The primary aim of this course is to reconsider the nature of the Chinese Buddhist landscape and look closely at the religious characteristics of what Chinese people do, even if those practices do not fall neatly within the categories that have been traditionally used to delineate those traditions.

Consumption remains one of the most popular activities that we engage on a daily basis, but seldom do we pay close attention to the meaning, technologies, and intertwined issues behind it. Come explore consumption in modern Korea and Japan, and participate in larger debates about capitalism, global modernity, and history.

The course brings critical studies of global health and humanitarian interventions into conversation with ethnographic studies of health, disease, disaster, and recovery in Indonesia and the wider Southeast Asian region.

The course Discusses  artistic innovations in visual arts, cinama, music, dance, theater, and literature and explores a complex relationship between modernity in Imperial Japan and Colonial Korea.

The course looks at the political and cultural history of Asian food and how it changed global taste and vice versa. First, it hopes to install a different appreciation of Asian food.  Second, it strives to broaden appreciation of the historical, political, and cultural significance of Asian cooking in shaping the "modern" world. Third, we hope to put in perspective the politics of the globalization of Asian cuisine. Finally, the class hopes to serve as a gateway for students to understand Asia and the Asian Century more.

This course will critically examine the major trends in contemporary Muslim politics in Southeast Asia.  It will focus on the role of Islam in shaping national political systems and agendas, with emphasis on Muslim attitudes towards democracy, state implementation of Islamic law and the place of religion as a source of values in rapidly modernizing societies.