WEAI is pleased to share several newly added Fall 2016 courses with the Columbia University community:
New for Fall 2016
GLOBAL HONG KONG
Professor Peter E. Hamilton, Dorothy Borg Postdoctoral Scholar in the Making of the Modern Pacific World
Thursdays, 10:10 AM – 12:00 PM
Fayerweather Hall, Room 301 M
History: East Asian GU 4844
Call Number 75954
Open to undergraduates and graduate students.
Description: This seminar examines modern world history through the lens of Hong Kong. Through readings, discussions, lectures, and a final paper, we will investigate Hong Kong’s outsized historical impact on the world—from its seizure by British forces during the First Opium War to its 1997 handover to the People’s Republic of China. We will dig into Hong Kong’s dramatic evolutions over this century and a half, from an entrepôt and migration hub to a manufacturing powerhouse and financial center. This agenda will also offer us new perspectives on the history of global capitalism and push us to interweave traditionally disconnected histories, such as that of the opium trade, the Chinese diaspora, modern Chinese politics, the Cold War and decolonization, neoliberal globalization, and China’s post-1978 development.
SOCIAL DYNAMICS IN INNER ASIA
Professors Rune Steenberg Reyhe, Alan Timberlake, and Joseph Mackay
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 2:40 PM – 3:55 PM
Seeley W. Mudd Building, Room 337
Anthropology UN2003
Call Number 26291
Description: Inner Asia, positioned at the intersection of many great historical civilizations; is a region historically in flux, featuring great mobility of people, material, and ideas. This course explores the dynamic interactions, both historical and contemporary, of politics, identity and economy in Inner Asia in a transnational interdisciplinary framework.
EAST ASIA IN THE LONG COLD WAR
Professor Victor Louzon, INTERACT Postdoctoral Scholar, Weatherhead East Asian Institute
Mondays, 4:10 PM – 6:00 PM
Hamilton Hall, Room 408
History: East Asian GU 4842
Call Number 13655
Open to undergraduates and graduate students.
Description: This course charts the history of East Asia in the long Cold War, from 1945 to contemporary developments, focusing mainly on China, Japan and Korea, with occasional forays into Southeast Asia. This course aims at giving the students a general understanding of the Cold War and broader geopolitical dynamics in East Asia, from 1945 to the present day. To avoid the trap of confusing global history with the history of global powers and their influence, particular attention will be dedicated to the agency and strategies of local actors at different scales, first and foremost (but not exclusively) East Asian nation-states and contenders for statehood. Therefore, an important objective of this course will be to show how global and local agents made reciprocal use of one another in complex power games, and how world politics and ordinary lives intertwine. Last, in East Asia, the Cold War is still unfinished business: understanding its history can help us shed light on the conflicts and tensions of the present.
CRITICAL APPROACHES TO EAST ASIA IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES
Professor Nicholas Bartlett, Barnard College
Tuesdays, 10:00 AM – 11:55 AM
Millbank Hall (Barnard), Room 237
East Asian GU4102
Call Number 01120
Open to undergraduate and graduate students
Description: This seminar is designed to equip students with essential tools to further their scholarly research into the cultures of East Asia, with a focus primarily on China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. These tools are those native to the Social Sciences, with our primary materials drawn from the disciplines of Cultural (and Historical) Anthropology and Sociology. This seminar will familiar students with significant sociological and anthropological works by scholars past and present — works with which any student serious about continuing social scientific research in East Asia should be familiar. Beyond this, the seminar aims to equip students with the methodological tools to conduct solid social scientific scholarship and the understanding of sociological and anthropological theory whereby to assess critically the relative efficacy, and potential pitfalls, of various approaches to research.
STUDYING CLOSED SOCIETIES: TIBET AND XINJIANG
Professor Robert Barnett, Director, Modern Tibetan Studies Program, Weatherhead East Asian Institute
Mondays, 4:10 PM – 6:00 PM
Pupin Laboratories, Room 224
East Asian GU4561
Call Number 88247
Open to undergraduate and graduate students
Description: A number of regions or countries in East, North East and South East Asia remain closed to foreigners or have political conditions that make it impractical, unethical or dangerous for foreigners to speak in depth with local residents. In many of these areas research by scholars or journalists is only rarely permitted if at all, and academic publications from within the country may be extremely limited in the issues they can discuss or the opinions they can express. These areas include Tibet and Xinjiang within the PRC, and its neighbours North Korea, Vietnam, and Laos. Is it possible to study such places to a reasonable academic standard without access to them? How should students and researchers approach the study of contemporary conditions in these areas? Can carrying out close readings of official texts from such countries lead to a reliable understanding of conditions there?
THE U.S. AND THE WARS FOR VIETNAM
Professor Simon Toner, Dorothy Borg Postdoctoral Scholar in Southeast Asian Studies
Wednesdays, 2:10 PM – 4:00 PM
International Affairs Building, Room 405A
Regional Institute U6628
Call Number 63447
Open to graduate students only
Description: The battles to define the meaning and lessons of the Vietnam War have shaped contemporary American culture and politics. Today, the war remains the primary term of reference in the politics of U.S. military intervention. No conflict or potential conflict can pass without politicians, talking heads, and columnists invoking the supposed “lessons of Vietnam” in support of their usually conflicting arguments. But the Vietnam War was much more than simply an episode in American history; rather it was a truly global event. This course examines the United States’ role in the First, Second and Third Indochina Wars, (1945-1979) but it broadens the scope of these conflicts beyond the United States. While we will examine U.S. foreign policy decision-making and domestic politics, students will also learn about the international and Vietnamese dimensions of the wars. The course will employ new literature that sheds light on Vietnamese, Chinese, Soviet, and European actors’ roles in the conflicts. In particular, we will examine works which use Vietnamese archival material and treat Vietnamese as important historical agents in shaping the course and outcome of the war. Finally, students will gain a greater understanding of the contemporary resonances of the wars in the United States and Asia, including the lessons of the war in areas such as nation-building and counter-insurgency.
JAPANESE POLITICS
Professor Takako Hikotani, Gerald L. Curtis Visiting Associate Professor of Modern Japanese Politics and Foreign Policy
Mondays, 10:10 AM – 12:00 PM
International Affairs Building, Room 418
Political Science GR4472
Call Number 68148
Description: Surveys key features of the Japanese political system, with focus on political institutions and processes. Themes include party politics, bureaucratic power, the role of the Diet, voting behavior, the role of the state in the economy, and the domestic politics of foreign policy.
KOREAN POLITICS
Professor Stephen Noerper, Senior Director, The Korea Society
Fridays, 10:10 AM – 12:00 PM
Hamilton Hall, Room 303
Political Science GR4476
Call Number 86296
Please refer to the Fall 2016 WEAI Undergraduate Course Bulletin and Fall 2016 Grad Bulletin for a full listing of Fall 2016 course offerings.
