(All courses are available for online registration unless otherwise stated.)
IAR 515A (3 credits) Ways of Being / Ways of Seeing: Chinese Film and Identity
[To be confirmed]
Course instructor: Alison Bailey
Meetings: Mondays 10:00 am to 12:30 pm
Room: 129
This course explores the ways in which social and cultural forces shape Chinese identities as articulated through film. Questions of “Chinese-ness” will be examined through historical, theoretical, cultural and political lens based on close analyses of films from the mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Issues of national, ethnic, individual, gender, class, religion, political and geopolitical identities will be discussed, as will the urban-rural divide, power relations, the impact of modernization and global forces, and migration. The course will focus on the ways in which competing discourses, narratives and ways of being are constructed and represented through film. It is hoped that the course will supplement and at times complicate the ways in which questions of Chinese identities are represented in other MAPPS courses.
IAR 515E (3 credits) Contemporary Tibet: Identity, Development and Conflict
Course instructor: Tsering Shakya
Meetings: Fridays, 10:00 am to 12:00 noon
Room: 129
This seminar will explore some of the key issues in understanding modern Tibet as it has emerged since the 1950s. China regards Tibet as “an integral” part of the Modern Chinese state, while many Tibetans contest China’s claims. The seminar will cover a broad range of subjects that not only deal with the politics of Tibet and China but also social-cultural development in Tibetan-speaking regions of China and the Himalayas, as well as among the Tibetan diaspora community. The approach will be to examine issues of identity, development and modernization using an inter-disciplinary approach. The reading materials will be drawn from a range of disciplines: social anthropology, history, politics and development studies. Although the course is regionally specific, it is intended to provide students with insights that will enable them to consider more generally issues such as the relationship between ethnic, linguistic and national identities; processes of nation building; the relationship between dominant elites and marginalized minorities; the tension between tradition and modernity; the underlying causes of social and political conflict in a resource-poor environment; the factors that can lead to refugee flight; and the differences between assumed and ascribed identities.
(All courses are available for online registration unless otherwise stated.)
IAR 515F Asia Pacific Policy Project
Course instructor: TBA
Meetings: TBA
Room: 129
This seminar is intended to provide students with opportunities for policy research, analysis and writing on issues of Canada-China relations, with a view toward developing tools for program and policy development and analysis.
The seminar will meet on weekly basis, with each session devoted to guided seminar discussion, student presentations, and lab assignments. Attendance and participation are mandatory. Students are expected to read and be prepared to discuss all of the required readings and one of the suggested readings for each class.
IAR 515I (3 credits) Issues in East Asian Diplomacy
Course instructor: Kyung-Ae Park
Meetings: Tuesdays, 11:00 am to 1:00 pm
Room: 129
This course is designed to familiarize students with competing perspectives on cross-cutting diplomatic challenges and opportunities facing countries in the East Asian region. The seminar focuses on identifying and analyzing major diplomatic issues and trends, including such subjects as national identity, alliance, weapons of mass destruction, energy and resources, human rights, and regional cooperation. In addition to the assessment of a wide range of complex transnational issues, the course will also discern major bilateral diplomatic issues and analyze key domestic and international variables affecting them.
IAR 515P (3 credits) Religion and Public Policy
Course instructor: Tsering Shakya
Meetings: Fridays, 10:00 am to 12:00 noon
Room: 129
In the global context, some have argued that we are witnessing a resurgence of religion as a political force, while others maintain that secularization is the dominant feature of the modern state. This seminar will explore the issues and interplay among religion, the state and society. How does the modern state respond to religious beliefs and institutions? Does religion have a place in public policy in contemporary society? In the evolution of the modern state, there has been a concerted effort to maintain a separation between the state and church, civil and religious, the scared and profane. The seminar will examine whether religion is necessarily marginalized in the modern state system and society.
