International Studies & Programs

Home

New Asian Area Studies Courses

Michigan State University is now offering new Asia area studies courses starting in fall 2019. Registration is now open, for all courses.


Asian Communities: A Global Perspective

ANP 437 Flyer Spring 2019.jpg

ANP 437 Spring 2019
Professor: Andrea Louie, louie(at)msu.edu
Tuesdays and Thursdays
3:00 - 4:20 p.m.

This course focuses on the experiences of people of Asian descent (from China, Japan, India, the Philippines, etc.) living in different parts of the world outside their homelands: for example, Chinese communities in Panama, South Asian Americans in the U.S. Examining these societies will provide insight into how social structures, cultures, and identities change over time and across space.


For more information or for an override, please contact Andrea Louie, louie(at)msu.edu.


Cold War Cultures in Korea

KOR 291.jpgKOR 291 Sec. 301 Spring 2019
Professor: Catherine Ryu, ryuc(at)msu.edu
Tuesdays and Thursdays
2:00 - 3:15 p.m.

This course will analyze the Cold War not only as a geopolitical event, but also as a historical period marked by specific cultural and artistic forms. There will be a focus on the Korean peninsula, looking closely at the literary and film cultures of both South Korea and North Korea. Global conflict between U.S.-centered and Soviet-centered societies affected the politics, culture, and geography of Korea between 1945 and 1989, treating the division of Korea as an exemplary case extending from the origins of the Cold War to the present will also be discussed.

This course is offered as part of the Big 10 Academic Alliance. It will be shared with the University of Minnesota and Rutgers University.

For more information please email Catherine Ryu at ryuc(at)msu.edu


South Asia: Paradoxes of Cultural Identities and Development

MC 390.jpgMC 390 Spring 2019
Professor: Sejuti Das Gupta, dasgup16(at)msu.edu 

The course will begin with an examination of the historical context for independence in the region, with particular attention to the Partition of India and Pakistan. Partition not only left millions of Indians and Pakistanis scarred, it also raised questions about the content of ‘nation’ and ‘nationality’ on the subcontinent and influenced the cultural politics of all the countries of the region.

After this overview, the course will take up four specific paradoxes: nationality and belonging, secularism and communalism, class/caste cleavages and development, and gender-power and powerlessness. Each of these paradoxes will be explored through exploration of any two of the countries, in order to comprehend the depth of the issue. India will remain the most prominent case as it is the de facto hegemon of the region and exercises tremendous power not just over the region but its influence permeates the domestic politics of these nations. Despite being a celebrated as the largest democracy in the world, the politics of India is mired in traditional cleavages like religion, caste, class, ethnicity, and gender which makes the contradiction even starker.

For more information contact Sejuti Das Gupta at dasgup16(at)msu.edu . 

.min