Major,
Minor
Japanese Studies
Programs
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Japanese Studies,
Courses
ENG 343: Modern Japanese Literature
Credits 3Introduces representative literary texts from modern Japan, mostly from 1900 to present. Develops more advanced skills for literary analysis. Some topics include: I-novel autobiographical fiction, women's writing and modern poetry.
JPNS 172: Buddhist Traditions: Contemporary Masters
Credits 4The Buddha taught radical inquiry into the nature of the self, the world and suffering. This discussion-based practicum will be guided by the teachings of contemporary masters and the lives of current practitioners to conduct one's own inquiries in a Buddhist style. Students will practice a variety of forms of meditation and reflection, read and discuss writings from the Theravada, Mahayana and Tantric traditions, called "The Three Turnings of the Wheel," and view films and documentaries that embody Buddhist worldviews.
JPNS 173: Japanese Culture & Society
Credits 3This course introduces students to the culture and society of Japan through a social scientific lens. Topics include religion, gender, family, the state, politics, popular culture and food.
JPNS 216: Introduction to Manga & Graphic Narrative
Credits 4Students will be introduced to manga and other forms of sequential art (comics/graphic novels/BD), and methodologies of analyzing multimodal media. The class will look at genre, relationships to other media, censorship, and representations of violence and sexuality.
JPNS 221: Peace & Reconciliation in East Asia
Credits 3A survey of peacebuilding and reconciliation in East Asia with global comparisons to conflict resolution studies and transitional justice. Students will seek a formula for sustainable peace for conflicts between Japan and China, Japan and Korea, and North and South Korea. Topics include imperialism and colonialism, war crimes and atrocities, territorial disputes, colonial and forced migration, and international relations.
JPNS 228: Modern East Asia
Credits 3A survey of East Asia since about 1800, with emphasis on Japan, China and Korea, and on East Asia as an international system. Special attention to the historical development of politics, economics, society and social institutions, literature, thought and international relations. Appropriate for first-years.
JPNS 231: Japanese Culture & Environment
Credits 3This course entails a general introduction to Japan's natural environments with an emphasis on the roles that humans, their cultures and societies, have played and continue to play in shaping them. Specific topics include: religion and natures, pop culture & media productions of nature, pollution, technology, and environmental politics.
JPNS 236: Introduction to the Study of Japan
Credits 3This course explores Japan as an object of intellectual inquiry. While looking at various aspects of culture and society in Japan, students will critically consider the ways that scholars approach the study of Japan. Students will also contemplate how scholars contribute to productions of “Japan” and things “Japanese.” Though this course is required for Japanese Studies majors, it is open to any student who is interested in thinking about Japan.
JPNS 241: Japanese Popular Culture
Credits 3This course uses forms of Japanese popular culture as starting points for discussions of social class, gender and sexuality, globalization, nationalism, emotion, capitalism, and consumer culture. Rather than a survey of popular culture in contemporary Japan, this is a course in which we use popular music, sport, manga, anime, and other cultural forms to rethink the ways in which Japan is shaped from within and from outside.
JPNS 244: Tourism in Japan & the Pacific
Credits 3This course looks at Japan within the context of global processes and practices of tourism. Students will learn to employ social science perspectives to consider the political-economic, socio-cultural and environmental implications of tourist practices both in Japan and in the wider Pacific region, particularly Hawaii.
JPNS 253: Citizenship & Minority Issues in East Asia
Credits 3A survey of citizenship and minority issues in East Asia from the 19th century to the present within the global contexts of refuge and citizenship rights, legacy of colonialism, assimilation and cultural identity, ethnicity, and gender and disabilities. Emphasis on Japan, China, and North and South Korea.
JPNS 305: Frenemy Politics: Conflict
Credits 3This course is a study of international relations within the context of Japan and Asian-Pacific politics and foreign policy. This course examines past, present and emerging transnational and trans-regional issues, such as territorial disputes, trade agreements and imbalances, human rights, immigration management, regional militarization, and constitutional revisionism, by way of the political and policy action or inaction of state actors in Japan and Asia.
JPNS 310: Contemporary Japanese Literature
Credits 3This is a companion course to JPNS 343 that will examine a selection of short stories and novels spanning the Shôwa and Heisei periods. The class will address questions of genre, legitimacy, canon, translation, the social role of the writer, and the place of female authors.
JPNS 312: Buddhist Ethics
Credits 4This course explores the place of ethics and moral reflection in Buddhist thought and practice. As students examine sources that hail from across the Buddhist world, the class will inquire about what it means to think and act well according to different Buddhist visions of the ideal life and human flourishing.
JPNS 320: East Asian Migration & Diasporas
Credits 4Introduces migration in East Asia within the global context of imperialism and colonialism, forced labor, refuge, and gender, from the 19th century to present. Topics include colonial migration, settler migration, forced migration, repatriation movements, and identity formation, domestically and internationally. Emphasis on Japan, China, and North and South Korea.
JPNS 342: Japanese Cinema
Credits 3A survey of Japanese cinema from early films to anime, comparing the development of Japanese cinema with other national contexts. Develops analytical skills that focus on technical details of films and how they inflect narration, character and theme.
JPNS 343: Modern Japanese Literature
Credits 3Introduces representative literary texts from modern Japan, mostly from 1900 to present. Develops more advanced skills for literary analysis. Some topics include: I-novel autobiographical fiction, women's writing and modern poetry.
JPNS 344: Traditions in Japanese Lit
Credits 3Introduces representative classic texts from premodern Japan, approximately from 9th to 19th century. Develops more advanced skills for literary analysis. Some topics include: Heian women's literature, war epics, waka/haiku poetry, and Edo popular literature and theater.
JPNS 364: Music of Japan
Credits 3Courses introduce specific repertoires and survey the music of a geographic region, with a consideration not only of local musics but also of translocal and transnational movements of cultural artifacts, ideas and processes. Students explore what is valued in these musics by the people closest to them (musicians, patrons, intended listeners), identify regional or historical styles, and seek to understand the factors contributing to their formation and reception. The ways music not only reflects but also acts as a formative part of culture are also considered, as well as how it affects and is affected by a global economy. Regions covered in any one semester are: Musics of Indonesia Musics of Africa Musics of Japan Musics of South America Musics of Java Musics of the Arab World
JPNS 368: Chinese Political Thought
Credits 3Today the field of political theory is rapidly growing beyond the realm of the "western canonical" in finding non-western intellectual resources to expand the sphere of cross-cultural conversation. An important part of this conversation is about finding alternative perspectives in understanding concepts that are widely shared by exploring different modes of thinking in various culture contexts. This course introduces you to the great intellectual tradition of Chinese political thinking.
JPNS 374: Modern Japan
Credits 4A study of Japanese historical and institutional development in the early modern and modern periods, from the 15th century to the present. Topics include the Tokugawa period; the Meiji Restoration and modernization; the periods of colonialism, imperialism and militarism; postwar recovery and the economic miracle; and the challenges of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Explores economic, political, social, intellectual and international perspectives. Attention to prominent theories of development.
JPNS 376: Power, Society and the Environment in East Asia
Credits 4Political ecology is a set of scholarly inquiries and approaches that seeks to account for the ways in which power relationships inform, shape, interact with, and are expressed through ecological relationships. This course entails an examination of political ecologies in the East Asia region. The first part of the course introduces students to political ecology approaches to studying ecological systems, and the second part employs case studies from East Asia to examine how power functions in and through ecological systems.
JPNS 488: Senior Seminar
Credits 4Japanese Studies majors enroll in this course for both Fall and Spring semesters of their senior year. In Fall semester they complete the majority of their capstone project including project proposal, solicit faculty readers, development of project in consultation with faculty evaluators, penultimate draft and related reading assignments. In Spring semester they complete final revisions of project in consultation with faculty evaluators, student presentations, professional/career development and related reading assignments. Students develop their capstone project in consultation with faculty. Projects should reflect prior coursework and the student's major track focus: Japanese Culture and Society or Japanese Language and Linguistics. Submission of the final project and a public presentation take place in Spring Semester and are required for graduation.