Junior Tutorials

Junior tutorials build on the general foundation developed in the sophomore tutorial and allow students to focus their field of study according to their primary country of interest, and the particular topics they wish to pursue. The Junior Tutorial can be an important step in conceptualizing a Senior Thesis topic and learning how to conduct advanced research.

Juniors take an EASTD 98 offering or a replacement seminar course approved by the Director of Undergraduate Studies. The Junior tutorial replacement must meet the following criteria:

• It must be a small seminar
• It must have a 15-page paper requirement (not counting notes and bibliography)
• It must receive approval from the Director of Undergraduate Studies and the instructor.
• At the end of the semester, student must submit their final paper for the course to the Director of Undergraduate Studies, cc'ing the EAS Coordinator or eas@fas.harvard.edu, to confirm they have fulfilled EASTD 98 requirements.

You can discuss possible course options and request course approval by emailing the Director of Undergraduate Studies, Professor Shigehisa Kuriyama, at hkuriyam@fas.harvard.edu (please CC Naia Poyer, naia_poyer@fas.harvard.edu). Be sure to include a syllabus for the course(s) in question. East Asian Studies will accept the following Junior tutorials for Fall 2026-Spring 2027:

FALL 2026

EASTD 196: Political Geography of China
Daniel Koss

Putting Chinese politics on the map, this course asks how the government deals with the enormous challenges of ruling over a vast terrain with a diverse population, encompassing super-rich urban metropolises as well as poor rural peripheries. We begin with statecraft traditions from the late imperial era; and end with China's place on the future global maps of the 21st century. Topics include: macro-regions; priority zones of governance; Special Economic Zones; the Chinese equivalent of “blue states and red states;” rising inequality; ethnic minorities and borderlands; economic development models; urbanization and city planning; collective action in digital space; domestic and international migration; environmental politics; and the geo-politics of the “One Belt One Road” initiative. We will set aside class time for a hands-on introduction to producing and interpreting maps of China.

May be counted as Junior Tutorial only with advance instructor permission and extended final paper assignment:

EASTD 144: Vietnam in the Twentieth Century: History, Culture, and Identity

Uyen Nguyen

This lecture course introduces students to the modern history and culture of Vietnam by examining major visions of “Vietnam” as a state and as a people that emerged over the twentieth century. Drawing on historical narratives and cultural productions, the course explores themes such as ideas about the origins of Vietnamese society and culture, Vietnam’s relations with its neighbors, colonialism, anticolonialism and nationalism, war, and postwar challenges. Rather than treating “Vietnam” as a continuous and unified entity stretching back to the prehistoric Dong Son culture, the course highlights competing understandings of “Vietnam” and of what it has meant to be “Vietnamese,” as they took shape at key moments in the country’s modern history. 

Students taking EASTD 144 as their Junior Tutorial will be required to submit their final research paper to the DUS to confirm they have fulfilled the extended paper requirement. This course may also be counted as a historical survey, but not for both the Junior Tutorial and historical survey requirements.

SPRING 2027

EASTD 194: Historical Legacies in East Asian Politics

Daniel Koss

How does the historical past shape politics in the present? East Asia and its recent political developments provide a most striking universe of cases, where legacies of the past influence both domestic politics and international relations. Located at the intersection of history and political science, this course is grounded in theories of institutional development, introducing concepts such as path dependence, critical junctures, and unintended consequences. Beginning with China, the course discusses explanations of development successes grounded in grand narratives going far back in time; the impact of cultural norms, imperial techniques of statecraft, revolutionary practices; the uses and abuses of history in the service of the party state; and the long-term impact of Christian missionaries, Japanese colonizers, and a decade of warfare. Through the case of Japanese domestic politics, we explore how tradition is transmitted through habits and memories of individuals; through institutions such as the perennial ruling party; and through a broadly defined civil society. As examples of critical junctures, we will discuss North Korea’s early postwar history and South Korea’s democratization process, discovering their enduring influences on both political systems. Turning to international relations, this course asks whether foreign and security policy is the result of a deeply rooted strategic culture, how diplomats maneuver the divisions over historical guilt of World War II, and what narratives such as the “century of humiliation” reveal about actors’ strategic thinking. Throughout the course, we will pay attention to regional linkages.

EASTD 197: China's Cultural Revolution

Daniel Koss

This course introduces a cataclysmic movement that brought the People’s Republic of China to the brink of anarchy: The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). The first part looks at historical precursors, including rebellion in the imperial era, political movements in the Republican Era, Communist campaigns and purges, as well as the Great Leap Forward famine that cost tens of millions of lives. Paying equal attention to elite politics at Mao Zedong’s “court” and the lived experiences of ordinary citizens, the second part focuses on the evolution of the turmoil, once Mao had called for “bombarding the headquarters” of his own party state, discussing the “Gang of Four,” the “attempted coup” by Lin Biao, the Red Guards and the worker rebels in Shanghai, local power seizures and factional warfare, military crackdowns, and the return to order. The third part begins with the reception of the movement abroad, and focuses on its afterlives, including the quasi- pluralist lessons drawn in the immediate aftermath, the role of Cultural Revolution legacies in decisions such as the violent crackdown on the Tiananmen protesters in 1989, and memory politics under Xi Jinping. No language requirement.

May be counted as Junior Tutorial only with advance instructor permission and extended final paper assignment:

KORHIST 115: Korean History Through Film

Sun Joo Kim

This course is to examine history of premodern Korea through select Korea's contemporary feature films. Films and dramas with historical themes and personages have been very popular in Korea. We will examine the content of the films, and investigate how ``true'' or ``false'' they represent Korea's past, how they imagine and invent Korea's past, in what ways films are useful in better understanding Korean history, people's lives and practices.

Students taking KORHIST 115 as their Junior Tutorial will be required to submit their final research paper to the DUS to confirm they have fulfilled the extended paper requirement. This course may also be counted as a historical survey, but not for both the Junior Tutorial and historical survey requirements.

Other courses that have counted toward the EASTD 98 requirement:
 

CHNSHIS 146: The Modern History of Rural China (extended paper was needed) 

CHNSLIT 289: From Late Tang Poetry and Poetics into the Song Dynasty

EASTD 98D: The Political Economy of Modern China

EASTD 98K: Economic Governance in East Asia

EASTD 98L: The Art of Original Research on East Asia

EASTD 152: Tea in Japan / America (extended paper was needed)

EASTD 194: Historical Legacies in East Asian Politics

EASTD 196: Political Geography of China

EASTD 197: China's Cultural Revolution

EASTD 198: Political Parties of East Asia

HIST 1023: Japan in Asia and the World

KORHIST 115: Korean History Through Film (extended paper was needed)

SOCIOL 1181: Social Change in Modern Korea