Faculty of Arts & Science 2012-2013 Calendar

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Asia-Pacific Studies

Zaheer Baber

Ruoyun Bai

Joshua Barker

Jacques Bertrand

Ritu Birla

Marion Bogo

Alana Boland

Loren Brandt

Eric Cazdyn

Li Chen

Francis Cody

Amrita Daniere

Naisargi Dave

Deepali Dewan

Arti Dhand

Wendy Dobson

Christoph Emmrich

Victor Falkenheim

Eric Fong

Takashi Fujitani

Frances Garrett

Kanishka Goonewardena

Ping-Chun Hsiung

William Hurst

Kajri Jain

Chelva Kanaganayakam

Malavika Kasturi

Ken Kawashima

Kundan Kumar

Hui Kian Kwee

Tong Lam

Tania Li

Hy Luong

Ken MacDonald

Virginia Maclaren

Minelle Mahtani

Bonnie McElhinny

C. Thomas McIntire

Heather Miller

Rajashree Narayanareddy

Lynette Ong

Jin Park

Ito Peng

Srilata Raman

Katharine Rankin

Ajay Rao

Karen Ruffle

Izumi Sakamoto

Stella Sandahl

Shiho Satsuka

Andre Schmid

Jayeeta Sharma

Rachel Silvey

Neera Singh

Jesook Song

Andre Sorensen

Wen-Ching Sung

Ashwini Tambe

Nhung Tran

Ka Tat Tsang

Shafique Virani

Joseph Wong

Yiching Wu

Jia-Lin Xie

Lisa Yoneyama

Weiguo Zhang

Xiaodong Zhu

Program Administrator

Munk School of Global Affairs, Room 228N

1 Devonshire Place

ai.asianstudies@utoronto.ca 

416-946-8832

Asia-Pacific Studies Programs

The fluid processes of transnationalization and modernization in Asia means that it is increasingly anachronistic to approach the study of contemporary Asia from the perspective of just one country or a singular discipline. The Contemporary Asian Studies (CAS) major and minor programs offered by the Asian Institute at the Munk School of Global Affairs provide a multi-disciplinary lens, though with an emphasis on the social sciences, through which to examine the linkages between Asia’s history, its emergence onto the global stage and the challenges and opportunities inherent in its modernity and/or modernities, as well as Asia’s future(s) in the global arena.

The CAS program is thematically-driven, reflective of contemporary issues that are of relevance to understanding the complexities of today’s Asia. The CAS courses are distinctly pan-Asian in geographic scope, providing empirical and critical coverage of South, Southeast and East Asia. CAS students will gain empirical knowledge of the Asia, inclusive of South, Southeast and East Asia, through multiple disciplinary approaches to the study of the region, including Anthropology, Economics, Geography, History, Political Science and Sociology.

The CAS program is designed to prepare students for careers in or about Asia. In addition, the Asian Institute is committed to facilitating overseas experiential learning opportunities, including field schools, international course modules, professional internships, and study abroad opportunities. Upper-level CAS courses are designed to be research-intensive.CAS majors and minors are required to take a sequence of courses at the 200-, 300-, and 400-levels. Specifically, majors and minors must complete either CAS 200Y (Global Asia) or POL 215Y (Politics and Transformation of the Asia-Pacific), followed by CAS 310H (Comparative Colonialisms in Asia) and CAS 320H (Comparative Modernities in Asia). CAS majors must also complete CAS 400 (Capstone Seminar – Critical Perspectives on Asian Modernity). Students can fulfill their remaining major and minor degree requirements with courses offered in the CAS program or approved courses offered by collaborating cognate departments. Majors are required to take at least 1 FCE from groups A, B, and C. There is no language requirement for the CAS major and minor. However, CAS students are strongly encouraged to study an Asian language. One full course equivalent (FCE) in an approved Asian language course can be credited as one FCE towards the major and minor degree.

The Contemporary Asian Studies (CAS) program provides a multi-disciplinary lens, though with an emphasis on the social sciences, through which to examine the linkages between Asia’s history, its emergence onto the global stage and the challenges and opportunities inherent in its modernity and/or modernities, as well as Asia’s future(s) in the global arena. The CAS program is designed to be thematically-driven, reflective of contemporary issues that are of relevance to understanding the complexities of today’s Asia. The CAS courses are distinctly pan-Asian in geographic scope, providing empirical and critical coverage of South, Southeast and East Asia.

CAS students will gain empirical knowledge of the Asia, inclusive of South, Southeast and East Asia, through multiple disciplinary approaches to the study of the region, including Anthropology, Economics, Geography, History, Political Science and Sociology.  By exposing students to current issues and debates in Asia, the CAS program is designed to prepare students for careers that involve global affairs and those which specifically focus on Asia.

Contemporary Asian Studies Major (7.5 full-courses or their equivalent)

1. CAS200Y1 or POL215Y1
2. CAS310H1, CAS320H1
3. CAS400Y1
4. 1 FCE from each of Group A, B, and C
5. 1 additional FCE at the 300 or 400 level from Group A, B, C or 1 FCE at any level in an Asian Language
6. 0.5 FCE in Arts & Science courses in Breadth Requirement Category 5: The Physical and Mathematical Universe, or other course approved by the program director to achieve the Quantitative Reasoning competency.

Contemporary Asian Studies Minor (4 full-courses or their equivalent)

1.CAS200Y1 or POL215Y1
2.CAS310H1, CAS320H1
3. 2 additional FCEs from CAS or Groups A, B, or C (excluding 100-level courses), or 1 FCE from CAS, groups A, B, or C and 1 FCE in an Asian language

CAS200Y1, CAS440H1, CAS430H1, EAS251H1, EAS307H1, EAS476Y1, HIS347H1, JMC301Y1 , JPA331Y1, JPA411H1, POL215Y1, POL357H1,POL376Y1, POL431Y1, POL441H1, SAS216H1

CAS420H1, EAS247H1, EAS345Y1, EAS357H1, EAS374H1, ECO435H1, GGR342H1, GGR343H1, JPA411H1

ANT341H1, ANT352H1, ANT354H1, ANT377H1, ANT466H1, ANT467H1, CAS350H1, CAS360H1, CAS440H1, EAS105H1, EAS217Y1, EAS271H1/Y1, EAS272H1, EAS289Y1, EAS303H1, EAS318H1, EAS333H1, EAS340Y1, EAS347H1, EAS364H1, EAS369Y1, EAS372H1, EAS375H1, EAS378H1, EAS394H1, EAS431H1, EAS453H1, EAS457H1, EAS462H1, EAS464H1, EAS465H1, EAS473H1, EAS497H1, HIS281Y1, HIS282Y1, HIS283Y1, HIS284Y1, HIS315H1, HIS328H1, HIS385H1/Y1, HIS409H1, HIS448H1, HIS467H1, HIS470H1, HIS485H1, INI390Y1, RLG205Y1, RLG207Y1, RLG236H1, SAS114H1, SAS318H1, SAS413H1, SAS414H1, SOC218H1

Note: Not all electives are offered every year. Students are responsible for checking co-and prerequisites for all courses in Groups A, B, and C. Some of these courses may not be offered on a regular basis, and/or may only be offered to students enrolled in a POSt sponsored by the department or unit offering the courses.

Asia-Pacific Studies Courses

This course introduces students to Asia’s growing role in the contemporary global community. It provides an interdisciplinary take on key themes and topics in the study of the Asia with a particular emphasis on the dynamic movement of people, ideas, and resources across borders in the region. It provides conceptual and area studies backgrounds for students aiming to take more advanced courses on Asia and for students interested in the Contemporary Asian Studies major and minor. The course also examines the growth and character of economic, political, and cultural connections tying Asia to Canada.

This course analyzes the impact of colonialism in South, East, and Southeast Asia and the various ways in which pre-colonial traditions intersect with and reshape colonial and postcolonial process across the various regions of Asia. The course will examine the conjunctures of economy, politics, religion, education, ethnicity, gender, and caste, as these have played out over time in the making and re-making of Asia as both idea and place. Attention will be paid to postcolonial and indigenous theories, questions of ‘the colonial’ from the perspective of Asian Studies, and debates about the meaning of postcolonialism for the study of Asia now and in the future.

Since at least the late 1700s, the effects of capitalism across the globe have profoundly transformed both the rural and urban landscapes of human livelihood, consumption, production and governance in Asia.  While colonial empires have declined, new empires have emerged, and a growing number of countries have witnessed the rise of nationalism and independent states, political and technological revolutions, and most recently neoliberal globalization. The varied nature and specificities of these dramatic transformations are only beginning to be understood. This course theorizes and explores “Asian modernities” in a comparative framework. It is aimed at students wishing to better understand the great transformations of 20th and 21st century Asia in a global context.

In focusing on youth in Asia, this course brings together two disputed cultural formations of substantial contemporary importance. Both youth and Asia are increasingly invoked on the global stage in support of a wide range of interests. Examining practices of young people and the idea of youth in the context of Asia requires critical attention to the promises and fears that attach to the rise of Asian economies, international demographic transitions, the growth of a global middle-class, increasing consumption disparities, changing immigration patterns, expanding technological skills, global/local environmental concerns, and young people’s shifting political priorities and loyalties. The course may consider: youth subcultures, styles, music, and politics.

This course will explore ways that gender is mobilized and produced in parts of Asia. It seeks to understand gender in its diversity and in attempts to “fix” or locate it in various bodies and places. Attempts will be made to see how gender is made knowable in terms of sexuality, medicine, nation, class, ethnicity, religion, and other discourses.

2012-13 Topic: Socialism to Post-Socialism. Please contact the program administrator for topic details.

Supervised independent research on a topic agreed on by the student and supervisor before enrolment in the course. Open to advanced students with a strong background in contemporary Asian studies. A maximum of one year of Independent Research courses is allowed per program. Contact hours with the supervisor may vary, but typically comprise of one hour per week.

Supervised independent research on a topic agreed on by the student and supervisor before enrolment in the course. Open to advanced students with a strong background in contemporary Asian studies. A maximum of one year of Independent Research courses is allowed per program. Contact hours with the supervisor may vary, but typically comprise of one hour per week.

This seminar course examines the diverse postwar experiences of countries in East Asia, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. The region comprises a wide range of countries that at once differ, but also share some commonalities in cultural, ethnic, and religious backgrounds, in levels of social and economic development, and in political regimes. To make sense of this diversity, a comparative, multi-disciplinary perspective will be introduced. Highlighting the principal theme of interdependence – of countries but also of fields of enquiry (geography, history, political science) – the first term will look at the interactions between economic development, political change, and migration. The second term will continue with these themes, but will pay particular attention to environmental issues, and history as memory and politics. The course will critically examine various social science theories that seek to explain socio-economic change in its many manifestations, and aim to find an appropriate balance between the particular and the general or universal.

This course is an interactive, participatory seminar. It will provide an opportunity to complement theoretical understanding about Asia acquired in other courses through hands-on research and experiential learning. The course will enable students to link studying Asia and Canada to career trajectories in the field of development and research.

This upper-level seminar will introduce students to the interdisciplinary study of popular culture and mass-mediated cultural forms in Asia. Through readings about popular protest, festivals, cinema, print, television, and music this course provides methodological tools to interpret the politics of representation and the formation of alternative modernities in the Asian continent and among the diaspora. The course will furthermore familiarize students with a range of theoretical lenses for conceptualizing the different meanings of the public from a modern Asian perspective.

Course explores the rise of Asia and its integration into the new global economy (labour, capitalism, knowledge economy, economic nationalism, inequality, gender, the meaning of capitalism, democracy, among others), exposing students to different disciplinary perspectives. Geographical coverage is pan-Asian, including East, Southeast and South Asia.

This course explores the far-reaching social, political, and cultural transformations in East, Southeast, and South Asia, focusing on the regions; twentieth-century revolutionary histories and struggles to establish modern nation-states. The course adopts a topical approach within a chronological and comparative framework to highlight major historical movements and theoretical issues significant to the Asian experience.

CAS440H1 Critical Asia: Power and Culture [24L]
“Power” is critically examined in Asia from a variety of
possible perspectives, times, and locations. Possible topics
may include: revolution, states, resistance, colonialism,
Orientalism, and mutual aid. “Power” is studied from a
cultural and interdisciplinary perspective, so as to integrate
and deepen students’ previous studies of Asia.

2012-13 Topic: Asian Authoritarianisms - In the wake of Arab Spring, the Asia Pacific has displaced the Middle East in the spotlight as a holdout region whose countries remain significantly resistant to global democratizing tends. Despite notable breakthroughs in Taiwan, Korea and more recently, Indonesia, the region remains home to a remarkably diverse group of functioning authoritarian and semi-authoritarian regimes, including Vietnam, North Korea, Myanmar, Singapore, China and Malaysia. In the light of the growing interest among social scientists in the authoritarian revival, this course will seek to explore the conditions for authoritarian sustainability and prospects for political change in the region.

Supervised independent research on a topic agreed on by the student and supervisor before enrolment in the course. Open to advanced students with a strong background in contemporary Asian studies. A maximum of one year of Independent Research courses is allowed per program. Contact hours with the supervisor may vary, but typically comprise of one hour per week.

Supervised independent research on a topic agreed on by the student and supervisor before enrolment in the course. Open to advanced students with a strong background in contemporary Asian studies. A maximum of one year of Independent Research courses is allowed per program. Contact hours with the supervisor may vary, but typically comprise of one hour per week.

This course covers topics of interest in China from the Communist takeover in 1949 through to the reform period of the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s. It will also address aspects of China’s diplomacy related to its growing economic power.  (Given by the Department of Political Science and the Contemporary Asian Studies Program)

The course explores the ways in which identity has been empowered, represented, and institutionalized in Asia’s emerging democracies; how identity claims challenge historically notions of state and nation; various ways in which democracy is being shaped and challenged by demands for identity recognition. Thematic, cross-regional approach; pan-Asian (East, Southeast, South Asia). (Given by the Department of Political Science and the Contemporary Asian Studies Program)

This course explores the place of Taiwan the new global economy from historical, comparative, and international relations perspectives. (Given by the Department of Political Science and the Contemporary Asian Studies Program)

CAS200Y1, CAS310H1, CAS320H1, CAS350H1, CAS360H1, CAS390H1, CAS400Y1, CAS420H1, CAS430H1, CAS440H1,  CAS490H1, JPA331Y1, JPA410H1, JPA411H1, SAS216H1, SAS413H1, SAS414H1