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Number
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Course
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Instructor
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Department
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May also fulfill:
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ANTHRO 1707
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Ethnic Studies, Anthropology, and the Transpacific Ethnography of Asian America
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Garza
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ANTHRO
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By foregrounding scholarship that traverses ethnic studies, Asian American studies, and anthropology, this course is designed to highlight the ways that histories of minoritized groups overlap and are connected. The selected texts are primarily ethnographic works which explore the following themes: intersectional and transnational approaches to race and gender; histories of empire and settler colonialism; gendered and classed labor; historical and ongoing political struggle and solidarity; citizenship, community, and belonging.
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CHNSE 187
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Art and Violence in the Cultural Revolution
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Tian
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EALC
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100-level EALC course
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Examines the cultural implications of the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). We will examine how art was violent towards people and how violence was turned into an art. We will also consider the link between violence, trauma, memory and writing. Materials include memoir, fiction, essay, "revolutionary Peking Opera," and film. Lectures and most readings in Chinese. Discussions in Chinese. Counts toward Language Citation in Modern Chinese.
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CHNSHIS 113
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Life and Death in Late Imperial China: Social History of the 10th to 19th Centuries
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Szonyi
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EALC
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100-level EALC course; historical survey course
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This course is a survey of the social and cultural history of China from the Song to the mid-Qing (roughly from 1000 to 1800). The main topics discussed include urbanization and commerce; gender; family and kinship; education and the examination system, and religion and ritual. The main goal of the course will be to explore the relationship between social and cultural changes and political and intellectual developments.
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CHNSHIS 142
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Cultural History of the Late Ming and Early Qing
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Bol
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EALC
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100-level EALC course
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Examines tensions and innovations in philosophy, literature, art, scholarship, and religion during the late Ming and early Qing (1570-1680).
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CHNSHIS 229R
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*Ming Intellectual History
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Bol
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EALC
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Upper-level seminar
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Examines various intellectual texts and movements during the Ming dynasty. Prerequisite: Knowledge of literary Chinese
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CHNSHIS 235R
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*Topics in Warring States History: Seminar
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Puett
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EALC
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Upper-level seminar
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Close reading of texts from the Warring States period.
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CHNSHIS 246
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*Modern History of Rural China: Proseminar
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Szonyi
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EALC
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Upper-level EALC course
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China’s transformation over the last century from a predominantly rural society to an increasingly urban one is one of the most significant changes in the history of the modern world, and one that has enormous implications for the future of humanity. As a subject of scholarly enquiry, understanding this transformation is essential to a full understanding of modern Chinese history, to an appreciation of how China’s modern historical experience is distinctive (and not), and to an informed understanding of many political claims made about contemporary China. The first half of the course is oriented around a set of historiographical debates; the second around some productive approaches to future scholarship.
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CHNSLIT 134
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Strange Tales: The Supernatural in Chinese Literature
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Kelly
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EALC
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100-level EALC course
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This course introduces students to traditional Chinese literature by focusing on “tales of the strange.” We will examine how ghosts, demons, fox spirits, and other liminal creatures haunt the literary imagination, stretching the possibilities of storytelling. Students will gain familiarity with masterpieces of Chinese literature and their intriguing afterlives in performance, film, and popular culture. We will focus on developing skills in close reading, while critically engaging theories of the “strange.” No background in Chinese is required.
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CHNSLIT 236
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*China's Banned Book: Reading Jin Ping Mei (Conference Course)
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Kelly
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EALC
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100-level EALC course
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This course will introduce students to the controversial masterpiece of Chinese fiction, The Plum in the Golden Vase (Jin Ping Mei). Censored for its erotic content, this sensational book had a profound impact on the development of Chinese fiction, shifting attention away from worthy heroes to examine the everyday exploits and desires of ordinary people, and revelling in sensory excess (greed, murder, intoxication, and lust), illustrating the vivid details of Chinese urban life. We will focus on developing skills in close reading, while using this monumental work to survey the flourishing cultural landscape of early modern China. Students with Chinese language skills will be encouraged to read the original text.
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COMPLIT 277
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*Literature, Diaspora, Migration, and Trauma
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Thornber
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COMPLIT
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Upper-level EALC course
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This course examines a diverse range of creative and critical discourses on trauma and the global African; East, South, Southeast, and West Asian (Chinese, Indian, Iranian, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese); and Middle Eastern (Jewish, Palestinian, Lebanese); as well as Latin American diasporas. We focus on the connections among diasporas, displacement, migration, and trauma, and on the relationships of these phenomena to artistic and cultural identities, ethnicity/race, gender/sexuality, inequality, disease/illness/health/disability, religion, postcolonialism, transculturation (including translation), multilingualism, globalization and global history, world literature, and global literatures.
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EABS 255
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*Readings on Chinese Religions: Recent Scholarship on Chinese Buddhism and Daoism: Seminar
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Robson
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EALC
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Upper-level EALC course
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This seminar aims to discuss significant new works in the field of Chinese Religions by focusing on the historical, doctrinal, and philosophical development of the Buddhist tradition in China.
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EASTD 97AB
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Introduction to the Study of East Asia: Issues and Methods
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McCormick
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EALC
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This interdisciplinary and team-taught course provides an introduction to several of the approaches and methods through which the societies and cultures of East Asia can be studied at Harvard, including history, philosophy, literary studies, political science, film studies, anthropology and gender studies. We consider both commonalities and differences across the region, and explore how larger processes of imperialism, modernization, and globalization have shaped contemporary East Asian societies and their future trajectories.
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EASTD 141
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East Asian Religions: Traditions and Transformations
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Robson
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EALC
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100-level EALC course; historical survey course
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This course is designed to enable students to analyze a wide range of Japanese cultural creations - including the traditional Noh theater, classical and modern Japanese paintings, and contemporary anime – by illustrating the influence of Buddhism both in their forms and at their depths. The first part of the course is a study of major Buddhist philosophy and its impact on Japanese literature. The second part observes Buddhist ritual practices and their significance for Japanese performing arts. The last part traces the development of Japanese Buddhist art, and considers the influence of Buddhism on diverse contemporary popular Japanese art media.
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EASTD 143B
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Digital Tools and Methods in East Asian Humanities: Coding Approach
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Tang
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EALC
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100-level EALC course
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This course is designed for students in East Asian Humanities who are interested in adopting digital methods in their research with basic Python coding. It will introduce fundamental programming concepts, SQL and relational databases, popular Python libraries in data cleaning, text analysis, and supervised and unsupervised machine learning. Students completing the course will be able to integrate and apply the Python libraries taught in class into their research and to explore the rapidly growing newcomers without hurdles.
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EASTD 153
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Buddhism, Japanese Arts and Culture
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Abe
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EALC
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100-level EALC course; historical survey course
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Enables students to analyze a wide range of Japanese cultural creations by illustrating the influence of Buddhism both in their forms and at their depths.
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EASTD 198
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Political Parties of East Asia
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Koss
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EALC
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100-level EALC course; Junior Tutorial
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East Asia has been home to an astonishing assortment of political parties, covering the spectrum from democratic to authoritarian institutions, including some of the world’s most sophisticated and resilient political organizations. We begin with China’s Communist Party and its transformation from a revolutionary party to a party in power; then turn to the present day to cover the deep reach of the party into society, the activities and functions of ordinary members, as well as the dynamics of the leading echelons. The second part of the course focuses on Japan, including the origins of political parties in the late 19th century, the post-War emergence of the perennial ruling party, the age of grand money politics under Tanaka Kakuei, the electoral reform of 1993, and the origins of the party’s current strength. The third part consists of case studies, covering contemporary parties in North and South Korea, parties in Taiwan before and after the democratic transition, as well as parties in Malaysia and Vietnam. The course also puts East Asian parties into a comparative perspective to other world regions.
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EASTD 260
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*The Lotus Sutra: Texts, Narratives, and Translations
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Abe
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EALC
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This is a seminar aimed at a small number of advanced graduate students. The Lotus Sutra is arguably the most popular sutra in the history of Buddhism in East Asia. Its richness in metaphors and parables makes the sutra extremely important in understanding the influence of Buddhist scriptural texts on the development of East Asian literary traditions. This seminar aims at illustrating such essential strands of sutra’s narrative by reading the original Chinese text side by side with the foundational sutra commentaries written by the patriarchs of Chinese Buddhist doctrinal schools – such as Zhiyi and Jicang. The goal of the seminar is threefold: first, it strives to help students improve their ability to interpret and translate Buddhist scriptural texts written in Buddhist literary Chinese; second, it aims at helping students learn how to use the axial commentarial texts in Chinese Buddhist doctrinal traditions; three, it will help students hone their pedagogical skill in teaching undergraduate student how to study Buddhist sutras through their English translation.
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EASTD 271
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*Ideas about Language, Script, and Power in East Asia
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Park
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EALC
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Upper-level EALC course
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How do we speak, write, and think and feel about the languages we know and use? This seminar introduces students to ideas about language, language structure, and language use—ideologies about language and script—that have shaped society, culture, and literature within the East Asian context (China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam). Readings—all in English—are drawn from multiple disciplines and fields to provide students with opportunities to examine comparatively a wide-ranging topics. Topics to explore include the rise of written vernaculars in the Sinographic Cosmopolis of pre-twentieth-century East Asia, linguistic modernity, nationalization of language and literature, script reform, colonial governance and racialization, empire building, decolonization, linguistic hybridity, translation, and questions of rupture vs. continuity when discussing premodernity vs. modernity in East Asia.
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GENED 1049
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East Asian Cinema
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Li
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EALC
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100-level EALC
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This course introduces major works, genres, and waves of East Asian cinema from the silent era to the present, including films from Mainland China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. We will discuss issues ranging from formal aesthetics to historical representation, from local film industries to transnational audience reception.
This course does not assume prior knowledge of East Asian culture or of film studies, but rather seeks to provide students with a basic understanding of modern East Asian cultural history through cinema, and with an essential toolkit for analyzing film and media, including narrative, cinematography, editing and sound.
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GENED 1083
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Permanent Impermanence: Why Buddhists Build Monuments
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Kim, Wang
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HAA
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historical survey course
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Buddhist communities throughout history have preached, practiced, and written about the ephemerality and illusoriness of our everyday lives and experiences. Ironically, however, many of these same communities have attempted to express these teachings in the form of monumental structures meant to stand the test of time. If the world is characterized by emptiness and the Self is illusory, how does one account for the prodigious volume of art and architecture created by Buddhists throughout history? This Gen Ed course takes a multicultural and reflective engagement with the challenges presented by this conundrum through a study of Buddhist sites in South and Southeast Asia, the Himalayas, Central Asia, China, Korea, and Japan.
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GENED 1100
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The Two Koreas in the Modern World
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Eckert
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EALC
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Junior Tutorial; 100-level EALC course; historical survey course
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*Regrettably, due to unforeseen circumstances, GENED 1100 will not be offered this semester.
How and why did there come to be two competing and adversarial states on the Korean peninsula in our contemporary world—both claiming exclusive rights to speak for the Korean people and the Korean “nation” as a whole? In this course, we will explore not only the two contemporary Korean societies, North and South, but also to Korea’s pre-modern and colonial periods, and to explore together the roles played by China, Japan, the United States, and Russia (Soviet Union) in shaping modern Korean history.
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GOV 94KA
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Thinking Out of the Box - Exploring New Insights into North Korea
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Park
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GOV
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The course's objective is to hone students' critical thinking skills by exploring new insights into North Korea through the lens of recent interviews with defectors. The course will focus on deepening ties between the Workers' Party of Korea and the Communist Party of China; increasing commercialization in the elite regime circle (1%) through state trading company activities and among the masses (99%) through black markets; and how financial sanctions actually bolster North Korean procurement networks.
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GOV 94MN
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Politics of Nationalisms in the Two Koreas
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Moon
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GOV
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The course analyzes specific issues around nationalism such as the legacy of Japanese colonialism, national sovereignty and identity politics, presence of U.S. military bases in South Korea, territorial disputes, and economic conflicts over cultural products. Students will gain a rich understanding of how history, political institutions and elites, mass movements in North Korea and social activism in democratic South Korea absorb and produce nationalisms. Students are encouraged to explore relevant comparisons with other East Asian countries.
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GOV 94ND
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Global Cities in East Asia
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Dillon
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GOV
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This seminar examines urbanization and globalization in East Asia. We will first focus on the history and geography of globalization. The second part of the course turns to theoretical debates about contemporary globalization and a range of controversies surrounding global cities. Why are some cities more “global” than others? Is globalization increasing inequality in urban society? Is globalization making cities more similar to each other in urban planning and architecture? We will focus on several East Asian global cities, including Tokyo, Beijing, Bangkok, and Manila, among others.
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GOV 1280
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Government and Politics of China
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Wang
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GOV
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Historical survey course
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This course is a broad introduction to the main issues of contemporary Chinese politics and social change. The course is divided into two sections: the first section covers the period from the end of the last imperial dynasty to the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1976. The second section examines the last thirty years of economic reform, looking at both how the reforms began and how they were sustained.
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GOV 2285
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*Political Science and China
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Perry
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GOV
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This graduate seminar gives students control over the secondary literature on Chinese politics, with special attention to competing theoretical and methodological approaches.
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HAA 18J
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Introduction to Japanese Architecture
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Lippit
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HAA
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A survey of the diverse architectural traditions of the Japanese archipelago from the prehistoric era through the twentieth century. Various building types-including the Shinto shrine, Buddhist temple, castle, teahouse, palace and farmhouse-will be studied through representative surviving examples. Issues to be explored include the basic principles of timber-frame engineering, the artisanal culture of master carpenters, and the mixed legacy of the functionalist interpretation of Japanese architecture.
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HDS 3013
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*Binding the Raft: Buddhist Polity in Sangha and Practice
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Berlin
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HDS
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Sangha, or the "Buddhist spiritual community," as one of the Three Jewels is seen to be a refuge for community support, dharma practice, and personal transformation through the teachings of the Buddha. This course explores sangha from a range of Buddhist traditions in the context of "polity," the way a lived spiritual community is organized and functions to meet the needs of its members. Themes central to the course will include: the nature and organizational structure of various forms of American sanghas and their practices; leadership, power and governance; the concept of a "Buddhist identity" in community; issues of race, gender and diversity; and the nature of power and authority between ordained and lay leadership.
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HDS 3244
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*The Lotus Sutra: Engaging a Buddhist Scripture
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Hallisey
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HDS
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A critical introduction to the literature and religious thought of the Lotus Sutra, considered in the light of the historical contexts of its formation and the contexts of its reception across Buddhist Asia, including commentarial, devotional, and artistic contexts. Close attention will be given to both ecumenical and sectarian engagements with the Lotus Sutra. This course is part of a series of five courses on the critical interpretation of Buddhist scriptures.
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HDS 3576
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*Buddhist Ethics
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Hallisey
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HDS
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A systematic exploration of Buddhist Ethics ranging across moral anthropology and sub-ethics to ethical discourse and the place of moral reflection in Buddhist thought and practice. The scope of the course is wide, with examples drawn from the whole Buddhist world, but the emphasis will be given to the basic conditions that make moral life possible. Attention will also be given to the challenges and promises of describing Buddhist ethics in a comparative perspective.
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HDS 3960
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*Shinto
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Hardacre
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HDS
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An examination of Shinto, emphasizing its concepts of deity (Kami), patterns of ritual and festival, shrines as religious and social institutions, political culture and interactions with party politics, and its contribution to contemporary youth culture. Note: General knowledge of Japanese history and religion is helpful. Japanese language is not required, but several meetings will be held for students able to use Japanese-language sources. Jointly offered as Japanese History 126.
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HIST 89J
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The United States and China: Opium War to the Present
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Manela
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HIST
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This research seminar will focus on the history of Sino-American relations and interactions since the Opium War (1840s). It will examine major episodes such as the Boxer intervention, the first and second world wars, the Korea and Vietnam wars, the Mao-Nixon rapprochement, and the post-Mao transformations, and explore central themes such as immigration, trade, culture, diplomacy, and security.
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HIST 1037
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Modern Southeast Asia
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Bose
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HIST
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Historical survey course
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A lecture survey of the modern history of Burma (Myanmar), Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and the Philippines from 1800 to the present comparing the experience and aftermath of British, French, Dutch, Spanish and US imperialism in the region.
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HIST 1610
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East Asian Environments: China, Japan, Korea
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Miller
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HIST
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100-level EALC course
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Climate change and fading biodiversity, energy anxieties and environmental disasters have undermined the bedrock of history: the assumption of a stable continuity between past, present, and future. This class visits East Asia—China, Japan, and the Koreas, vibrant economies and agents of historical change, to explore the transformation of the natural world in modern times. We will analyze nuclear power plants and cruise rivers, explore industrial ruins and debate public policy as we define Asia’s role in the global environmental future.
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HLS 2461
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*Comparative Law: Why Law? The Experience of China
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Alford
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HLS
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This course uses the example of China as a springboard for asking fundamental questions about the nature of law, and the ways in which it may (or may not) differ in different societies. Historically, China is said to have developed one of the world's great civilizations while according law a far less prominent role than in virtually any other. This course will test that assertion
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HLS 3500
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*Writing Group: Comparative Law, International Law, or Legal History Involving East Asia
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TBD
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HLS
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Students enrolling in Fall-Spring groups are required to submit a signed Writing Group Registration Form to the Registrar's Office by October 14, 2022.
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JAPNHIST 270
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*Early Modern Japanese History: Proseminar
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Howell
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EALC
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Upper-level seminar
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This seminar surveys the recent English-language literature on the history of early modern Japan, roughly from the late sixteenth century to around 1875.
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JAPNLIT 270
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*Topics in Modern and Contemporary Japanese Fiction: Seminar
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Yoda
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EALC
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Upper-level seminar
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A seminar course on the history, theory, and practice of modern to contemporary Japanese fiction. The course will be organized around a specific theme, time period, a cluster of writers, critics, or genres.
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PHIL 109
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Early Chinese Ethics
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Robertson
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PHIL
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Early (Pre-Qin era) China was a hotbed of philosophical activity: scholars developed careful and fascinating ethical views in the context of serious philosophical debates between major schools of thought. This course focuses on some of these ethical debates between Confucian, Mohist, Daoist, and Legalist philosophers in early China. No previous experience or coursework in Chinese philosophy is required for this course.
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RELIGION 1599
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Asian American Religion
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Eck
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HDS
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This seminar explores the Asian dimensions of American history, immigration, religion, and culture as immigrants have come from India, China, Southeast Asia, Korea, and Japan.
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SOC-STD 98LF
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Globalization and the Nation-State
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Prevelakis
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SOC-STD
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Historical survey course
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Despite globalization, the nation is still a major actor in today's world. This course tries to understand why this is so by examining the role that nationalism plays in peoples’ identities and the effects of globalization on nations and nation-states. It includes theoretical texts, but also case studies from the recent pandemic, the rise of populism and authoritarianism, the challenges of supranational entities such as the European Union, and the urgency of global issues such as climate change, inequality, and migration. Examples from the United States, Europe, Latin America, China, and the Middle East. This is a junior tutorial.
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SOCIOL 1141
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Contemporary Chinese Society
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Lei
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SOCIOL
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Situating China in the context of the transition from socialism, this seminar provides an overview of contemporary Chinese society. We will explore recent structural changes in China’s economy, political system, legal institutions, media, family forms, education, stratification and inequality, and contests over space. We will begin with the Chinese Communist Revolution and then the Cultural Revolution, and then examine the profound social transformations of the post-1978 reform period. The course will examine how these changes have impacted social relations, how they have been experienced and understood by individuals, and how, in turn, the responses of individuals have also shaped the trajectory of reforms.
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TIBET 220
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*The Tibetan Calendar and traditional Tibetan Medicine
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van der Kuijp
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EALC/SAS
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Readings in the Sman dpyad zla ba'i rgyal po and the Rgyud bzhi on seasonal change and medical practice. Tibetan language prerequisite.
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TIBET 221
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*The Protective Deity Mahākāla: Historical Readings of Transmission of this Deity in Various Forms
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van der Kuijp
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EALC/SAS
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*No description available. Tibetan language prerequisite.
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WOMGEN 1216
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Women's Voices in Asian and Asian American Literature
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WGS
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This course introduces students to the writings of both canonical and lesser-known Asian and Asian American women writers. The course especially examines the works by Chinese/ Chinese American, Japanese/ Japanese American, Korean/ Korean American women writers. Moving from the pre-modern to contemporary era, the course will explore a range of women’s voices and experiences as reflected through poetry, fiction, diaries, and epistles.
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