Catalogue

Asian Studies

asianstudies.bard.edu

Faculty

Nathan Shockey (director), Ian Buruma, Robert J. Culp, Sanjaya DeSilva, Hua Hsu, Patricia Karetzky, Laura Kunreuther, Soonyoung Lee, Huiwen Li, Nabanjan Maitra, Phuong Ngo, Heeryoon Shin, Richard Suchenski, Yuka Suzuki, Dominique Townsend, Rupali Warke, Tom Wolf, Jenny Xie, Shuangting Xiong 

Overview

The Asian Studies Program draws from courses in literature, history, politics, music, art history and visual culture, anthropology, religion, and economics. Students work with program faculty to select a regional and disciplinary focus and create a coherent program of study. The program focuses on China, Japan, and South Asia—and will soon include Korean studies—but encourages investigations into other regions as well as diasporic and transnational topics.

Requirements

The program has three different sets of requirements for the following groups: Chinese or Japanese studies students with a Languages and Literature focus; Chinese or Japanese studies students with a Social Studies focus; and all other Asian Studies majors with subject-based courses of study focused on other regions and topics, including South Asian studies.

In order to moderate, all students must take four courses cross-listed with the Asian Studies Program. For graduation, students should complete a minimum of 40 credits in Asian Studies. One course must be an Asian Studies core course treating an aspect of Asia in comparative perspective. The Senior Project topic may be specific or comparative in approach but should be grounded in a particular disciplinary methodology. Students are encouraged to incorporate primary source materials written in Asian languages into their Senior Project research whenever possible.

Prior to moderation, students focusing on Chinese and Japanese studies are expected to have taken at least one year of Chinese or Japanese language and at least two courses cross-listed with Asian Studies, one of which should be in their field of future disciplinary interest. Students focusing on other regions or traditions, including South Asia, should take four subject courses chosen in consultation with the adviser.

For students in Chinese or Japanese studies focusing on language and literature, 44 credits are required, including at least three years of language study in the relevant language and four other subject courses cross-listed with Asian Studies. Of these, at least two courses should be on the literatures of the student’s primary region, one course on the literatures of another Asian region, and one course outside of Asian literature, preferably oriented toward methodologies of literary study or literary theory.

For students in Chinese or Japanese studies focusing on the arts and/or social studies, 40 credits are required, including at least two years of language study in the relevant language and five subject courses cross-listed with Asian Studies. Of these, at least two courses should be in the primary discipline and region. At least one other course should be on the primary region of interest, plus one course in the primary discipline that considers an area outside of Asia. 

For students focusing on other regions, traditions, or topics, including South Asia, 40 credits are required, including five subject courses to be selected in consultation with the adviser to constitute a coherent program of study centered around a particular theme and methodological approach. Of these, one should be a core course that covers multiple regions of Asia or the Asian diaspora in comparative perspective. 

Recent Senior Projects in Asian Studies

• “Navigating the Tide: Localism, Transnationalism, and Historiography in Zhejiang Chao”
• “Rebel Girls: Radical Feminism and Self-Narrative in Early 20th-Century Japan and China”
• “Programming Proletarian Literature: Kobayashi Takiji’s Kani Kôsen and Gaming as Reading” 

Courses

A sampling of Asian Studies courses offered in the last few years includes courses from the Division of the Arts (Ancient Arts of China; Asian American Artists Seminar; Asian Art in the Global Maritime Trade; Korean Visual Culture between Tradition and Contemporaneity), Division of Languages and Literature (Beyond Technopolis: Media/Theory/Japan; Chinese Calligraphy; Supernatural Tales of Asia: Ghosts, Gods, and Goblins; Social Change and the Arts in Modern China; Tokyo Textscapes ), and the Division of Social Studies (Asian Economic History; Digital Dharma: Buddhism and New Media; Hindu Religious Traditions; The Indian Ocean World;  Modern Japanese History; Shanghai and Hong Kong).