Spring 2025 Courses

Also listed with HIST

Instructor: Michael Thornton

CRN: 30318

Days, Time: MWR 4:35-5:40PM

Description:

Seeks to provide an understanding of the constituent characteristics that originally linked East Asia as a region and the nature of the transformations that have occurred in the region over the last two thousand years. Concentrates on China and Japan, and addresses Korea and Vietnam where possible. Also seeks to provide students with effective interdisciplinary analytical skills as well as historical, ethical, cultural diversity, and aesthetic perspectives. ASNS 1150 and HIST 1150 are cross-listed.

Instructor: Ettore Santi

CRN: 41002

Days, Time: MWR 9:15-10:20AM

Description:

Presents an overview of the meanings associated with “the environment” across different cultures. Analyzes how people and institutions have differently conceptualized the relationship between humans and nature (either through philosophy, science, or religion). Demonstrates the connection between present-day environmental crises and cultural/historical factors. Compares different Asian contexts to other geographic areas. Aims to train students to think creatively about alternative human-environment relations.

Also listed with POLS

Instructor: Daniel Aldrich

CRN: 40935

Days, Time: MWR 10:30-11:35AM

Description:

Examines the politics of East Asian societies as they cope with a variety of challenges. Focuses on economic development, environment, energy, and security in Japan, China, and the Koreas. This course is cross-listed with POLS.

Also listed with POLS

Instructor: Dennis Kwok

CRN: 37241

Days, Time: TF 9:50-11:30AM

Description:

Focuses on China’s political system and the major issues confronted: leadership recruitment and succession, economic policies and development, class and class struggle, political culture and socialization, human rights, civil society, the media, and both internal and external security concerns. Examines how ideology, development, culture, and the pursuit of China’s national interest affect governance.  This course is cross-listed with POLS.

Instructor: Shuishan Yu

CRN: 33321

Days, Time: T 11:45AM-1:25PM, R 2:50-4:30PM

Description: 

Covers the development of the built environment in China from prehistory to the nineteenth century. Emphasizes technological transformation, structural and stylistic evolvement, cultural exchange, and ideological engagement.

Instructor: Philip Thai

CRN: 41001

Days, Time: MWR 1:35-2:40PM

Description: 

Introduces modern Chinese history and culture through literary works, films, and historical texts. Examines political, social, and cultural changes in China since 1800: the decline of empire; the New Culture Movement of the 1920s; the rise of nationalism and rural revolution; the changing roles of women; the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s; and China’s cinematic, literary, and economic engagement with the world since 1978. Taught in English and open to all undergraduates.

Instructor: Peter Fraunholtz

CRN: 36368

Days, Time: online/ asynchronous

Description: 

Presents a history of military conflicts on the Indochinese Peninsula from its precolonial settlement; internal developments and divisions; its stormy relationship with China; French colonization and the resistance to it; the rise of the Vietminh during World War II; the postwar struggle against the French; the impact of the cold war; and the involvement of the United States after 1950 in the creation of two Vietnams and in the conflict that engulfed it and its neighbors, Laos and Cambodia, in the decades that followed. Emphasizes the roles of nationalism and communism in the 20th-century conflicts and the motives for U.S. intervention. Films revealing the reactions of Americans to the escalating conflict are shown and evaluated.

Instructor: Jung Lee

CRN: 39421

Days, Time: R 4:35-7:55PM

Description: 

Focuses on how traditions imagine the moral life in cross-cultural contexts. Topics may include ideals of human flourishing, notions of virtue and vice, and conceptions of self and community. Offers students an opportunity to learn methods of philosophical analysis and argumentation in cross-cultural contexts.

Instructor: Mary Kelting

CRN: 39426

Days, Time: MWR 1:35-2:40PM

Description: 

Examines Hinduism, Jainism, Theravada Buddhism, Mahayana Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, and Shinto within South Asia (India) and east Asia (China and Japan). Combines readings in primary source materials (the religious texts of these traditions) with secondary examinations of the historical and doctrinal developments within each tradition and region. This course intends to give students a context in which to examine the ways in which religions develop in interlocking sociocultural and political contexts and to provide a grounding in the lived experiences of these religious traditions.

Instructor: Jung Lee

CRN: 39427

Days, Time: T 4:35-7:55PM

Description: 

Surveys the origins and development of the indigenous religious traditions of China, from the oracle bone divinations of the Shang Dynasty to the philosophical and religious traditions of Confucianism, Mohism, Yangism, Daoism, and Legalism. Identifies and elucidates those elements of ancient Chinese thought that have had the most lasting influence on the Chinese ethos and worldview. Studies the foundational texts of ancient China and also examines the relevant practices that helped to define the various traditions of thought. Focuses on how religious and philosophical ideas influenced the larger culture of Chinese life in regard to the arts, medicine, the social order, and government.

Instructor: Doreen Lee

CRN: 39653

Days, Time: MR 11:45 – 1:25 PM

Description:

Offers a seminar on the societies and cultures of Southeast Asia. Uses an interdisciplinary approach to this diverse and dynamic geopolitical region, with readings from anthropology, history, political science, and literature. Covers the major political and cultural changes that have shaped Southeast Asia in relation to the world—from the age of colonial expansion, to the rise of nation-states, to the present global era. Examines central questions in the ethnography of Southeast Asia, emphasizing the postcolonial legacies of Southeast Asia, states and violence, culture and mobility, and pressing contemporary issues in globalizing Southeast Asia.

Instructor: Anjanette Chan Tack

CRN: 40339

Days, Time: TF 1:35-3:15PM

Description:

Examines the comparative racialization of Blacks and Asians in the Americas and relations between these communities. Introduces sociological theories of race/ethnicity, a chronology of Afro-Asian relations in the United States, and the impact of 1970s deindustrialization and post–1965 Asian immigration. Covers the internationalism of Black and Asian leaders (e.g., W.E.B. du Bois and Mao Tse-Tung) in the developing nations and the overlapping Civil Rights, Black Power, and Asian American movements.

• ASNS 1150 – East Asian Studies
• HIST 1215 – Origins of Today: Historical Roots of Contemporary Issues
• HIST 2211 – The World Since 1945

• ASNS 2245 – Introduction to Asian American Studies
• ANTH 4350 – Ethnography of Southeast Asia
• PHIL 1275 – Hinduism, Buddhism, and Beyond
• PHIL 1290 – Chinese Philosophy and Religion

• ASNS 2245 – Introduction to Asian American Studies
• ASNS 3100 – Asian American Cinemas
• HIST 1252 – Japanese Literature & Culture
• HIST 2308 – Law, Justice, and Society in Modern China
• HIST 2351 – Modern Japan
• AFAM 4526 – Afro-Asian Relations in the Americas
• CLTR 1700 – Intro to Japanese Pop Culture
• PHIL 1275 – Hinduism, Buddhism, and Beyond
• PHIL 1290 – Chinese Philosophy and Religion
• ANTH 4350 – Ethnography of Southeast Asia

See course catalog for more options – or email csgs@northeastern.edu if you see a potential class that would apply!