises over the past two decades, the rise of private enterprise and export-oriented industry, the conditions faced by migrant workers today, and recent developments in industrial relations and labor conflict. The course is designed for upper division undergraduates and graduate students. Cross-listed with Sociology and International Studies (CP).
Distribution Area: Social and Behavioral Sciences
AS Foundational Abilities: Writing and Communication (FA1), Culture and Aesthetics (FA3), Citizens and Society (FA4)
Writing Intensive
This interdisciplinary survey course considers questions related to women and gender in Chinese society. Taking a long historical view, the course examines ideologies, social institutions, and literary representations of women and gender in traditional society and their modern transformation. Specific topics to be explored include the concept of Yin and Yang, Confucian gender ideology and the family, sex and sexuality, marriage and concubinage, footbinding, and calls for women's liberation in the context of twentieth-century Chinese revolutions. The course will end with an examination of the relationship between social media and gender politics as seen through the Chinese MeToo movement. Students will have the opportunity to work with a variety of primary sources including historical, literary, and visual materials.
Distribution Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences
AS Foundational Abilities: Culture and Aesthetics (FA3), Citizens and Society (FA4)
EN Foundational Abilities: Creative Expression (FA3), Engagement with Society (FA4)
This seminar explores the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and government responses on a range of human rights in Asia, with a focus on the cases of China, Japan, Taiwan, India, South Korea, and Myanmar. In the first part of the course, we will investigate the fundamentals of the international human rights system, the foundational Universal Declaration of Human Rights and core human rights treaties, and the role of civil society in protecting, defending , and advancing human rights. We will then explore the United Nations’ human rights-based guidance for Covid-19 response and prevention, the right to health, and approaches to the balancing of rights and duties, including freedom of movement, freedoms of association and assembly, individuals’ right to health and duties to others, the right to education, rights to privacy, freedom of expression, right to information (and the problem of disinformation) and governments’ emergency powers (and their limits) to protect public health. Inequities and discrimination exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic will also be discussed, as will the necessity for international cooperation to effectively battle Covid-19 and vaccine inequity.
Distribution Area: Social and Behavioral Sciences
AS Foundational Abilities: Writing and Communication (FA1), Culture and Aesthetics (FA3), Citizens and Society (FA4), Democracy (FA4.1)
Writing Intensive
We will try to get a quick overview of the recent history of patriarchy in China, South Korea, and Japan from the mid-twentieth century to our present and then compare the initiatives of feminists to transform the lives of women throughout these three societies. We will also debate whether or how it makes sense to adapt the Western notions of patriarchy and sexism as well as the Western political program of feminism to the non-Western context of East Asia by reading books by historians, anthropologists, and sociologists.
Distribution Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences
AS Foundational Abilities: Citizens and Society (FA4), Ethics and Foundations (FA5)
EN Foundational Abilities: Engagement with Society (FA4)
You will learn about the efforts of ordinary, non-elite Muslims to shape the relation between their communities and the state as well as to (where applicable) the non-Muslim majority through collective organizing over the last forty years. We will read and discuss books by anthropologists, historians, and sociologists studying Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, China, Malaysia, and Indonesia.
Distribution Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences
AS Foundational Abilities: Citizens and Society (FA4), Ethics and Foundations (FA5)
EN Foundational Abilities: Engagement with Society (FA4)
Ever since the Chinese Empire fell in 1911, Chinese have tried to think of themselves as modern and to build a modern Chinese state. Among the Western concepts that Chinese appropriated to define and comprehend themselves were the notions of ethnicity, culture, nationality, and race. We will try to answer the following questions: What was the allure of arcane and elusive Western categories on culture, ethnicity, and race for Chinese scientists in the 20th century, and how did these categories come to underpin the rule of the Chinese state over its enormous population since the founding of the People’s Republic in 1949? How have the Chinese state’s policies on nationality and ethnicity shaped the minds of American China scholars as they study ethnicity and nationality in China?
Distribution Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences
AS Foundational Abilities: Culture and Aesthetics (FA3), Citizens and Society (FA4)
EN Foundational Abilities: Creative Expression (FA3), Engagement with Society (FA4)
Diplomacy can occur in several forms, or “tracks,” that engage a range of actors critical to managing or changing state to state relations. In an increasingly complex geopolitical environment, formal government to government diplomacy, or Track 1, can be constrained by various political realities in an increasingly complex geostrategic environment. In East Asia in particular, maintaining peace and security despite the state of formal diplomatic relations is crucial, given the high prospects of nuclear use in case of war. Finding ways to overcome these challenges, creating an environment more conducive for Track 1 to restart or expand, and establishing channels of communication in the absence of Track 1 relations is often done through nongovernmental actors in a number of ways. This course will examine the role of multitrack diplomacy, both past and present, in engaging both allies and adversaries in East Asia, to help build understanding and trust, explore potential pathways forward, and help prevent conflict in this vital and dynamic region. It will examine case studies of US efforts to engage China and North Korea, strategic dialogues with US allies in the region, and broader multilateral efforts in the region, focused on how these approaches have fed into or helped support formal diplomatic processes.
AS Foundational Abilities: Writing and Communication (FA1), Citizens and Society (FA4)
EN Foundational Abilities: Engagement with Society (FA4)
Writing Intensive
This class will explore the construction of race and its applications in Asia and its diasporas. Using the notion of “mixed-race” as an analytic, we will examine how the colonial origins of race and the ensuing Cold War have influenced concepts of national identity and belonging. Employing an inter-sectional approach towards race, gender, and sexuality, the course will draw on a variety of media including memoirs, archives, and videos, to contemplate the locus of race and mixed-race and their importance within the larger nexus of identity formation in Asia and its diasporas.
Distribution Area: Social and Behavioral Sciences
AS Foundational Abilities: Writing and Communication (FA1), Culture and Aesthetics (FA3), Citizens and Society (FA4)
Writing Intensive
On 13 October 2022, a middle-aged upper-middle class Chinese man staged a public political protest on an elevated road in Beijing. Peng Lifa, or “Bridge Man,” as he has become known in allusion to Tank Man from the Tiananmen demonstrations in 1989, demanded elections and reforms. How have urban Chinese been able to be so content or even happy despite their lack of political freedom? The class readings will introduce you to different kinds of activists who have confronted the authoritarian state since the late 1990s, among them human rights lawyers, reporters, environmental activists, feminists, religious activists, and labor activists. We will ask whether freedom, an obviously Western notion, is useful as an analytical category to think about China. Does freedom translate across the West/non-West divide?
Distribution Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences
AS Foundational Abilities: Citizens and Society (FA4), Ethics and Foundations (FA5)
EN Foundational Abilities: Engagement with Society (FA4)
We will examine modern Korean culture through short stories and a series of films associated with New Korean Cinema. One aim of the course is to gain a sense of history from which the literary and cinematic artifacts obtain their representative artistic status. A second aim is to inquire into the relationship between written and filmic texts in order to articulate what the limits and advantages are of that specific medium. No prior familiarity with Korean language is expected.
Distribution Area: Humanities
AS Foundational Abilities: Culture and Aesthetics (FA3), Citizens and Society (FA4)
EN Foundational Abilities: Creative Expression (FA3), Engagement with Society (FA4)
This course will survey the major issues of development and social change in rural China since 1950s. These issues will be addressed in chronological order. They include land ownership and land grabbing, organization of rural economic, political, and social life, rural elections and village governance, development strategies, urban-rural relationship in resource allocation, rural modernization strategies in regard to irrigation, clean drinking water, electricity supply, hard paved road, education and rural medical service, women’s rights and family life, rural consumption, and etc. This course will prepare students, both empirically and analytically, to understand what happened in rural China from 1949 to the present, and how we can engage in policy and theoretical discussions based on what we learn.
Distribution Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences
AS Foundational Abilities: Citizens and Society (FA4), Ethics and Foundations (FA5)
The East Asian Studies Senior Honors Thesis Seminar is a workshop for EAS majors writing an honors thesis. It is a year-long course with meetings scheduled in both the fall and spring semesters. Please note that in order to qualify for honors in the major, the thesis must receive a final grade of A- or better. Students will receive credit for the seminar regardless of whether their thesis qualifies for honors.
Distribution Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences
AS Foundational Abilities: Writing and Communication (FA1), Citizens and Society (FA4), Projects and Methods (FA6)
EN Foundational Abilities: Engagement with Society (FA4)
Writing Intensive
This course is the continuation of Senior Thesis Course AS.360.431 for students completing their thesis in the East Asian Studies program.
Prerequisite(s): AS.310.431
Distribution Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences
AS Foundational Abilities: Writing and Communication (FA1), Citizens and Society (FA4), Projects and Methods (FA6)
EN Foundational Abilities: Engagement with Society (FA4)
Writing Intensive
Students carry out an independent research project involving East Asia.
Prerequisite(s): You must request Customized Academic Learning using the Customized Academic Learning form found in Student Self-Service: Registration > Online Forms.
AS Foundational Abilities: Writing and Communication (FA1), Citizens and Society (FA4), Projects and Methods (FA6)
EN Foundational Abilities: Engagement with Society (FA4)
Writing Intensive