Compendium

An Illustrated Compendium of Keywords
Developed by the Spring 2008 Global Asia Students

The Global Asia Illustrated Compendium of Keywords is a collection of words, concepts, and images that have been researched and defined by students of Global Asia in relation to course concepts, questions, and debates. Keywords are sites of conflict and disagreement, so your entry should reflect two or more different understandings of the world-making term whose histories, usages, and political trajectories you choose to chart. You are encouraged to be as creative, erudite, pithy, or eccentric as you like in your keyword choice, and to include diagrams, pictures, quotations, or stories that help illuminate the sociocultural life of your keyword. Keyword Handout

To post your entry, go to the keyword discussion board and start a new conversation with your keyword in the subject line. Browser troubleshooting: I highly recommend using Firefox as your browser when you post to the discussion board. I have encounted problems in the past with Safari. You can download a free copy of Firefox from Mozilla.

As entries are posted, an alphabetized glossary with links to each keyword will be assembled in the column to the right. Please feel free to post comments and suggestions and possible cross-referencing links to your classmates' keyword entries.

what is a keyword?

In Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society (1976/1983), Raymond Williams described keywords as important elements in a living vocabulary made up of "binding words in certain activities and their interpretation" and "indicative words in certain forms of thought." The Global Asia Illustrated Compendium of Keywords will follow Williams's lead, while emphasizing that keywords are also sites of conflict and disagreement. Keywords invite research and reflection because debates about culture and society can be enhanced -- rather than resolved or shut down -- by an increased understanding of the multiple genealogies of their structuring terms and the diverse conflicts and disagreements embedded in differing and contradictory uses of those terms.

This definition is borrowed and adapted from the Keywords for American Cultural Studies project. Several of the keyword entries posted on their project website are related to Global Asia; for example, see asian, colonial, coolie, diaspora, empire, globalization, and orientalism.

The Global Asia Illustrated Compendium of Keywords is also inspired by Shock and Awe: War on Words: "a keywords book that participates in a battle over the imagination, acknowledging the force of words, concepts, and images in framing our everyday lives. Located in the borderlands between scholarship and public culture, it re-appropriates our vocabularies by exploring the political trajectories of world-making words, projects, and images."

Compendium

Home Syllabus Schedule Assignments Compendium Links	Global Asia ANTH 442 / SISA 442 / WOMEN 446, Spring 2008 An Illustrated Compendium of Keywords Developed by the Spring 2008 Global Asia Students The Global Asia Illustrated Compendium of Keywords is a collection of words, concepts, and images that have been researched and defined by students of Global Asia in relation to course concepts, questions, and debates. Keywords are sites of conflict and disagreement, so your entry should reflect two or more different understandings of the world-making term whose histories, usages, and political trajectories you choose to chart. You are encouraged to be as creative, erudite, pithy, or eccentric as you like in your keyword choice, and to include diagrams, pictures, quotations, or stories that help illuminate the sociocultural life of your keyword. Keyword Handout To post your entry, go to the keyword discussion board and start a new conversation with your keyword in the subject line. Browser troubleshooting: I highly recommend using Firefox as your browser when you post to the discussion board. I have encounted problems in the past with Safari. You can download a free copy of Firefox from Mozilla. As entries are posted, an alphabetized glossary with links to each keyword will be assembled in the column to the right. Please feel free to post comments and suggestions and possible cross-referencing links to your classmates' keyword entries. what is a keyword? In Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society (1976/1983), Raymond Williams described keywords as important elements in a living vocabulary made up of "binding words in certain activities and their interpretation" and "indicative words in certain forms of thought." The Global Asia Illustrated Compendium of Keywords will follow Williams's lead, while emphasizing that keywords are also sites of conflict and disagreement. Keywords invite research and reflection because debates about culture and society can be enhanced -- rather than resolved or shut down -- by an increased understanding of the multiple genealogies of their structuring terms and the diverse conflicts and disagreements embedded in differing and contradictory uses of those terms. This definition is borrowed and adapted from the Keywords for American Cultural Studies project. Several of the keyword entries posted on their project website are related to Global Asia; for example, see asian, colonial, coolie, diaspora, empire, globalization, and orientalism. The Global Asia Illustrated Compendium of Keywords is also inspired by Shock and Awe: War on Words: "a keywords book that participates in a battle over the imagination, acknowledging the force of words, concepts, and images in framing our everyday lives. Located in the borderlands between scholarship and public culture, it re-appropriates our vocabularies by exploring the political trajectories of world-making words, projects, and images."	Keyword glossary asian asian tiger breakdancing cnn city class container corn cultural revolution demilitarized zone first-generation haafu hegemony indigenous knowledge kawaii liberty mobile phone native speaker netizen power preservation propaganda refugee sanrio school sisterhood yakuza worlding
Send mail to: swelland@u.washington.edu Last modified: 5/23/2008 12:53 AM (Please note: every effort will be made to respond to email within 72 hours.)