Class Schedule for Fall 2020

This course satisfies the Arts and Letters general-education group and International Cultures multicultural requirements. The course does not require prior knowledge of Asia, and can be counted toward the major or minor in Asian Studies. Both lower-division and upper-division students are welcome.

Asia is the largest and most populous continent on earth. The continent is rich in history and culture, home to some of the world’s oldest civilizations and the birthplace of two major world religions. In the modern era, Asia has experienced not only traumatic wars and genocides but also rapid economic and political development.

This course will introduce students to the cultural, social, economic, and political dimensions of life in modern Asia, along with comparisons of different regions of Asia. Through selections from four awesome and discussion-stimulating books, students will learn about the continent’s particular places, peoples, and aspects of their lives and cultures. This selective profile of Asia is aimed to convey not only the complex and diverse conditions of particular Asian countries but also the broadly shared regional patterns of development.

The course is divided into four segments, with each segment using a single book, and each taught by a different faculty member from among the UO’s many world-class experts on Asia. Depending on the faculty who teach the class in a particular term, the books selected for the class and the countries discussed are different. Examples include memoir, manga (cartoon book), and scholarly studies. The readings introduce students to the victims of atomic bombs in Japan, North Koreans who survived famine, post-genocide Cambodian refugees in America, and Indians who live in a dynamic and complex society.