Faculty of Arts & Science 2016-2017 Calendar

South Asian Studies

• South Asian Studies Minor
• South Asian Studies Courses

South Asian Studies Programs

Students study South Asia in an approach attentive to global formations. They are introduced to the study of South Asia—Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka—through a wide angle view of Asian modernities, political economies, and cultures, all the while delving into to specialist close-ups of South Asia. With open access to comparative courses in the Contemporary Asian Studies program, students can learn from tenured and tenure-track faculty specialists in South, East, and Southeast Asia.

With a curriculum motivated by the moving present—the changing face of South Asia today—the South Asian Studies minor offers rigorous training in major debates and questions in the rich field of South Asian Studies, and provides a basic foundation for many directions of future study. From historical contexts of ethnic conflict, to postcolonial readings of ancient traditions, to the politics of religious and ethnic identities, to the workings of vast-scale democracy and capitalism, to the worlds of cinema and public culture, students are exposed to the dynamic landscapes—political, material, and mythic—that constitute South Asia today.   

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

(4 full courses or their equivalent)

1. SAS114H1
2. CAS200Y1 or (CAS201H1 and CAS202H1)
3. SAS318H1 or HIS282Y1
4. CAS310H1 or CAS320H1
5. Additional 1.0 or 1.5 FCEs (as necessary to total 4.0 FCEs in minor) from the list of eligible courses found below.

In addition to SAS courses and CAS courses with significant South Asia content, students may choose from the following courses as electives. For full course descriptions, please check with the sponsoring departments. Not all electives are offered every year. Students are responsible for checking co- and pre-requisites for all elective courses as well as priority controls. Students who wish to count courses towards the program that are not listed here (including U of T courses and transfer credits) must seek permission from the program director IN ADVANCE. Course approval is not guaranteed and will be given at the discretion of the program director. Please consult the program administrator at ai.asianstudies@utoronto.ca with questions.

CDN230H1        Asian Canadian History 

ENG369H1        South Asian Literatures in English  

FAH364H1        Visual South Asia*  

FAH466H1        Photography in India 

HIS282Y1        History of South Asia    

HIS470H1        Rights in South Asia

HIS480H1       Modernity and Its Others: History and Postcolonial Critique

HIS494H1        Gandhi's Global Conversations 

HIN212Y5Y       Introduction to Hindi (at UTM)    

HIN312Y5Y       Intermediate Hindi (at UTM)       

LGGA70H3        Introductory Hindi I (at UTSc)*   

LGGA71H3        Introductory Hindi II (at UTSc)*  

MUS209H1        Performing Arts of South Asia

NEW214Y1        Socially Engaged Buddhism

POL328H1        Politics and Government in South Asia*

POL357Y1        Topics in South Asian Politics

POL441H1        Topics in Asian Politics

RLG205H1        Hinduism  

RLG311H1        Gender, Body and Sexuality in Asian Traditions

RLG358H1        Special Topics in Hinduism

RLG361H1        Hinduism in the Diaspora

RLG363H1        Bhakti Hinduism

RLG364H1        Hinduism and Contemporary Media

RLG365H1        Modern Hinduism

RLG366H1        Hindu Philosophy (Godless India)

RLG368H1        Yoga and Ayurveda

RLG373H1        Buddhist Ritual 

RLG375H1        Buddhist Thought 

RLG376H1        Buddhism in South and Southeast Asia 

RLG377H1        Theravada Literature

RLG378H1        Himalayan Buddhism

RLG462H1        Newar Religion

RLG463H1        Topics in Buddhist Thought

RLG464H1        History and Historiography of Buddhism 

RLG465H1        Readings in Buddhist Texts*

RLG467H1        Buddhist Institutions  

RLG472H1        Religion and Aesthetics in South Asia

SOC218H1        Asian Communities in Canada

*Courses for which South Asian Studies students have priority enrolment

South Asian Studies Courses

An interdisciplinary introduction to South Asian Studies emphasizing inquiry and critical analysis, drawing attention to the specificities of individual nations as well as the factors (historical, political, economic and cultural) that define South Asia as a region. Some attention will be paid to the South Asian Diaspora.

This course analyzes the impact of colonialism in South Asia and the various ways in which tradition intersect with and reshape colonialism in postcolonial South Asia. The course will examine the role of religion, education, ethnicity, gender, and caste. Some attention will be paid to postcolonial and indigenous theory.

Course content varies in accordance with the interest of the instructor.

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.

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.

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 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 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. 

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.