Faculty of Arts & Science 2016-2017 Calendar

Contemporary Asian Studies, Dr. David Chu Program in

• Contemporary Asian Studies Major | Contemporary Asian Studies Minor
• Contemporary Asian Studies Courses

Faculty

Program Administrator
Munk School of Global Affairs, Room 228N
1 Devonshire Place
ai.asianstudies@utoronto.ca 
416-946-8832

Contemporary Asian Studies Programs

The fluid processes of transnationalization and modernization in Asia mean 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 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, 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 through multiple disciplinary approaches to the study of the region, including Anthropology, Economics, Geography, History, Political Science, Religion, and Sociology.

By exposing students to current issues and debates in Asia, 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. There is no language requirement for the CAS major or minor. However, students are strongly encouraged to study an Asian language. One FCE in an approved Asian language can be credited towards the major or minor degree.

Students may also be interested in the South Asian Studies minor, which is closely connected with the Contemporary Asian Studies program.

NOTE: Students who wish to count courses towards the CAS major or minor that are not listed as CAS courses or in Group A, B, or C below (including U of T courses and transfer credits) must seek pre-approval from the program director prior to taking the course. Asian content does not guarantee that the course will be approved for CAS program credit.

(7.5 full courses or their equivalent)

1. CAS200Y1 or (CAS201H1 and CAS202H1)
2. CAS310H1 and CAS320H1
3. CAS400H1 and CAS450H1
4. 1.0 FCE each from Group A, B, and C
5. 1.0 additional FCE at the 300 or 400 level from Group A, B, or C, or at any level in an Asian Language
6. 0.5 FCE in a quantitative or qualitative research methods course to fulfill the Research Competency required in the program. Students may use courses listed in the calendar posting below, or another course as approved by the program director.

(4 full courses or their equivalent)

1. CAS200Y1 or (CAS201H1 and CAS202H1)
2. CAS310H1 and CAS320H1
3. 2 additional FCEs from Group A, B, or C (excluding 100-level courses), OR 1 FCE from Group A, B, and/or C, and 1 FCE at any level in an Asian language.

These are courses pre-approved by the Program to count towards the CAS degrees. Note that not all electives are offered every year. Some 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. Students are responsible for checking co- and prerequisites for all courses listed below. 

These are courses pre-approved by the program to count towards Group A: Political Transformation. Students may use courses not on the list but must seek pre-approval from the program before enrolling in the course in question.

CAS430H1: Nationalism and Revolution in Asia

CAS440H1: Critical Asia: Power and Culture

EAS345Y1: The Rise of Greater China: Issues & Topics

EAS357H1: Mao's China and Beyond

EAS364H1: China's Cultural Revolution: History and Memory

EAS374H1: Modern Japan and Colonialism

EAS464H1: The Korean War

EAS474H1: U.S. & Canada's Wars in Asia

EAS484Y1: The Japanese Empire

JHA384H1: Japan and the World, mid-16th to mid-20th century

JHA394H1: The Asia Pacific War

JPA331Y1: Issues in Contemporary Chinese Politics

JPA410H1: Democracy and Identity in Asia

JPA411H1: The Political Economy of Global Taiwan

HIS494H1: Gandhi's Global Conversations

POL215Y1: Politics and Transformation of Asia-Pacific

POL302Y1: State & Society in 20th Century China

POL328H1: Politics and Government in South Asia

POL357Y1: Topics in South Asian Politics

JPA376Y0: Transforming Global Politics: Comparative and Chinese Perspectives

POL431Y1: Politics and Society in Contemporary China

POL441H1: Topics in Asian Politics

These are courses pre-approved by the program to count towards Group B: Social and Economic Transformation. Students may use courses not on the list but must seek pre-approval from the program before enrolling in the course in question.

CAS420H1: Asia and the New Global Economy

CDN230H1: Asian Canadian History 

CDN390H1: Chinese Canadian Studies 

EAS247H1: History of Capitalism in Modern Japan

ECO435H1: The Economics of Modern China

GGR342H1: The Changing Geography of Southeast Asia

GGR343H1: The Changing Geography of China

SAS114H1: Introduction to South Asian Studies

ANT341H1: China in Transition 

ANT472H1: Japan in Global Context: Anthropological Perspectives 

ANT477H1: Transnational Korea in and outside the Peninsula

EAS105H1: Modern East Asia

EAS247H1: History of Capitalism in Modern Japan

EAS272H1: Post-War Korean Society 

EAS289Y1: Environment and East Asia

EAS333H1: Modern and Colonial Korea

EAS347H1: Everyday Life in Modern Japan

EAS372H1: The Postwar, Cold War and Divided Koreas

EAS375H1: Postwar Japan: Crisis, Apocalypse

EAS378H1: Edo, Osaka, and Kyoto: Urban Life in Early Modern Japan

EAS457H1: Special Topics in Modern Japanese History

EAS473H1: Modern Korean History Seminar

HIS281Y1: History of Modern Japan

HIS282Y1: History of South Asia

HIS283Y1: Southeast Asian Crossroads

HIS284Y1: Viet Nam: Crossroads of Asia

HIS315H1: Narratives of Viet Nam

HIS328H1: Modern China

HIS346H1: Rice and Spice in Southeast Asia: A Regional Food History

HIS385H1: The History of Hong Kong

HIS470H1: History, Rights, and Differences in South Asia

HIS480H1: Modernity and Its Others: History and Postcolonial Critique

JHA384H1 Japan in the World, mid-16th to mid-20th Century

SOC218H1: Asian Communities in Canada

These are courses pre-approved by the program to count towards Group C: Cultural Expression/ Exploration. Students may use courses not on the list but must seek pre-approval from the program before enrolling in the course in question.

CAS350H1: Asian Youth Cultures

CAS360H1: Asian Genders

CAS414H1: Public Culture and Media in Asia

CDN307H1: Asian Cultures in Canada 

CIN376Y1: Chinese Cinemas

EAS251H1: Aesthetics and Politics in 20th Century Korea

EAS307H1: Chinese Political Philosophy

EAS314H1: Culture and World After Hiroshuima and Nagasaki

EAS333H1: Modernism and Colonial Korea 

EAS394H1: Film Culture in Contemporary China

EAS431H1: Advanced Topics in Japanese Cinema

FAH363H1: The Mechanics of the Image in East Asia

FAH364H1: Visual South Asia 

FAH368H1: Encounters: Art Within and Beyond East Asia 

FAH461H1: East Asian Art as a Cultural System 

FAH462H1: Outside East Asian Art 

FAH463H1: Materiality, Objecthood, Connoisseurship and Collecting in the Arts of East Asia 

FAH464H1: Transregional East Asian Art 

FAH465H1: Exhibiting China 

FAH466H1: Photography in India 

HIS448H1: Gender in East and Southeast Asia

HIS467H1: French Colonial Indochina: History, Cultures, Texts, Film

MUS209H1: Performing Arts of South Asia

RLG205H1: Hinduism

RLG311H1: Gender, Body and Sexuality in Asian Traditions

RLG312H1: Gender, Body and Sexuality in Islam

RLG355H1: Anthropology of Islam

RLG356H1: Islam in China

RLG358H1: Special Topics in Hinduism

RLG361H1: Hinduism in the Diaspora

RLG364H1: Hinduism and Contemporary Media

RLG365H1: Modern Hinduism

RLG366H1: Hindu Philosophy

RLG372H1: Tibetan Buddhism

RLG373H1: Buddhist Ritual 

RLG375H1: Buddhist Thought 

RLG376H1: Buddhism in South and Southeast Asia 

RLG378H1: Himalayan Buddhism 

RLG379H1: Central Asian Buddhism 

RLG459H1: Disciplining Islam 

RLG464H1: History and Historiography of Buddhism 

RLG467H1: Buddhist Institutions 

RLG472H1: Religion and Aesthetics in South Asia

NEW214Y1: Socially Engaged Buddhism

These are courses pre-approved by the Program to count towards the research competency requirement. This requirement is designed to encourage students to enhance their research and analytical skills, tools that will enhance their interdisciplinary study of Asia. Students may take courses not on the list but must seek pre-approval from the Program before enrolling.

ANT447H1: Ethnographic Practicum: Metropolis 

ANT449H1: Ethnographic Practicum: Infrastructures

DTS300H1: Research Design for Diaspora and Transnational Studies

ECO220Y1: Quantitative Methods in Economics

ECO227Y1: Quantitative Methods in Economics

GGR225H1: Power of Maps and Geographic Information

GGR270H1: Introductory Analytical Methods

GGR271H1: Social Research Methods

MUN105Y1: Global Problem-Solving: Laboratory Opportunities

POL222H1: Introduction to Quantitative Reasoning

POL419H1: Quantitative Methods and Data Analysis

PSY201H1: Statistics

PSY202H1: Statistics II

STA201H1: Why Numbers Matter

STA220H1: The Practice of Statistics

SOC200H1: Logic of Social Inquiry 

SOC302H1: Qualitative Analysis in Social Science Research 

Contemporary Asian Studies Courses

This course, along with CAS202H1, addresses Asia empirically in contemporary global formations and as an idea in the global imagination. It introduces students to critical research methods and scholarship on Asia and its transnational formations. At the same time, it grapples with contemporary global problems, as well as Asian-Canadian connections posed by the unique configurations of politics, economy, culture and historical memory in contemporary Asian sites. Interdisciplinary analytical and research methods are introduced to provide area studies grounding and conceptual framing. This course provides preparation to delve into located Asia-based studies to ask universal questions on the nature of democracy, authoritarianism, markets, social justice, and the meanings and media for cultural expression. It informs students aiming to take more advanced courses on Asia and globalization and provides the foundation for the Contemporary Asian Studies major and minor. CAS201H1 introduces students to basic social science frameworks in the study of global Asia.

This course, along with CAS201H1, addresses Asia empirically in contemporary global formations and as an idea in the global imagination. It introduces students to critical research methods and scholarship on Asia and its transnational formations. At the same time, it grapples with contemporary global problems, as well as Asian-Canadian connections posed by the unique configurations of politics, economy, culture and historical memory in contemporary Asian sites. Interdisciplinary analytical and research methods are introduced to provide area studies grounding and conceptual framing. This course provides preparation to delve into located Asia-based studies to ask universal questions on the nature of democracy, authoritarianism, markets, social justice, and the meanings and media for cultural expression. It informs students aiming to take more advanced courses on Asia and globalization and provides the foundation for the Contemporary Asian Studies major and minor. CAS202H1 puts the frameworks introduced in CAS201H1 in conversation with practical methods in applied/policy studies.

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 the 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, social, political and technological revolutions, and most recently neoliberal globalization. This course theorizes and explores these dramatic changes in a comparative framework. It is aimed at students wishing to better understand the great transformations of modern Asia in a global context.

The 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)

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.

This course offers a multidisciplinary perspective of urban life in Asia. The thematic focus will be on how the urban intersects with modernities and postcolonial formations. Drawing on recent scholarship in the social sciences and the humanities, we will examine the realignment of cultural, political, and economic forces associated with Asia’s diverse processes of urbanization.

This course examines Japan within the context of world history from the mid-16th to the mid-20th century.  Rather than seek comprehensive coverage of Japan's national history along a linear timeline, we will use Japan as a lens through which to consider key moments in the history of the modern world.

Course content varies in accordance with the interest of the instructor. Check http://munkschool.utoronto.ca/ai/cas for an updated description.

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. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.

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. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.

This course examines the Second World War in the Asia Pacific region and highlights: (1) how imperialism and colonialism of both the Euro-American and Japanese varieties were central to the War's outbreak, conduct, and “resolution”;  (2) various “local” rather than simply national experiences and memories of the War, including those of marginalized groups in Japan and its colonies, “comfort women,” victims of war atrocities, Asian North Americans, African Americans, and Pacific Islanders.

This seminar addresses Asian worlds – In Asia, transnationally, and locally – to cultivate new approaches to global processes and problems. The course explores key Asian sites that open new configurations for studying interactions between economic/environmental development, political change, and migration and cultural politics. It provides an advanced and systematic overview of the research methodologies that students have been exposed to throughout the CAS program. These include historical-archival, ethnographic, visual/media, and statistical/quantitative methods that allow us to map Asian political, economic, and cultural formations, and through them, global challenges. The seminar builds interdisciplinary conversations attentive to both critical problematizing and problem-solving, to qualitative and applied projects. Together with CAS450H1, it is the required capstone to the Contemporary Asian Studies major.

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

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.

This 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 diverse 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 modern East, Southeast, and South Asia, focusing on the 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.

This seminar builds on the systematic overview of research methodologies of the Contemporary Asian Studies major and its capstone course, CAS400H1. CAS450H1 provides students with the opportunity to research questions of contemporary relevance stemming from Asia and its transnational networks and communities. Addressing a range of methodologies, including historical-archival, ethnographic, visual/media, and statistical/quantitative, the course emphasizes research experience outside the classroom, in Asia as well as locally with communities in Toronto. Students will develop their own research contributions while working collaboratively. 

Course content varies in accordance with the interest of the instructor. Check http://munkschool.utoronto.ca/ai/cas for an updated description.

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. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.

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. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.

In addition to the CAS and joint courses listed above, the following courses offer priority enrolment to CAS students:

CIN376Y1     Chinese Cinemas
EAS396H1     Science, Technology and Medicine in Modern China 
JPA376Y0     Transforming Global Politics: Comparative and Chinese Perspectives
POL215Y1     Politics and Transformation of Asia-Pacific
POL328H1     Politics and Government in South Asia
SAS114H1     Introduction to South Asian Studies