Syllabus

Global Asia
ANTH 442 / SISA 442 / WOMEN 446, Spring 2008

Course description

This course examines how the idea of Asia as a region has been constructed through various global interactions, including imperialism, anti-colonialism, travel and tourism, transnational labor and markets, and globalizing forms of popular culture. We will analyze how people experience difference and similarity and social inequality through these interactions; how they represent cultural encounters; and the social, political, and economic effects of global circulations of people, things, ideas, social practices, and cultural representations. We will consider how "Asia" and ideas about its place in the world emerge out of claims of commonality and distinction made by different people moving throughout the region.

Our travels over the quarter will require us to articulate debates about boundary making, knowledge production, and identity formation as they take place through cross-border movements. Boundaries—their maintenance and transgression—matter because they produce social distinctions, embedded in specific contexts of power, used to categorize objects, people, practices, and even time and space. We will explore, largely through ethnographic accounts, the everyday sociocultural practices that make, maintain, and modify categories such as race, ethnicity, nationality, class, gender and sexuality. Throughout this process, one of our goals will be to challenge conventional, dichotomous mappings of East versus West. We will examine "Asia" not as a geographic given but a cultural construction created through heterogeneous interactions and whose boundaries shift in response to political and economic dynamics. In order to do so, we will critically analyze the variety of social imaginaries inscribed onto the geography of Asia and consider how particular forms of travel, exchange, and circulation shape these imaginaries.

This course, which is cross-listed in Anthropology, Asian Studies, and Women Studies, poses an additional challenge to the question of boundaries as they relate to academic disciplines and their methods of constructing knowledge about Asia and about globalization. The challenge and the promise of such an interdisciplinary endeavor is to learn from each other's expertise; to build a shared vocabulary that integrates a variety of perspectives and approaches; and in the process, to develop new, more complex ways of thinking. Students will be pushed to go beyond their disciplinary comfort zone and to try out other perspectives and forms of analysis.

The course readings start with a grounding in disciplinary and theoretical approaches to the questions of Asian area studies formation and globalization, and then take us on a roughly chronological route, beginning with late nineteenth-century colonial movements and arriving at contemporary cultural encounters shaped by transnational capitalism. Many of the readings focus on China and Japan, the traditional and hegemonic mainstays of East Asian area studies, not with the intent of reifying the definitive importance of these places, but in order to examine how this centrality is continually constructed. By considering points of connection with Korea, Indonesia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Taiwan, Thailand, and even South Africa, we will unpack celebratory claims and freighted anxieties about where Asia begins and ends. There is nothing exhaustive about the geographic purview of the readings (the quarter is simply too short). Rather, the course materials suggest a starting point for us to collectively consider what Asia is; how it came to be an identifiable place on modern maps through multiple transnational circuits; and the significance of articulating Global together with Asia. Students with expertise in other related locales are encouraged to introduce further examples and materials that will push our thinking about how we define regions.

This is a seminar course, with mini-lectures by the instructor at the beginning of each class meeting, to be followed by in-depth, seminar-style discussion. Guiding questions are listed throughout the syllabus to suggest where our class discussions will begin.

Course Objectives

To understand how shifting ideas of Asia and its place in the world have been constructed through a variety of global interactions.
To examine what globalization, in terms of historical and contemporary movements and cultural encounters, means to different social actors in Asia.
To analyze how boundaries are made, maintained, and modified through everyday, sociocultural practices and how these boundaries support particular power relations.
To engage in a deep and sustained interdisciplinary conversation that will challenge all of our ways of approaching the question of what Global Asia means.
To develop creative, innovative academic work, including a class-produced compendium of keywords related to Global Asia, that will expand ways of understanding the historical and contemporary implications of Asia's role in processes of globalization.

Course Texts

Course Reader: Available at Rams Copy Center, 4144 University Way
(Articles in the reader are indicated with an R in the syllabus.)

Books: Available at The University Bookstore (in the Anthro section)

Ian Condry, Hip-Hop Japan: Rap and the Paths of Cultural Globalization
Christine Guth, Longfellow's Tattoos: Tourism, Collecting, and Japan
Pun Ngai, Made in China: Women Factory Workers in a Global Workplace
Ara Wilson, The Intimate Economies of Bangkok: Tomboys, Tycoons, and Avon Ladies in the Global City

Evaluation

Each student's performance will be evaluated as follows:

Class Participation: 10% (40 points)
Short Reflection Papers: 20% (2 papers, 40 points each, 80 points total)
Midterm Paper: 20% (80 points)
Keyword Entry: 20% (draft + revision, 40 points each, 80 points total)
Final Paper: 30% (120 points)

For further description of specific assignments, please see the Assignments page.

Class Policies

Please bring your books to class. Students are expected to complete the readings by the day they are listed in the syllabus and to discuss them in-depth, seminar-style, i.e. as an exchange of questions, explanations, and viewpoints about readings and key ideas. In so doing, you are expected to offer personal insights, to listen to others' viewpoints about class material, and to demonstrate, at all times, academic integrity and respect for others.

No papers will be accepted by e-mail without permission. Please inform me in advance if you must miss a session. Extensions are granted only in cases of emergency with prior permission from the instructor. Assignments submitted late will be marked down ten percent for every day they are late unless prior arrangements have been made. Plagiarism will be treated as a serious offense. For further information, please see the university policy on academic honesty or the Jackson School of International Studies Information for Students statement (download here). The purpose of this course is to help students become critical and independent thinkers. Original thoughts and ideas will be highly valued, and students are expected to treat the work of others similarly.

If you have a disability or need special accommodations for note taking or any other aspect of your coursework, please let me know and/or contact the Disability Resources for Students Office (DRS), 448 Schmitz, Box 355839, (206) 543-8924, (TTY) 543-8925, uwdss@u.washington.edu.

Please feel free to speak with me for further clarification of assignments, if you have questions about the materials, or if you have personal concerns that will affect your academic performance. Students are welcome to use email to contact me and ask brief questions. I make every effort to respond to email within 72 hours. Students who have lengthy or complex questions should meet with me during office hours.

Library Reserves

Course books have been requested for 4-hour loan researve under ANTH 442 at Odegaard Undergraduate Library.

Ian Condry, Hip-Hop Japan: Rap and the Paths of Cultural Globalization
Christine Guth, Longfellow's Tattoos: Tourism, Collecting, and Japan
Pun Ngai, Made in China: Women Factory Workers in a Global Workplace
Ara Wilson, The Intimate Economies of Bangkok: Tomboys, Tycoons, and Avon Ladies in the Global City

Additional books of interest:

Selections from the following books are in the course reader, but you might be interested in reading further in them for your final research project. They have also been requested for reserve at Odegaard.

Pei-Chia Lan, Global Cinderellas: Migrant Domestics and New Rich Employers in Taiwan
Shinji Yamashita, Joseph Bosco, J.S. Eades, eds., The Making of Anthropology in East and Southeast Asia

The following books serve as inspiration for our class project of creating an illustrated compendium of keywords for Global Asia. They have also been requested for reserve at Odegaard.

Bregje van Eekelen, Jennifer González, Bettina Stötzer & Anna Tsing, eds., Shock and Awe: War on Words (on order for the library collection)
Raymond Williams, Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society

Syllabus

Home Syllabus Schedule Assignments Compendium Links	Global Asia ANTH 442 / SISA 442 / WOMEN 446, Spring 2008 Course description This course examines how the idea of Asia as a region has been constructed through various global interactions, including imperialism, anti-colonialism, travel and tourism, transnational labor and markets, and globalizing forms of popular culture. We will analyze how people experience difference and similarity and social inequality through these interactions; how they represent cultural encounters; and the social, political, and economic effects of global circulations of people, things, ideas, social practices, and cultural representations. We will consider how "Asia" and ideas about its place in the world emerge out of claims of commonality and distinction made by different people moving throughout the region. Our travels over the quarter will require us to articulate debates about boundary making, knowledge production, and identity formation as they take place through cross-border movements. Boundaries—their maintenance and transgression—matter because they produce social distinctions, embedded in specific contexts of power, used to categorize objects, people, practices, and even time and space. We will explore, largely through ethnographic accounts, the everyday sociocultural practices that make, maintain, and modify categories such as race, ethnicity, nationality, class, gender and sexuality. Throughout this process, one of our goals will be to challenge conventional, dichotomous mappings of East versus West. We will examine "Asia" not as a geographic given but a cultural construction created through heterogeneous interactions and whose boundaries shift in response to political and economic dynamics. In order to do so, we will critically analyze the variety of social imaginaries inscribed onto the geography of Asia and consider how particular forms of travel, exchange, and circulation shape these imaginaries. This course, which is cross-listed in Anthropology, Asian Studies, and Women Studies, poses an additional challenge to the question of boundaries as they relate to academic disciplines and their methods of constructing knowledge about Asia and about globalization. The challenge and the promise of such an interdisciplinary endeavor is to learn from each other's expertise; to build a shared vocabulary that integrates a variety of perspectives and approaches; and in the process, to develop new, more complex ways of thinking. Students will be pushed to go beyond their disciplinary comfort zone and to try out other perspectives and forms of analysis. The course readings start with a grounding in disciplinary and theoretical approaches to the questions of Asian area studies formation and globalization, and then take us on a roughly chronological route, beginning with late nineteenth-century colonial movements and arriving at contemporary cultural encounters shaped by transnational capitalism. Many of the readings focus on China and Japan, the traditional and hegemonic mainstays of East Asian area studies, not with the intent of reifying the definitive importance of these places, but in order to examine how this centrality is continually constructed. By considering points of connection with Korea, Indonesia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Taiwan, Thailand, and even South Africa, we will unpack celebratory claims and freighted anxieties about where Asia begins and ends. There is nothing exhaustive about the geographic purview of the readings (the quarter is simply too short). Rather, the course materials suggest a starting point for us to collectively consider what Asia is; how it came to be an identifiable place on modern maps through multiple transnational circuits; and the significance of articulating Global together with Asia. Students with expertise in other related locales are encouraged to introduce further examples and materials that will push our thinking about how we define regions. This is a seminar course, with mini-lectures by the instructor at the beginning of each class meeting, to be followed by in-depth, seminar-style discussion. Guiding questions are listed throughout the syllabus to suggest where our class discussions will begin. Course Objectives To understand how shifting ideas of Asia and its place in the world have been constructed through a variety of global interactions. To examine what globalization, in terms of historical and contemporary movements and cultural encounters, means to different social actors in Asia. To analyze how boundaries are made, maintained, and modified through everyday, sociocultural practices and how these boundaries support particular power relations. To engage in a deep and sustained interdisciplinary conversation that will challenge all of our ways of approaching the question of what Global Asia means. To develop creative, innovative academic work, including a class-produced compendium of keywords related to Global Asia, that will expand ways of understanding the historical and contemporary implications of Asia's role in processes of globalization. Course Texts Course Reader: Available at Rams Copy Center, 4144 University Way (Articles in the reader are indicated with an R in the syllabus.) Books: Available at The University Bookstore (in the Anthro section) Ian Condry, Hip-Hop Japan: Rap and the Paths of Cultural Globalization Christine Guth, Longfellow's Tattoos: Tourism, Collecting, and Japan Pun Ngai, Made in China: Women Factory Workers in a Global Workplace Ara Wilson, The Intimate Economies of Bangkok: Tomboys, Tycoons, and Avon Ladies in the Global City Evaluation Each student's performance will be evaluated as follows: Class Participation: 10% (40 points) Short Reflection Papers: 20% (2 papers, 40 points each, 80 points total) Midterm Paper: 20% (80 points) Keyword Entry: 20% (draft + revision, 40 points each, 80 points total) Final Paper: 30% (120 points) For further description of specific assignments, please see the Assignments page. Class Policies Please bring your books to class. Students are expected to complete the readings by the day they are listed in the syllabus and to discuss them in-depth, seminar-style, i.e. as an exchange of questions, explanations, and viewpoints about readings and key ideas. In so doing, you are expected to offer personal insights, to listen to others' viewpoints about class material, and to demonstrate, at all times, academic integrity and respect for others. No papers will be accepted by e-mail without permission. Please inform me in advance if you must miss a session. Extensions are granted only in cases of emergency with prior permission from the instructor. Assignments submitted late will be marked down ten percent for every day they are late unless prior arrangements have been made. Plagiarism will be treated as a serious offense. For further information, please see the university policy on academic honesty or the Jackson School of International Studies Information for Students statement (download here). The purpose of this course is to help students become critical and independent thinkers. Original thoughts and ideas will be highly valued, and students are expected to treat the work of others similarly. If you have a disability or need special accommodations for note taking or any other aspect of your coursework, please let me know and/or contact the Disability Resources for Students Office (DRS), 448 Schmitz, Box 355839, (206) 543-8924, (TTY) 543-8925, uwdss@u.washington.edu. Please feel free to speak with me for further clarification of assignments, if you have questions about the materials, or if you have personal concerns that will affect your academic performance. Students are welcome to use email to contact me and ask brief questions. I make every effort to respond to email within 72 hours. Students who have lengthy or complex questions should meet with me during office hours.	Library Reserves Course books have been requested for 4-hour loan researve under ANTH 442 at Odegaard Undergraduate Library. Ian Condry, Hip-Hop Japan: Rap and the Paths of Cultural Globalization Christine Guth, Longfellow's Tattoos: Tourism, Collecting, and Japan Pun Ngai, Made in China: Women Factory Workers in a Global Workplace Ara Wilson, The Intimate Economies of Bangkok: Tomboys, Tycoons, and Avon Ladies in the Global City Additional books of interest: Selections from the following books are in the course reader, but you might be interested in reading further in them for your final research project. They have also been requested for reserve at Odegaard. Pei-Chia Lan, Global Cinderellas: Migrant Domestics and New Rich Employers in Taiwan Shinji Yamashita, Joseph Bosco, J.S. Eades, eds., The Making of Anthropology in East and Southeast Asia The following books serve as inspiration for our class project of creating an illustrated compendium of keywords for Global Asia. They have also been requested for reserve at Odegaard. Bregje van Eekelen, Jennifer González, Bettina Stötzer & Anna Tsing, eds., Shock and Awe: War on Words (on order for the library collection) Raymond Williams, Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society
Send mail to: swelland@u.washington.edu Last modified: 3/30/2008 2:36 PM (Please note: every effort will be made to respond to email within 72 hours.)