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Asian & Middle Eastern Studies (AMES) Courses

Academic Unit: Asian & Middle Eastern Studies

AMES 1001 - Asian Film and Animation [AH GP]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: was ALL 1001 until 21-JAN-20
Various film styles within Asian film/animation production. Ways of analyzing film. Work of 20th-century directors in Asia.
AMES 1201 - Arrow, Fist, and Sword: Conceptions of the Hero in Asian Cultures [LITR GP]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: was ALL 1201 until 21-JAN-20
Concepts of the "hero" in Persian, Indian Chinese, Korean, and Japanese cultures: How did various societies in these countries define the ethos of the "hero" and his relationship to the community? How did versions of the hero change over time, and how was the hero redefined in the context of modern nationalism? What part have traditional gender roles played in defining the hero, and is a "female" hero possible within these traditions? And how has popular film allowed modern Asian societies to reinterpret their traditional conceptions of the hero? Specific explorations: the Persian hero Rostam in The Book of Kings; Rama and retellings of the Indian Ramayana; Mulan and the Chinese female warrior; the Korean hero Hong Gildong; and the Japanese story of the forty-seven ronin.
AMES 1351 - Chinese Martial Arts Cinema
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: AMES 3351 (starting 19-JAN-21, was ALL 3351 until 21-JAN-20)
Martial arts cinema may be China's most globally popular as well as most culturally distinctive form of film making. With origins in traditional Chinese popular literature and a cinematic history going back to the silent film era, the genre has experienced multiple periods of popularity both in China since the 1920s and in the West since the 1960s-70s. This course will look at Chinese martial arts cinema with these learning goals in mind: - To learn the distinctive film style of the genre by discussing basic film techniques such as cinematography, editing, and performance. - To use martial arts films to explore deeper aspects of Chinese culture such as philosophy, religion, and ethics. - To see how the development of martial arts cinema reflected trends in modern Chinese history, including the tension between nationalism and globalism. We will watch films from the pre-1949 Republic of China, the post-1949 People's Republic of China, Hong Kong during the British colonial period, and Taiwan. Each week students will have one film to watch streaming as homework and a reading assignment usually totaling 20-30 pages.
AMES 1456 - Japanese Film and Animation [GP]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: AMES 3456 (starting 21-JAN-20, was ALL 3456 until 21-JAN-20, was JPN 3166 until 07-SEP-04)
This course offers an introduction to the history of moving images in Japanese film and animation from 1945 to the present as a method for understanding how one nation's film culture has contributed to global political, social, and ecological movements. Students learn how Japanese cinema has been an essential contributor to the development of global film genres and cultures. This course fulfills the Global Perspective because it illustrates the rich history of Asian cinema in a global mediascape. Students will learn how moving images from Asia provide important perspectives on global social, political, and environmental issues. Upon completion of the course, students will be able to use their new skills in film and animation interpretation to analyze media in their daily lives. They will have tools for critical analysis of dominant Western and Hollywood media forms. Students will analyze films from multiple angles, engaging in a multi-optic analysis.
AMES 1600 - Topics in South Asian Languages (Topics course)
(1 cr [max 5]; Student Option No Audit; offered Periodic Fall, Spring & Summer; may be repeated for 9 credits; may be repeated 3 times)
Topics specified in Class Schedule.
AMES 1806 - Modern Middle Eastern Cultures and Societies [AH GP]
(3 cr; Student Option No Audit; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: was ALL 1806 until 21-JAN-20
What we commonly and monolithically refer to as ?the Middle East? in fact consists of many different individual nation-states, each with their own particular historical trajectory and a combined population of half a billion people encompassing a plethora of religious faiths, political orientations, social formations, and varied identities. This course provides a starting point for comprehending this frequently misunderstood part of the world, the diverse peoples who inhabit it, and the myriad cultures they practice. We will address the various problems we encounter when approaching such an unwieldy concept as ?the Middle East,? key moments that have shaped modern Middle Eastern cultures and societies, and examples of how cultural production functions in the context of modern Middle Eastern history and politics.
AMES 1836 - Modern Middle Eastern Literature [LITR GP]
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
This course introduces students to the diversity of contemporary Middle Eastern cultures, identities, and histories through readings in modern literature. Reading novels, stories, poetry, and memoirs translated from Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, and Turkish, we will follow a number of key concerns shaping Middle Eastern cultural production: legacies of colonialism and the manner they shaped the relationship between classical and modern literary forms, the ethical and aesthetic challenges of bearing testimony to violence, and the manner literature reflects and subverts racial hierarchies, ethnic divisions, and gender dynamics. These themes will be debated in a range of spaces and contexts: the desert, the city, and the ocean as quintessential environments in times of great social and ecological upheavals; migration flows and refugee identities; the alternating banality and grotesqueness of war; and the formation of intimate, personal relationships.
AMES 1917W - Playing with Genders: How Arts Inform Our Everyday Genders, a Case Study in Japanese Arts [WI GP]
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Matters related to "gender" have been debated in courts, schools, businesses, and the media. These societal debates point to the difficulty in defining "gender" in a simple and stable sense. This difficulty points to the reality that gender is not a way of "being"?but more a way of "doing." One way to begin to understand this paradigm shift is to look to the arts for an understanding of gender and how gender performance in art can inform our everyday concepts of gender. In order to begin this understanding, this seminar focuses on the gender performance of Japanese literature and theater (in English) as a "case study" due to Japan's highly formal cultural traditions and their rich "cross-gender" performing arts. The long "history" of "cross-gender" performing arts in Japan can even date back to a mythical warrior prince in ancient times, and such performing arts have remained flourishing through today not only in literature and theater but also in film, TV, anime/manga, video games, etc. This seminar will explore the history of "cross-gender" performance, mainly starting in the 17th century. The course will give students an opportunity to explore gender performance in Japanese art in the classroom and also at the University libraries and Minneapolis Institute of Art. Our class will host several guest speakers on gender performance beyond Japan, including Asian American theater, Chinese theater, and British theater.
AMES 3001 - Concepts in Asian and Middle Eastern Studies
(3 cr; A-F or Audit; offered Every Fall)
Equivalent courses: was ALL 3001 until 21-JAN-20
Introduction to questions of modernity in Asia and the Middle East and foundational course for the major and the minor in Asian and Middle Eastern Studies. Reflecting the range of geography covered by the department, it will cover topics related to the Middle East, South Asia, and East Asia, and highlight connections among them. Our primary goal is to become versed in a number of key concepts and issues that are essential to being a successful student in upper-division AMES courses. Furthermore, we will engage with theoretical, literary, and filmic texts concerning various regions of the Asian continent and develop the ability to respond to major questions in Asian and Middle Eastern Studies through the close reading of primary and secondary materials and the practical employment of key terms and concepts. There will be a strong focus on proper definitions and historical contextualization, and on analytical application and interpretation.
AMES 3232W - "Short" Poetry in China and Japan [WI]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: was ALL 3232W until 21-JAN-20
Short poetic forms of China and Japan. Chinese quatrains and octets. Japanese tanka and haiku. Translations by modern poets. Texts in original languages (with provided glosses). Art of translation. Translators' conceptions of East Asian 'exoticism.'
AMES 3256 - Graphic Novels: Conflict, Peace and Protest [AH GP]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
This course will examine a particular medium?graphic novel?which is inherently rich in visual, narrative, and linguistic components. The materials chosen for this course are driven by wars and conflicts in the following four regions: East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East. Through these selected works, we will explore histories of political conflicts, state violence, anticipation for peace as well as understandings and praxes of protest in various forms, namely, social movements; mourning; remembrance; art making; and writing. Given the nature of conflict that always goes above and beyond the question of nation-state, this course will also discuss its amplification to the question of migration, refugee crisis, displacement, and multi-generational trauma among diasporic subjects. Located at the intersection of conflict, peace, and protest, this course not only introduces students to historical processes and complexities of these conflicts?both from the national and international points of view?but also challenges students to question the potentials of graphic novels in mediating these histories and discourses around human rights for readers. Finally, this class explores ways in which we can engage with each other via our shared history and vulnerability, and questions whether peace and resolution promised to our generation via the discourse of human rights are, or will ever be, attainable.
AMES 3265W - The Fantastic in East Asia: Ghosts, Foxes, and the Alien [LITR WI]
(3 cr; Prereq-Some coursework in East Asia recommended; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: was ALL 3265W until 21-JAN-20
How the strange/alien is constructed in premodern Chinese/Japanese literature. East Asian theories of the strange and their role in the classical tale, through the works of Pu Songling, Edo-era storytellers, and others. Role of Buddhist cosmology and salvation.
AMES 3300 - Topics in Chinese Literature (Topics course)
(1 cr [max 3]; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring; may be repeated for 9 credits; may be repeated 3 times)
Equivalent courses: was ALL 3300 until 21-JAN-20, was CHN 3900 until 07-SEP-04
Selected topics in Chinese literature. Topics specified in the Class Schedule.
AMES 3320 - Topics in Chinese Culture (Topics course)
(3 cr; Student Option No Audit; offered Periodic Fall & Spring; may be repeated for 9 credits; may be repeated 3 times)
Topics specified in Class Schedule.
AMES 3336 - Revolution and Modernity in Chinese Literature and Culture [LITR GP]
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: was ALL 3336 until 21-JAN-20
Introduction to modern Chinese literature, visual culture, and critical thought from beginning of 20th century to end of Mao era. Examples of literature/culture, parallel readings of Chinese critical essays. Readings are in English translation.
AMES 3337 - Contemporary Chinese Literature and Popular Culture [LITR GP]
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: was ALL 3337 until 21-JAN-20
Contemporary Chinese literature, popular culture. End of Mao era to present. Creative results of China's "opening and reform." Commercialization and globalization of culture. Literature, visual culture, and popular music.
AMES 3351 - Chinese Martial Arts Cinema [AH GP]
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: was ALL 3351 until 21-JAN-20, AMES 1351
Martial arts cinema may be China's most globally popular as well as most culturally distinctive form of film making. With origins in traditional Chinese popular literature and a cinematic history going back to the silent film era, the genre has experience multiple periods of popularity both in China since the 1920s and in the West since the 1960s-70s. This course will look at Chinese martial arts cinema with these learning goals in mind: - To learn the distinctive film style of the genre by discussing basic film techniques such as cinematography, editing, and performance. - To use martial arts films to explore deeper aspects of Chinese culture such as philosophy, religion, and ethics. - To see how the development of martial arts cinema reflected trends in modern Chinese history, including the tension between nationalism and globalism. We will watch films from the pre-1949 Republic of China, the post-1949 People's Republic of China, Hong Kong during the British colonial period, and Taiwan. Each week students will have one film to watch streaming as homework and a reading assignment usually totaling 20-30 pages.
AMES 3356W - Chinese Film [AH WI]
(3 cr; A-F or Audit; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: was ALL 3356W until 21-JAN-20, was CHN 3166W until 07-SEP-04, was CHN 3166 until 04-SEP-01
Survey of Chinese cinema from China (PRC), Taiwan, and Hong Kong. Emphasizes discussion/comparison of global, social, economic, sexual, gender, psychological, and other themes as represented through film.
AMES 3357 - Taiwan Film
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: was ALL 3357 until 21-JAN-20
This course examines the history of Taiwan film from the Japanese colonial period to the early 21st century along with the increased (though still quite limited) availability of pre-1980s films on DVD with English subtitles. We will cover topics such as dialect films; Nationalist propaganda; "healthy realism;" connections with the Hong Kong, Hollywood, and mainland Chinese film industries; the aesthetics of New Taiwan Cinema; the imagination of Taiwan as a postcolonial Southeast Asian rather than East Asian or Chinese polity; and the battle for commercial viability in the global film market. Throughout the course, we will closely analyze cinematic form and narrative structure in addition to broader issues of nation, society, politics, and ecology.
AMES 3362 - Women Writers in Chinese History [AH GP]
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: was ALL 3362 until 21-JAN-20
This class surveys the surprisingly diverse and vibrant tradition of women writers in Chinese cultural history, which during its long imperial period (221 B.C.E.-1911 C.E.) was dominated by a male-centered cultural order. The class situates individual women writers within their specific historical settings and larger cultural backdrops, thus introducing students to literary themes, gender dynamics, and conditions of cultural production in Chinese history. The class also addresses complex shifts in female writing and its social presence across the premodern-modern transition. Taught in English and no prerequisites.
AMES 3372 - History of Women and Family in China, 1600-2000
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Fall Even, Spring Odd Year)
Equivalent courses: was ALL 3372 until 21-JAN-20, HIST 3469 (starting 02-SEP-08), GWSS 3469 (inactive, starting 20-JAN-09)
Marriage/family life, foot binding, cult of women's chastity. Women in nationalist/communist revolutions. Gender relations in post-socialist China. Effect of ideologies (Confucianism, nationalism, socialism) on women/family life. Differences between ideology and social practice.
AMES 3373 - Religion and Society in Imperial China [HIS]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: was ALL 3373 until 21-JAN-20, HIST 3466, RELS 3373
Varieties of religious experience in imperial China. Religion as lived practices. Textual traditions. Buddhism, Daoism, Confucianism, relations among them. Western missionary enterprise in China.
AMES 3374 - Patterns in Chinese Cultural History
(3 cr; Student Option No Audit; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: was ALL 3374 until 21-JAN-20
A survey course of Chinese cultural history across its long evolution. It connects historical and cultural knowledge to the Chinese literary and intellectual traditions, and unveils larger trends in the developments of Chinese culture and society during the pre-20th-century period and across the tradition-modern divide. Taught in English and no prerequisites.
AMES 3377 - A Thousand Years of Buddhism in China: Beliefs, Practices, and Culture
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: was ALL 3377 until 21-JAN-20, RELS 3377 (ending 04-SEP-18)
Buddhism in China, 4th-15th centuries. Introduction of Buddhism to China. Relevance of Buddhist teaching to indigenous thought (e.g., Taoism, Confucianism). Major "schools": Tiantai, Huayan, Chan/Zen, etc.. Cultural activities of monks, nuns, and lay believers.
AMES 3420 - Topics in Japanese Culture (Topics course)
(1 cr [max 3]; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring; may be repeated for 9 credits; may be repeated 3 times)
Equivalent courses: was ALL 3420 until 21-JAN-20, was JPN 3920 until 07-SEP-04
Selected topics in Japanese culture. Topics specified in the Class Schedule.
AMES 3433 - Traditional Japanese Literature in Translation [LITR]
(3 cr; A-F or Audit; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: was ALL 3433W until 21-JAN-20, was ALL 3433 until 06-SEP-05, was JPN 3162 until 07-SEP-04
Survey of texts in different genres, from 8th to early 19th centuries, with attention to issues such as "national" identity, gender/sexuality, authorship, popular culture. No knowledge of Japanese necessary.
AMES 3436 - Postwar Japanese Literature in Translation [LITR GP]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: was ALL 3436 until 21-JAN-20, was JPN 3164 until 07-SEP-04
This is an introductory survey of modern Japanese literature and its role in the postwar debates around Japanese culture, aesthetics, politics, and environment. Beginning with the occupation of Japan by the US military and ending with the 2020 Tokyo Olympics (postponed by a global pandemic), students will analyze the main movements in postwar Japanese literary production and the core issues featured in this literature. We will explore national genres in Japan, their premodern precursors, and postmodern manifestations. The course has no prerequisite and assumes no prior knowledge of Japanese cultures or experience with literary analysis. All materials, lectures, and discussions are in English.
AMES 3437 - The Japanese Novel [GP LITR]
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: was ALL 3437 until 21-JAN-20, was JPN 3163 until 06-SEP-05
Survey of the principal authors of the period spanning Japan's opening to the West (1860s) to World War II. Writers include Natsume Soseki, Shiga Naoya, Kawabata Yasunari, Edogawa Rampo, Hayashi Fumiko, and Tanizaki Junichiro.
AMES 3441W - Japanese Theater [AH WI]
(3 cr; A-F or Audit; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: was AMES 3441 until 06-SEP-22, was ALL 3441W until 21-JAN-20, was ALL 3441 until 03-SEP-19, was ALL 3441W until 04-SEP-18, was JPN 3165W until 18-JAN-05, was JPN 3165 until 02-SEP-03
Japanese performance traditions. Emphasizes noh, kabuki, and bunraku in their literary/cultural contexts. Relationship between these pre-modern traditions and modern theatrical forms (e.g., Takarazuka Revue).
AMES 3456 - Japanese Film and Animation [GP]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: was ALL 3456 until 21-JAN-20, was JPN 3166 until 07-SEP-04, AMES 1456
This course offers an introduction to the history of moving images in Japanese film and animation from 1945 to the present as a method for understanding how one nation's film culture has contributed to global political, social, and ecological movements. Students learn how Japanese cinema has been an essential contributor to the development of global film genres and cultures. This course fulfills the Global Perspective because it illustrates the rich history of Asian cinema in a global mediascape. Students will learn how moving images from Asia provide important perspectives on global social, political, and environmental issues. Upon completion of the course, students will be able to use their new skills in film and animation interpretation to analyze media in their daily lives. They will have tools for critical analysis of dominant Western and Hollywood media forms. Students will analyze films from multiple angles, engaging in a multi-optic analysis.
AMES 3457 - War and Peace in Japan Through Popular Culture
(4 cr; A-F or Audit; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: was ALL 3457 until 21-JAN-20
War-related issues in Japan. Animation films, comics from 1940s to 1990s. Mobilization of culture for WWII. Conflict between constitutional pacifism/national security. Japan's role in cold war/post-cold war worlds.
AMES 3458 - Japanese Animation [GP]
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: was ALL 3458 until 21-JAN-20
This course takes up the technologies, genres, and themes of Japanese animation. By examining the works of important directors alongside media theories and other related writings, the course will cover not only the major genres and recurrent themes of anime, but also the cultural and critical contexts for apprehending anime.
AMES 3467 - Science Fiction, Empire, Japan
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: was ALL 3467 until 21-JAN-20
Premised on its historical position as a non-Western colonial empire, this course takes up Japan as a focal point for examining the relations between science fiction and imperialism. Discussions center on the colonial underpinnings of Japanese science fiction and how particular motifs (future war, time travel, posthuman bodies) critically interrogate this history.
AMES 3468 - Environment, Technology and Culture in Modern Japan [ENV]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: was ALL 3468 until 21-JAN-20
Read/view historical, literary, visual texts to discover guiding ideas about nature, environment, technology use in Japan. No prior knowledge of Japan is necessary.
AMES 3471 - Introduction to Japanese Religions
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: was ALL 3471 until 21-JAN-20
An introduction to the development of different forms of religious practice in Japan over the past fourteen hundred years. A survey of Japanese religions and their development will be combined with specific examples (past and present) that demonstrate the way that religious belief has manifested itself in various forms of cultural practice.
AMES 3478 - Modern Japan, Meiji to the Present (1868-2000) [HIS]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Every Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: was ALL 3478 until 21-JAN-20, EAS 3471, HIST 3471 (starting 05-SEP-00, was EAS 3471 until 02-SEP-03, was EAS 3471 until 05-SEP-00)
Japan's development as industrial/imperial power after Meiji Restoration of 1868. Political developments in Taisho years. Militarization/mobilization for war in 1930s. Japan's war with China, Pacific War with US. American Occupation. Postwar economic recovery, high growth. Changing political/popular culture of 1980s, '90s.
AMES 3520 - Topics in Korean Culture (Topics course)
(1 cr [max 3]; A-F only; offered Periodic Fall & Spring; may be repeated for 9 credits; may be repeated 3 times)
Equivalent courses: was ALL 3520 until 21-JAN-20, was KOR 3920 until 07-SEP-04
Selected topics in Korean culture. Topics specified in the Class Schedule.
AMES 3536 - Modern Korean Literature [LITR GP]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: was ALL 3536 until 21-JAN-20, AMES 5536
Modern Korean literature in English translation from the colonial period until the 1990s. Read literary texts critically, using genre categories, theories of narrative voice, different understandings of modern literary subjectivity, and historical contextualization.
AMES 3556 - Korean Film and Media [AH GP]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: was ALL 3556 until 21-JAN-20, AMES 5556
This course is an introduction to Korean film from the Japanese colonial period (1910-1945) to the present day. We discuss the emergence of the Korean film industry under the conditions of colonial modernity and the various political pressures put on film production in South Korea until the 1990s. We will then turn to the last twenty years, during which South Korean film and television have experienced a boom in popularity in East Asia and globally. Throughout, we will focus on the formal and technical aspects of film, representations of history and historical memory, genre borrowing and genre mixing, and the relationships between art-house and culture industry productions.
AMES 3558 - Korean Popular Culture [AH GP]
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
This course is an introduction to contemporary Korean popular culture, with a focus on television, video, and online media. We will learn how to think critically about a variety of popular culture phenomena, including dramas, variety shows, comedy performances, video games, food-related programs and videos, political satire and commentary, and music videos. By engaging with the academic scholarship on popular culture, we will learn how to analyze the stories, images, and sounds of Korean popular culture, while situating these within their various cultural and social contexts. Topics covered will include the Korean Wave (hallyu), the culture industry, digital platforms and economies, celebrity, fandom, and globalization. Attention will be given both to the local conditions of cultural production and the transnational influences of Korean media on East and Southeast Asia, as well as Europe and the Americas.
AMES 3576 - Language & Society of the Two Koreas
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: was ALL 3576 until 21-JAN-20
This course is designed to offer an introduction and contrastive analysis of the language and society of the two Koreas; the Republic of Korea (better known as South Korea) and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (better known as North Korea). This course will introduce the growing divide of the past 70 years between North and South Korea in the areas of language, society, and culture.
AMES 3586 - Cold War Cultures in Korea
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: was ALL 3586 until 21-JAN-20
In this course we will analyze the Cold War (1945-1989) not only as an era in geopolitics, but also as a historical period marked by specific cultural and artistic forms. We focus on the Korean peninsula, looking closely at the literary and film cultures of both South Korea and North Korea. We discuss how the global conflict between U.S.-centered and Soviet-centered societies affected the politics, culture, and geography of Korea between 1945 and 1989, treating the division of Korea as an exemplary case extending from the origins of the Cold War to the present. We span the Cold War divide to compare the culture and politics of the South and the North through various cultural forms, including anti-communist and socialist realist films, biography and autobiography, fiction, and political discourse. We also discuss the legacy of the Cold War in contemporary culture and in the continued existence of two states on the Korean peninsula. The primary purpose is to be able to analyze post-1945 Korean cultures in both their locality and as significant aspects of the global Cold War era.
AMES 3587 - Current Affairs and Everyday Life in Two Koreas
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
This course is designed to offer an in-depth look at current affairs and social, cultural, and economic interactions that are influenced by everyday hierarchical structures in both North and South Korea. This course will specifically deal with issues that affect individuals and small groups in the two Koreas rather than focusing on issues at the state and international level. The course will take macro-level issues such as hierarchical structures that are remnant of the feudal era and examine their impact at the micro-level for people in the two Koreas. The two Koreas share centuries upon centuries of common socio-cultural structures and ways of being that, despite the recent separation, continue to exert a powerful influence on individuals' daily life even though they may inhabit drastically different political and economic states.
AMES 3636 - South Asian Women Writers
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: was ALL 3636 until 21-JAN-20, AMES 5636 (starting 21-JAN-20, was ALL 5636 until 21-JAN-20)
Survey of South Asian women's writing, from early years of nationalist movement to present. Contemporary writing includes works by immigrant writers. Concerns, arguments, and nuances in works of women writing in South Asia and diaspora.
AMES 3637W - Modern Indian Literature [LITR WI GP]
(3 cr; A-F or Audit; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: was ALL 3637W until 21-JAN-20, was ALL 3637 until 06-SEP-05, GLOS 3637W (inactive)
Survey of 20th century literature from South Asian countries, including India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. All readings in English. Focuses on colonialism, post-colonialism, power, and representation.
AMES 3638 - Islam and Modernity in South Asia
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: was ALL 3638 until 21-JAN-20, RELS 3724 (inactive, ending 03-SEP-19)
This course explores the multiple genealogical trajectories of Islamic thought in South Asia through the varied lens of its literary traditions. For centuries, literature has remained an important site for the expression of Islamic identity and its interaction with the larger history of the subcontinent. Muslim writers have traversed diverse domains of human experience through multiple genres: while poetry has been a widely celebrated genre for the expression of private love, drama has emerged as a crucial site for public politics and activism. In this course, students will read texts that have circulated across South Asia and interpret them in relation to enduring questions about power, justice, identity, community and love (both human and divine) in Islam. Reading a wide array of works from diverse temporal and spatial locations, this course examines how the aesthetic and discursive world of South Asia provides a terrain on which the Islamic "socius" of the region has come to define itself in a unique manner. In addition, we also investigate how these literary cultures-at different historical junctures-articulated a secular ethos to define Hindu-Muslim relations in the subcontinent. We further discuss questions of genres-epic, romance, drama, novel and lyric-as a way of thinking about the circulation of literary forms across languages, cultures and national spaces in the past and the present.
AMES 3651 - Ghosts of India [GP]
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: was ALL 3651 until 21-JAN-20
Writers, filmmakers, and other creative art practitioners from almost every corner of this living world use the figure of the ghost to address questions of ethics, justice, violence, and repression. This course focuses on India's modern ghosts as well as ghosts and spirits from classical Indian literature. In every sphere of our lives, public and private, we are chased by various ghosts that often appear in forms of memory, remembrance, nostalgia, and forgetfulness. Ghosts scare us, enchant us, and capture our imagination. Our intellectual engagement will consist of theorizations around the figure of the ghost and its various conceptual offshoots (hauntology, specter, the uncanny, etc.) as encountered through literary and filmic texts. The course will also connect these ghostly tales with issues of nationalism, gender, communal and ethnic violence, and capitalism.
AMES 3671 - Hinduism
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: was ALL 3671 until 21-JAN-20, was SALC 3412 until 02-SEP-08, was SALC 5412 until 07-SEP-99, AMES 5671 (inactive, starting 27-MAY-08, was ALL 5671 until 21-JAN-20, was SALC 5412 until 02-SEP-08), HIST 3492, RELS 5671 (inactive, starting 02-SEP-08, was RELS 5412 until 02-SEP-08), RELS 3671 (starting 02-SEP-08, was RELS 3412 until 02-SEP-08)
Development of Hinduism focusing on sectarian trends, modern religious practices, myths/rituals, pilgrimage patterns/ religious festivals. Interrelationship between Indian social structure/Hinduism.
AMES 3672 - Buddhism [GP]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Summer)
Equivalent courses: was ALL 3672 until 21-JAN-20, was SALC 3413 until 20-JAN-09, was SALC 5413 until 05-SEP-00, was SALC 3413 until 05-SEP-00, was SALC 5413 until 07-SEP-99, RELS 3371, RELS 5371 (inactive, was RELS 5413 until 20-JAN-09), AMES 5672 (inactive, was ALL 5672 until 21-JAN-20, was SALC 5413 until 20-JAN-09)
Historical and contemporary account of the Buddhist religion in Asia/world in terms of its rise, development, various schools, practices, philosophical concepts, and ethics. Current trends in the modern faith and the rise of "socially engaged" Buddhism.
AMES 3673 - Voices of India: Languages, Literature, and Film [GP]
(3 cr; A-F or Audit; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: was ALL 3673 until 21-JAN-20
A course on Indian languages and literatures that studies the languages of India from genealogical, linguistic, typological, historical, and sociological perspectives. Diachronic analysis of the languages of India in relation to some structural features will be also investigated. This course will also provide an overview of literatures of several main South Asian languages with a focus on Hindi - Urdu literatures. We will address the origin of Hindi-Urdu literatures, periodization, and naming of each period. We will also examine the important writers and their representative work, along with the literary trends and influences of each period, including political, social, and cultural situations which helped to shape the writers and their work. Among the representative literary works in Hindi-Urdu, some have been made into films.
AMES 3679 - Religion and Society in Modern South Asia [AH GP]
(3 cr; Student Option No Audit; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: was ALL 3679 until 21-JAN-20, AMES 5679, RELS 3679
Survey of religious formations in modern South Asia (Hindu, Islamic, Sikh, Buddhist). Transformation of religious practice/thought in modernity. Relation between religion and nationalism. Geopolitical dimensions of religious transformation in South Asia.
AMES 3700 - Topics in Southeast Asian Literature (Topics course)
(1 cr [max 3]; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring; may be repeated for 9 credits; may be repeated 3 times)
Selected topics in Southeast Asian literature. Topics specified in the Class Schedule.
AMES 3720 - Topics in Southeast Asian Culture (Topics course)
(1 cr [max 3]; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring; may be repeated for 9 credits; may be repeated 3 times)
Equivalent courses: was ALL 3720 until 21-JAN-20, was HMNG 3920 until 18-JAN-05
Selected topics in Southeast Asian culture. Topics specified in the Class Schedule.
AMES 3756 - Southeast Asian Cinema [AH GP]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
This course examines the social life and political functions of cinema in Southeast Asia in relation to various contexts in which cinema emerged and circulate. The course is attentive to the impact of historical processes on cinema as well as to how film and media process historical events?colonialism, militarism, religious conflict, ideological wars, economic turmoil. The course is guided by three different problematics: the arrival of cinema as an imported technology that coincided with and was arguably contingent upon the European colonial presence in the region; the ideological conflicts of the Cold War, anti-Communist sentiments; and the emergence of national film industries vis-a-vis independent cinema in the contemporary time. The latter sees cinema as a recuperative means, on the one hand, from political trauma and, on the other hand, from the ongoing human rights crises and the decline of democracy in the region.
AMES 3766 - Hmong Textiles and Identities [AH DSJ]
(3 cr; Student Option No Audit; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
This is a lecture, discussion, and project-based learning course on the multi-faceted Hmong identities throughout regions of different countries, time-periods, and acculturation process of each region. The course analyzes authentic materials, texts, and media about the utilization of Artistic Textiles as well as Functional Textiles (clothing) in everyday Hmong life as well as identity frameworks. Hmong textiles and embroideries are key elements to Hmong identities, and directly reflect the diaspora, culture, location, dialect, and practice of each group and sub-group. International Hmong identities are identified and studied in order to critically analyze the foundations of the Hmong American identity. Students learn how to interpret each region's textiles and embroideries and how they represent embroidered language and identities. Although there will be a focus on Asia, this class also focuses on an international Hmong identity which includes the United States and other countries of the Hmong diasporic journey. The class analyzes the role textiles play in today's international Hmong population, Hmong ethnic identity, transformation, advancement, social justice, and commodification. This course is taught in English, there are no prerequisites, and students are not required to have taken any Hmong language classes. Previously offered as AMES 3720.
AMES 3771 - History of Southeast Asia [GP]
(3 cr; A-F or Audit; offered Every Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: was ALL 3771 until 21-JAN-20
Origins of civilization/indigenous states. impact of world religions and Western colonialism on gender, social, political, and economic structures. Nationalism. Establishment of Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines.
AMES 3772 - Hmong Language and Culture Immersion in China
(4 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Summer)
Equivalent courses: was ALL 3772 until 21-JAN-20
This instructor-led study abroad course in Kunming, China, focuses on Hmong language and culture in the trans-historical context of China. Students will gain a deeper understanding of the intricate differences within the Hmong linguistic and cultural diaspora through a comparative approach examining the complexity of Hmong dialects and regional cultural shifts. Instructors will work with all student levels, and instruction is oriented towards helping students learn to use the language effectively. All aspects of linguistic performance - speaking, reading, writing and listening - will be addressed. Open to all students interested in Hmong language and culture, regardless of language level.
AMES 3773 - Hmong Language and Culture Immersion in Thailand [GP]
(4 cr; Student Option No Audit; offered Periodic Summer)
Equivalent courses: was ALL 3773 until 21-JAN-20
This is an instructor-led study abroad course in Thailand. Hmong in the United States trace their story of diaspora directly to Thailand as the most recent country of immigration. While many traced their refugee stories to Thailand, before immigrating to the United States and other countries, Thailand is also a country where many Hmong settled. Thailand is a country of many Hmong stories, intertwined with settlement, immigration, social economic struggles and successes, language development, and more. This study abroad course will focus on learning, observing, and exploring the Hmong diaspora through language and culture in Thailand. The course will explore the historical, cultural, and linguistic contexts of Hmong settlement and immigration in Thailand as well as compare to contexts of Hmong in the United States.
AMES 3786 - The Vietnam Wars: French Colonialism and US Intervention in Indochina
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Fall Odd, Spring Even Year)
Equivalent courses: HIST 3487 (starting 02-SEP-08), GLOS 3487 (inactive)
French conquest. Colonial bureaucratic/economic transformations. Nationalist responses. First Indochina War. Emergence of nation-state. U.S. intervention. Impact of Vietnam War on current politics of Laos, Cambodia, and Thailand, and on Southeast Asia.
AMES 3800 - Topics in Arab Literature (Topics course)
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Fall & Spring; may be repeated for 9 credits; may be repeated 3 times)
Topics specified in Class Schedule.
AMES 3820 - Topics in Middle Eastern Cultures (Topics course)
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Fall & Spring; may be repeated for 9 credits; may be repeated 3 times)
Equivalent courses: was ALL 3820 until 21-JAN-20
Topics specified in Class Schedule.
AMES 3832 - The Politics of Arabic Poetry [LITR GP]
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: was ALL 3832 until 21-JAN-20
This course engages with Arabic poetry in its socio-political context. How have Arab poets from the pre-Islamic era till the present time used their verse as a tool to affirm the structure of their society, or to struggle with it? What roles did Arabic poetry play at the Abbasid imperial courts? How does Arabic poetry participate in the constitution and promulgation or subversion of political ideologies? And what presence has it had in Arab peoples' struggles for independence or reform, historically and today as part of the Arab Spring?
AMES 3833 - Jinn, Ghosts, and Demons in Arabic Literature [LITR GP]
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Jinn, also known as genies, are supernatural beings intrinsic to Islamic cosmology and culture: neither human nor divine, of our world but (usually) invisible to us. This course traces the trope of the jinni in Arabic literature: from the place of jinn in the Quran and Islamic tradition, through their role in the composition of the greatest poetry, to their reincarnation in modern works of literature. Following a survey of classic texts and contexts, we will ask why modern authors summon demons and resurrect ghosts, and what political and cultural work these unruly beings are called to perform. More specifically, we will explore the manner in which jinn are latched onto modern debates on personal and collective trauma, memory, madness, relations between East and West (or North and South), political and state violence, gender relations and hierarchies, and virtual realities.
AMES 3837 - Orienting Hebrew Literature [LITR GP]
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: JWST 3837
An introductory survey of Modern Hebrew Literature and its journey from Eastern Europe through Ottoman/British Palestine to the State of Israel. The class centers on the manner in which Hebrew literature has envisioned the Middle East or ?the Orient,? reflecting, manipulating, or challenging orientalist paradigms. The first part of the course focuses on Hebrew literature written by Eastern European writers, their fantasies of the East as well as their engagements with orientalist or anti-Semite prejudices. The second part examines Hebrew literature?s attempts to ?nativize? in Palestine. Finally, we will read a series of texts by Ashkenazi, Mizrahi, and Palestinian Israeli writers that complicate any attempt to position Hebrew within an Orient/Occident dichotomy. No prior familiarity with Hebrew literature is necessary. All texts will be read in English.
AMES 3856W - Palestinian Literature and Film [WI GP]
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: was ALL 3856W until 21-JAN-20, was ALL 3856 until 03-SEP-19
This course examines modern literature and film of the Palestinian people both for artistic significance and interactions with the broader historical and political situations confronted by Palestinians. We will ask how cultural production, namely literature and film, interacts with, responds to, and even anticipates historical and political events. At the same time, we will problematize a strictly historicist and political reading of literary and cinematic texts, which reduces such artistic works to mere sociological documents, overlooking their creative and artistic achievements. Ultimately, this leads us to a number of questions: what is the relationship between history/politics and art? Can artistic texts transcend the historical and political contexts in which they are produced? How has artistic production functioned within the context of Palestinian statelessness, exile, and anti-colonial struggle? All texts covered in the course will be in English translation, however those able to read texts in the original Arabic are encouraged to do so.
AMES 3857 - Iranian Society through Cinema [AH GP]
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
In this course, we will understand contemporary Iranian society and culture through the lens of Iran's postrevolutionary cinema. Internationally renowned for its artistic, thematic, and narrative prowess, post-revolutionary Iranian cinema is unique in its ability to capture the aspirations, struggles, and triumphs of ordinary Iranians as they manage life in the Islamic Republic. In moving beyond stereotypical images presented by mass media, modern Iranian cinema provides a medium for us to delve into the complex makeup of issues such as religion, gender, class, and politics in Iran today. How does Iranian cinema reflect Iran's culture, society and politics? What role does Iranian cinema play in shaping Iran's national identity? What new insights does Iranian cinema shed onto the interests, subjectivities, and desires of Iranians themselves? Throughout this course, we will attempt to answer these questions by viewing a number of masterpieces of Iranian cinema and reading related social, historical, and political analyses. By engaging in an exploration of daily life in Iran through film, we will gain a more nuanced understanding of Iran's modern landscape and the diversity of opinions and experiences that it constitutes. This course will also serve as an introduction to Iranian history, especially following the 1979 revolution. By examining how Iranian cinema is intimately linked with this history, students will gain a better understanding of the significant role that cinema has played in shaping Iran today.
AMES 3867 - Orientalism and the Arab World [AH DSJ]
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: was ALL 3867 until 21-JAN-20
This course explores the various manners in which ?the Arab World? is constructed and re/presented in American and European discourses. Reading through scholarly writings, literature, visual arts, and popular media, this course illuminates the manner in which the idea of a monolithic ?Arab World? and quintessential ?Arab? subject are constructed and re/produced for western consumption. Crucially, this course also examines the manner in which this re/production of the ?Arab World/Subject? is integral to the construction of western identity itself ? serving as a foil to western self-conceptualization. The concept of orientalism was introduced into western scholarship by Edward Said through his seminal 1978 work, Orientalism, often credited as a foundational text in the field of postcolonial studies. In the first part of the course, we will closely read Orientalism and some of the influential critical engagements with Said?s book. We will also discuss how orientalist discourse has been subsumed under the debates on the ?Clash of Civilizations? and ?The War on Terror? in the 21st century. The second part of the course will look at orientalist representations in a variety of mediums, from literature and visual art to video games. In the final part of the course, we will try to ?inventory the traces? of Orientalism on the Oriental subject, or examine the manner Arab artists and writers have engaged with orientalism?s legacies.
AMES 3871 - Islam: Religion and Culture
(3 cr; Prereq-Soph or jr or sr; Student Option; offered Every Fall)
Equivalent courses: was ALL 3871 until 21-JAN-20, ARAB 3036 (inactive, was HUM 3036 until 28-MAY-02, was RELA 3036 until 28-MAY-02, was HUM 3036 until 07-SEP-99, was RELA 3036 until 07-SEP-99), HIST 3493, HUM 3036 (inactive, ending 02-SEP-08), RELS 3712 (starting 27-MAY-08, ending 02-SEP-03, was RELA 3036 until 02-SEP-08)
This course is a brief survey of the religion and civilization of Islam. It introduces students to 1) Islamic history from its inception in the seventh century CE to the present, with emphasis on the life of the Prophet Muhammad and the early Caliphate; 2) The authoritative texts of Islam, i.e. the Quran and Prophetic traditions (Hadith); 3) The institutions and discourses characteristic of Islamic civilization; and 4) The transformation of Muslim life and thought in the modern period. By taking this course, students become familiar with the chief ideas, characters, narratives, rites, localities, and movements associated with Islam.
AMES 3872 - The Cultures of the Silk Road
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Every Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: was ALL 3872 until 21-JAN-20, RELS 3708, HIST 3504 (starting 08-SEP-09)
Past/present state of cultures that flourished in Central Asia (present-day CA republics, Iran, Afghanistan) after Alexander the Great. Decline with opening of sea routes.
AMES 3873 - Islamic Mysticism [AH GP]
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: RELS 3773
This course offers an introduction to the tradition of Islamic mysticism, or Sufism. The main goal of the class is to develop an understanding of the mystical perspectives within Islam that have influenced most of the world's Muslim population. Throughout Islamic history, Sufis (Islamic mystics) have developed fascinating philosophical theories and beautiful literature, attempting to answer questions about the meaning of life and the nature of reality. We will read Islamic mystical texts that explore everything from hidden meanings of the Qur'an, to dreams and supernatural powers, to sex, love, and spiritual connection with God. In addition to reading the writings of Muslim holy men (and sometimes women) from Turkey to China and beyond, we will also consider the role of Islamic mysticism in Muslim societies, and how it influenced people at various levels of society. Finally, we will examine what happens to Sufism in the modern period, given challenges from colonialism as well as alternate schools of thought within Islam. Please bring the required texts to class, and print out readings when appropriate for note taking and for use in class discussion. All readings will be in English translation and no prior knowledge of Islam or foreign languages is required for this class.
AMES 3876 - Survey of the Modern Middle East [GP]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Every Fall)
Equivalent courses: was ALL 3876 until 21-JAN-20, HIST 3505, ARAB 3505 (inactive, ending 17-JAN-12, starting 16-JAN-01, was HIST 3505 until 16-JAN-01, was MELC 3505 until 16-JAN-01, was ARAB 5505 until 16-JAN-01, was HIST 3505 until 05-SEP-00, was MELC 3505 until 05-SEP-00, was ARAB 5505 until 05-SEP-00, was HIST 3505 until 07-SEP-99, was MELC 3505 until 07-SEP-99, was ARAB 5505 until 07-SEP-99), ARAB 5505 (inactive, ending 17-JAN-12), MELC 3505 (inactive, ending 19-JAN-10)
Political history of Middle East in modern era. Socio-economic/intellectual issues. Decline of Ottoman Empire. Imperialism. Nationalism, rise/development of states. Political Islam.
AMES 3877 - The Arab Renaissance: Narrating Modernity [AH GP]
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: AMES 5877
The Nah?a, a word meaning renaissance, awakening, or simply the act of standing up, is the name Arab writers and intellectuals of the 19th c. gave their own historical period. What does it mean to view oneself as living through a revival? How does this view shape the contours of the past, or of the future? This class will address these questions through a survey of the political, intellectual, social, and cultural aspects of Arab modernity. We will examine how Arab thinkers of the late 19th and early 20th century produced new genres, identities, and communal affiliations to narrate their experience of modernity, which they often coded as ?the encounter with the West.? Our readings, all in English translation, will cover the first confrontations (and love affairs) with European powers, the self-professed urgency of projects of reforming language, literature, and cultural institutions, the growing schism between religious and secular thought, and the attempts to articulate indigenous alternatives to Western-style modernity.
AMES 3886 - Petrofictions: Oil Wars, Wealth, and Waste in the Middle East [AH]
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
In 1992, the novelist Amitav Ghosh wondered why the "oil-encounter," the most significant, culture-altering development of the twentieth century, has not been narrativized. Twenty years later, in The Great Derangement, he concluded that our prevalent narrative forms are inadequate to narrate the slow catastrophe of climate change, simply because they are so implicated, even complicit, in the extractive logics of petromodernity. This course explores our contemporary modernity of oil dependence through critical engagement with Middle Eastern cultural production. It postulates that to think about oil is not solely to think about derricks or spectacular spills or barrel prices, but about the basic narratives, fictions, and ideologies that underline our daily lives; that reading fictions (conceived broadly) is both a method and resource to map and critique ways in which the world's resources are unevenly produced, extracted, and exploited on a global-local scale; and that humanistic inquiry can challenge the common assumption that existing energy systems are inevitably necessary in modern life. Throughout the semester, the students will engage in critical readings of novels, films, and visual art that emerge from and react to the networked reality of an oil-addicted world. They will critically analyze the narrative forms and visual vocabularies through which the petro-industry has been depicted, as well as learn about the violent history of oil extraction and its environmental effects. Finally, they will consider how creative works allow us to imagine and promote alternative and more sustainable energy futures.
AMES 3900 - Topics in Asian Literature (Topics course)
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring; may be repeated for 9 credits; may be repeated 3 times)
Equivalent courses: was ALL 3900 until 21-JAN-20
Topics specified in Class Schedule.
AMES 3920 - Topics in Asian Culture (Topics course)
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring; may be repeated for 9 credits; may be repeated 3 times)
Equivalent courses: was ALL 3920 until 21-JAN-20
Topics specified in Class Schedule.
AMES 3993 - Directed Study
(1 cr [max 4]; Student Option; offered Every Fall & Spring; may be repeated for 16 credits; may be repeated 4 times)
Equivalent courses: was AMES 3990 until 08-SEP-20, was ALL 3990 until 21-JAN-20
Individual reading/study, with guidance of a faculty member, on topics not covered in regular courses. Prereq-instr consent, dept consent, college consent.
AMES 4901W - Capstone Project in Asian & Middle Eastern Studies [WI]
(3 cr; Prereq-AMES major, sr; A-F or Audit; offered Every Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: was ALL 4901W until 21-JAN-20, was ALL 4900W until 04-SEP-18
The capstone project in the department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies is meant to demonstrate the cumulative language, critical thinking, and analysis skills developed by students over the course of their undergraduate studies. It consists of a thesis of at least 6000 words, in which students must synthesize research in primary language sources (i.e. texts, films, or other forms of cultural production in the original language of student's declared subplan) with secondary research.
AMES 5220 - Pedagogy of Asian Languages and Literatures (Topics course)
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Every Fall & Spring; may be repeated for 9 credits; may be repeated 3 times)
Equivalent courses: was ALL 5220 until 21-JAN-20
Second language acquisition theory, methods, testing, and technology applicable to the teaching of less commonly taught languages.
AMES 5221 - Pedagogy for Less Commonly Taught Languages
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
This course is for graduate students and advanced undergraduate students with an interest or experience in the teaching of world languages?specifically less commonly taught languages (?LCTLs?). The course provides theoretical grounding in the trends and issues particular to the teaching of LCTLs in a college setting. It also has an applied orientation in its focus on instructional approaches and strategies, and best practices for the development of speaking, writing, reading, and listening skills and transcultural competence in various modes of communication (interpersonal, interpretive, and presentational). Students will pair background readings with exercises in lesson planning and activity design and with the observation of LCTL classes. The course is open to students specializing in various world languages; readings and assignments have been selected for their relevance to teaching professionals across LCTLs.
AMES 5250 - Advanced Topics in Asian Film and Media (Topics course)
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Fall & Spring; may be repeated for 6 credits; may be repeated 2 times)
Equivalent courses: was ALL 5250 until 21-JAN-20
Examines theme, problem, region, style, or filmmaker in Asian cinema. Focuses on (geo)political and socioeconomic contexts in relation to artistic and interpretive frameworks.
AMES 5281 - Language and Politics across Asia
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
With the rise of nationalism, language becomes both a political question unto itself as well as a vehicle for other political issues. Why were people willing to set themselves on fire to protest against having to speak Hindi in southern India, and willing to fight wars to defend it in the north? How was Hebrew, which had been a dead language for almost 2000 years, revived as a modern spoken language? What are the politics of imposing a single language, Mandarin, on an incredibly diverse population of 1.3 billion people in China? This seminar explores the politics of language across Asia through case studies in parts of the Middle East, South Asia, and East Asia. It pairs literary and historical case studies with different theoretical frameworks for the study of language politics, and explores how language has been central to political and historical phenomena from European and Japanese colonialism to state formation to anti-colonial struggles and revolutionary movements. Students will therefore gain specific knowledge about how language politics have played out historically and presently in different parts of Asia, as well as developing theoretical and analytical skills for thinking critically about language in general. Please print out readings for note taking and for use in class discussion. All readings will be in English translation and no prior linguistic or historical knowledge is required for this class.
AMES 5300 - Topics in Chinese Literature (Topics course)
(3 cr; A-F or Audit; offered Periodic Fall & Spring; may be repeated for 9 credits; may be repeated 3 times)
Topics specified in Class Schedule.
AMES 5320 - Topics in Chinese Culture (Topics course)
(3 cr; A-F or Audit; offered Periodic Fall & Spring; may be repeated for 9 credits; may be repeated 3 times)
Topics specified in Class Schedule.
AMES 5351 - Chinese New Media
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: was ALL 5351 until 21-JAN-20
This course explores new media and intermediality from specific moments in the history of modern China. The new visuality of the late Qing Dynasty offers examples of how new forms of visual culture became both reflexive and constitutive of modernity. Later, silent cinema of the Republican era both drew upon and defined itself against existing Chinese dramatic forms, particularly opera. In the 1930s, the arrival of sound in cinema provided a space for phonographic modernity to be expressed through film. In the People's Republic, the productive interplay between traditional art forms and cinema entered a new era, culminating in the cinematic adaptations of the "model plays" of the Cultural Revolution. Finally, recent years have seen the explosive growth of digital cinema, computer animation, internet culture, and gaming communities.
AMES 5358 - Realism, Revolution, and the Moving Image
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: was ALL 5358 until 21-JAN-20
Cinema associated with socialist realism as a global, transnational phenomenon at the heart of the aesthetics of the 20th-century's communist movement. The work of revolutionary filmmakers from China, Soviet Union, North Korea, Cuba, Eastern Europe, and Africa informs our exploration of socialist realism. Formalized by Maxim Gorky and other Soviet artists, theorists, and cultural officials in the early 1930s, socialist realism would become the official literary and artistic style of Communist revolutionary movements and resulting states throughout the world. Certain consistencies of style and theme spread to various sites across histories and geographies, yet much variation also was evident and will be explored in this class. Rejecting the dismissal of socialist realism as mere propaganda, we will take seriously its theorization and its aesthetic innovations, as well as its relationships with classical Hollywood narration, melodrama, and the psychoanalytic concept of sublimation. Through an examination of socialist realism's variations and limits, we will grapple with larger questions of modernity, authority, and the function of art in modern societies.
AMES 5359 - Early Shanghai Film Culture
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: was ALL 5359 until 21-JAN-20
Shanghai film culture, from earliest extant films of 1920s to end of Republican Era in 1949. Influences on early Chinese film, from traditional Chinese drama to contemporary Hollywood productions. Effects of leftist politics on commercial cinema. Chinese star system, material film culture.
AMES 5420 - Topics in Japanese Culture (Topics course)
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Fall & Spring; may be repeated for 9 credits; may be repeated 3 times)
Topics specified in course schedule.
AMES 5446 - Kabuki: A Pop, Queer, and Classical Theater in Japan
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: was ALL 5446 until 21-JAN-20
Kabuki, an all-male theater of "song (ka)/dance (bu)/acting (ki)" that came into being in the 17th century, still boasts popularity in Japan. This course explores kabuki in several contexts: historical, theatrical, literary, and theoretical. It aims to historicize this performing art in its four-hundred-year dynamic trajectory against the static understanding that it is a national, high culture. No less importantly, we inquire into theoretical implications of subject matter, such as citationality, gender construction, and the like. Furthermore, this course attends to what is usually marginalized and overlooked in kabuki historiography: koshibai (unlicensed small troupes of kabuki); onna yakusha (women kabuki actors who mastered the acting techniques established by male kabuki actors--including the technique of female impersonation). Open to anyone with an interest, no previous knowledge of Japanese studies, theater studies, or Japanese is required. All of the readings will be available in English. Audio-visual materials will be used whenever available and appropriate.
AMES 5486 - Images of "Japan"
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: was ALL 5486 until 21-JAN-20
This course examines non-Japanese texts that deploy the imagination of "Japan" in their narratives. Discussions will take up such focal points as: ethnographic cinema, the politics of travel and translation, the intersections of race and gender, the cultural politics of alternate histories, and the ramifications of techno-orientalist discourse.
AMES 5536 - Modern Korean Literature
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: AMES 3536 (starting 18-JAN-22, was ALL 3536 until 21-JAN-20)
Modern Korean literature in English translation from the colonial period until the 1990s. Read literary texts critically, using genre categories, theories of narrative voice, different understandings of modern literary subjectivity, and historical contextualization.
AMES 5556 - Korean Film and Media
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: AMES 3556 (starting 08-SEP-20, was ALL 3556 until 21-JAN-20)
This course is an introduction to Korean film from the Japanese colonial period (1910-1945) to the present day. We discuss the emergence of the Korean film industry under the conditions of colonial modernity and the various political pressures put on film production in South Korea until the 1990s. We will then turn to the last twenty years, during which South Korean film and television have experienced a boom in popularity in East Asia and globally. Throughout, we will focus on the formal and technical aspects of film, representations of history and historical memory, genre borrowing and genre mixing, and the relationships between art-house and culture industry productions.
AMES 5620 - Topics in South Asian Culture (Topics course)
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: was ALL 5620 until 21-JAN-20
Topics specified in Class Schedule.
AMES 5636 - South Asian Women Writers
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: was ALL 5636 until 21-JAN-20, AMES 3636 (starting 21-JAN-20, was ALL 3636 until 21-JAN-20)
Survey of South Asian women's writing, from early years of nationalist movement to present. Contemporary writing includes works by immigrant writers. Concerns, arguments, and nuances in works of women writing in South Asia and diaspora.
AMES 5679 - Religion and Society in Modern South Asia
(3 cr; Student Option No Audit; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: AMES 3679 (starting 02-SEP-14, was ALL 3679 until 21-JAN-20), RELS 3679
Survey of religious formations in modern South Asia (Hindu, Islamic, Sikh, Buddhist). Transformation of religious practice/thought in modernity. Relation between religion and nationalism. Geopolitical dimensions of religious transformation in South Asia.
AMES 5720 - Topics in Southeast Asian Culture (Topics course)
(1 cr [max 3]; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring; may be repeated for 3 credits)
Selected topics in Southeast Asian culture. Topics specified in the Class Schedule.
AMES 5820 - Topics in Middle Eastern Cultures (Topics course)
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Fall & Spring; may be repeated for 9 credits; may be repeated 3 times)
Equivalent courses: was ALL 5820 until 21-JAN-20
Topics specified in Class Schedule.
AMES 5837 - Arab Prison Writing
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
From colonial-era prisons to post-colonial regimes' widespread use of detention to neo-colonial spaces of confinement such as Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib, incarceration and its threat have been prominent features of modern Arab life spawning a distinct genre: prison writing. This course surveys novels and memoirs of this genre to examine the various forms imprisonment and incarceration take in Arab literature and the often surprising ways in which they are represented.
AMES 5866 - Gender and Sexuality in Modern Arabic Literature
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: was ALL 5866 until 21-JAN-20
Survey of modern Arabic literature's key role in the articulation, construction, and subversion of gendered subjectivities. Explores the construction of masculine and feminine subjectivities, as well as the blurring of the dichotomy between the two. Also explores how homoerotic desire is presented in modern Arabic novels. Engages the complex interplay between the gender politics of literary texts, and the broader historical and political contexts from which they emerge. All texts covered in this course will be in English translation, however those able to read texts in the original Arabic are encouraged to do so.
AMES 5877 - The Arab Renaissance: Narrating Modernity
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: AMES 3877
The Nah?a, a word meaning renaissance, awakening, or simply the act of standing up, is the name Arab writers and intellectuals of the 19th c. gave their own historical period. What does it mean to view oneself as living through a revival? How does this view shape the contours of the past, or of the future? This class will address these questions through a survey of the political, intellectual, social, and cultural aspects of Arab modernity. We will examine how Arab thinkers of the late 19th and early 20th century produced new genres, identities, and communal affiliations to narrate their experience of modernity, which they often coded as ?the encounter with the West.? Our readings, all in English translation, will cover the first confrontations (and love affairs) with European powers, the self-professed urgency of projects of reforming language, literature, and cultural institutions, the growing schism between religious and secular thought, and the attempts to articulate indigenous alternatives to Western-style modernity.
AMES 5886 - Petrofictions: Oil Wars, Wealth, and Waste in the Middle East
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
In 1992, the novelist Amitav Ghosh wondered why the "oil-encounter," the most significant, culture-altering development of the twentieth century, has not been narrativized. Twenty years later, in The Great Derangement, he concluded that our prevalent narrative forms are inadequate to narrate the slow catastrophe of climate change, simply because they are so implicated, even complicit, in the extractive logics of petromodernity. This course explores our contemporary modernity of oil dependence through critical engagement with Middle Eastern cultural production. It postulates that to think about oil is not solely to think about derricks or spectacular spills or barrel prices, but about the basic narratives, fictions, and ideologies that underline our daily lives; that reading fictions (conceived broadly) is both a method and resource to map and critique ways in which the world's resources are unevenly produced, extracted, and exploited on a global-local scale; and that humanistic inquiry can challenge the common assumption that existing energy systems are inevitably necessary in modern life. Throughout the semester, the students will engage in critical readings of novels, films, and visual art that emerge from and react to the networked reality of an oil-addicted world. They will critically analyze the narrative forms and visual vocabularies through which the petro-industry has been depicted, as well as learn about the violent history of oil extraction and its environmental effects. Finally, they will consider how creative works allow us to imagine and promote alternative and more sustainable energy futures.
AMES 5920 - Topics in Asian Culture (Topics course)
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Fall & Spring; may be repeated for 12 credits; may be repeated 4 times)
Equivalent courses: was ALL 5920 until 21-JAN-20
Topics specified in Class Schedule.
AMES 5993 - Directed Study
(1 cr [max 4]; Student Option; offered Every Fall, Spring & Summer; may be repeated for 16 credits; may be repeated 4 times)
Equivalent courses: was AMES 5990 until 08-SEP-20, was ALL 5990 until 21-JAN-20
Individual reading/study, with guidance of a faculty member, on topics not covered in regular courses. Prereq-instr consent, dept consent, college consent.
AMES 8001 - Critical Approaches to Asian and Middle Eastern Studies
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall)
Equivalent courses: was ALL 8001 until 21-JAN-20
This course aims to provide critical and theoretical foundations for incoming graduate students in Asian Literatures, Cultures, and Media program, while also addressing broader questions that would be of interest to students in other departments in the Humanities and Social Sciences. Our project will be to generate discussion about the theoretical and political complexities of studying Asia and the Middle East from a cross-cultural and transnational perspective, taking account of several inter-related questions at the heart of the work of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies. Beginning with Edward Said?s critique of orientalism as our point of departure, we will take up a range of questions revolving around debates over historiography (e.g., capitalism and the formations of race and gender, nationalism and imperialism, etc.) and the relationship between cultural studies and political-economy (e.g., the political unconscious, national allegory, translation and translingual practice, ethnographic gaze, etc.) with a particular attention to the complications posed by taking ?Asia? as the object of intellectual inquiry in any such analysis. Our discussions will consider key problematics in cultural theory, the uses of such theory in the Asian context and some of the issues thereby raised, and critical interventions by scholars of Asia.
AMES 8002 - Research Seminar
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Spring)
Equivalent courses: was ALL 8002 until 21-JAN-20
Issues/approaches in academic study of Asian and/or Middle Eastern area studies. Problems in contemporary academic theory in humanities. Application of theory to issues in area studies raised. Interventions of critical theory. Ethics of professional peer review. Crisis in higher education.
AMES 8333 - FTE: Master's
(1 cr; Prereq-Master's student, [adviser, DGS] consent; No Grade Associated; offered Every Fall, Spring & Summer; 6 academic progress units; 6 financial aid progress units)
Equivalent courses: was ALL 8333 until 21-JAN-20
x
AMES 8444 - FTE: Doctoral
(1 cr; Prereq-Doctoral student, [adviser, DGS] consent; No Grade Associated; offered Every Fall, Spring & Summer; 6 academic progress units; 6 financial aid progress units)
Equivalent courses: was ALL 8444 until 21-JAN-20
x
AMES 8666 - Doctoral Pre-Thesis Credits
(1 cr [max 6]; Prereq-Doctoral student who has not passed prelim oral; no required consent for 1st/2nd registrations, up to 12 combined cr; dept consent for 3rd/4th registrations, up to 24 combined cr; doctoral student admitted before summer 2007 may register up to four times, up to 60 combined cr; No Grade Associated; offered Every Fall, Spring & Summer; may be repeated for 12 credits; may be repeated 2 times)
Equivalent courses: was ALL 8666 until 21-JAN-20
x
AMES 8777 - Thesis Credits: Master's
(1 cr [max 18]; Prereq-Max 18 cr per semester or summer; 10 cr total required [Plan A only]; No Grade Associated; offered Every Fall, Spring & Summer; may be repeated for 50 credits; may be repeated 10 times)
Equivalent courses: was ALL 8777 until 21-JAN-20
Thesis Credits: Master's
AMES 8888 - Thesis Credit: Doctoral
(1 cr [max 24]; No Grade Associated; offered Every Fall, Spring & Summer; may be repeated for 100 credits; may be repeated 10 times)
Equivalent courses: was ALL 8888 until 21-JAN-20
x
AMES 8920 - Topics in Asian culture (Topics course)
(1 cr [max 3]; S-N only; offered Every Fall & Spring; may be repeated for 9 credits; may be repeated 3 times)
Equivalent courses: was ALL 8920 until 21-JAN-20
Topics specified in Class Schedule.
AMES 8993 - Directed Study
(1 cr [max 4]; Prereq-PhD student; Student Option; offered Every Fall & Spring; may be repeated for 16 credits; may be repeated 4 times)
Equivalent courses: was AMES 8990 until 08-SEP-20, was ALL 8990 until 21-JAN-20
Directed readings in foreign language(s) of specialty, where appropriate.

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