East Asian Studies Academic Year 2024 – 2025 Jump To: Jump To: General Information Address 211 Jones Hall Phone 609-258-4276 Website Department of East Asian Studies Program Offerings: Ph.D. Department for program: East Asian Studies Affiliated departments: Anthropology Art and Archaeology Religion Comparative Literature History Director of Graduate Studies: Atsuko Ueda (Ph.D. in East Asian Studies) Graduate Program Administrator: Margo Orlando Overview Welcome to East Asian Studies. Princeton’s Ph.D. program in East Asian Studies (EAS) has long been recognized as one of the leading graduate programs of its kind in the Western world. At present, we offer doctoral (Ph.D.) training in Chinese and Japanese history and literature, Korean literature, cultural and media studies, anthropology of Japan, and in the transnational social and cultural study of contemporary East Asia.With its current full-time faculty of ~40 professors and language instructors in the EAS department, frequent international visiting professors, and an additional 13 professors specializing on East Asia in the Departments of Art and Archaeology, Comparative Literature, Sociology, Religion, and Politics, Princeton is home to a vibrant community of scholars and students working on East Asia. All EAS historians have joint appointments in the Department of History.The richness of class offerings and research interests of the combined faculty of the East Asian Studies Program and Princeton University at large offers students a unique opportunity to pursue training in the most varied fields related to China, Japan, and Korea. Students have the chance of acquiring skills, competences, and theoretical mastery in different disciplines within the humanities, media studies, and the social sciences. Research can be dedicated to the advancement of knowledge in established disciplines or in interdisciplinary form; it can be confined to one country or be transnational; and it can focus on specific time periods (antiquity, medieval, early modern, and modern) or cover wider spans of time.The Graduate School maintains an informative website, and we encourage all prospective students to explore its many sections regarding general academic questions as well as issues such as housing, insurance, and benefits. Apply Application deadline December 1, 11:59 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (This deadline is for applications for enrollment beginning in fall 2025) Program length 5 years Fee $75 GRE General Test - optional/not required Additional departmental requirements Sample of written work, 25 page maximum. Applicants are required to select an academic subplan when applying. Program Offerings Ph.D. Program Offering: Ph.D. Courses Students are expected to complete twelve graduate seminars during the first two years of study in addition to all necessary language classes. In exceptional cases, and with permission of the Director of Graduate Studies obtained prior to enrollment, a 400-level undergraduate seminar can be counted as one of the twelve seminars with the expectation that the work produced in the course is commensurate with graduate level work. The Director of Graduate Studies will determine the course load in each semester in consultation with the student and their advisor. The Department encourages students to do part of their coursework in other departments as appropriate and pertinent to their fields of study. Students in East Asian history are expected to take History 500 (Introduction to the Professional Study of History) in their first semester. Students in literature are encouraged to take Comparative Literature 521 (Introduction to Comparative Literature). Students in the social and cultural study of contemporary East Asia are encouraged to take an introductory course specific to their discipline, for example, Anthropology 501 and 502 (Proseminar in Anthropology)and/or 503A or B (Co-seminar). In addition to the official course offerings, students may ask individual faculty for an independent reading course. While doing graduate coursework, students are expected to write final research papers (or the equivalent thereof) in each of their courses. These papers must be written in English. At the end of the first and second academic year, students should deposit one sample of their best written work in their departmental file. Students can take courses at neighboring institutions like Columbia University, New York University, Rutgers University, and University of Pennsylvania. Princeton is also part of the Exchange Scholar Program(link is external), a student-exchange consortium of research universities that allows students to study for a semester or a year at another participating institution. Language(s) Every student in the Department is required to demonstrate competence in at least two foreign languages: one in the East Asian language appropriate to the field of specialization (Chinese, Japanese, or Korean), the other in a European language, typically French or German. Students specializing in the pre-modern or early modern periods must be proficient in both the classical and the modern language of their field of specialization. In addition, students in Chinese studies are required to take at least two years of modern Japanese and are advised to take EAS 563-564 (Readings in Japanese Academic Style).Depending on the field of specialization, individual faculty may impose additional language requirements. The European and (for students in Chinese studies) Japanese language requirements must be fulfilled prior to the General Examination. These and any other language requirements may be fulfilled through regular courses during the academic year and/or through intensive summer programs that typically provide the equivalent of a full year of language study, for which students may apply for additional Princeton (or outside) funding dedicated to this purpose. Princeton maintains its own summer language programs in Beijing, China(link is external) and Kanazawa (Ishikawa prefecture), Japan(link is external). Students may also take examinations to place out of their additional language requirements. These examinations must be taken before the General Examination. Upon arrival at Princeton, new students are evaluated in the language of their field of specialization and, if necessary, placed into appropriate language courses. Foreign students are required to take an examination to demonstrate adequate mastery of the English language and, in some cases, they may be asked to take a dedicated English language course. Additional pre-generals requirements The department has arranged with the Department of Comparative Literature for a minor in comparative literature. This involves choosing comparative literature as the third field in addition to other requirements that can be explained by the Director of Graduate Studies in this department or in the Department of Comparative Literature. Qualifying for the M.A. The Master of Arts (M.A.) degree is normally an incidental degree on the way to full Ph.D. candidacy. It may be earned after a student has successfully completed all pre-general examination coursework (normally, at least twelve seminars); produced research papers using original sources in Chinese, Japanese, or Korean; and fulfilled departmental language requirements. It may also be awarded to students who, for various reasons, leave the Ph.D. program, provided that these requirements have been met. Teaching The University offers graduate students the opportunity to gather teaching experience by leading discussion sections (“preceptorials”) in undergraduate lecture courses. The Department requires all Ph.D. students to have served at least once as a preceptor before being able to schedule the Final Public Oral Examination. Students are eligible to precept after having successfully completed the general examination. Preceptors are remunerated in accordance with University policy. Students are encouraged to precept beyond the one-course requirement and should actively seek out precepting opportunities both within and beyond the department. This course may be within or outside the student’s disciplinary or linguistic field of specialization. In exceptional circumstances, the Director of Graduate Studies may waive the teaching requirement. Before being able to precept, students must complete a two-day training session at the University’s McGraw Center for Teaching and Learning. Students can also apply to team-teach a new undergraduate course with a member of the EAS faculty. Applications must be approved by the Department Chair and the Director of Graduate Studies and should be sent to the Collaborative Humanities initiative of the Humanities Council. Dissertation and FPO Prospectus After the successful completion of coursework, language requirements, and General Examination, students, now Ph.D. candidates, focus on their dissertation research. The first step is the development of a Dissertation Prospectus, which must be approved by a committee of advisors in the form of a written statement and a public oral defense. The committee includes the primary advisor and two other faculty from within or outside the Department who may or may not have served on the student’s General Examination committee. While there is no set format for the prospectus paper, it consists of a synthetic statement of the dissertation research that candidates develop in close consultation with their primary advisor. On average, it is expected to be a 10 to 15 page-long paper, which includes a clearly defined topic of research, an account of the state of the field and how the proposed research relates to it, an outline of the methodology employed, an account of the sources to be explored, a specific research plan and timeline. The paper may include a preliminary chapter outline. In addition to the paper, candidates should add a substantial bibliography of primary and secondary sources pertinent to the project. The dissertation prospectus paper must be submitted to the Department at least one week before the oral presentation and will be distributed to the Department faculty and graduate students. At the prospectus defense, the candidate is given about twenty minutes to introduce the prospectus; this will be followed by faculty comments and an open-floor discussion. The prospectus defense is typically planned according to the following schedule: General Examination Date Prospectus Presentation October of 3rd year No later than January of 3rd year January of 3rd year No later than May of 3rd year It is the responsibility of the student to observe this schedule. If candidates do not successfully complete the general examination and the dissertation prospectus defense by the end of the third academic year, their reenrollment will be deferred until a successful prospectus defense. As per Graduate School rule, no student should be readmitted to a fourth year (seventh term) of graduate study without having successfully completed the general examination. The possible outcomes of the prospectus presentation are: 1) accepted; 2) accepted with revisions; 3) rejected. If the prospectus is accepted with revisions, the student has four weeks to present a revised version to the committee, which will decide on its acceptance without a second public presentation. If the initial prospectus is rejected, a new date for another public presentation must be scheduled in consultation with the Director of Graduate Studies. A second rejection results in withdrawal from the University with the M.A. Dissertation Write-up Support Students who have exhausted their five years of University funding and do not hold other outside fellowships may apply for write-up fellowships from the East Asian Studies Program. The awarding of such fellowships is contingent on the demonstrated progress—typically chapter drafts—toward the completion of the dissertation. Fellowships are given for one semester and are renewable for a maximum of one more semester. The Final Public Oral Examination The Final Public Oral Examination (FPO) is a final defense of the dissertation and of the student’s competence in their field of study. The dissertation should represent an original and significant contribution to knowledge in the field of specialization. It should be grounded in original source material and demonstrate the candidate’s capacity to pursue independent research in their field and to effectively conceptualize their findings. The scope and length of the dissertation should be such that a finished project can be completed within three years of work. The dissertation must be written and submitted in English. While writing the dissertation, all students are expected to stay in regular contact with their primary dissertation advisor, regardless of whether they are in residence or elsewhere. After the main advisor has agreed that the completed dissertation can be moved forward to the FPO, the Director of Graduate Studies, in consultation with the advisor and the student, assigns two principal readers to write a report to the Graduate School on the quality of the dissertation. Candidates are urged to consult with their advisor and the Director of Graduate Studies well in advance to set a tentative date for their FPO as well as to identify the two principal readers. The advisor cannot act as reader, but for the benefit of the Department and the student, they will submit a similar report, too. External readers outside the Princeton community must be of comparable rank in a relevant branch of the scholarly community. External readers or examiners must be approved by the Graduate School prior to the submission of the FPO application. Students are strongly encouraged to work closely and in regular communication with the two readers, ideally one year prior to the FPO. The composition of the dissertation defense committee can vary, but it is comprised of at least three principal examiners, all of them normally members of the Princeton faculty at the rank of assistant professor or higher, at least two of whom have not been principal readers of the dissertation. At least one of the examiners must be from the student’s home department. The two readers must submit their reports to the Department no later than two weeks before the FPO. If both readers agree that the dissertation is acceptable, the student may proceed to the Final Public Oral Examination. If one of the readers deems the dissertation unacceptable, the Director of Graduate Studies will appoint a third reader and a final determination will be made in discussions among the advisor, the readers, and the Director of Graduate Studies. Candidates must submit two unbound copies of the complete dissertation to the Department eight weeks before the FPO. The dissertation must include the entire text of the dissertation, with footnotes and bibliography, and it must be thoroughly edited. After submitting the dissertation to the Department, only minor changes (correction of occasional typos, etc.) are allowed. Thereafter, in accordance with Graduate School rules, the dissertation must be submitted to the Department in its bound and final form no later than two weeks before the FPO. At the FPO, the student and the examiners should be present in person. In extraordinary circumstances, a department may request that the Graduate School approve virtual, video-conferenced participation of an examiner, but in no case may there be fewer than two examiners who participate in person. Acting on the advice of the examiners, the department determines whether or not the candidate has passed the examinationThe department does not offer to hold Final Public Oral Examinations in the months of June, July, and August. Faculty Chair Federico Marcon Director of Graduate Studies Steven Chung Director of Undergraduate Studies Xin Wen Professor Amy B. Borovoy Janet Y. Chen Thomas D. Conlan Sheldon M. Garon Martin Kern Federico Marcon Anna M. Shields Atsuko Ueda Associate Professor He Bian Ksenia Chizhova Steven Chung Paize Keulemans Brian R. Steininger Xin Wen Assistant Professor Paul A. Vierthaler Trenton W. Wilson Junko Yamazaki Associated Faculty Jonathan C. Gold, Religion Thomas W. Hare, Comparative Literature G. John Ikenberry, Schl of Public & Int'l Affairs Bryan D. Lowe, Religion Ryo Morimoto, Anthropology James M. Raymo, Sociology Stephen F. Teiser, Religion Rory Truex, Schl of Public & Int'l Affairs Cheng-hua Wang, Art and Archaeology Yu Xie, Sociology University Lecturer Shinji Sato Senior Lecturer Ho Jung Choi Hisae Matsui Tomoko Shibata Yukari Tokumasu Jing Wang Yuseon Yun Lecturer Jin Dong Fang-Yen Hsieh Luanfeng Huang Xinyue Huang Susie Kim Taena Kim Yinqiu Ma Ying Ou Zheyu Su Ding Wang-Bramlett Megumi Watanabe Fang Yan Namseok Yong Jieyun Zhu Visiting Professor Nicola Di Cosmo For a full list of faculty members and fellows please visit the department or program website. Permanent Courses Courses listed below are graduate-level courses that have been approved by the program’s faculty as well as the Curriculum Subcommittee of the Faculty Committee on the Graduate School as permanent course offerings. Permanent courses may be offered by the department or program on an ongoing basis, depending on curricular needs, scheduling requirements, and student interest. Not listed below are undergraduate courses and one-time-only graduate courses, which may be found for a specific term through the Registrar’s website. Also not listed are graduate-level independent reading and research courses, which may be approved by the Graduate School for individual students. ART 568 - Art Production, Consumption, and Collection in Ming-Qing Suzhou (also EAS 570) Suzhou as a cultural site is the key to many broad and complicated issues regarding how art was produced and practiced in Ming-Qing China. These complexities include artistic regionalism and cosmopolitanism, the codification and edification of literati culture, the urbanization and commoditization of art, and the interrelationship of the global and the local. This seminar aims to examine Suzhou as the nexus that interweaves all of these essential threads of the Ming-Qing artworld and as the lens through which we understand this artworld as multi-faceted and multi-layered. ART 569 - State of the Field: Historiography of Chinese Painting (also EAS 569) The course focuses on the intellectual stock of the field of Chinese painting. It offers an opportunity to rethink the topics and issues that important studies in the field have addressed. The goal of the seminar is to guide the Ph.D. students on how to tackle these topics and issues raised by previous scholarship. ART 572 - Chinese Painting in the Collection of PUAM (also EAS 573) This seminar teaches PhD students how to develop research topics and exhibition themes from their first hand experiences with actual art objects. It makes extensive use of PUAM's excellent collection of Chinese art, which includes diverse genres and categories of paintings that span more than one thousand years. The course also incorporates new scholarly trends that tackle how to interact with art objects and contemplate their visuality and materiality. ART 575 - Antiquarianism in Chinese Art (also EAS 571) Scholars have long recognized the importance of the theme of antiquarianism in Chinese art. However, recent scholarly interest in the issues associated with copying, replication and multiple temporalities in art provides new perspectives on and approaches to this old theme and greatly enriches related discussions on it. This seminar takes a new look at the recurring tendency of antiquarianism in Chinese art by engaging with four important mediums (painting, calligraphy, bronzes and ceramics) and their frequent incidents of transmediality. COM 540 - Ocean Media: Islanding, Space, Modernity (also EAS 528) This seminar explores the oceanic imaginary of space and the spatial technologies of islanding in the modern world-including the emergence of mega-ports, artificial islands, and the creation of political and economic zones of exception and military bases, with an emphasis on East and Southeast Asia. Posing islanding in the verb form, the readings deconstruct "island" as a natural geographic setting and probe its role in mediating the relations between individual and totality, insularity and world, mainland and periphery, land and sea, etc. We explore different mediations of oceanic imaginary and work toward theories of resistance. COM 581 - Topics in Non-Western and General Literature (also EAS 589) By examining one or more literatures of the Near East or East Asia, and by referring to Western examples as well, the course raises literary issues that cannot be aired through the study of Western literature alone. Emphasis in any given year falls on Arabic, Persian, Chinese, or Japanese literature viewed in a comparative context. EAS 502 - Pro-Sem in Chinese & Japanese Studies General seminar dealing with the problems, methods, and possibilities of research peculiar to the fields of East Asian studies. Students may pursue their particular interests in their individual assignments, while participating in the general work of the seminar. EAS 503 - Early China Selected topics in Chinese political, institutional, and cultural history in the pre-Qin period and Qin and Han dynasties. Focus on sources, traditional historical scholarship, and modern interpretations. EAS 504 - Early China Selected topics in Chinese political, institutional, and cultural history in the pre-Qin period and Qin and Han dynasties. Focus on sources, traditional historical scholarship, and modern interpretations. EAS 506 - Classics, Commentaries, and Contexts in Chinese Intellectual History (also HIS 531) This course examines classical Chinese texts and their commentary traditions, with commentary selections and additional readings from the earliest periods through the early twentieth century. EAS 507 - Chinese Intellectual History Methods, sources, and problems of research in Chinese thought, including examination of some broad interpretations of intellectual development in China. A reading knowledge of Chinese or Japanese is required for the study of selected problem areas through seminar discussion, oral reports, and research papers. EAS 508 - Chinese Intellectual History Methods, sources, and problems of research in Chinese thought, including examination of some broad interpretations of intellectual development in China. A reading knowledge of Chinese or Japanese is required for the study of selected problem areas through seminar discussion, oral reports, and research papers. EAS 513 - Special Topics in Chinese History Selected problems on the historiography of the early, medieval, or late empires with a focus on literati thought, religion, or literature in historical context. Working knowledge of classical Chinese strongly recommended. EAS 514 - Special Topics in Chinese History (also ART 570) Selected problems on the historiography of the early, medieval, or late empires with a focus on literati thought, religion, or literature in historical context. Working knowledge of classical Chinese strongly recommended. EAS 517 - Qing History: Working with Archival Documents This research seminar introduces graduate students to the history and bibliography of archival documents produced during the Qing dynasty (1644-1911), with chronological extensions also into the pre-Conquest period and transition to the early Republican era. Emphasis is on government papers, and students gain essential knowledge of the Qing state from a survey of what primary sources have survived from this period. The second half of this course focuses on the craft of close reading, annotation and translation of original documents, and offers in-class instructions on research, writing and presentation skills. EAS 518 - Qing History (also HIS 532) Topics in Chinese social and cultural history, 1600-1900, ranging from material culture, popular religion, and education to the history of science. EAS 525 - Sources in Ancient and Medieval Japanese History (also HIS 525) This course provides an introduction to the written sources of Japanese history from 750-1600. Instruction focuses on reading and translating a variety of documentary genres, and court chronicles, although visual sources (e.g. maps, scrolls, and screens) are introduced in class as well. Each week entails a translation of five or six short documents and a library research assignment. Research resources and methods are also emphasized. A substantial research assignment, involving primary source research, is due at the end of the semester. The final week of class is devoted to presentations about the research project. EAS 526 - Research Seminar in Ancient and Medieval Japanese History This course is a research and writing seminar that introduces major historical methods of research in ancient and medieval Japan. In addition to weekly research assignments, students identify a research topic by the third week of the class, and complete a research paper at the end of the semester (entailing 15-20 pages). Instruction focuses on research methods and topics, although some reading of sources also occurs. EAS 531 - Chinese Literature Critical and historical studies of classical poetry and poetics, with particular stress on the application of linguistic theory and other tools of literary analysis to Chinese poetry. EAS 532 - Chinese Fiction and Drama A study of the development of Chinese narrative and dramatic literature, with emphasis on generic and thematic analysis. EAS 533 - Readings in Chinese Literature To suit the particular interests of students and instructor, a subject for intensive study is selected from classical or vernacular literature based on genres, periods, or individual writers, such as the prose of the Six Dynasties, the poetry of Tu Fu, the plays of Kuan Han-ch'ing, or <I>Dream of the Red Chamber</I>. EAS 534 - Readings in Chinese Literature To suit the particular interests of students and instructor, a subject for intensive study is selected from classical or vernacular literature based on genres, periods, or individual writers, such as the prose of the Six Dynasties, the poetry of Tu Fu, the plays of Kuan Han-ch'ing, or <I>Dream of the Red Chamber</I>. EAS 536 - Cultures at Play: The History, Aesthetics, and Theory of Games (also COM 544) This class explores games and the culture of play through a variety of angles, ranging from the aesthetic to the ideological, from the historical to the technological. By doing so, we familiarize ourselves with the increasingly prolific literature on (video) games as well as the longer history of game theory. Though the class serves foremost to explore the theoretical readings within this new discipline, game studies, it also allows the hands-on exploration of particular games, entertains the question of how to teach games, and encourages students to apply game theory beyond the realm of games studies itself. EAS 538 - Literary Sinitic and Transnational Literatures A confluence of research in literature, linguistics, and the history of writing has encouraged new approaches to Literary Sinitic (wenyan) as a transregional and interliterate medium. This seminar introduces core debates in this emerging field on vernacularization, influence, glossing, disciplinarity, "extraterritorial" Chinese texts (yuwai Hanji), and the Sinographic cosmopolis. We further read examples of reception, commentary, and local composition in Literary Sinitic from the medieval Japanese context to consider how these theories can be applied or contested. EAS 539 - History of the Book in Japan This course covers a history of textual artifacts in premodern Japan and hands-on training in analyzing extant materials. Topics covered include bindings, paper, glosses, colophons, fragments, paleography, publishing, xylography, movable type, collation, literacy, and cataloging, making use of materials from Princeton's East Asian Library Rare Books Collection. EAS 540 - Primary Sources in Japanese Literature This course introduces students to the location, handling, and interpretation of primary sources in the study of premodern Japanese literature and intellectual history. This semester the course focuses on the genre of the love letter, with peripheral attention to broader categories of erotic verse and epistolary writing. Using documents from the fourteenth through nineteenth centuries, students develop proficiency in reading handwritten and woodblock-printed texts using hentaigana and other cursive forms. Students must have prior training in classical Japanese. EAS 541 - Classical Japanese Prose Aspects of the development of the narrative tradition in Japan, with an emphasis on analytical discussion of selected texts. EAS 542 - Modern Japanese Prose A study of selected major authors and literary trends in modern Japan, with an emphasis on the Meiji and Taisho<SUP>?</SUP> periods. Possible topics include the development of the modern novel, "inter-war" literature, and Taisho modernism EAS 543 - Classical Japanese Poetics <I>Man'yo shu</I> the <I>Imperial Anthologies,</I> and the works of Basho. EAS 544 - 20th-Century Japanese Literature This course examines Japanese literary modernism through twentieth-century narrative and criticism. Analysis of texts are augmented through discussion of contemporary literary, theoretical, and historical developments. EAS 545 - Readings in Kanbun This course focuses on various types of Japanese kanbun, including waka kanbun (Japanized kanbun) from Nara to Meiji era, such as Mayo-gana, okoto-ten, soro-bun, etc. Basic knowledge of classical Japanese grammar and kanbun kundoku reading system is required. EAS 546 - Introduction to Kanbun Introduction to the basic of reading Chinese-style Classical Japanese and its related forms. Texts: Literary and historical texts from both China and Japan. EAS 548 - The Quest for Health: Contemporary Debates on Harm, Medicine, and Ethics (also ANT 548) The course explores issues in medicine and global health with a focus on ethics. It addresses both ethics in the context of clinical decision-making and also the social, cultural, and economic "ethical field" of health care. Ever-expanding technological possibilities re-shape our social lives, extending them, giving greater control but taking it away. Treatments such as living donor organ transplantation, stem cell therapies, and physician-assisted suicide transform our understandings of life, death and what is expected from one another. Technologies such as glucometers bring new inequalities. EAS 549 - Japan Anthropology in Historical Perspective (also ANT 549) The course concerns Japan studies in the context of theories of capitalism, personhood, democracy, gender, and modernity. The thematic focus this term is on health and medicine as they intertwine with social and cultural processes. Topics include: cultural variability of diagnosis and bio-medical practices; how biotechnologies shape and are shaped by social relationships; the containment of medicalization by received notions of kinship, gender, and national identity; conceptions of life itself; and models of public health and the containment of harmful behavior. Reading selections include material on Japan, China, and India. EAS 550 - Topics in Social Theory and East Asia (also ANT 550) An introduction to classical social theory and an exploration of new directions in historical and social science literatures on East Asia. Weber's copnstruction of capitalism, Durkheim's notion of society, and Marx's concept of ideology all continue to inform contemporary East Asian studies; in turn, East Asian Studies has also been central to demonstrationg the Eurocentrism of many of these theories. EAS 553 - Chang'an: China's Medieval Metropolis With a walled city of thirty square miles and a population of more than one million, Chang'an, capital of the Tang dynasty, was the largest city in the world at the time. Through reading texts in different genres including official history, governmental documents, literary collections, anecdotes, legal codes, and stone inscriptions along with secondary scholarship, this course introduces the political, ritual, and economic structures of the city, and explores the lives of its citizens that in different ways either maintained or challenged these structures. EAS 557 - Korea Post Present Contemporary Korea may be defined by multiple and overlapping "post" conditions: post-colonial, post-Cold War, post-socialist, post-IMF, post-political, post-human, etc. Drawing upon seminal scholarly works in the fields of literature, history, sociology, media studies, art history and gender and sexuality studies published over the past two decades, this seminar tracks the research methods and theoretical architectures through which the present has come to be conceptualized. While seminar discussion is conducted entirely in English, high-level Korean reading proficiency is required. EAS 563 - Readings in Japanese Academic Style The two-semester course is designed for students in Chinese studies, who already possess reading fluency in Chinese. Its goal is to train these students in reading the particular style of Japanese academic writing; at the end of the year, students will be able to independently read modern Japanese scholarship on China. Students take this course after at least one year of modern Japanese (JPN 101/102). The course does not train all four skills of reading, writing, speaking, and listening; instead it is devoted entirely to rapidly develop the necessary reading skills in Japanese academic style. The course is conducted in English. EAS 564 - Readings in Japanese Academic Style II The second half of the two-semester course, which trains students in reading the particular style of Japanese academic writing. The second semester particularly focuses on academic writings from Meiji to the 1950s, including brief introduction of necessary Classical Japanese Grammar for this purpose. Course conducted in English. EAS 568 - Readings in Ancient and Medieval Japanese History (also HIS 568) This course is designed to introduce fundamental themes and debates about ancient and medieval Japanese history, and how conceptualizations of Japan have changed from the third century CE through 1600. Approximately two books, or a comparable number of articles, are required each week, and wherever possible, a brief passage of Japanese scholarship will be presented as well. Reading knowledge of modern Japanese is desirable. EAS 576 - Critical Trespasses: Theorizing Political and Intellectual Borders This seminar structures an encounter with theoretical writings about nation, subjectivity, power and culture, which are assembled for their relevance to "East Asia." The collection is not meant to be comprehensive, but is intended to facilitate discussion of work that has shaped and revised active intellectual traditions. It starts with reflection on "area studies" as an academic discipline and moves to considerations of national identity and nationalism. It proceeds to a study of power through psychoanalysis and "neo-Marxism." Finally, it turns to practices - writing, media, technology - that embody and inflect these conceptual formations. EAS 580 - Script Theories: Korea, East Asia, and Beyond (also COM 580/MOD 581) This seminar considers the issues of language, writing, and inscription in a broad comparative perspective that brings together critical theory and recent scholarship on Korea and East Asia. It traces the issues of language and inscription against the frameworks of semiology (Derrida, Irigaray), discursive order (Foucault, Kittler), folds of matter and power (Deleuze), and ideological control (Althusser). The class also uses this theoretical framework to build our understanding of Korean (and, when applicable, East Asian) writing systems, from calligraphy, to the development of print and digital culture. All readings available in English. EAS 581 - Japanese Film and Media Studies This course examines the vivid perspectives of Japanese documentary media from the 1945 to present as the focal point of our consideration of the geopolitics of image media. The course explores major documentary works that critically engage issues of cultural identity, environmental devastation, regional community, and historical memory to raise questions about the changing prospects and politics of image media. Our shifting focal points capture key transformations in the archipelago's urban and media environments from the dynamic views of Japan's most influential writers, critics, and media practitioners. EAS 582 - Readings in Manchu Language and History An introduction to Manchu language, texts, and history. EAS 588 - The Chinese Erotic Novel: Jin Ping Mei The primary aim of the course is to read a good part of the one hundred chapters of this work. To do so the course employs different editions, looks carefully at some of its illustrations, compares the novel with some of its source material, and investigates briefly a sampling of the novel's sequels and adaptations. EAS 594 - Seeing the Interior: Cinema, Media, Inverse Visuality (also COM 594) From the invention of microscope, X-ray, representations of biological contagion and virus, to surveillance camera, the world is increasingly mediated and constituted by visual technologies and new forms of visualities that collapse the boundary between visibility and invisibility. This seminar explores visual representations of the interior and their mediating roles in larger historical and social processes of colonialism, modernization, urbanization, and global capitalism in the East Asian and global context. Readings intersect cinema and media studies, globalization, urban studies, theories of the body, and science and medical studies. HIS 526 - Readings in Early Modern Japanese History (also EAS 521) Selected topics in the institutional and intellectual history of Tokugawa and Meiji Japan. Students attend the meetings of 321 and take part in a special graduate discussion group. HIS 527 - 20th-Century Japanese History (also EAS 522) Selected topics in Japanese social and economic history since 1900. HIS 530 - Modern China (also EAS 520) This seminar will examine the major historiographical and methodological issues in Chinese history for the period 1600-1900. We will read and evaluate the most important historians and consider the issues that seem especially provocative or interesting. HUM 596 - Humanistic Perspectives on Literature (also CLA 596/EAS 537/HLS 596) Marking the 10th anniversary of Derrida's death, this course provides an opportunity to "unpack" Derrida's library, to remember several of his lessons - about philosophy, literature, history, politics, religion, economics, ideology, law, rights, nationalism, racism, colonialism, the media, university institutions, capitalism, rogue states, the war on terror, justice, responsibility, language, friendship, love, life, death, and mourning - all of which are more urgent and necessary than ever before. PHI 505 - History of Chinese Philosophy (also EAS 505) This course covers advanced topics in the history of Chinese philosophy, broadly understood. REL 533 - Readings in Japanese Religions (also EAS 535) This seminar will introduce representative primary texts in classical Japanese and kanbun from the medieval Japanese Buddhist tradition. It will focus on introducing students to a range of genres, such as doctrinal writings, ritual manuals, temple and shrine origin legends, vernacular sermons, didactic tales, and personal letters. Some readings may be selected to accommodate the research interests of seminar participants. Attention will be given to grammar, vocabulary, genre, literary and philosophical issues, and research methods.
