Harvard offers a wide range of courses on China and Chinese Studies from across the arts, humanities, social sciences, and professional schools. Check out our full guide to courses for undergraduate and graduate students for the Fall 2025 semester below.
Language Courses
Harvard offers language courses at all levels in Chaghatay, Mandarin Chinese, Manchu, Mongolian, and Uyghur through the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations. Classical Tibetan and Colloquial Tibetan are offered through the Department of South Asian Studies. Other languages like Taiwanese/Southern Min are offered subject to petition and instructor availability.
For current details, be sure to check the Harvard Course Catalog: https://courses.my.harvard.edu/
Fall 2025: For Undergraduates and Graduate Students
| Course ID | Course Title | Course Description |
| HIST 1939 | Economic History of Modern China Arunabh Ghosh | This conference course offers a close examination of the economic history of modern China set against the background of major debates in the field of world economic history and within the field of modern Chinese history. The approximate time frame covered is from the late eighteenth century to the present. Prior coursework in Chinese history (in particular on modern China) is recommended but not necessary. |
| HIST 137 | A History of Love: Modern South and Southeast Asia Sudarshana Chanda | How do we study a history of love? What can the archive tell us about love – which cannot be seen, but is felt deeply and widely by people across time and space? And how does love manifest and endure across boundaries? In this seminar we will ask how Asians, mainly from South and Southeast Asia, pursued boundary crossing love in Asia and in the diaspora in the 19th and 20th centuries. Moving thematically after an introductory week, we will study how love manifests across various boundaries, such as ethnicity, race, religion, caste, gender/sex. By looking at a range of primary sources like matrimonial advertisements, short stories, theater, and films, we will think critically through ideas of love and how they have been articulated. We will analyze how scholars have approached the histories of love and intimacy and its consequences. By reading primary sources alongside secondary scholarship, we will explore why and how cross-border love was policed by the community, colonial state, and nation, in South, Southeast Asia, and their diasporas across the globe. We will also examine how “love” resists such control and endures across tangible and intangible boundaries. |
| CHNSHIS 113 | Life and Death in Late Imperial China: Social History of the 10th to 19th Centuries Michael A. Szonyi | This course is a survey of the social and cultural history of China from the Song to the mid-Qing (roughly from 1000 to 1800). The main topics discussed include urbanization and commerce; gender; family and kinship; education and the examination system, and religion and ritual. The main goal of the course will be to explore the relationship between social and cultural changes and political and intellectual developments. |
| PHIL 109 | Early Chinese Ethics Seth Robertson | Early (Pre-Qin era) China was a hotbed of philosophical activity: scholars developed careful and fascinating ethical views in the context of serious philosophical debates between major schools of thought. This course focuses on some of these ethical debates between Confucian, Mohist, Daoist, and Legalist philosophers in early China. We’ll read both classical texts such as the Analects of Confucius, Mengzi, Xunzi, Mozi, and Zhuangzi and important contemporary scholarship on these texts. Several moral questions will be of particular importance: What is the relationship between etiquette and morality? What are the most important virtues to acquire? Should we think of morality and moral development as something natural or artificial? Are we justified in caring more about some people (our closest friends and family) than others? We will have a special focus on three important interpretive themes for the course: (1) How can understanding the particular contours of the debates each scholar is engaged in help us understand their overall views? (2) How does each philosopher’s view of human psychology and epistemology constrain, guide, and support their moral theorizing? (3) How can an understanding of early Chinese ethical thought, theory, and debate help enrich contemporary discussions in ethics and moral philosophy? No previous experience or coursework in Chinese philosophy is required for this course. |
| EASTD 170 | Medicine and the Self in China and in the West Shigehisa Kuriyama | Comparative historical exploration of the striking differences and unexpected similarities between traditional conceptions of the body in East Asian and European medicine; the evolution of beliefs within medical traditions; the relationship between traditional medicine and contemporary experience. |
| GOV 1783 | Central Asia in Global Politics Nargis Kassenova | The course is designed as an in-depth study of the place of Central Asia in Eurasian and global politics, and the policies of key external actors, such as Russia, the United States, China, the European Union, Turkey, Iran, Japan, South Korea and India, toward the region. Students are familiarized with the ways Central Asia has been contextualized both in scholarly sources and media. We will dwell on the changing geopolitical dynamics of the region and analyze how developments there are intertwined with bigger contexts and stories, including nuclear non-proliferation and state-building, political Islam and democracy promotion, energy markets and climate change, the war in Ukraine and diversification of licit and illicit trade flows. We will define similarities and differences in the foreign policies of Central Asian states and discuss the future prospects of the region. |
| EASTD 198 | Political Parties of East Asia Daniel Koss | East Asia has been home to an astonishing assortment of political parties, covering the spectrum from democratic to authoritarian institutions, including some of the world’s most sophisticated and resilient political organizations. We begin with China’s Communist Party, revisiting its foundation in 1921, its rise during the Sino-Japanese War 1937-45, and its transformation from a revolutionary party to a party in power; then turn to the present day to cover the deep reach of the party into society, the activities and functions of ordinary members, as well as the dynamics of the leading echelons. The second part of the course focuses on Japan, including the origins of political parties in the late 19th century, the post-War emergence of the perennial ruling party, the age of grand money politics under Tanaka Kakuei, the electoral reform of 1993, and the origins of the party’s current strength. The third part consists of case studies, covering contemporary parties in North and South Korea, parties in Taiwan before and after the democratic transition, as well as parties in Malaysia and Vietnam, with their multiple connections to East Asia. The course also puts East Asian parties into a comparative perspective to other world regions. |
| COMPLIT 112X | Sinophone Sci-Fi: Reparative Co-Futures Ursula Friedman | How does modern Sinophone sci-fi reveal the “dark side” of China’s rise to power? How does Sinophone speculative fiction and its transmediated afterlives chart a reparative vision in the face of ongoing ecological and political crises? How do memories of past traumas intersect with future catastrophes in short stories and novels by Sinophone creators? How does speculative fiction produced by women and nonbinary creators forge an alternative path for human-AI collaboration? How do queer, transgressive, and non-human desires coalesce into a flora-fauna-AI symbiosis? How does contemporary Sinophone sci-fi advance inclusive futures for queer, crip, rural, neurodiverse, non-Han, and otherwise disenfranchised individuals in the face of ongoing exploitation? How do translators of Chinese-sci-fi employ a reparative praxis to transmediate trauma for global audiences?In this course, we encounter an array of sci-fi and speculative fiction authored by Ken Liu, Cixin Liu, Han Song, Regina Kanyu Wang, Hao Jingfang, Xia Jia, Gu Shi, Wang Nuonuo, and Chu Xidao, alongside selections by Jorge Luis Borges, Adolfo Bioy Casares, Italo Calvino, Octavia Butler, Margaret Atwood, Ursula K. LeGuin, Ray Bradbury, and Isaac Asimov (reading selections subject to change). We will also examine multimedia adaptations of contemporary Chinese sci-fi, examining the work’s evolution from page to screen to stage. All readings will be available in English and films will be available either dubbed or with English subtitles. By engaging with material through a variety of written, oral, and multimedia responses, you will co-create reparative futures alongside these speculative creators. |
| ANTHRO 1691 | Mobility in Asia Ping-hsiu Lin | How does movement reshape our understanding of contemporary Asia? What happens when we shift our gaze from fixed places to flows of people, ideas, and things? In this introductory-level class in sociocultural anthropology, we explore how mobility creates new social landscapes across the region. Through anthropological methods—especially immersive fieldwork and ethnographic writing—we will examine how historical patterns of migration and present-day movements are shaped by structural dynamics of colonialism, late capitalism, labor markets, trade networks, and supply chains. Through ethnographic encounters that reveal the complexity of mobility: from maritime trade in the Indian Ocean to domestic workers in Singapore, from transnational mothers in Filipino families to Islamic networks in Southeast China, from Persian rug merchants to Japanese-Philippine solidarity trade. Through these examples, we explore how restrictive policies create new regimes of (im)mobility and forms of nationalism, while also examining the lived experiences of individuals and families involved in transnational lives. The seminar guides students through key themes including physical geography, commodity chains, religious networks, and logistics systems. At the end of the class, students will develop conceptual tools to examine the mechanics of mobility, equipping them to address the pivotal questions emerging from our increasingly interconnected world. |
| EASTD 111 | Buddhism in the Anthropocene Paulina Kolata | What can Buddhism teach us about surviving and thriving in the face of ecological crisis? This course examines the challenges and possibilities of life on a global planet from a Buddhist perspective. Organized thematically around Buddhist concepts such as karma, pollution, suffering, and interdependence – and paired with the material realities of environmental degradation and consumption practices – the course investigates how Buddhists around the globe are responding to and contributing to pressing issues like climate change, extreme weather events, radical environmental degradation, plummeting biodiversity, pollution, waste and wasting, melting glaciers, rising sea levels, food insecurity, and related phenomena. Drawing on ethnographic writings from Japan, China, Inner Asia, Nepal, Vietnam, and other regions, we will explore how Buddhist practitioners and communities are conceptualizing and addressing the unprecedented impact of human beings on global environmental processes. In doing so, we will also critically engage with the broader issues surrounding Buddhist environmentalism (e.g. Buddhist ecology and greening of Buddhism). |
| CHNSE 150A | Topics in Chinese Culture and Society Jing Cai | The course seeks to consolidate and hone students’ advanced Chinese ability through in-depth examination of Chinese society and culture. |
| CHNSLIT 140 | The Greatest Chinese Novel Wai-yee Li | The Story of the Stone 石头记 (also known as The Dream of the Red Chamber 红楼梦) by Cao Xueqin (1715?-1763) is widely recognized as the masterpiece of Chinese fiction. It is also a portal to Chinese civilization. Encyclopedic in scope, this book both sums up Chinese culture and asks of it difficult questions. Its cult status also accounts for modern popular screen and television adaptations. Through a close examination of this text in conjunction with supplementary readings and visual materials, the seminar will explore a series of topics on Chinese culture, including foundational myths, philosophical and religious systems, the status of fiction, conceptions of art and the artist, ideas about love, desire and sexuality, gender roles, garden aesthetics, family and clan structure, and definitions of socio-political order. |
| CHNSLIT 134 | Strange Tales: The Supernatural in Chinese Literature Thomas Kelly | This course introduces students to traditional Chinese literature by focusing on “tales of the strange.” We will examine how ghosts, demons, fox spirits, and other liminal creatures haunt the literary imagination, stretching the possibilities of storytelling. Students will gain familiarity with masterpieces of Chinese literature and their intriguing afterlives in performance, film, and popular culture. Our discussions will consider how literary accounts of ghosts and the supernatural grapple with issues of gender and sexuality, the cultural meanings of death, the boundaries of human community, and the experience of historical trauma. We will focus on developing skills in close reading, while critically engaging theories of the “strange.” No background in Chinese is required. |
| CHNSE 142A | Advanced Conversational Chinese on Current Affairs Jing Cai | This course builds on the foundation that students have gained through prior Chinese coursework, with a focus on improving oral expression. Classes take the form of presentations, discussions, debates, and other activities designed to strengthen both extemporaneous and prepared speaking ability. |
| CHNSE 133R | Explorations Beyond Language Jennifer Li-Chia Liu & Ming Lei Lin | This course offers pre-advanced language practice through adapted authentic texts and videos (e.g., culinary arts, films, music). It emphasizes understanding Chinese cultural products, practices, and perspectives via interpretive, interactional and presentational communication from an interdisciplinary perspective. Fall 2025 Topic: Eating and Drinking in Chinese Culture |
| CHNSE 106A | Introduction to Literary Sinitic Matthew Wild | Basic grammar and the reading of simple historical narrative. Course Notes: An additional lecture slot may be added if enough students enroll, with times to be arranged. |
| CHNSE 107A | Intermediate Literary Sinitic Matthew Wild | A second-year course designed to prepare students for reading and research using materials written in Literary Chinese. The focus in the fall semester will be prose from the Tang and Song dynasties. |
| TIBET 242 | Bod mkhas pa Mi pham rnam rgyal’s (1618-1685) History of Nag rtsis and Other Relevant Texts Leonard W.J. van der Kuijp | This course will in the first instance focus on reading Bod mkhas pa’s work on the history of Sinitic Astrology (nag rtsis) in Tibet. We will then also be reading select passages from Nag rtsis texts that purportedly were translated from Chinese originals. This is a reading course. |
| TDM 174PO | Performing the Orient Philip Chan | Magic carpets, glittering pagodas, harem fantasies…Orientalism dominated Europe’s creative landscape and imagination since the 1700s, but what purpose did it serve? This class will explore over 300 years of “exotic” portrayals of “Orientals” on the Western ballet and opera stages, and geopolitics that impacted how we view Asian people and cultures to this day: from Genghis Khan, the Opium Wars, Chinese Exclusion, to Japanese Internment and #StopAsianHate. The course will also examine the creative process of shifting a Eurocentric work of art for a multiracial audience and provide practical frameworks for how to create art outside of your own cultural experience. |
| EASTD 143A | Digital Tools and Methods in East Asian Humanities: No-coding Approach Kwok-leong Tang | This course is designed for students in East Asian humanities with no prior background in digital literacy. It will introduce digital tools and methods used for the acquisition, transformation, analysis, and presentation of data. Coding is not required. Students completing the course will be able to integrate and apply the tools and methods into their research. Hands-on practices will be the major core of this course. Although students will expose to a wide range of tools, we use Konstanz Information Miner (KNIME), an open access analytics platform, as the axle of the course. Students will learn concepts and build workflows in different aspects of digital scholarship. |
| TIBET 245A | Readings in the Oeuvre of Bcom ldan ral gri (1227-1305) Leonard W.J. van der Kuijp | This course will examine the breadth and depth of one of the most versatile and interesting scholars of Tibetan history.Being one of the most prolific writers of the 13th century, we will be reading a large number select passages from his main writings. This is a full year reading course. |
Fall 2025: Primarily for Undergraduate Students
| School | Course ID | Course Title | Course Description |
| FAS | GENED 1136 | Power and Civilization: China Peter K. Bol & William C. Kirby | A century ago, the world was dominated by great empires—multinational, multicultural entities that spanned ethnic and geographic divides. But of all those empires—the Austro-Hungarian, the Russian, the Ottoman, the British and French colonial empires, and the Great Qing Empire of the Manchus—only the Great Qing survives, now reincarnated as the Chinese national state.In China today we see a new country built on the bedrock of an ancient civilization. It is in the midst of the most extraordinary economic transformation the world has seen. This development comes on top of the political, social, and cultural revolutions of the 20th century. All these changes occur against a deep historical background still much in evidence.This course explores how the world’s largest and oldest bureaucratic state has dealt with enduring problems of economic and political organization. It will show how even modern answers to these challenges bear the imprint of China’s history. We will explore intellectual and religious trends, material and political culture, the tension between local society and the center, art and literature, and China’s multiple economic and political transformations. The consequences of the ancient Chinese political ideal of a single, civilized world empire is a central theme of the course, both from the comparative perspective of other multi-ethnic empires and in terms of the ever-broadening scope and intensity of China’s global connections. We will draw comparisons with Rome between the 2nd century BCE to the 2nd century CE; with Romanov and Soviet realms in the 17th century and 20th centuries, respectively; and with Western global empires of the age of high imperialism in 19th and 20th centuries. All these empires have come and gone, while a unitary, multi-national, Chinese empire has endured. On one hand, this has been a history of conflict, in which Chinese empires used military force to control the peoples on their borders. When they failed, border peoples incorporated China into their own inland empires: the Mongols in the 13th century and Manchus in the 17th. On the other hand, it has been a history of economic and cultural relations, in which China absorbed foreign models (Buddhism from India in the 3rd century; the sovereign nation-state system from the West in the 19th century; and both industrial capitalism and Stalinist socialism in the 20th century), defended trade by land along the Eurasian silk routes and by sea with South and Southeast Asia, and put itself forward as a model state for others in East Asia and beyond.The course will enable students to debate how the choices China has made in the past bear on the challenges it faces today, when a modern “China model,” with ancient roots, competes with the United States for global leadership.The course is taught with multiple pedagogies. By shifting lecture to on-line modules that include “field trips” to sites in China, class time is focused on active, participant-centered learning around major texts, works of art, and contemporary case studies. Class preparation and attendance are mandatory. Assignments include responses to online modules, weekly sections, a midterm examination, and a final group project. |
| FAS | FYSEMR 43W | History, Nationalism, and the World: The Case of Korea Sun Joo Kim | This seminar will explore the quandary that faces all historians: To what extent is the understanding of past episodes influenced by current politics and to what extent is current politics influenced by people’s understanding of the past? In the study of Korean history, this question is particularly sharp since the postcolonial division of Korea into North and South has thrust the memory of past events into current political discussions as well as scholarly debates. The seminar will investigate selected events in Korean history to map the interaction between historical writing and politics: the origins of Korea; Korean territory and the Korean people; cultural contacts with China and Japan and indigenization; social and regional marginalization and discrimination; Confucian transformation of Chosŏn Korea and its legacy in contemporary Korean culture; the legacy of pre-World War II Japanese occupation; and the contending history of popular movements and religion. Why have some historians pictured Korea as a Japanese colony, a miniature replica of China, or a local variant of Chinese civilization? Why have other historians emphasized certain periods and aspects of Korean history while ignoring others? How have historians described Korea’s relationships to China, Japan, and the rest of the world? Has the perception of Korea as a marginalized people and region influenced how its history has been described? Are there any connections between popular traditions and movements and this historical and scholarly discussion? Reading (all in English) will include translated primary documents as well as political and historical studies. Students are required to write five short critical essays in addition to weekly Web posting. |
| FAS | GENED 1091 | Classical Chinese Ethical and Political Theory Michael Puett | What if many of our assumptions about the self and about how to live fully are limiting and even dangerous, and what other possibilities might we be able to find in classical Chinese philosophy?What is the best way to live a fuller and more ethical life? Concretely what should we do to begin to live in a more flourishing and inspiring way? Questions such as these were at the heart of philosophical debates in China. The answers that classical Chinese thinkers developed in response to these questions are among the most powerful in human history. Regardless of whether one agrees with them or not, they should be studied and taken seriously by anyone who cares about ethics, politics, and the ways to live life more fully. |
Fall 2025: Primarily for Graduate Students
| School | Course ID | Course Title | Course Description |
| FAS | EAFM 222 | Media Cultures in the People’s Republic of China Jie Li | This graduate seminar examines the changing mediascape in China from the 1950s to the present. Every week, we will focus on one or two different media forms or technologies, from propaganda posters, photography, cinema, radio, loudspeakers, cassettes, to television, video, Internet, surveillance systems, and digital platforms. We will ask question such as: How have mass media represented and transformed Chinese culture, history, and society? To what extent was the Chinese revolution a media revolution, and is there a media revolution going on now? How have various media served propaganda and surveillance, facilitated grassroots activism and creativity, circulated as commodities or connected communities? How have media technologies affected perception, experiences, and memories of socialism and postsocialism, as well as the aesthetics, ethics and everyday practices of every decade? What might be specific or special about each medium, and how have different types of media interacted in the Chinese context? |
| FAS | CHNSHIS 234R | The Historiography of Early Chinese History Michael Puett | A study of major trends in the history of scholarship on early China. The main focus will be on 20th-century scholarship, but earlier developments will be introduced where relevant. |
| FAS | CHNSHIS 249 | Empire, Nation, and the Making of Modern Xinjiang Mark C. Elliott | The goals of this course are to explore the main issues in the history of China’s westernmost region and to design an undergraduate course to be offered in the future on the subject. In addition to readings and discussion, students will contribute to work on a syllabus, lectures, media, section discussion topics and assignments, and a website. Enrollment is limited to graduate students, with permission of the instructor. |
| FAS | CHNSHIS 271 | Public and Private Institutions in Theory and Practice in 8th-14th Century China Peter K. Bol | This course examines major works on statecraft and the development of institutions of social order from the 8th to the 14th century. It will cover major legal and institutional compendia, the use of history and the Confucian classics in political reform movements, and theoretical writings on private and public institutions. It will consider the conflict between institutional, moral, and literary perspectives on statecraft. |
| FAS | CHNSLIT 235 | Theater and Theatricality in Early Modern China Thomas Kelly | This seminar charts the development of Chinese dramatic literature from the fourteenth to the seventeenth centuries. We will focus on the close reading of major works in the zaju, xiwen, and chuanqi forms, examining how the theater shaped new practices of writing and reading. The seminar will follow two central themes: 1) the shifting relationship between the figures of the playwright and the actor; 2) the interplay between the spaces of the page and stage. Engaging with recent scholarship, we will reflect on how modes of theatrical performance and spectatorship transformed broader understandings of self and society. Our discussions will seek new frameworks for approaching the place of the theater in Chinese literary history. |
| FAS | HIST 2638 | Readings in Modern Chinese History: Proseminar Arunabh Ghosh | This Pro-Seminar will examine developments in the field of modern Chinese history, with a particular focus on the twentieth century. Our principal goal is to gain some familiarity with the historical debates and methodological approaches that have given shaped to the field. Readings will aim to achieve a balance between classics in the field and contemporary scholarship. Topics covered include empire and semi-colonialism, rebellion and revolution, nationalism, civil society and public sphere, economic development, war, science and technology, foreign relations, and foreign relations. This Pro-Seminar is particularly recommended for students planning an examination field in modern Chinese history. Reading knowledge of Chinese is recommended but not a required; students must have some prior coursework in Chinese history. |
| FAS | CHNSLIT 267R | Topics in Tang Literature: Seminar Xiaofei Tian | This semester’s focus is Tang dynasty’s tales, balancing canonical stories with less well-known ones. Central themes include the relationship between humans and things; sexuality and romance—especially romance with the alien kinds; violence; metamorphosis; and representations of trauma, nostalgia, and cultural memory. |
| FAS | JAPAN 210A | Reading Scholarly Japanese for Students of Chinese and Korean Wesley Jacobsen | Development of skills in reading and translating academic genres of Japanese, with special attention to Japanese scholarship on Chinese and Korean studies. Introduction to old kana usage and classical forms commonly used in scholarly writing. |
Fall 2025: Graduate School Courses
| School | Course ID | Course Title | Course Description |
| HLS | HLS 2650 | Engaging China William Alford & Steven Wang | This seminar will focus on the myriad of legal and related policy questions that are central to the U.S.-P.R.C. relationship. Earlier iterations of this class have addressed issues regarding trade, human rights, technology transfer, corporate governance, climate change, corruption, foreign direct and portfolio investment, disability, Taiwan, competing visions of law and development (as played out in Africa), and the role of lawyers. We anticipate covering a similar set of topics next fall, and may also delve into AI, sanctions, and law of the sea, among other topics. In addressing such topics, the seminar will examine the role that China has been playing in a world order in flux. We will consider, inter alia, China’s engagement of existing global norms, ways in which China may (or may not) now or in the foreseeable future be shaping such norms, and their impact on China. We will do so in a global setting, considering U.S. engagement of such norms, as well as that of selected other countries. |
| GSD | PRO 7453 | Designers of Mountain and Water: Alternative Landscapes for a Changing Climate Jung Yoon Kim | This seminar explores contemporary landscape architecture in Northeast and Southeast Asia to envision the future of sustainable design in the face of climate change. Students will meet world-leading practitioners and scholars, learn about their practices and research, and participate in a workshop and symposium, “Designers of Mountain and Water: Alternative Landscapes for a Changing Climate,” on February 5-6, 2026. At this event, students will share their coursework with the designers they have studied, and selected class work will be exhibited at Druker Gallery.The seminar begins with the concept of “mountain and water”—shanshui in China, sansui in Japan, sansu in Korea—a Sinographic compound rich in artistic and philosophical meaning across Asia, reflecting traditions that combine vital elements of dynamic landscapes. In the context of climate change, we ask: what contemporary elements are needed to design sustainable places for human habitation and flourishing? Leading landscape architects in the region are addressing this question by rethinking the interplay between social and natural forms to design new, habitable futures. The seminar gathers these “Designers of Mountain and Water” to present their alternative visions for a changing climate.While working with landscapes is ancient, landscape architecture as a profession is modern. In the U.S., it has just under two centuries of history; in Northeast and Southeast Asia, the profession is even newer, emerging mainly in the latter half of the 20th century. The field developed differently across regions, shaped by local traditions and specific socio-political and economic changes. Initially, landscape architecture in Asia arose as states began large-scale projects to shape nature for specific social purposes, tied closely to political boundaries and modernist ideals. In recent decades, global cultural exchange has brought some of the world’s most innovative approaches to landscape design from this region. |
| HDS | HDS 3780 | Gender, Religion, and Ethnicity in Inner Asia Dotno Pount (University of Pennsylvania) | This course examines gender, religion, and ethnicity in Inner Asia from antiquity. It will cover Mongolia, Tibet, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and the Turkic and Mongolian peoples of Russia and China. Religions addressed primarily include Buddhism, Islam, and “Shamanism,” as well as state secularism as a religious phenomenon. The course is based on an interdisciplinary selection of readings in history, anthropology, religious studies, and to a lesser extent, sociology and archaeology.This course is limited to 15 participants. For permission to enroll, please email a paragraph to Prof. Pount (dotnopount@gmail.com) describing your interest in the class and any relevant background. |
| HKS | DPI 450 | The Political Economy of Transition in China Anthony Saich | China’s incremental reforms have been compared favorably as a transition strategy with the “shock therapy” attempted in Eastern Europe and Russia. Reality is more complex, progress is mixed, and the country is now facing major challenges from delayed reforms, especially in the industrial and financial sectors. How are the state’s priorities set? Relevant theories on socioeconomic development and transitions will be analyzed through a detailed study of the policymaking process in China. China provides an interesting empirical testing ground for comparative theory, as it has moved from a statist model of development to one that makes greater use of market forces within an authoritarian political structure. The course first analyses the role of different government agencies in the policy process. Second, it provides an analysis of the politics of the transition, with detailed discussion of economic and social policy formulation and implementation. |
| HKS | IGA 260 | Asia in the World – Regional Security, Integration and Ideology Rana Mitter | What are the factors that hold Asia together, or run the risk of pulling it apart? This course examines contemporary Asia, one of the most politically and economically dynamic regions of the world, exploring how far it can be seen as one region and how complex the forces within it are. The course examines how economic, trade and commercial networks in Asia such as RCEP, CPTPP and IPEF show new patterns of economic interaction and creation of norms on trade and technology. It examines the very different political systems and ideas that shape the region, from established democracies to personality-cult driven authoritarian politics, and how regional organizations such as ASEAN navigate these differences. We will also explore how wider cross-national forces have shaped norms across the region: Northeast Asia has significantly older demographics than Southeast Asia, policies on climate change vary across the region, and trends relating to ethnicity and gender have also shaped new and transformative political movements, some creating new civil society dynamics across borders. Although largely peaceful in recent years on a regional scale, there are numerous civil wars still active and unresolved, as well as significant refugee and population movement across borders. We also look at potential flashpoints, such as the India-China border and the Korean peninsula. The course will also draw on a wider historical perspective to illustrate how ideas of “Asia” have changed over time, and why that matters for interpreting the region. The legacy of World War II still plays a significant part in the international dynamics of Northeast Asia, shaping the difficult relationship between Japan, China and South Korea. The legacy of the period of revolutionary communism shapes societies across the region, including North Korea and Vietnam. In South Asia, the legacy of a turbulent partition has led to continuing tensions. The historical aspect provides vital context to explain the motivations and dynamics of the present day. Overall, the course seeks to illustrate the most important factors that shape one of the world’s most dynamic regions. |
| HMS | LN 701A | Intermediate Medical Mandarin Shasha Li | The Intermediate Medical Mandarin course provides an excellent opportunity for students with Mandarin experience to refresh their skills and synthesize newly learned medical knowledge in Mandarin. The course will meet for 1.5 hours weekly during the semester. The first 45 minutes of the class will focus on didactic lecture-based instruction. Students will learn common clinical terminology and phrases related to the various clinical topics. The second half of the class will be devoted to interactive verbal practice in order to reinforce the material learned in the first half of class. Students will have the opportunity to practice their Mandarin speaking and listening skills with various guest tutors (faculty and staff from affiliated research laboratories and hospitals) in small groups using a series of mock clinical scenarios. Students will conduct medical interviews in Mandarin and, as the course progresses, will accumulate experience and verbal proficiency. The Medical Mandarin course will be taught at an intermediate instruction level. Students with a significant conversational background in Mandarin are best positioned to benefit from this course. The classes will be taught in Mandarin Chinese with English and Pinyin used at a minimum to facilitate understanding and true linguistic immersion.Attendance is obligatory. Only 3 excused absences are permitted. Please notify the instructor as soon as possible if you need to miss a class. Failure to attend more than 3 classes will result in a Fail grade. As this is mostly a conversational course, making up a missed session might be an option based on the instructor’s discretion. |
| GSD | STU 1303 | Solid State Ron Witte | Solid State will focus on the design of an office and exchange space prototype in Taipei, Taiwan. We will begin where the 20th-century legacy of Taipei’s Zhonghua Road district expired, with architecture at the intersection of national identity, socio-economic progress, and urban vitality.In the early 1960s, a generation of Taiwanese found a doorway to the world along Zhonghua Road: eight buildings and an urban context filled with audio electronics shops. Solid State starts where electronics—a now anachronistic subject—trailed off, disappearing into an ether of its own making. Half a century ago, we soldered electrical components together, hoping to make something good: a radio, a telephone, a TV. Transistors, tubes, and capacitors have long since been replaced by a different lingua franca whose touchstones are scarcely touchable yet omnipresent: information, media, and belief. Twenty-first-century Zhonghua Road is now immersed in a wholly different (quasi-technological) synthesis comprised of interpretation, extrapolation, and plot…characteristics having more in common with social exchange than parts assembly. We make markets, stories, and relationships. We construct truths alongside wrestling with what truth means. And we want to sort this out while sipping a flat white in a fetching room. |