Non Language Courses

Japanese Economy

Survey of Japanese economy. Topics such as economic growth, business cycles, saving-investment balance, financial markets, fiscal and monetary policy, labor markets, industrial structure, international trade, and agricultural policy.

A lower division survey that compares and contrasts the development of China and Japan from ancient times to the present. Themes include the nature of traditional East Asian society and culture, East Asian responses to political and economic challenges posed by an industrialized West, and war, revolution and modernization in the twentieth century.

Covers important political issues--such as the medieval decentralization of state power, unification in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the Tokugawa system of rule, and conflicts between rulers and ruled--while examining long-term changes in economy, society, and culture.

Topics include the Meiji Restoration, nationalism, industrialization, imperialism, Tsaih Democracy, and the Occupation. Special attention will be given to the costs as well as benefits of "modernization" and the relations between dominant and subordinated cultures and groups with Japan.

Lecture-discussion courses approaching the 1931-1945 war through various "local," rather than simply national, experiences. Perspectives examined include those of marginalized groups within Japan, Japanese Americans, Pacific Islanders, and other elites and nonelites in Asian and Pacific settings.

Examines social, cultural, political, and economic transformations and continuities in Japan since World War II. Emphases will differ by instructor. Prerequisite: upper-division standing.

Japan Japanese culture and society changed dramatically during the twentieth century. This course will focus on the transformation of cultural codes into what we know as "Japanese", the politics of culture, and the interaction between individuals and society.

Japan-U.S. Relations

Survey of relations between Japan and the United States in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Although the focus will be on these nation-states, the course will be framed within the global transformation of societies. Topics include cultural frameworks, political and economic changes, colonialism and imperialism, and migration.

By examining the roles of ghosts in Japanese belief systems in a non-scientific age, this course addresses topics including folk beliefs and ghost stories, religiosity, early science, tools of amelioration and authoritative knowledge, and the relationship between myth and history.

Prerequisite: upper-division standing or consent of instructor.

Prerequisite: upper-division standing. Will not receive credit for SOCI 162R and SOCB 162R.

Prerequisite: upper-division standing or instructor consent.

This course examines Korea’s entrance into the modern world. It utilizes both textual and audio-visual materials to explore local engagements with global phenomenon, such as imperialism, nationalism, capitalism, and socialism. HILD 10, 11, and/or 12 recommended.

Prerequisite: upper-division standing or consent of instructor.

HIEA 160
Colloquium in Modern Japanese History (4)

This colloquium examines controversial domestic and international issues in Japanese history from 1850 to recent times. Topics will vary from year to year.

Prerequisite: department stamp, consent of instructor.

HIEA 180
Topics in Modern Korean History (4)

This colloquium will examine selected topics in modern Korean history through both primary sources (in translation) and secondary sources. Topics will vary year to year.

Prerequisites: upper-division standing and departmental stamp.

This course is designed to consider recent approaches to the study of Japan in the interdisciplinary field of Japanese Studies. As a requirement for undergraduate majors in Japanese Studies, it is intended to teach students how to do original research and write a research paper and to analyze academic texts on Japan.  Students will read and analyze texts from several different humanities and social science disciplines. Each year there are topics within Japanese Studies chosen as focal points around which students read, discuss, and write.  This course will focus on social and cultural change in Japan and on the changing representations of Japan and of the world in Japanese and transnational culture.  We will consider transformations in social and cultural life as well as in political and economic practices and look at the influence of both domestic and transnational forces. 

An introduction to earlier Japanese (bungo) literature in translation. Will focus on several works, placing their forms in the historical context. No knowledge of Japanese required. Repeatable for credit when topics vary.

LTEA 132
Later Japanese Literature in Translation

An introduction to later Japanese (kogo) literature in translation. Will focus on several "modern" works, placing their form in the historical context. No knowledge of Japanese required. Repeatable for credit when topics vary.

LTEA 138
Japanese Films

An introduction to Japanese films. Attention given to representative Japanese directors (e.g., Ozu), form (e.g., anime), genre (e.g. feminist revenge horror), or historical context in which films are produced. Priority may be given to Japanese studies majors and literature majors. Taken in FA19 and beyond does not require petitioning.

The course will focus on important problematics of literary studies as they relate to Japan (e.g., "feminism," "modernity," "literary mode of production," "Orientalism and nativism"). No knowledge of Japanese required. May be repeated for credit as topics vary.

* LTWL 155
Gender Studies (when on Japan)

The study of the construction of sexual differences in literature and culture. May be repeated for credit when topics vary.

* LTCS 110
Popular Culture (when on Japan)

A reading of recent theory on popular culture and a study of particular texts dealing with popular cultural practices, both contemporary and noncontemporary, as sites of conflict and struggle. Repeatable for credit when topics vary.

An investigation of different types of performances such as theatrical genres ranging from melodrama and minstrelsy to various cultural rituals and speech acts. From the perspective of literary studies, performance studies, postcolonial theory, ethnography and theatre history, the course explores race, gender, sexuality, and nation through performance.

Comedy in fiction and film from ancient times to contemporary, including the Bible, Aristophanes, Shakespeare, and modern writers and film makers.

The course will explore the relation among cultural production, institutions, history, and ideology during selected historical periods. In considering different kind of texts, relations of power and knowledge at different historical moments will be discussed. Repeatable for credit when topics vary.

Introduction to the studies of cultural dimensions of immigration and citizenship. Examines the diverse cultural texts—literature, law, film, music, the televisual images, etc., that both shape and are shaped by immigration and the idea of citizenship in different national and historical contexts.

The course will focus on the representation of gender, ethnicity, and class in cultural production in view of various contemporary theories of race, sex, and class. Repeatable for credit when topics vary.

This course examines the intersection of sex, sexuality, and popular culture by looking at the history of popular representations of queer sexuality and their relation to political movements for gay and lesbian rights. Repeatable for credit when readings and focus vary.

A study of media representation and various aspects of identity, such as gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, social class, culture, and geopolitical location. Students will consider the various media of film, television, alternative video, advertising, music, and the Internet. Repeatable for credit when readings and focus vary.

Studies of cultural dimensions of immigration and citizenship. This course examines the diverse cultural texts—literature, law, film, music, the televisual images, etc., that both shape and are shaped by immigration and the idea of citizenship in different national and historical contexts.

Introduction to interdisciplinary examination of human sexuality and, especially, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender identities and desires. Juxtaposes perspectives from humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Introduces queer theory to understand sexuality in relation to phenomena such as government, family, culture, medicine, race, gender, and class.

The role of race and culture within the history of empires; may select a single empire for consideration, such as France, Britain, U.S., or Japan, or choose to examine the role of race and culture in comparative histories of colonialism. Repeatable for credit when readings and focus vary.

Studies of emergence of national cultures under colonial rule and their transformations in the process of decolonization. Investigation of ideological constructions of such cultural institutions as modern national language, national history and historiography, national literary canon, and folk literature and culture.

The course will examine one or more forms of cultural production or cultural practice from a variety of theoretical and historical perspectives. Topics may include: contemporary debates on culture, genres of popular music/fiction/film, AIDS and culture, the history of sexuality, subcultural styles, etc. Repeatable for credit when topics vary.

An investigation of different types of popular music genres, cultures, and practices such as hip hop, punk rock, R&B, jazz, country, and dance music cultures. From the perspective of ethnography and cultural and performance studies, the course explores race, gender, sexuality, and the negotiations of local, as well as national communities and subcultures via popular music.

The course will focus on visual practices and discourses in their intersection and overlap, from traditional media, print, and photography to film, video, TV, computers, medical scanners, and the Internet.

MUS 111
Topics/World Music Traditions (when on Japan)

A study of particular regional musics in their repertory, cultural context, and interaction with other traditions.

*MUS 116
Popular Music Studies Seminar (when on Japan)

This course examines special topics in popular music from various sociopolitical, aesthetic, and performance perspectives. Readings include recent literature in cultural studies, musicology, and/or performance practice.

An examination of the competing philosophical traditions of ancient and modern China and Japan, with an eye toward understanding how these have been reflected in Chinese and Japanese development. Readings and class sessions will be in English, although students with Chinese or Japanese language capability will be given the opportunity to use their special skills.

A continuation of 113B which follows political philosophical themes in China and Japan through the twentieth century. Important topics will include Buddhism and Confucianism as they changed in each context in response to internal and external stimuli. Prerequisite: PS 113B.

An intensive examination of the quests for modernity undertaken by Chinese and Japanese leaders from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. Emphasis is placed upon the relationship among indigenous values, international pressures, and issues concerning national identity.

POLI 133A
Japanese Politics: A Developmental Perspective

This course will analyze the political systems of modern comparative-historical perspective.

This course discuses the following major topics in three East Asian countries (Japan, South Korea, and the Philippines) from a comparative perspective: (1) economic and political development; (b) political institutions; and (c) policies.

This seminar is designed to be advanced follow-up to PS 133D. It examines present-day East Asian government institutions in much greater depth. Prerequisite: PS 133D.

This relationship between the U.S. and Japan has been described as "the most important in the world, bar none." This course will examine U.S.-Japan security and economic relations in the postwar period from the Occupation and Cold War alliance through the severe bilateral trade friction of the 1980s and 1990s to the present relationship and how it is being transformed by the forces of globalization, regionalization, and multilateralism.

This course examines religious traditions of China and Japan. It explores the relationship between religious ideas and practices on the one hand, and issues of social and individual ethics and morality on the other. 

Prerequisite: upper-division standing.

We examine cultural production in Japan and abroad, national and transnational political-economic and social influences, the idea of Japan in the West, and the idea of the West in Japan. Taken in FA19 and beyond does not require petitioning.

Prerequisite: upper-division standing.

This course will use a broad range of animation styles and genres to examine larger issues in art practice, focusing closely on the relationship between form and content, and how sound/set/costume/character design impacts narrative. 

Prerequisite: upper-division standing or consent of instructor.

Surveys the key works and developments in the modern art and visual culture of Japan from Edo and Meiji to the present and of China from the early twentieth century to contemporary video, performance, and installation art.

Prerequisite: upper-division standing. VIS 21B recommended.

Course is a survey of the visual arts of Japan, considering how the arts developed in the context of Japan’s history and discussing how art and architecture were used for philosophical, religious, and material ends.

Prerequisite: upper-division standing. VIS 21B recommended.

Prerequisite: upper-division standing.

International relations and developing international political economies of nations bordering the Pacific. Topics include: the "Pacific Basin" concept; the U.S. and "hegemonic-stability" theory; legacies of Korean war and Sino-Soviet dispute; immigration patterns and their consequences; and Japan's foreign policy.

This course introduces the main aspects of Japanese business and industrial organization (keiretsu), Japanese management practices, and the representation and influence of business interests in the Japanese political economy.

This course surveys postwar politics in Japan, including American Occupation reforms, political institutions, major political actors, and mass and elite political behavior. Special attention is paid to the issue of Japan's changing democracy.

This course will analyze how the domestic politics of each country, their international negotiations, and their interaction concerning economic issues have affected the U.S.-Japan relationship. Both the politics of cooperation and integration, and trade friction and conflict will be addressed in part through study of specific cases.

This course provides a broad survey of the Japanese economy. It also offers an in-depth examination of some distinctively Japanese phenomena such as savings behavior, financial structure, industrial organization, and labor markets. Prerequisites: IR/Core 401 and 403, or consent of instructor.

Examines the domestic and strategic sources of Japan's foreign policy in the postwar era. Unlike IRGN 460, this course emphasizes Japan's foreign economic policy in regional and global multilateral organizations, and the major security issues it confronts with its Asian neighbors.