This survey course is designed to introduce students to the history of ancient Iran, from the earliest times to the Muslim conquest of Iran in the seventh century. In a chronological sequence, we will look at the history of Iran before the Iranians, the formidable Elamite civilization and the history of its rise, apogee, and decline; the emergence of Iranian speaking people on the Plateau, and the formation of ancient Iranian empires and their development and expansion throughout the late Sasanian period. For this purpose a selection of ancient Iranian texts will be studied in translation based on the relevant archaeological, historical, and geographical sources.
Days: MO WE  08:00-09:20 AM

This course covers the most important themes in the history of Armenians and Armenia in the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries and does so within a regional (i.e., Middle East and Caucasus) and global context. It focuses on the Armenians living in ancestral lands within the Russian and Ottoman empires as well as those living outside, especially in the post-genocide period. It examines the problems and impact of imperialism, revolution, and genocide on the development of the history of Armenians. This course will proceed in chronological order from imperial rule in the nineteenth century through twentieth-century genocide, brief independence, sovietization, and independence again, but it will also have a strong thematic approach. As we explore this history, we will focus not only on Armenians as imperial and national subjects in ancestral lands but also as transimperial and transnational subjects in a diaspora that has had a complex relationship with the idea and reality of homeland. Readings include secondary and primary sources by and about Armenians themselves.
Days: MO WE  12:30-01:50 PM

This course is taught in Chinese and requires native language ability. The reading material is chosen from three contemporary Chinese writers: Ah Cheng, Wang Anyi, and Xue Yiwei. Weekly reading of about 80-100 pages must be completed before class meeting. Grade breakdown is as follows: 20% class participation, 40% quizzes and exams, and 40% papers and projects.
Days: FR  12:00-02:50 PM

How are masculinities conceived of and represented in traditional Chinese culture before Western influence began to infiltrate China?  This is a central question to be explored in this class. Another issue to examine is the diverse and historical nature of the Chinese conceptualizations of masculinity. The reading will focus on various historical materials fictional and non-fictional (including novels, short stories, historical writings, memoirs, etc.). Written assignments include mid-term and final exams plus pop quizzes.

Cross-listed:
(same as 64650 Intl St 179, Lec I)
Days: TU TH  03:30-04:50 PM

What is it like to grow up Asian American in the United States? What kinds of expectations, pressures, obstacles, stereotypes, and exclusions do young Asian Americans face and how do they respond? This course examines those questions in contemporary Asian American culture: film, narrative fiction, graphic novels, essays, and new media. Our focus will be on understanding the unique demands placed on Asian American subjects as they emerge from childhood and adolescence into adulthood. We will start by thinking about the broad genre of the bildungsroman and how its conventions are used, adapted, revised, or rejected by Asian American writers. We will examine how the experience of racial alterity affects the development of Asian American identities as well as the role that ethnicity, class, gender, and sexuality play in these coming of age stories.
Days: MO WE  10:30-11:50 AM

The ‘Humanities’ address the human subject, the social contexts that contain that subject and in turn are created by it, and increasingly the human in relation to the larger ecology where the legacy of human achievement looks not merely mixed, but increasingly and decidedly destructive.  That unfortunate reality is acknowledged in the proposed naming of our current epoch as the anthropocene, where the destructive impact of human achievements on the planet is underscored.
From the age when science gave us the ability to both differentiate and link humans to other life forms to the present when large systemic structures of consumption threaten lived life irrevocably and everywhere, this course is designed to raise questions about this human-subject centered view that effectively authorizes us to place the human subject first at the expense of all else.
From earlier century ideas like ‘the great chain of being’ to what is often asserted as a posthuman era, what has remained steadfast is an unreflective hubris keeping the human subject as paramount.  This course focuses on the question of the animal, through which the authority of the human subject is kept intact, by decentering our way of seeing with Japan, past and present, as a way to provide comparative conceptual space.  Through Japan as our ‘case study,’ we will examine selected aspects of human-other-animal encounters by engaging research papers, literature, film, art, and forms of Japanese culture.  And to keep the world in view, we will address human-animal relations in the compass of American society from where we cannot be help come to recognize our own complicity in producing and perpetuating the unfortunate harsh and oppressive realities shaping these relations.

Course Requirements:  Quizzes and Written Assignments (25%), Class and EEE Discussion (20%), a final exam (30%), and a Project (25%). The reading load is moderate, and since homework and in-class assignments are keyed to the readings, do not fall behind.  Your requirements—from in-class assignments and quizzes, final exam—not to mention in-class lecture, discussion and unannounced clips, visuals, etc.,  make regular classroom attendance a must.  Late work will be subjected to a one-grade deduction for each day late.  Laptops may be used for note-taking only.
Days: TU TH  11:00-12:20 PM

In this course we explore the themes, issues, and styles of the works of contemporary Korean women writers and film makers from the 1970s to the present.  This is Korea’s high growth period in the wake of the Korean War and the national division.  We will examine women’s experiences of gender and sexuality vis-a-vis the traumatic memories of the Korean War, industrialization, social movement, economic development, and globalization. The writers whose work we will read include Pak Wan-so, Choe Yun, Gong Jiyoung, Kim Aeran, and Han Kang. We will also analyze the works of women film makers such as Chong Chae-un, Byun Young-ju, Shin Su-won, and Lee Eon-hie.

Cross-listed: 
(same as 25180 Gen&Sex 189, Lec A;   and 64645 Intl St 179, Lec H)
Days: MO WE  12:00-12:50 PM

This course is a survey of modern Korean society and culture.  We will examine and interpret the meaning of Korean social and cultural institutions.  Topics of discussion include family and gender relationship, multiculturalism, religion and ritual, popular culture, colonialism, war, national division, industrialization, social movement, globalization, and culture industry.  We will also briefly explore life and society of North Korea.

Cross-listed:
same as 64640 Intl St 179, Lec G)
Days: MO WE  11:00-11:50 AM

This class will focus on major issues shaping architecture and urbanism in the new millennium, such as globalization, the design of sustainable cities, architectural tourism, the creation of inclusive public spaces, new approaches to multi-unit housing, the rediscovery of landscape, and digital design and fabrication.  It will concentrate on Korea, today a center of vibrant transformation of the built environment.  Established and emerging Korean architects (Minsuk Cho, Unsandong Architects, Shinslab Architecture, ThEPLus Architects, Jungmin Nam, Ken Min, Hyunjoon Yoo, Polymur Studio, and Samoo Studio) will be studied in relation to the legacy of earlier Korean modernists, such as Swoo-Geun Kim, Seung H-sang, Ki-Hyung Bae, and Hee-Tai Lee.  Buildings in Korea by contemporary global architects such as the late Zaha Hadid, UN Studio, Dominique Perrault, Jean Nouvel, and MVDRV will be approached as paradigmatic of trends in patronage and new configurations of museums and cultural institutions.  Assignment structure: take-home midterm and final research paper.  Instructor: Edward Dimendberg
Days: TU TH  12:30-01:50 PM

This course examines the historical origins and development of the Chinese revolution, focusing on the questions of how and why the Chinese revolution took place. Among the issues to be explored are late imperial Chinese society and culture, its "modern" transformation under the pressures of foreign imperialism, failures of various reforms, cultural radicalism, and the nationalist and communist revolutions.
This is a reading-intensive discussion seminar; we will also use video materials.  Students are required to actively participate in weekly class discussions and write two papers based on the assigned readings.
Days: MO  04:00-06:50 PM

Through an examination of various texts, including theory, historiography, ethnography, and literature, this course will explore the possibility of “Korea” as a necessarily postnational imaginary in that it transcends the very paradigm of nationalism, which as a political doctrine aspires to consolidate a people within a predefined territory and ideological matrix. Scholars have used the expression postnational to refer to forms of social belonging that counteract the ideological and geopolitical expectations of the nation-state. Yet, by invoking the notion of postnational to describe the emergence of global Koreanness, this of course is not meant to suggest that the national is no longer relevant, that it has somehow been transcended by the macro-processes of globalization, or that official criterion of state recognition, including documents ranging from passports to birth certificates, have been rendered obsolete. Indeed, the national remains so central to social belonging in many Korean communities, whether in Korea “proper” or in global Koreatowns, such as those in Los Angeles, Beijing, or New York. This course, therefore, considers the ways in which the “national” is inflected in various everyday social practices, but also the ways in which nationness can be said to emerge, in some cases, more prominently than it does in the ostensibly originary point of Korea.
Days: TU TH  02:00-03:20 PM

Through an examination of various texts, including theory, historiography, ethnography, and literature, this course will explore the possibility of “Korea” as a necessarily postnational imaginary in that it transcends the very paradigm of nationalism, which as a political doctrine aspires to consolidate a people within a predefined territory and ideological matrix. Scholars have used the expression postnational to refer to forms of social belonging that counteract the ideological and geopolitical expectations of the nation-state. Yet, by invoking the notion of postnational to describe the emergence of global Koreanness, this of course is not meant to suggest that the national is no longer relevant, that it has somehow been transcended by the macro-processes of globalization, or that official criterion of state recognition, including documents ranging from passports to birth certificates, have been rendered obsolete. Indeed, the national remains so central to social belonging in many Korean communities, whether in Korea “proper” or in global Koreatowns, such as those in Los Angeles, Beijing, or New York. This course, therefore, considers the ways in which the “national” is inflected in various everyday social practices, but also the ways in which nationness can be said to emerge, in some cases, more prominently than it does in the ostensibly originary point of Korea.

Cross-listed:
(same as 23450 English 105, Lec A;   26280 GlblClt 103B, Lec A;   and 60320 Anthro 139, Lec D)
Days: TTH  12:00-12:00 AM

This course will examine the historical development of premodern Japanese ghosts, from the 9th to 19th centuries, in response to historical changes in the political and religious context, as well as genre developments in literature, drama, and art. We will focus on how the changing literary and artistic representation of Japanese ghosts has embodied (or disembodied) problematic fissures in premodern Japanese society, especially with regard to gender and class issues.
Days: TU TH  09:30-10:50 AM

This course is an overview of the linguistic features of modern Japanese. Its main goal is to provide students a systematic introduction to the nature and characteristics of the language, including:
1. History (Where does the Japanese language come from? How is it similar to other languages and why?)
2. Phonetics and phonology (How can we describe the sounds of Japanese words? How are sounds organized? What are the vowels and consonants used in Japanese?
3. Morphology (How are Japanese words constructed and organized? How are new words created?
4. Syntax (How are Japanese sentences structured?)
5. Semantics
6. Socio-linguists
7. Orthography (What are the various writing systems used in modern Japanese?
Through this course students will also explore the structure of the Japanese language and
its historical development in conjunction with socio-cultural factors. 

Cross-listed:
(same as 65440 Linguis 169, Lec A)
Days: TTH  12:00-12:00 AM

As seen today, the Korean peninsula is home to two starkly different societies: a pop culture powerhouse and a geopolitical pariah; a plugged-in innovator in consumer electronics and a closed-off authoritarian regime; a democratically elected government and a military dictatorship. These striking contrasts, however, belie a shared history and heritage. Taking the long view of the emergence and divergence of both polities, this course explores Korea's remarkable transformation over the twentieth century, a period that witnessed colonial liberation as well as devastating war, political repression as well as cultural efflorescence, economic vitality as well as devastating famine. Among the topics examined are colonial collaboration and resistance, Korea in the Cold War order, ethnic nationalism, postwar industrial and economic reforms, and the global ascendancy of K-pop. These topics will be examined through a wide range of sources (including films, memoirs, diaries, comic books, and scholarly assessments) that reflect the diversity of experiences of Koreans across social, class, and regional lines.
Days: TU TH  02:00-03:20 PM

Although seventy years have elapsed since Japan's surrender in World War II, battles over the representation, memorialization, and interpretation of this conflict continue to be fought across East Asia. Involving grassroots movements and government ministries, history textbooks and comic books, shrine visitations and annual commemorations, conflicting representations of the experiences of the Asia-Pacific War continue to roil geopolitics across the region. What sustains these conflicts? What is the role of history-and the responsibility of historians-in shaping the geopolitical present? What are the limits and possibilities of the historical evidence upon which these disputes rest?

This course probes the politics of memory in East Asia through an analysis of the distinctive ways in which colonialism and war have been remembered, memorialized, forgotten, and disputed. Each week we will delve into a different historical dispute in order to provide a broad survey of the the fault lines of the politics of memory in the region. To do so, we will examine a wide range of materials including primary sources, historical scholarship, government white papers, as well as contemporary journalistic accounts and media coverage.
Days: WE  02:00-04:50 PM