01:098:444 Seminar on East Asian Societies

In this capstone seminar, we take a cross-disciplinary approach to East Asian history, religion, and literature, discussing some of the key issues in the above fields. The goal of this course is to familiarize students with major paradigms and works in East Asian Studies and help students develop their own research projects. During the seminar, students will closely examine primary sources in translation and read secondary materials that help illuminate the primary sources. The class meets twice every week, during which students react to the assigned readings and actively engage in group discussions.

Grading: Attendance 10%, Classroom presentation and discussion 15%, Field trip report 15 %, Final paper proposal 15%, Final paper project presentation 15%, Final paper – 30%

During every meeting, we need one or two students to give a brief presentation on the reading. The presenter should briefly summarize the gist of the reading and points out the interesting things in it. He or she may draw connections between the primary and secondary materials. The instructor and other students will give feedback. The presentation should run about 10–15 minutes.

Every student should briefly report your reading response in each meeting. You should tell us what you think of the reading and what interest you most. After that, everyone should actively participate in classroom discussions.

During the semester, the class will visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET). In the museum, students will carefully examine Buddhist artworks (paintings, statues, or other ritual objects) from East Asia. Students will write a field trip report, describing the objects that interest them and drawing connections between the museum objects and the ideas they learned from the class (300-400 words). Please include visual images.

In this research proposal, each student should find a research topic related to your research interest. The proposal should consist of the following parts: 1) Description of the topic; 2) Main Argument; 3) Methodology; 4) Detailed summary of each section; 5) Main sources.

At the end of the semester, each student should create a 15 minute presentation based on your paper proposal. The presentation should provide all the details of your project.

Based on the paper proposal and the final project presentation, students should write a full-fledged final paper with a clear argument. Please combine primary and secondary sources and analyze texts thoroughly. You should include footnotes and a bibliography. For citations, you may use CMS, MLA, or APA, as long as the citation practice is consistent throughout the paper. Quick guides for all three styles can be found under the “Research and Citation” tab at the Purdue Writing Lab website: https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/purdue_owl.html

Course Materials: All reading materials, including individual articles and book chapters, will be available for download at the course website.